The Highwaymen

AT times, some Cambridge residents must feel that Harvard is the only problem which has bothered the City for longer than the proposed Inner Belt highway. The City has fought the Belt ever since it was first designed in 1948. during those 20 years, the road has been subjected to so many studies that all but the most avid Belt-watcher have lost count.

Last week, the City won another victory of sorts in the battle, as Federal Roads Commissioner Lowell K. Bridwell agreed to postpone the final decision on the Belt until the completion of a two-part review of the highway. The new study would determine whether a Belt is still needed, and also find ways to case the road's impact on Cambridge.

Both pro-and anti-Belt forces put all the pressure they could on Bridwell. The City and its representatives in Washington pushed for a long and costly study. The state Department of Public Works (DPW) and allies such as the Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce wanted an immediate decision to build the Belt. Agt one point, Bridwell reportedly told the assembled factions that he has spent more time on the Belt than on any other road since he entered office in 1966. He used the threat of an immediate decision against the City, and reminded the DPW that 90 per cent of the road's financing comes from the Fedral government. The commissioner got his compromise.

The City's reprieve, however, will be all too short.

The first part of the review--whether or not the Belt is still needed--will almost certainly produce a "yes" answer. Bridwell insisted that the study use "existing data and assumptions," factors which the City's academic advisory committee feels pre-judge the case in favor of the Belt. One City Councillor remarked: "You take the same old set of data, run it through the same old machine, and you're going to get the same old answer." The anti-belt forces are also handicapped in that State agencies--which the City regards as stand-ins for the DPW--will do the work of the study.

BUT the second part of the review may be more fruitful for the City. During the 20 years rhetoric have been spent fighting "any and all Inner Belts." The City preferred not to study ways of minimizing the impact of a road; they regarded such efforts as an admission of the Belt's inevitability. Now, for the first time, an intensive effort may be made to help Cambridge come to terms with an Inner Belt.

It will not be easy. The DPW's plans call for the Belt to cut through the heart of Central Square. It could displace at least 1200 families, plus numerous businesses. Indeed, the damage of the Belt has already begun. Fearful of the onslaught of the road, some families in the Belt's path are already letting their properties deteriorate. Others have simply moved out.

Exactly what this second, so-called "joint development" study will eventually propose to minimize the damage of the Belt is still uncertain. Apparently, ways will be sought to bring an influx of Federal money into the neighborhoods affected by the road. In particular, the Model Cities program may help relocate families displaced by the Belt, provide loans to area businessmen, and furnish other compensations. The problems of building and financing "air rights construction"--houses and business built on a platform above the depressed highway--will also be a likely topic. After that, it's anybody's guess.

Like it or not, the City will probably lose its 20-year holding action against the highway. But Cambridge at least has the opportunity to reduce the injury the road will cause and to learn to live with its concrete conqueror.