The parking problem has already begun to hurt Harvard Square merchants, and it is not much better in Central Square. The only hopeful factor in this field is that the much-discussed overnight parking problem is really not a problem but a political football. The planning board has advocated alternate side overnight parking for years. But the planning board does not legislate.

The tax situation is also discouraging. The influx of ill-paid workers only partially compensates for the steady procession of wealthy citizens creeping towards suburbia. Likewise, industry is on the march--towards Route 128, where traffic is not clogged, expansion is not blocked by overpriced low grade housing, and taxation is not determined by a declining tax-base.

Not the least of the city's problems is the change which such a pattern effects on the education industry. Their tax-exemption has long been compensated by the importation of capital. But as the community becomes less appealing, employees and faculty emigrate; their paychecks pass in and out of Lehman Hall without even slightly stimulating the local economy. Similar factors apply in a lesser degree to all University expenditures.

But these problems are only a manifestation of the overall illness of a city which has not adapted wisely to changing conditions. Harvard cannot be fitted to a slum community, and Harvard cannot move. The same applies to a number of other industries and institutions.

Thus far, their efforts to adapt the city to their scheme of living have been largely ineffective. Indeed, until the Federal Government gave such demands workable form as an Urban Renewal Program, they were almost non-existent.

Although the word is new, the theory of Urban Renewal is as old as New Lanark. At heart it is only the proposition that slums are not the only response to the demand of industrial society for concentration of population. Behind the statement lie two facts.

Basis for Renewal

First, that efficiency crowds large numbers of people into a small area close to the center of a city. Those who wish more space must pay more and live in suburbia. Thus, when the area of crowding increases, it encroaches on former suburbs, and homes designed for comfortable family life are subdivided into rooming houses or tenements.

Second, that while such slum adaptation is natural, and requires little capital, in the long run it demoralizes both the economy and the society. The theory of Urban Renewal is that if the initial energy and capital are found for efficient assimilation of large numbers, the economy will get a boost, and the society will become healthier.

The Federal Housing Act of 1954 gave this proposition a new twist. The government an- nounced, in effect, that if the forces opposed to slums got the upper hand, they could work largely with Federal funds.

The plan is simple, but not easy. First, the opponents of slums must formulate an alternative to slum life: a long range plan for balancing commerce, industry and residence, creating adequate schools, parks, playgrounds, streets, parking space, and civic centers, and putting the community on a sound financial footing.

Outlaw Slums

This done, they must, in effect, make low grade housing illegal, by writing a housing code, with inspection and powers of enforcement.

Finally, when these steps have been taken, they must implement their overall plan for the city. Where the plan calls for new land uses, they must buy up the land, clear it, and resell. Where the plan calls for spot clearance for municipal proects, they must clear and build. Where the plan calls for housing, and owners cannot bring existing slums up to standard, the land is condemned, cleared, and resold to real estate interests or used for public housing.

Council Approval Needed