WGBH Journal; Residents VS. Simplex

Good evening and welcome the dbx Journal. I'm Greg Fitzgerald in tonight Cambridge CT residents fight for the development of MIT and lead. Boston's mayor ole hopeful scored the city's elderly women organized to take back the night of the march on Saturday and Lee Cattermole explores the computer human relationship. I'll have all of this tonight in the journal right after a look at some local news headlines. Walpole guards last night apparently decided to make prison policy on their own and refused to release prisoners for recreation and visitation rights. The guards action came despite an order by Walpole's deputy superintendent to open cell block doors. A spokesperson for the guards union said the action was taken because guards feared trouble if inmates were allowed to leave their cells. Today human services secretary Charles Mahoney shoppy rebuked the guards saying neither he nor the governor will tolerate either the inmates or the guards running the prison hony denied to reporters today that the prison is in chaos. He made those comments at a Human Services press briefing where he also admitted that inadequate salary difficult labor relations and old facilities have slowed the

search for a new corrections commissioner. Well he said the job is yet to be offered to anyone including Rhode Island corrections commissioner John Moran. Iran has had two interviews with Corrections Department officials in Massachusetts. The lack of a permanent commissioner is not helping matters at Walpole. Mahoney conceded. A nuclear cost is back in the news has energy prices soar the Public Service Company of New Hampshire a supplier of energy to several smaller New England utilities is seeking a rate hike. The unspecified increase needs federal approval before it is passed on to wholesale customers. Part of the controversy stems from the addition of construction works in progress charges for the Seabrook Seabrooke nuclear power plant. Last year the state legislature outlawed quip increases to retail customers. But if the wholesale charges are approved individuals may end up paying anyway. Minor problems continue to plague the Vermont Yankee nuclear plant causing it to shut down for the second time in less than a week. Last Thursday the plant was unexpectedly shut down because of a radioactive water leak in the

dry well. Then just as it was reaching full power again the plant automatically shut down due to a pressure increase within the reactor vessel. After inspection the plant was back in operation but officials still are not certain what caused the malfunction. Industry spokesperson say the that neither problem posed a threat to the public. And finally the content of self Europe acid in the New England skies has got the Environmental Protection Agency concerned. Acid in rain water that falls over the eastern United States has increased 100 times in the past 30 years and has been blamed for the killing of fish and crops and is now being viewed as a threat to human health. The concentration of acid in rain is among the highest in the nation. In the New England area and has the EPA concerned that the acid rains could turn Lakes into acid pools and cut crop yields significantly. The increase in the use of coal in the area could make the problem worse. The problem is serious enough to want to warrant a 10 million dollar study recently ordered by President Carter. And that's the news.

The home of Edwin Land the chairman of the Polaroid Corporation has been the target of a picket this week organized by the simplex steering committee. The committee has been fighting both MIT and Polaroid for over a year over the issue of housing and job displacement for families living in Cambridge port Cambridge borders a community that has been in transition for a number of years and now faces the expansion of research and development industries. Cambridge port has lost much of its manufacturing jobs in recent years. The Advent companies the departure being the most recent blow to the traditionally working class culture of the neighborhood students in student housing have also taken their toll on affordable housing in the community. And now even that housing is threatened by the new Porsche for new technology

operations. Those are indie industries which are often the outgrowth of the MIT community generally bring in middle and upper income residents. And the upshot of that move is displacement for working class families in Cambridge CT. Eileen Horowitz an organizer for the simplex steering committee. It was a working class community with a lot of small landlords who own the two and three and four family buildings themselves who lived in the neighborhood. And. It was a nice community. And what's happened is for many years it's been going. People have been calling that saying that it's going downhill you know because of that because of the speculation and because of the fact the property was not kept up and now that changes again. Going back to a different way but a way that we find troublesome for us which is that the influx of professionals are making are bringing it a different kind of people to the neighborhood and

