Cambridge: Business As Usual

At Monday's city council meeting, something went awry with the high school sound system and in the middle of a heated discussion, the voice of Donna Summer suddenly drowned out the councilors.

Up jumped one of the council's most conservative members, veteran city politician Walter Sullivan, and one of its most liberal leaders, Saundra Graham, and for the two minutes the music lasted they boogied together to the cheers of their fellow councilors.

But how can this be? A new city political organization last week endorsed a slate of candidates simply because they would help "to depolarize" a disagreeable city council. Organizers of the new effort, Concerned Cambridge Citizens (CCC), said last week that members of the current council "can't even talk to each other."

Part of the answer may lie in the nature of the new group. Although they will issue no position papers, and say they have no official stands on city issues, many of its members have recently bought condominiums. In addition, a leading advocate of condominium conversion in the city, William H. Walsh, belongs to the CCC. Controls on condominium conversion and rent increases are the hottest issues in the November 6 election.

The CCC slate is also largely composed of council candidates who have taken stands against continued rent controls, with three notable exceptions. David Wylie, Francis Duehay, and challenger Alvin Thompson, all endorsed by the progressive Cambridge Civic Association, were also given the nod.

Those endorsements, which Duehay and Wylie have asked to be with-drawn, may be an attempt to confuse voters, Duehay and Wylie charged. "It could easily be an exercise in confusion, so that people wouldn't know what the slates meant," Duehay said last week.

CCC leaders stoutly deny the charges, explaining that they simply think Duehay and Wylie, despite their unwillingness to be endorsed, would make good city councilors.