Walks Disappear In E. Cambridge

Most of the Latin is gone from the Mass. Students at a once WASP-ish university now stuff themselves with pizza from a truck in Freedom Square. But East Cambridge residents can still count on one constant in their lives--the sidewalks beneath their feet.

Until last weekend, they could, that is.

Councillor Alfred E. Vellucci, the choice of East Cambridge and the nemesis of Harvard, disclosed the plot at last Monday's City Council meeting. Someone is tearing up the brick sidewalks in East Cambridge, and carting the bricks off to an unknown destination, Vellucci said, "Those bricks are worth a lot of money."

The Councillor received a phone call about the problem from a constituent last Saturday. "So I went down to Sixth Street and--lo and behold--there was a truck there, with two men in it. I asked them what they were doing. They didn't have the answers, but they kept taking the bricks," he said.

Culprits Fled

Vellcucci left to find a policeman, but when he returned with the officer, the culprits were fleeing. "We lost them somewhere in the area," he ruefully admitted.

Though he refrained from open charges, Vellucci hinted at possible recipients of the stolen goods: "I've seen a lot of nice brick patios in the Harvard community lately."

With eyebrows raised, Councillor Edward A. Crane '35 commented, "That sounds like an unfinished story."

"Anything else you want?" Vellucci asked. "I'd like a transcript of that testimony." Crane replied.

The residents of East Cambridge are worried about this latest grievance, according to Vellucci. He related that a lady had called him and "suggested that we ought to take up the sidewalks after 6 p.m. in East Cambridge if we want to keep them."

At the East Cambridge gentleman's plea, the council unanimously voted to have the Chief of Police, Commissioner of Public Works, and the Cambridge Redevelopment Authority try to find the vanishing sidewalks.