forcing out the people that lived there before. The university is expanding and the fact that people are now moving back into the cities has meant there's been an influx of people who have more money who can afford to buy homes who. Can afford to fight the students for the market which has been hard for families to pay the same rent as a number of students who are renting one apartment. And so the housing market has become shorter and the jobs have been moving out of the city. For working class people and it's just made it much more difficult for people to stay there. The specific issues of the present picketing against Polaroid involve the possible purchase by Polaroid of an undisclosed portion of the former simplex wire and cable land in Cambridge port from MIT MIT purchased the simplex property in 1970 and has plans to sell some of the 30 acres to Polaroid for new R&D facilities in 1974. Community organizers put together a neighborhood planning process at which time about 600 residents endorsed a list of priorities

for the development of the six. The simplex land those priorities include a development of blue collar industries low and moderate income housing community services shopping and recreational space. Despite that community endorsement Polaroid and MIT have been negotiating the sale of the simplex property without taking into consideration those community priorities the steering committee has been seeking support from the city of Cambridge to encourage small business growth in Cambridge port but have so far got little response. Neil roar also of the Steering Committee where neither the state government nor the city government. Has really gotten involved. I mean basically you know one on a city city basis push over the years has been for whatever will will increase the tax base from wherever it comes. And it's sort of if you know whatever jobs comes with it is gravy It doesn't matter white collar blue collar or green collar whatever you know

will the boost up the tax base. MIT is Couldn't couldn't care less about jobs for people in the neighborhood. Blue collar jobs whether or not they're working class people can can remain living where they are. I mean their interests are you know the interests of MIT. First and foremost there are likely to move in that direction by themselves without pressure from the city the state the community whatever. You know that's mostly what we've been fighting. I mean you can talk about all kinds of funding and ways to get this housing in order the blue collar jobs in or whatever. But the first thing is to get MIT to recognize. That some of that should go up. So that's where we're focused right now. And then we'll deal with that other stuff later. That other stuff that Neil Roy is referring to seems to be the stumbling block for the Cambridge port

community. While the steering committee has been vocal in its protest over the effects of more research and development in Cambridge port there has been little comprehensive planning on paper developed either by the steering committee. The city of Cambridge or the state. And since there is almost no communication between the committee and Polaroid or MIT over the matter of development you can be sure that neither of the two institutions is laboring over Community Development or community development plans that would fit in fit into the steering committee's idea of community development. The steering committee has a few allies within the city of Cambridge but has received little but verbiage from the city council and the city planner for Cambridge has reportedly endorsed the sale of the simplex land to Polaroid. Politicians seeking office in local elections this fall have begun once again eyeing an

increasingly important sector of the voting public. Senior citizens here in Boston older people constitute about one fourth of the population and they're known to turn out on Election Day in strong numbers. One seasoned political watcher estimates that of the more than 85000 seniors in the city 65 percent will come out to vote as the mayoral campaign heats up. Elders can expect a lot of attention from the candidates for more. Here's David Friedberg. Mayor Kevin White has long recognized the value of courting the senior vote and indeed he commands a strong measure of support among older Bostonian. They are grateful for his highly visible effort at offering recreational facilities like picnics and transportation like the senior shuttle. Some detractors claim the shuttle for example is unreliable and is more for show than substance. But the main criticism of the way Mayor White's administration has affected seniors is the state of housing in Boston.

There's not enough of it. The problem facing the elderly who are forced to move from their lifelong homes because of high taxes and energy costs. Older apartment dwellers stand to benefit from the continuation of rent control but the provision lifting controls when the tenant moves out has not helped. According to Frank Manning of the Legislative Council for older Americans the argument in order to neutralize the opposition of the elderly population. Their argument was that. Eliz. don't move much anyway. It will be hard. I know they don't probably don't move from one place to another as much as some of the younger elements. However there comes a situation where there is much choice if you combine condo conversion which jumped from about the loss of maybe one

hundred seventy eight you and that's in 73. Over eight hundred seventy five have been lost and that's going to continue to escalate and I'm speaking now about Boston. And what that means is. Elderly person 70 is approached to know if they want to buy it. So you know. It's. Is a proposal that if you can't refuse. However you don't have the means of doing it. Big landlords are not above harassing elderly tenants to get them out of a can. More money how many of our elderly advocate Frank Manning among Kevin White's mayoral opponents state senator Joseph timidly is also willing to continue the vacancy decontrol clause but School Committee Chairman David Finnegan and State Representative Mel King Oh pose it all for However endorse the general notion of rent control. In

