Council Orders Review Of Voter Qualifications

Straus, Lehman, said Wigglesworth Halls, and Wadsworth House for University buildings which front on Massachusetts Ave--will remain standing at least for the time being.

An order requesting the Cambridge City Manager to begin steps to acquire the land occupied by the buildings for the purpose of widening Mass Ave and casing Harvard Sq. traffic congestion was voted down yesterday by the City Council.

Instead the Council passed the first paragraph of the motion, which requests the City Manager to confer with representatives of the University "with a view toward solving the traffic problem in Harvard Square."

Councillor Alfred E. Vellucci, who had introduced the motion at last week's Council meeting, defended it to the end yesterday, but the votes of all eight other Councillors went against him.

Vellucci explained that Harvard was anxious "to help solve a problem that they are creating themselves in Harvard Sq.," and suggested swapping the land now owned by the University for a parcel from the Bennett St. M.I.T. yards.

Vellucci said he had made "a personal survey" of the Square's traffic problem, and that the only answer was to widen Mass Ave. by destroying the University buildings.

Councillor G. d'Andelot Belin asked that the motion be referred to the traffic commissioner, but said that he was "touched" by Vellucci's concern for traffic problems in the Square "when he has previously said that he doesn't care about that end of Cambridge."

Vellucci explained that he was concerned for the people of North and East Cambridge "who often have to pass through Harvard Square."

Councillor Walter J. Sullivan's motion to strike the second half of the order was passed eight to one, and the Council then approved the amended order.