The Coop's Responsibility

As anybody who has ever bought books at the beginning of a term can testify, the Coop was wise in its decision to build a bigger textbook annex. It was incredibly foolish, however, to believe that it could build an annex and then ignore the problems of bringing books into it.

Since the Coop's original plans contained no provision for off-street loading faculties, delivery trucks would have had to stop in the middle of Palmer St. to unload. The present loading situation, which is barely tolerable, would thus have gotten worse; Palmer St., in effect, would have become an unpleasant little alley permanently filled with trucks.

Not surprisingly, the Cambridge Board of Zoning Appeal disabused the Coop of the notion that it could simply commandeer a city street for its private purposes. But the time and expense involved in redrawing the plans to include off-street loading facilities must have been as great as they were avoidable.

Now, once again, the Coop seems to be involved in an unnecessary and harmful controversy--this time over the pedestrian bridge to be built between the existing building and the textbook annex. By not making clear why the bridge is necessary, the Coop has antagonized a lot of people who might otherwise have agreed to the project.

Instead of attempting to justify the bridge, the Coop has simply insisted that it is vitally necessary, and added that without a bridge the whole undertaking--with all its accompanying tax benefits to the City--might have to be reconsidered. At best, this stance shows a failure to understand the importance of tact in public relations.

In contrast to the Coop's rather doctrinaire position, opponents of the bridge have presented detailed arguments. Basing their case on the aesthetic effect of such a structure and on the Coop's failure to prove its necessity, they may be able to block construction of the bridge if the City Council withholds its approval.

The lesson to be drawn from both controversies is that the Coop, powerful as it is, cannot decide its own future without consulting the wishes of others, and should not try. The Coop should note that responsibility, besides being a key to greater profit, is one of the imperatives of power.