The final phase can be executed in stages, doing a little at a time, so long as each step conforms to the overall plan. Each move must, however, be approved by the City Council, which means that the opponents of slums must continually keep the upper hand.
To finance this operation, the Federal Government will cover two-thirds of all city losses. The city must make the plans and enforce the laws at its own expense, but two-thirds of the bill for redevelopment goes to Washington. The remaining third is floated as a bond issue, and normally the increased tax base will more than compensate for the expenditure.
Local Choice
The entire operation presupposes, however, that the city wants to get rid of its slums. This is not always true, and it is especially unlikely when it is a small city, run by the voters and not the business interests. It is hard for many to visualize big business boosting better government, but this tends to be the case.
The reason is not hard to find. While people do not like to live in slums, they would rather live in slums than gutters. Tearing down a tenement means displacing families. Eventually they may be able to find and afford a better house, but it is hard to live in a promise. And so, the politicians become representatives of the status quo.
Reluctant Landlords
This problem of existing interests occurs in other forms. The non-resident landlord wants to keep milking his holdings. He is vehement when the city offers to tear them down. But he is not nearly so outspoken as the resident who is told to fix his home, at his own expense, in order that its value, and its taxes, should rise. In Boston, Mayor Hynes has promised not to raise taxes on rehabilitated housing, but he will not be mayor forever.
In short, while a city faced with crowding has to raise capital for intelligent adaptation, a city like Cambridge which has already progressed a long way into slum life must also face the opposition of those who do not want to go back.
Discouraging Struggle
Thus far, the opponents of slum life have had a discouraging fight. The City Council and the HHFA have approved the "Workable Program", first step in putting renewal into action. But before anything can be done, the city must appoint an Urban Renewal Coordinator and a Redevelopment Commission. City Manager Curry is still looking for the right man to fill the coordinator's post. Nothing has been done about the Commission.
As for Housing, the city has a code, given force of law by the Health Department. But the Health Department has no means of inspecting houses and enforcing its rules. The city has done nothing to help.
Planning Board
An underpaid and overworked Planning Board has made some progress in working out an alternative to slums. The budget is, however, so low that finding competent men is nearly impossible. Director Mark Fortune, on leave of absence at the moment, will return at least temporarily this spring.
Rogers Block
Nothing can be done to implement these plans through Urban Renewal until Housing Inspection is established and the administrative mechanisms are in working order. As yet they are non-existent.
Perhaps the most encouraging sign is the Rogers Block project. Displacing 133 families, 357 people, this clearance program comes under the Housing Act of 1949. It is now nearing reality, which means that the slums will be replaced by industry. But if the fact that something was done looks hopeful, the stumbling, hesitant, often ludicrous incompetence with which the program has been carried out should also serve as a warning to those who see Urban Renewal as a panacea. Inexperience, administrative red tape, and sheer incompetence almost killed this project and the problems will redouble if a really substantial is initiated.
Throught this struggle, Harvard has had the good sense to speak only when spoken to. Asked for advice, they have given it. Asked to cooperate, they have cooperated, local politicos to the contrary notwithstanding. In any expanded efforts, the University could be even more useful, for its financial and technical resources are tremendous. Whether such help means selling a tenement on Banks Street, or offering expert advice on public health, education, or planning, it could be invaluable.
But Harvard, like the Federal Government, can only support the program. It cannot put it over. The city must choose for or against the slum pattern, and if they are to choose against, they must choose soon, before there is no room for choice.
How they will choose nobody yet knows, but it is already clear that the choice will have a profound effect on the future character of the University. The cannibal has not yet turned vegetarian.