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The youngest person to ever sit on Cambridge City Council also helped lead the charge on the city’s recent ambitious zoning reforms.
Burhan Azeem, a Massachusetts Institute of Technology graduate, stands out in Sullivan Chamber, often sporting vibrant-colored suits.
“I think it’s very important for people to know that I have a great, or maybe not great, but have a very interesting sense of fashion. It’s always a bright, different color suit showing it,” Azeem said.
In a term marked by landmark housing policies, Azeem’s central focus has stayed the same: making living in Cambridge more affordable. It’s a topic that consistently ranks as the number one issue on voter’s minds.
Azeem launched his first campaign for the Council a month before walking MIT’s stage at graduation, having been encouraged by Vice Mayor Marc C. McGovern to run.
Though he lost that initial campaign in 2019, voters finally sent him to Sullivan Chamber in 2021, where he became a key advocate for affordable housing in Cambridge.
Azeem’s age and fashion sense are not the only things that make him stand out on the Council. Azeem said he takes a different approach than his fellow Councilors on legislation, focusing on a few key issues for the entirety of his term rather than tackling an array of topics all at once.
“I kind of have a few big things that I introduce for the whole term, and that’s the only thing that I focus on for the most part. My main takeaway has always been, it’s just too expensive to live here,” Azeem said.
Azeem also has the backing of two of the three super PACs in Cambridge: Cambridge Bike Safety and A Better Cambridge, a housing advocacy group that supports increasing development. In 2023, six of ABC’s nine endorsees were elected onto the Council.
Azeem also advocated for some of the most significant housing policy changes of the Council’s current term. His major accomplishment this term was the passage of the proposal to end single family zoning citywide in a landmark 8-1 vote in February after more than a year of debate.
Outside the Council, Azeem has become a vocal proponent of housing development in Massachusetts.
During the pandemic, Azeem founded the non-profit housing advocacy group Abundant Housing Massachusetts. The group pushes for the expansion of market rate and affordable housing development, according to its website.
Azeem said that he sees Cambridge as a trendsetter in the movement for housing affordability.
“I think a little bit of our city as a city on a hill, where we are willing to go into the tough debates and discussions and make difficult choices because we feel like it’s intellectually honest – it’s important to make progress,” he added.
If given a third term, Azeem said that transportation may be his next big issue.
“I would love to spend some of my time moving one big thing on transportation, to try to see if we can really turn the way the city is going to make it easier to get around for folks,” he said.
— Staff writer Shawn A. Boehmer can be reached at shawn.boehmer@thecrimson.com. Follow him on X @ShawnBoehmer.
— Staff writer Jack B. Reardon can be reached at jack.reardon@thecrimson.com. Follow him on X @JackBReardon.
