Council Turns Down Neponset Site

After the vote had been taken to deny the Boston Patriots a stadium site within the city limits, Boston city councillor John L. Saltonstall Jr. stood outside and kept shaking his head.

"I thought we had a 54 victory when I came in here," he was saying. "That's what I thought."

If Saltonstall truly believes that the most recent stadium proposal, the one that advocated Neponset as a possible location for a $16 million structure, had any chance of passing two days ago, then he equals Patriots' president Bill Sullivan in self-delusion.

Now, both Saltonstall and Sullivan, by shaking their heads and swearing disbelief and disappointment, are making Harvard and its president, Nathan M. Pusey, look like a prophet. Such is hardly the case.

Hardly Surprising

The Council's decision to turn down the Neponset site was hardly surprising nor were the methods that it used to delay and stall that decision as long a possible. Saltonstall has certainly been around City Hall long enough to know about political pressures and chicanery. There was no way that Thomas Atkins, the black councillor from Roxbury, or Joe Timilty, who lives in Mattapan, or Jerry O'Leary, from South Boston, or Louise Day Hicks were going to vote for that proposal. The Council is chosen in an at-large election, but on Monday it was ward politics that were talking, and ward politics demand a certain amount of fence-sitting.

Roxbury, Mattapan and South Boston all border on Dorchester, and all four of those councillors depend heavily on the Dorchester vote in a city-wide election. Neponset, which sits between South Boston, Mattapan and Quincy, is an influential section of Dorchester, and one which Atkins, Timility. O'Leary and, yes, even Hicks, could ill afford to alienate.

Ward-Heelers and Political Hacks

And the feelings in Neponset on the stadium were made perfectly, if somewhat emotionally, clear last week during a public hearing in which every ward-heeler and political hack in Dorchester and South Boston took the dais to contribute his share of abuse.

Later in the evening, after the results of the poll had been tabulated, it was announced that the citizens of Dorchester had voted down the use of Neponset by a 3-1 margin. The Vox Populi had spoken, and if the four councillors liked their jobs, they were going to go along.

They did, eventually, but not without a token show of concern for the plight of Sullivan and his football club. They had to. They were among the people who had disapproved of Harvard's refusal to loan its Stadium to the Patriots until a stadium could be built. Harvard was called arrogant, snobbish, and lacking in community interest. The councillors, at least for the record, had to prove that they weren't quite as harsh.

Amendment

So Atkins showed up at City Hall with an amendment. It was defeated, and Atkins switched his vote. He felt that the stadium proposal was absurd as long as the Boston Redevelopment Authority, which he thought was neglectful of its urban renewal projects, was in charge of the construction. He voted no and did his part.

Saltonstall, who was being counted upon for a "yes" vote, said that the proposal would have to be amended. He voted no. O'Leary, who had barely qualified for the ninth spot in the last election. Timilty and Hicks voted no. So did Christopher lannella and chairman Gabriel Piemonte. The proposal that was thought to be a 5-4 decision either way was now 7-2 against. And that is that.

So Harvard and Pusey, who were among the first this year, at least, to reject the Patriots, have had their confidence reaffirmed. And Sullivan, who blamed everybody but himself for the Patriots' woes, has a new scapegoat.

Council Can Have Credit

"If the council wants credit for driving us out," he said Monday, "they can have it,"

But the credit for abandoning the Patriots belongs to many people. It belongs to the Council, of course, but to the State Legislature as well, which has defeated, and would continue to defeat stadium bills. It belongs to the fair-weather fans, who sold out Alumni Stadium's 28,000-capacity only once last year, when Joe Namath came to town.

It belongs, too, to the good people of Dorchester, and the good people of Dover, who clearly wanted a stadium, but not in their own backyards. Perhaps, it belongs to Harvard too. No one comes out clean, and Boston, which likes to call itself a major-league city, is the worse for it.