ABSTRACT
This chapter deals with the relationship between property ownership, political structure, and housing policy as typified in one central city. In North Cambridge an extension of the subway and an industrial park are being actively proposed. While Cambridge is almost unique because of its various universities, it is typical with respect to its decreasing manufacturing capability, concentrated property ownership, and the existence of property-related political elite. In Cambridge concentrated property ownership is at the heart of a political nexus that wields power vastly out of proportion to the number of Cambridge citizens it represents. The influence of concentration and interlock on Cambridge's political structure is thus a crucial factor in the market's performance. The trends—university growth and the shift from manufacturing to research and development—have had severe effects on Cambridge's poor and working-class ethnic population. Confirmation of the pattern comes from the Cambridge Property Owners' Association, a landlord's political action group.
