The Inner Belt

Cambridge politicians and planners seem to have played out their hand in one of the most expensive poker games in local history. The state Department of Public Works holds all the cards, and, regardless of what Cambridge does, will probably be able to push the unwanted Inner Belt highway across the City, inflicting immense damage.

Of four possible routes prominently mentioned, all will wreak havoc. Two variations down Brookline and Elm Streets near Central Square will up-root between 3000 and 5000 families and claim several thousand jobs. One alignment further East, down Portland and Albany Streets on the fringe of M.I.T.'s campus, will take from 2300 to 5000 jobs (depending on whose figures you believe). And a third possible route, using the right-of-way along railroad tracks running through part of M.I.T.'s campus, will take a significant number of laboratories as well as claiming more than a thousand jobs and several hundred homes.

The City Council, faced with the conflicting pleas of businesses, residents, and M.I.T., has thus far failed to take any definite stand. It has until March 1--next Tuesday--to recommend an alternative to the Brookline-Elm St. alignment or accept the DPW's almost certain decision to select this route.

The Cambridge Committee for the Inner Belt, a private group of planners, has recommended a design down Portland and Albany Streets. They calculate that this route will claim approximately 2300 jobs--the figure has been challenged, and, in reality, its validity depends upon whether the Polaroid Corporation will move most of its operations outside the City if some of its physical plant is taken. Although the company has said it will have to consider such a move, the probability is that it will find some way of adapting to the new situation. In any case, as heavy as the cost of this route is, it seems less damaging than either of the other two choices.

But the Council should not limit its action to picking an alternate route. The City's main problem is that the rules of the game have been set by the DPW, and the two most important rules--that the Inner Belt is both inevitable and necessary--make the game a losing one for Cambridge. The rules are well-established, but the Council's attempts to change them have thus far been limited to strong, but largely ineffective verbal dissent. It can, and should, do more.

Councillor Edward A. Crane '35 has raised some strong arguments against the Inner Belt. The original idea of the Inner Belt Route was conceived in the 1948 Highway Master Plan, but since that time a number of other roads not contemplated in the report--in particular, the extension of the Massachusetts Turnpike into Boston--have been built. If tolls on the turnpike were reduced, Crane argues, more cars and trucks would use it, reducing the usefulness of an Inner Belt. The crucial question is: how much is the Inner Belt a compelling necessity, and how much is it a mere convenience? No doubt if a new eight-lane highway is constructed, traffic will move faster, but is the added speed and efficiency great enough to warrant the destruction the Inner Belt will inevitably cause?

Crane is correct when he asks for a new study of the need for the Belt. But a DPW that has been panting for years to build this highway is not about to cap its long frustration with another lengthy and risky study. The only way that Cambridge is going to get its report is by a massive show of political power that draws upon every element in this community as well as Boston, and the surrounding suburbs. The only way that such a demonstration can be achieved is by a united City Council that can induce the different factions in the community--the residents, the businesses, and M.I.T.--to join in a positive declaration, rather than simply to fight for their own survival. Once that is achieved, the City will be in a position to solicit the support of the governments and organizations of outlying communities.

Given the lack of both imagination and initiative that the Council has shown in the past, the prospects are slim that it will be able to launch a sustained drive. But given the huge costs of the Inner Belt to Cambridge, the Council ought to try--for only by changing the rules of the game can the City possibly win.