After almost a month of furor, the battle of Boylston St. is over.
The Cambridge City Council last night decided to go ahead with its plan to rename the street in honor of slain president John F. Kennedy '40, but agreed to postpone the name change until late next spring to allow businesses time to change their stationery.
Workers will erect new signs along the street--which runs from Mass. Ave. to the Charles River in front of the Kennedy School of Government--on May 29, the anniversary of Kennedy's birth.
The vote to change the name on the ay date was unanimous, but an earlier attempt to keep the street named after Thomas Boylston did draw three votes.
Councilor Kevin Crane, who offered the motion opposing the name change, said he did so to help Harvard Square merchants. The Harvard Square Businessmen's Association sent the council 21 statements of protest, a message HSBA attorney Ann Thomas called "very strong."
City councilor Alfred E. Vellucci, who originally introduced the motion in late September, blasted opponents of the plan as "Kennedy-haters," and said the former U.S. representative from Cambridge had personally picked the spot along Boylston St. as the proper site for his library.
Rumors that Harvard wanted to downplay the Kennedy name in connection with its School of Government originally sparked Vellucci's motion, he said. "I'm going to slap Harvard around until it hurts them," he said.
A Buck a Cup
Several Harvard Square businessmen showed up at the meeting to oppose the plan. "It will cost the Coffee Connection a substantial amount of money to change its menus," manager Steve Aldrich said.
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