addition seniors worry about personal safety a complex problem that according to Frank Manning could be solved in part by hiring more guards at housing developments inhabited by older people qualified elderly he says could fill these jobs. Another concern is whether those on fixed incomes will have adequate heating this winter and if not whether shelters for seniors will be available in Boston. And of course the elderly like everyone else face the steep impact of property taxes. There is a strong sense among those in the so-called aging network whom I talked with this week that politicians making promises come election time are not necessarily reliable saviors of the people. One person of that opinion is Edith Stein executive director of concerned Boston citizens for Elder Affairs. She says we need a whole new attitude that embraces older people as part of the fabric of our community so that their

lives become more livable where we have to begin. Is rehab rehab neighborhoods. There are whole neighborhoods in the city that are absolute shambles. Rehab neighborhoods concern with with developing food co-ops and places where people can go to buy food together in KL in collective a collective kinds of ways. Development of shared living for older people and young people coming together in intergenerational ways that kind of thing is going to help create community and perhaps create create a new way to deal with the problems of crime. And I think the major issues that confront older people right now I hosing the way to eat well the way to eat well that's an important issue I don't know whether it's state federal or our law. City but it's an important issue for any mayor or else a campaign can't candidate to undertake that. Older people the people who have given of their lives in society must be able to eat well.

Edith Stein of the concerned Boston citizens for Elder Affairs It seems easy for someone aspiring to enter or maintain office to endorse a constituency that no one dislikes. Older people but the true index of such support will be measured by whether in fact it is easier for seniors to have secure housing convenient transportation and enough warmth and food to get by for GBH Journal. I'm David Freud Berg. Violence against women affects every woman and every girl. Those of us who have been

victims live with that reality. Those of us who have not lived with the constant fear this is the reality of our daily lives. As women there is a growing international movement which is focusing attention on the issue of violence against women. Locally women have organized around the issue in the related problems of race and racism. This Saturday night they will be holding their second annual Take Back the Night march. LISA MULLINS attended the press conference dealing with the march today. She has more in this report perhaps one of the most disturbing aspects of violence against women discussed to today's press conference was the violence has become the norm and accepted evil. But members of the coalition to take back the night have vowed to change the normal forms of violence against women they say a flooded our society. And Saturday's march called Women unite to Take Back the Night is one of the ways women are helping themselves out of the problem. The march to Take Back the Night is a demonstration against violence and this is Sidey that confronts all women all of the time. The message of the march is that we will

tolerate violence no longer the march is a celebration of women's work against violence against women in our communities our workplaces and throughout our lives. We marched for several reasons. We want to increase public awareness of the extent of violence against women. We as a coalition say to women that we are all affected and that we can do something. We hope that as a result of the march more women will become involved in the groups that exist in their communities and that women will start groups where none exist. We as women say to men that they must take a stand against the pervasive attitude that violence violence against women is an accepted part of this culture that they must change their own attitudes and that they must interrupt and challenge acts of violence threats of violence and exploitative attitudes of men against women speakers not only called for men to help bring about the change but for society to change its attitudes which they say

fostering increasing violence Willian Pinyin know a member of the coalition says racism is a key issue. We are falsely led to believe that black women's lives are less valued than a white woman's or man's and that black men are more likely to commit rape than white men. Speaker Deborah Lynn Gardner addressed this and the need for a change in the criminal justice system. She criticized the police in the handling of the Willie Sanders case where a black man was charged with four of last winter's Allston Brighton rapes. The police were quick to find a suspect to appease the growing demand for safety for women in that community. This is how the racist and sexist nature of the system was brought to light. They chose an easy target. Use questionable identification procedures to get a warrant. But did not arrest him until a month later. On the evening of a large community meeting which was held to discuss the inability of the police to find the rapist. During that March while the police had their suspect

under surveillance three more women were raped in the same area in the same manner. This leads us to the conclusion that Mr Saunders arrest was a face saving effort. Designed to calm a community growing more and more angry with city officials and police. That their concern for stopping the rapes was nonexistent. Since they allowed the man they call their suspect to stay on the streets while three more women were raped and that once again when a black man is suspected of raping white women the arrest of any black man will serve the purpose of the criminal justice system and telling women that we are being protected. This however is not protection. More police more prisons more convictions will not end violence against women. There are changes in attitudes about women of all races. Real concrete changes in women's economic and political positions and major changes in the institutions if this is science are needed to end violence against women.

