Mayor Claims Priority For City in MTA Sale

The city of Cambridge should have the first chance to purchase any land which the Metropolitan Transit Authority offers to sell, Mayor Thomas M.McNamara asserted yesterday.

Referring to the bid by the University to pay $1 million over the market value to buy the MTA lots on the Charles River, McNamara stated, "Cambridge is entitled to first priority on land like that, on which city loses a lot of taxes." The mayor said that the city would "make every effort" to buy the MTA land, if the Transit Authority chose to sell.

McNamara said that he hopes to meet with officials from the University and the Massachusetts institute of technology in the near future to discuss plans for expansion of the two institutions and to arrive at an agreement. The mayor claimed that slum areas often surround a collage area because no one knows where the collage will build next. McNamara indicated that in a meeting with University officials, he had sought an understanding of exactly where and how it plans to expand. The offer to buy the MTA land "brought the issue to a head," McNamara said.

The mayor thought that apartment houses in place of the MTA yards would greatly improve the area along Memorial Drive. He also proposed Saturday that the MTA sell its land on Boylston St. and on Massachusetts Ave. in North Cambridge.

The MTA is expected to discuss the University's offer to purchase the carbarns at its regular meeting today.

City Manager John J.Curry '19 said recently he expected the public attention drawn by the University's million dollar offer might influence the MTA trustees to give serious thought to selling the land.