Class Alignments Lie Behind Divisions on Issues

The divisions over the issues in Cambridge are strikingly class oriented. Upper class professionals are interested in preserving what they have--clean streets, clapboard private houses with small lawns, and quiet, wooded neighborhoods. They are reacting against overcrowding in Cambridge, plans to erect high-rise buildings and mounting traffic and pollution.

On the other side of the railroad tracks, the working classes and business interests occasionally become political bedfellows. The four Independents on the council all come from working class neighborhoods, and yet they are also the only councilors to sympathize with the developers and other business interests. Industry, construction and commerical development bring jobs and lower taxes. For people more interested in keeping their paychecks than keeping a few tourists out, this conservative alignment makes good sense. Bear these alignments in mind when checking out some of the key issues in Cambridge.

Rent Control: No other issue has been as explosive in Cambridge as rent control. The problem is that a lot of students and white collar people are moving into Cambridge and bidding the housing away from the lower-income groups.

Threats of rent control removal have repeatedly filled the council's galleries with protesters. On this key issue, the business and middle classes part ways, with developers maintaining that rent control retards construction and the residents complaining that the landlords are bleeding them dry. The present line-up in the council is a slim majority in favor of rent control, with the Independents now working on a new plan, "vacancy decontrol," which in theory would only affect transient residents.

Downzoning: Cantabridgians who live in tree-lined neighborhoods want to keep developers and universities out of the area. Cambridge law allows residents to petition for zoning changes, and in the past year two neighborhomds, Agassiz and Mid-Cambridge, have restricted construction to 35 feet high. Though they require a two-thirds vote from the council, political log-rolling makes the petitions virtually unstoppable. If a councilor refused to accede to a request from one neighborhood, he would be in trouble when the people in his neighborhood decided they want down-zoning too.

The New Management: Cambridge's present city manager, James. L. Sullivan, and its new schools superintendent, William Landon, are both the products of extensive searches by the liberal political leaders. As trained administrators and outsiders, they represent the liberals' attempt to overturn a long-standing system of civil service and patronage appointments. If the conservatives win a major election victory, at least the city manager will join the 8.9 per cent unemployed.

The Kennedy Library: The John F. Kennedy Library and museum complex, which for over a decade has split East Cambridge and Brattle Street, is now a dead issue. The tourists that the liberals wanted to keep out of Cambridge won't come to see the Kennedy Library, and I.M. Pei's grandiose plans for the $27 million project, unveiled barely a year ago, are already covered with dust.