Cambridge is fast becoming a network of canyons flanked by high-rises that only the rich can afford. The economic base of the city must be changed so that all the people can share in determining their future. Political power in the hands of the neighborhoods is a necessary first step in getting this change.

GRO has already begun along with other groups to collect 7500 signatures to put the initiative petition controlling high-rise development on the ballot this November. Cambridge has suffered too much already from Rindge Towers, NASA developments in Kendall Square, university expansion, and cheap, fast-turnover stores. If this were not enough, the prospect of even more developments like the Hyatt Hotel, the Kanavos' Holiday Inn, and the Kennedy Library is increasing the value of property all over Cambridge.

This rise in property value has encouraged speculators to buy properties and wait for windfall profits while they neglect the needs of their new tenants. One wonders what will be left of our neighborhoods as the speculators and developers move in and the people are forced out.

Faced with the prospect of the end of Cambridge neighborhoods before the onslaught of the developers, a number of people began to hold open meetings beginning in December of 1972 that resulted in GRO and in an outline of its platform. Public meetings at the King, Roberts, Morse, Longfellow and Agassiz schools in May-June 1973 followed and completed the platform. The GRO candidates emerged from these meetings.

The people who make up GRO have long seen the need for a change in how politics is pursued. A political candidate, especially on the local level, ordinarily is chosen before any platform is worked out. The platform is an afterthought worked out to appeal to the largest number of voters. After the elections, the platform is immediately relegated to the dust-bin.

GRO, on the other hand, started with a set of issues facing the city and the problems that arise in trying to deal with them. Only after concrete proposals had been hammered out in public meetings were candidates chosen to carry the platform to the voters.

GRO expects to elect two or three members of the next City Council--Saundra Graham, an incumbent, plus one or two others. Since the Council has nine members, GRO councillors will have to work with two or three other councillors to form a majority. GRO hopes to work with the CCA councillors to choose a mayor and a new city manager. GRO will not form a majority with any conservative council members who may be elected in November.

If GRO does not continue beyond the coming elections, it will not have lived up to its potential. The elected GRO councillors will not be effective unless they are kept in contact with the people who elected them. Public and open meetings will have to continue and other councillors will have to be lobbied to support GRO proposals. GRO must continually organize the political process, along with other community groups, to extend and preserve the possibilities for basic change that exist in Cambridge. Cambridge could be a model for what economic justice can do for the people. John Brode '56, a longtime Cambridge activist, is running for City Council on the GRO slate.