Word: condominium
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Many CCA leaders agree that condo owners are likely to swell their ranks--some hint that may be one reason the group, which has strongly favored rent control, has been less fervent in its efforts to halt condominium conversion. But should it gain many fiscally conservative members, the CCA could change dramatically, just as it swung to the left in recent years. Municipal spending and its effect on city tax rates will dominate city politics during this decade, along with the older issues of preserving ethnic and income diversity in the city, and tailoring development to meet the needs...
...city may be near a new realignment. How soon and how dramatic it will be depend largely on one factor--the rate at which Cambridge is "gentrified." As condominium conversion lures professionsals to homes that once belonged to the ethnic working-class and the elderly, the chance of a substantial change in voting patterns is high. "There is an emerging constituency. It's almost a John Anderson constituency--liberal on social issues, but quite conservative on economic questions," Councilor David Sullivan, who collected the second highest number of votes during the last City Council election, says. Without regulation slowing condo...
...places every year. And because the networks of their power are woven among those who know and remember, they will be hard pressed to win support from those whose memories center on the suburbs. Meanwhile, the liberal activists have concerns in some ways antithetical to new residents. They oppose condominium conversion, favor rent controls, and thus are fighting the wave of gentrification these new residents are part of. Thirdly, the traditional defenders of well-run government, the CCA, may also find only lukewarm support. "They are professional people who don't use public libraries or the pools and basketball courts...
...slate. The group--whose founders were almost all condo owners newly arrived in the city--took few official stances on issues, saying instead that it stood for sound government and reasoned debate. But its slate and membership rolls indicated the group would not support rent control or limits on condominium conversion. Although the few candidates identified solely with the CCC didn't win, some did fairly well, and as one observer adds, "They could easily do better." With one election under their belts, the CCC could come out with one or two winners in 1981, and that success might provide...
...than any of his colleagues to expand the organization beyond its Brattle St. roots and elitist reputation. His last campaign was a coalition triumph--he won with votes from tenant activists, CCA regulars and elderly voters pried from a lifelong habit of voting for Independents by their fear of condominium conversion. "The initials CCA strike fear into too many hearts in this city to make me think that the CCA per se will ever make major inroads" into building a new coalition, Sullivan says. "My hope is that someday there could be a forum in this city where people like...