Cambridge: Decisions Now

Cambridge's options in the Inner Belt controversy are growing increasingly narrow. With the announcement last week that the state has selected the Brookline-Elm St. route, the City is faced with two fundamental decisions.

Should it continue its opposition to the Inner Belt, and if so, how? And secondly, if all opposition fails, what should the City do to prepare for the Inner Belt?

The second question may be the most important, because if the Brookline-Elm St. route is approved by the federal authorities, Cambridge will face a massive relocation problem. Some 3000 to 5000 people would be uprooted by the highway, and right now there is no place in Cambridge for them to go. The new Cambridge Corporation, backed in large part by Harvard and M.I.T., can provide one mechanism for providing low-income housing. But the City should do everything it can, including the surveying of potential building sites, to stimulate additional development. Delay in this area now will mean families without homes in three to five years.

But though it must prepare for the eventuality of the Belt, the City does not have to abandon all opposition to the highway. The Federal Bureau of Roads has promised a full-scale review of the project; the first thing Cambridge ought to do is ask Washington to conduct an independent study rather than rely on the State Department of Public Works for information in the project's review.

More important than that--if the City Council is really serious about opposing the Brookline-Elm St. route--is public endorsement of another alternative. Except for a route along Memorial Drive (which is not likely to be accepted), all paths through the City create substantial destruction. The Portland-Albany route, however, seems to do less long-range harm than the other possibilities. The Council must take a stand. If it doesn't the federal officials will almost certainly approve the state's selection of Brookline-Elm.