“These people are doing exactly the wrong thing,” LaTremouille said of the council incumbents. “I’m doing exactly the right thing and I want to keep doing the right thing. Cambridge has a strikingly terrible city manager. Fire the city manager so we can get decent people in our government.”

When several candidates bashed rooftop mechanical devices for their polluting emissions, Mayor Michael A. Sullivan said some mechanical devices—like air conditioners—“save lives.”

“I don’t want ordinances saying ‘no rooftop mechanicals,’” he said.

Rather than making bold environmental claims or attacking Cambridge’s environmental situation, the incumbent candidates largely defended their own records and offered an optimistic view of the city’s environmental condition.

“Danehy Park is the nicest open urban space in the Commonwealth,” councillor Anthony D. Galluccio said.

In response to calls for more open space, several candidates—including Sullivan—argued that the city’s top priority should be protecting parks Cambridge already owns.

“We keep acquiring and never preserve,” he said.

Councillor E. Denise Simmons also tempered her support for open space by pointing out what she said was an equally-important need for affordable housing.

Karen Carmean of cambridgegreen.org, who organized the forum, said she was pleased with its results.

“I thought we really gave them a lot to think about,” she said. “I already saw some very concrete results.”

—Staff writer Claire A. Pasternack can be reached at cpastern@fas.harvard.edu.