CCA members say the study vindicates theirassertion that rent control helps mostly those whoneed it in order to stay in the city, and they addthat without the system, housing costs will drivethe middle class out of the city, leaving onlywealthy homeowners and tenants of public housing.
According to H. James Brown Jr., a specialistin housing policy who directs the K-School'sState, Local and Intergovernmental Center, cityvoters have reason to worry about high rents andproperty values. He says the housing market of theBoston area is "very much in crisis and muchdifferent than most parts of the country."
Young single people are "doubling up andtripling up" to share rent in apartments that oncehoused fewer people, says Brown, adding, it ismore difficult for people starting families tofind homes here, because they need more space.
Conflicts over housing and development issuesare also particularly intense this year becausereferendum battles are not crowding themselvesonto the candidates' platforms.
The last municipal ballot, in 1985, carriedthree referendum questions that broadened thesubjects of debate: candidates could declaimagainst the testing of nerve gas in Cambridge,debate whether pornography was a form of sexualharrassment, or criticize Harvard Real Estate forselling small houses to its faculty members on apreferential basis.
This year, the only referendum on the ballot isan "advisory" question asking voters whether thecity should require more police foot patrols inneighborhoods.
The city was nearly convulsed by a bindingreferendum on limiting animal experimentation incity laboratories. However, the CambridgeCommittee for Responsible Research, the localanimal-rights group sponsoring the referendum, wasunable to collect the 3800 voters' signaturesnecessary to place it on the ballot. The matter islikely to be resolved by a special three-membercommission that will report to the City Councilafter the election.
The only other attempt to create a referendumwas an attack on the city rent control system,which also failed to reach the ballot because itssponsor, realtor Fred Meyer, did not collectenough petition signatures. If passed, it wouldhave allowed rent control landlords to sell unitsto tenants of three years or more.