Black May Be City Mayor; Group Studies NASA Site

The Cambridge City Council could elect Councilor Thomas Coates the first black mayor of Cambridge when balloting for the office resumes on Monday.

Coates and Thomas Mahoney, a humanities professor at M. I. T., each received three of the five votes required for election on the first two ballots last Monday. Incumbent mayor Walter Sullivan, the top vote-getter in last November's City Council election, received two votes on each ballot.

Coates said that he has an "excellent" chance of election. He was one of five councilors endorsed by the Cambridge Civic Association (CCA) last fall. This year is the first time that CCA candidates have controlled a majority of the council's seats, and Coates says, "We expect to elect a mayor from our group." Mahoney was also endorsed by the CCA.

Because Cambridge's mayor is also chairman of the school committee, Coates is especially interested in the position. "The black people of Cambridge no longer have a voice on the school committee," he said. "My voice

will be especially important in view of this void."

In the past, Cambridge mayoralty elections have dragged on for great lengths of time. The City Council has taken as long as four months to decide on a mayor. A ruling made this year by City Solicitor Philip Cronin '53 allows the Council to transact official business before electing a mayor.

No Problem

Council members do not expect any problem deciding on a mayor. "I can say quite frankly that the kind of marathon anties that occurred in the past will not occur again," Coates said.

New Uses Sought

Cambridge City Manager James L. Sullivan last night appointed a nineman task force to search for alternative uses for the 42-acre Kendall Square site of the NASA Electronics Research Center.

NASA administrator Thomas O. Paine announced last week that the still unfinished center would be closed in June as part of the Nixon Administration's budget cuts. Though the City has still not been formally notified, Sullivan said, "We must be prepared to deal with the problem that will in all likelihood face us."

"We think that, according to the contract, the City has a say in what happens to the land if NASA leaves," Robert S. Remer of the Cambridge Renewal Authority said yesterday. "But any new proposal will have to be approved by the City Council, the state, and the Department of Housing and Urban Development because the original project was an unbar renewal project."

The Ad Hoc Committee for the NASA site, a coalition of several Cambridge

community groups, will propose to the Cambridge City Council on Monday that the 42 acres be devoted to housing. Their statement, approved yesterday, states that this area is the "largest single piece of vacant, undeveloped land in our history" and asks the Council to use the site "to meet the housing needs of the people of Cambridge."

'Globe' Report Denied

Various other proposals and rumors about the future use of the site have risen since NASA announced its departure. The Boston Globe yesterday reported that Charles Stark Draper of M. I. T.'s Instrumentation Lab was in Houston, Texas, for informal consultation with NASA officials about acquiring the center for the I-Lab. This report prompted simultaneous denials from Draper and Howard Johnson, president of M. I. T.

Carroll Sheehan, Massachusetts Commissioner of Commerce and Development, proposed Tuesday that the facility be converted to a research and development center for environmental problems.