E. Cambridge Confronts The Council

If Hard Times and the Cambridge Tenants Organizing Committee (CTOC) are to be believed, the City Council has desecrated both Palm Sunday and breakfast.

These two community groups filled the council chambers on Monday night to protest the Cambridge Redevelopment Authority's (CRA) plan for the development of Kendall Square. In addition, they charged that the Council and the CRA had made a deal on the matter during an April 15 breakfast at the Hotel Sonesta.

Although Councillors Henry F. Owens III, Saundra Graham and Alfred E. Vellucci all admitted they had been at the breakfast, they angrily denied the existence of any secret deal.

The CRA has asked the Council's approval for its plan to develop the 24-acre site (the 13-acre "Golden Triangle" plus 11 acres of the original NASA quadrangle) into a business and industrial complex.

Hard Times and the CTOC contend that the plan would destroy more blue-collar jobs than it would create, and that it also fails to provide any low-income housing. The Council will study the plan in subcommittee meetings before reaching any decision.

In other local news this week, the City's Planning and Development Department proposed the construction of a three-level, 1500-car parking garage in Allston to relieve some of the pressure on Harvard Square parking facilities. "All we need now is for people to agree on the concept, not the specifics," said Robert A. Bowyer, director of the PDD.