Community groups, in turn, have little confidence in the CRA's efforts. They point to the 94 businesses and 2750 jobs the Authority has already displaced from the property preparatory to development. "If you go back over the past 15 years and look at what they've done to Kendall Square and the companies they've closed, it shows little commitment to blue collar jobs," Darlene Gondola of Hard Times says.

* HOUSING: Perhaps East Cambridge's greatest fear concerns the "ripple" effect of redevelopment. In this scenario, the new Kendall Square will make the surrounding area attractive to private developers. Housing costs and rents will rise quickly, forcing East Cambridge residents out of their neighborhood.

The CRA contends that it is impossible to predict what effect the Kendall Square proposal will have on the surrounding neighborhood and the Planning Department report likewise laments that there are "too many variables" to consider.

Opponents also criticize the dearth of low-income housing in the Authority's proposal. An alternative plan for the area conceived by the East Cambridge Planning Team would put 250 low-rise, low-density apartments on the site along with various community facilities and hence increase the city's supply of low-income housing.

CRA officials term such a plan impractical and say that developers have not shown any interest in low density housing. "Low-income housing belongs in the neighborhoods, not in a non-residential area like Kendall Square," Remer says.

* TRAFFIC: The East Cambridge groups also pose the question of the environmental effects of additional traffic generated by the offices and businesses that the CRA hopes to locate in Kendall Square and raise the ancient spectre of an Inner Belt through Cambridge.

The Planning Department report also warned of the harm such traffic might inflict on East Cambridge and chided the CRA for ignoring the City's transportation policy, which encourages mass transportation and discourages automobiles.

The CRA has responded that truck traffic from manufacturing uses would be even more debilitating to the neighborhood and that the Inner Belt does not fall within the Authority's province.

* PUBLIC RESPONSIBILITY: Opinion at the hearings has run largely against the CRA thus far. Thompson allows that the CTOC and Hard Times represent more than a small minority of the city, but questions whether they speak for the majority of Cambridge's citizens.

While some community groups see the redevelopment authority as a representative of the "banking and development interests" in Cambridge, CRA officials maintain that it is only a facilitator of the City's urban renewal goals and does not have a vested interest in any particular plan. "We don't do anything until the city gives the word," Remer says. "We've always taken our sailing orders from the Council."

THE CRA was born in 1957 when the city took advantage of the Federal Housing Act of 1949 to create a semi-independent agency to govern urban renewal. The Housing Act's original intent was the lofty goal of a "decent, safe, and sanitary" housing for all Americans. The 1949 Council endorsed the Act, foreseeing the opportunity "for Cambridge to replace large parts of its substandard housing with modern planned neighborhoods."

Urban renewal authorities are empowered to assemble parcels of city land which might otherwise be too expensive or time-consuming for a private developer. The Authority then considers bids from various private firms who wish to build on the site and sells property at a discount to those whose plans seem best suited to the City's overall goals.

The City and state subsidize the Authority's property transactions with the Federal government, matching their expenditures, usually two for one. The Authority also undertakes certain improvements on the land--closing or creating streets, demolishing old buildings, improving access, furnishing utility lines, and pursuing zoning alterations to sweeten the site for potential developers.

Cambridge's renewal agency is headed by a five-man board of directors, four of whom are appointed by the City Manager with the Council's consent and one appointed by the Commonwealth. The Authority has the power of eminent domain in taking property. However, no renewal plan receiving Federal assistance can proceed without the final approval of the City Council.

REDEVELOPMENT in the Kendall Square area got off to a smashing start in the summer of 1960 when the City toppled a 125-foot water tower onto a deserted factory in a public ceremony. Thereafter, it proceeded slowly as the CRA con- centrated its limited funds on residential areas such as Riverview and Cambridgeport until 1964 when NASA expressed an interest in building an electronics research center on the Quadrangle.