Word: craning
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...Crane created a coalition that was built around keeping taxes down by any means--particularly growth by white collar industry. His strength lay in his ties--he felt at home with the universities, Harvard Square businessmen, Brattle Street dowagers, and working-class Cambridge...
...sixties, the other city councilors grew tired of his one-man rule. While Crane failed to detect the rumblings, he was ambushed and in 1966 a handful of councilors threw out his hand-picked city manager, virtually stripping him of his power. He stayed on to run again in 1967, but failed to finish in the top three and retired from politics...
...Today Crane is more or less out of commission--a physically huge man, stuck behind a small desk in a tiny Boston law firm--far removed from the power scene that he once ruled. He's mellowed now too, given to reminiscing about his past triumphs, his friends, and most of all his final Brutus-like undoing at the hand of the liberals on the city council...
...When the bridge blew up in 1966, there weren't too many people throwing life-savers to me," Crane recalls. "They told me, 'Jesus, Ed, everybody knew you could swim.' Yeah, maybe, but the problem was when I swam, I didn't end up on the left bank...
...Crane's reminisces serve as more than just a relic of the days when one man could run a city. They provide a unique contrast to the liberal neighborhood people that he says now play the major role in Cambridge politics...