Graham Calls the Daly Report 'Unspecific' and 'Unpromising'

City Councillor and Riverside resident Saundra Graham said yesterday that Harvard's Report to Cambridge Community is vague and uncompromising, and "should be taken with a grain of salt."

"Harvard has issued reports for the last ten years, and hasn't done anything yet," Graham said. "This report might sit on the shelf like the Watson Report in 1968, and might never be dealt with."

The report, released last month by Charles U. Daly, vice-president for Government and Community Affairs, places a limit on Harvard's land purchasing plans for 18 months.

It makes recommendations for future University and community participation in housing, taxes and employment, in an attempt to provide a progress report to groups critical of Harvard's role as a major developer in Cambridge.

Graham said that the report does not explain what it will do after those 18 months are up, or how the University will develop lands within its boundaries. She called the report's plan for mixed housing "unspecific" because she said it does not state how, where, or when this kind of housing would be built.

Farce

Graham called the report's minority employment recommendations a "farce." "They don't say anything about a training period, so black people come in looking for jobs and don't get hired because they aren't trained," she said.