Since Cambridge is not a wealthy city, the development plans of the past have often not gone beyond the talking stage. Some of the middle-aged proponents of the transfer of the subway yards say that they "hope to see the proposals carried out in their lifetimes."

Money from the state or federal governments could help to bring about part of the program.

Cambridge faces gradual decay, civic leaders warn, unless it begins aggressive reform of its slums and misused land.

Most people have dismissed the slums as a necessary by-product of an industrial city. But city planners claim great progress can be made through long-range planning and more important, "fortitude to carry out progressive programs." The planners see little excuse for a city with two great educational institutions to have so much "blighted area."

Several planning groups are formulating the basic outlines for the reform. One, the Cambridge City Planning Board, makes studies and recommends specific proposals to City Manager John B. Atkinson and the City Council. Another, Harvard's Graduate School of Design, contributes additional ideas. Plans have been drawn up for building an expressway from downtown Boston through North Station and Cambridge to the Concord Turnpike, for moving the Cambridge subway yards north, and for eliminating many of the Harvard-owned tenements. As a first step, the state has just approved construction of the section of the proposed expressway from downtown Boston to North Station.

The plan to extend subway from Harvard Square to North Cambridge and to move the storage yards and repair shops now located at the corner of Memorial Drive and Boylston Street to the new location was released by the City Planning Board at the beginning of this year. They suggested building a municipally-owned garage on the present site.

Atkinson thinks the long-range idea is sound. The addition to the subway route will open a large new area for efficient subway transportation. The new subway tunnel may be built with reinforced walls so that it could serve as a bomb shelter, like one being planned in New York City. But, even more important to Harvard, the transfer of the yards will remove an old eyesore near the College and make available for constructive use valuable land equal in size to Eliot, Winthrop, Kirkland, and Lowell Houses combined.

State Study

The best guess of the expense of extending the subway and moving out the yards comes to many millions. Several years ago a study was made of possible routes and costs, but is was not accurate. A bill providing for a new study and estimate of costs by the M.T.A. has been reported favorably by the Committee on Metropolitan Affairs and is now pending in the House Ways and Means Committee.

It authorizes the M.T.A. to issue up to a $200,000 in bonds for the study. If the new bill is approved, it will be eight or nine months before the preliminary study is finished. Detailed plans will take another year. Then--if approval is given for the project--two or three years will be needed for the actual construction.

The possibility of developing the land now occupied by the yards has excited many planners. The City Planning Board originally suggested building a city-owned garage, but Atkinson emphatically disagrees. He said, "I would never go for a municipally-owned garage. If the yards are moved, the best use for that property would be an apartment."

He indicated that several insurance companies were interested in the project and that he "would make every effort to bring someone here" to build a development that "New York's Riverside Drive would take notice of." The tax-exempt yards cost the City $80,000 annually in lost revenue. The City would also benefit from the gain in real estate value on such a development.

Students Suggest

Another group that has worked out plans for that land is the Graduate School of Design. One assignment two years ago was entitled the Memorial Drive Apartment Development.

The brief read: "The shortage of good apartments near Harvard University, combined with the availability of an unusual site on Memorial Drive in Cambridge, suggests ... excellent opportunities for the development of high grade housing for Harvard faculty, married students, and others.