"I think the old-timers resent a lot of the growth," says Harold B. Richards, owner of Alisa's Restaurant, a sandwich shop on the corner of Spring and Second Streets. "Most of my customers come from the businesses or the construction sites."
Residents of the older sections of East Cambridge say they enjoy the fact that they know one another personally. This continuity, they say, has come to symbolize the neighborhood.
After ducking into a laundromat to exchange greetings in Portuguese with another neighborhood resident, Freitas says East Cambridge is one of the city's most stable neighborhoods.
"Neighbor knows neighbor," Freitas says. "There are many families who have been here for generations."
Many residents live in the same houses where they were born, and they are committed to preserving their neighborhood's homey character, Collazzo says.
"Lots of these families have been coming here since I was a kid," says Robert J. Salines, 38, the owner of Pugliese's Bar and Restaurant, which bills itself as "East Cambridge's oldest family-owned bar."
Containing the Growth
East Cambridge leaders say they are attempting to strike a balance between growth--which they predict will spread throughout the old neighborhood if left unchecked--and the preservation of long standing community bonds.
Richard J. Vendetti, President of the East Cambridge Planning Team, says his homeowner's coalition is working to contain the encroachment of new developments upon older sections of the neighborhood.
"Growth is one thing," Vendetti says. "Alienation, congestion gestion and sprawl are another."
Vendetti says the planning team advocates several proposals for the future: rezoning Kendall Square for lowdensity residential use, capping the height of buildings and limiting upscale developments to the Kendall Square, McGrath Highway and Charles Riverfront areas.
"We worry about overdevelopment. It's like the Great Wall of China when you look out across the river," Vendetti says.
The planning team is currently working to thwart the construction of a 26,000 square-foot massage parlor along McGrath Highway, he says.
At their last meeting, the group voted unanimously to recommend that the city council reject the request.
"That's exactly the kind of stuff we don't want," Geraigery says.
Geraigery and other citizens say they fear the end of rent control may pave the way for massive changes in East Cambridge by encouraging developers to build more expensive condominium projects.
But Carlos M. Alves, owner of Christine's Restaurant on First Street, remains optimistic that developers, city officials and residents will cooperate to promote their neighborhood's best interests.
"People who work here fall in love with the neighborhood," Alves says. "But the people will band together and do what's best."
"East Cambridge is not about the big malls and the slick companies," he says. "It's about working families, and we can't let people forget that."
This article is the second in an occasional series of profiles of Cambridge's 13 neighborhoods.