Word: referendum
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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More important than the difficulties of administering the lewd is its effects on the housing supply within the City. Organizers of the rent control referendum have acknowledged that new constructing would be discouraged by its prohibition against tearing down controlled housing without replacing it with an equivalent number of new units at the same rent. They argue that this is desirable, since, as a newsletter puts, it, only "expensive new apartments are built which few families can afford...
...many housing units in the City would fall under rent control and how many would remain exempt. The pressure on housing created by the lack of new construction would flow in many directions, but in any case this stagnation would have important implications--ones seemingly ignored by the referendum campaign--on the cost of all types of housing available in Cambridge...
...that rent control can remain indefinitely in effect in Cambridge. The state's home rule provision limit its duration to four years. After that, the law must be renewed. Though the rent control referendum has remained generally quiet on the subject of renewal, the strong stress their literature places upon rent control as a solution to the housing problem, and private comments on the possibility of renewal, indicate that the campaign envisions an attempt to keep rent control in effect for a long term. As such, it is clearly a misguided effort...
...present, a drive for low income housing project appears to be a distant project for the referendum organizers; it's a take, they think, to be attacked after rent control has been won, and a campaign has been waged for enforcement of housing codes. This strategy is patently infeasible. Once the "victory" of rent control is won, the bulk of neighborhood residents will likely rest on their dubious laurels, perhaps forever, at least until it becomes obvious that rent control has not helped the housing situation. By then it will be too late. Most of Cambridge's residents will have...
ONLY A campaign which makes it clear to its supporters--as the rent control referendum does not--that rent control is subordinate to the long term goal of pushing the City government to increase the low-income housing in the City will have a chance of alleviating the housing crisis. Rent control per se should not be played up; it should be played down. The referendum should not sell panaceas, but rather a coherent strategy, to Cambridge's residents...