Owner Says Tasty Will Make Return

The Tasty will return to Harvard Square with the help of the Cambridge Savings Bank, Peter A. Haddad, owner of the Tasty, said during Monday night's Cambridge City Council meeting.

In a Council meeting marked by tensions between big business developers and Cambridge residents concerned with the amount of affordable housing in the city,

Haddad told city councillors that small establishments and big corporations can work together to benefit the community.

Haddad's 81-year old restaurant has been promised a place in the new building Cambridge Savings Bank is planning on the corner of JFK and Mass Ave. The new location will put the Tasty--which closed in early November--within 60 feet of its original place in the Square.

"We'll be just what we've been before," Haddad said. "We want to be back in the Square and doing what we've been doing for the last 81 years."

Although the agreement with Cambridge Savings Bank is still in its early stages, Haddad said he is confident that the bank will stand by its promise.

"The Cambridge Savings Bank has been very sensitive to our needs and the needs of the community," Haddad said. "The bank has promised us a spot on the street level and we're thankful for them for providing us with a space."

"I know we can work out the details," Haddad added.

In other council business, Cambridge residents representing the Campaign to Save 2000 Homes and the Eviction Free Zone asked city councillors to amend an inclusionary zoning proposal that was included on the agenda.

While the inclusionary zoning proposal was drafted to regulate new building developments in the city, members of the rent control advocacy groups asked the council to include an amendment in the proposal that would require developers in Cambridge to allocate 15 percent of their new units for affordable housing.

"[Big developers] don't care about who we are or who we're going to be," said Jean Keldysz, a lifelong resident of Porter Square. "The outsiders don't care who will live in our neighborhoods or what they look like, but I do."

Keldysz said that the increase in new developments throughout Cambridge has changed neighborhoods by pushing out residents who cannot afford to pay high rents.

The council did not vote on the inclusionary zoning proposal Monday night.

Discussions over the proposal and related amendments will continue at the next council meeting.

In other business, George Despotes, a noted Cambridge eccentric and City Council meeting regular, asked councillors to install surveillance cameras throughout Cambridge in an effort to make the city safer.

"I'm talking about safety here," Despotes told Mayor Francis H. Duehay '55, when the mayor asked him to restrict his comments to the issues on the council agenda.

"Giuliani showed us that cameras can effectively deter violent crime, and Cambridge needs to follow his lead," Despotes said.