Traditional Neighborhood Copes With Change

East Cambridge is only a fifteen-minute bus ride from Harvard Square, but the two Cambridge neighborhoods could be in different cities.

"Listen," says long-time East Cambridge politico Alfred E. Vellucci, "I'll tell you about the difference between East Cambridge and Harvard Square--it's the silk stockings versus the cotton stockings."

Unlike the Square area, a close-knit ethnic population characterizes Cambridge's eastern shore. The main street of the city's first industrial area is lined with drugstores and small shops which reflect the neighborhood's diverse ethnic composition. There is an Italian bakery, Irish pub, Portuguese sandwich shop, and Greek cafe.

The neighborhood's biggest ethnic populations are Portuguese and Italian, each group making up about a fifth of the area's residents. In addition, large numbers of Irish and Polish descendants live in East Cambridge.

Within a few blocks of each other are several Catholic churches, including the area's largest, the Sacred Heart Church. In addition to being places of worship, the churches serve as focal points for a wide array of community activities.

The neighborhood's stable population--many of its residents are second or third generation Easties--has led to its reputation as one of the most cohesive in the city. Recently stepped-up plans for redevelopment, however, may threaten the traditional stability of the region bounded by the Charles River on the East and Somerville to the northwest.

City developers first became interested in East Cambridge property in the early seventies. In 1978 the Community Development Department (CDD) released a report outlining the feasibility of retail, office, and residential development in East Cambridge. Last week the CDD approached the City Council with plans to apply for a $10.5 million Urban Development Grant through the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.

The grant would be used to provide low-interest financing for private construction of new office buildings (three projects are currently being considered) and to construct badly needed parking facilities.

Due to the proximity of MIT, which is just south of the neighborhood, many of the business interested in locating in the East Cambridge area are in the high-technology and bio-technology and bio-technology industries.

The home of Lechmere's Point, where the British landed to begin the march to Lexington and Concord, parts of East Cambridge have become industrial wastelands, leading one city official to compare the area to "an underutilized warehouse." After an industrial peak in the early 1900s, many large manufacturers left East Cambridge, taking jobs and other residents with them.

But as Boston's West End has become over-crowded with modern office and retail development. East Cambridge has become a possible expansion area. Anxious to partake in projected tax revenues of 55 million, the city is actively marketing the neighborhood's vacant lots.

The city established and began funding the East Cambridge Stabilization Committee in 1979 to gain citizen input and approval for redevelopment of a 40-acre space along the Charles. The Committee--one of only two such groups in the city--receives $250,000 annually from the city budget, but will eventually be supported from tax revenues generated by the new development.

The group uses its money to improve neighborhood parks and sidewalks and offers grants for home improvement.

The committee's chairman, Nicholas Geraigery, voices some suspicion of the redevelopment plans but says the group's main purpose should be to make sure current residents do not get pushed out.

"We can't buck them [public and private developers]. We have to work with them to get what we can," explains the 25-year resident of East Cambridge.

And whatever doubts may linger within the group, the consensus of the stabilization committee, adds 71-year-old Geraigery, is that "the projected development for the East Cambridge Riverfront, in its essence, is beneficial to the community."

But definite problem areas loom high, namely the availability of parking and affordable housing. Low-cost housing is already a problem in East Cambridge--where the median family income is $15.929, compared to $28.278 in the Harvard area.

Some residents feel that the presence of high-tech industries will attract higher income professionals, forcing housing prices up and long-time residents out. This process, called gentrification, has already occurred in parts of Cambridge and Boston.

"There are a lot of ethnic groups which would be forced out by gentrification," says David Kronberg, editor of the neighborhood's quarterly newspaper, Losing those ethnic groups would, Kronberg adds, "erode the neighborhood's fabric."

Geraigery, who also serves on the Cambridge Economic Opportunity Commission, agrees that the issue of housing is paramount. "We've been getting shafted all along--so far there have been lots of promises, but no housing built."

In its 1978 report, the city projected the eventual construction of 1150 housing units.

East Cambridge residents, however, have some allies on the City Council in Daniel Clinton, Vellucci, and Walter J. Sullivan.

"There is no question that East Cambridge residents fear new development--and for very good reason...[but] the city will not condone economic activity if it is to be accomplished at the expense of the existing residential community," said neighborhood resident Sullivan in a pre-election statement.

But despite politicians goodwill, it may be difficult both to attract private developers and to alleviate fears of gentrification in East Cambridge. The area is not attractive enough yet to burden developers with extra costs such as requirements to build low-cost housing for the right to construct commercial buildings.