Changing society's attitudes was emphasized at today's press conference. But members of the coalition like Gil Sullivan also showed enthusiasm for this weekend's march particularly after the overwhelming support and encouragement given by the women who marched last year. I never felt so powerful in my life and that's something that I've heard reiterated again and again from women who I talked to after the march. It was such a high exciting powerful experience you know and we went out and we said My God we should be able to do this every day every night. You know I just feel this good this power. If you'd like to become involved in the Take Back the Night march you're asked to call 4 4 2 6 1 6 6 for GBH Journal. I'm Lisa Mullins. Oh computers are becoming less expensive every day while their capabilities are growing. But this growth

raises some questions for society. One issue yet to be resolved is out of control. That is to what extent our computers or their human supervisor is in control of any particular machinery or system. MIT Professor Thomas Sheridan has been examining this question and others posed by the computer age. In an interview this morning he told reporter Lee Cattermole that our society has not yet clearly defined the Human-Computer partnership and he offered some of his ideas on this relationship in so far as the computer can serve as a. An advisor but not as the boss. I think this might be useful for example in the Three-Mile Island nuclear accident. Had there been a computer diagnostician which was properly programmed examining the situation continuously as the operations were were carrying on the computer probably or could easily have had the sense to advise the operators.

That their water had turned to steam in the reactor core because it took very simple calculations which the operators simply didn't make for themselves and could have more or less sorted out what was going on. I'm not saying it should have taken over and done the whole job but it could have been an advisor one thing I could foresee in that connection is humans diagnosing situations and coming up with one course of action and the computer diagnosing the same situation and suggesting a separate course of action. How might a situation like that be dealt with. It tends to be true. That when a computer is at fault it does so dramatically and we know it's it's really messed up. That's not necessarily true of people. People are very subtle. Computers are not so subtle. I suppose in the future computers are going to be more subtle about their pronouncements and maybe their

their faults will be less evident. So I'm suggesting this computer advisor merely as a way of offering another point of view. I still think some human operator is going to have to be in charge and that person would have to have enough smarts to be able to play the computer's advice off against the advice of other human peers and come to his own judgment. Computer programs are becoming more and more human like I think that is a person can go to a computer terminal and they can almost carry on a conversation and it may seem to the operator that they're really talking to another person. What kind of implications do you think this growth in humanization of computer programs will have on computer operators in the future and people's perceptions of computers. They may be becoming more humanlike but they aren't becoming enough human like and in fact they're sufficiently unhuman and inhuman let's say that that we need to be. Concerned

because for example. There's a great danger that people can be interacting with computers and believing that the computers understand them. The problem is that when two people converse there is a common culture there's a tradition there's a context it's understood. When you discourse with a computer there normally is no such context you start with a tabula rasa you start from scratch. Now for let's say certain simple minded things perhaps it doesn't make any difference but if you're talking about large payrolls or you're talking about air traffic control are even worse you're talking about large weapon systems where the computer has a has a big say in what weapons get fired where at whom. It's not very difficult to foresee grave difficulties and I think this is one of the reasons that the anti-ballistic missile system which would have been very largely computer

controlled was killed back what 10 years ago because of a fear the technology would get a little bit out of hand. So what kind of advice I guess based on some of your experiences do you think that our society ought to be taking in the future in terms of computer use. Well there are a number of things I think in general we've got to work very hard to to celebrate what people are that computers are not. We need to provide people with better feedback on the results of of their own inputs to computer systems and particularly reduce their sense of remoteness from from what's going on that is put them more in contact with the results of of the actions of them plus the computer. There is this danger of people just becoming button pushers and we've got to find better ways for people to participate constructively beyond just just button pushing. I think finally we've got to hold the designers and the programmers of the

computers accountable and not the computers themselves. MIT engineering professor Thomas Darden speaking today with reporter Lee Cattermole. And that's GBH journal for tonight our producer director this evening was Becky ror our engineer Stephen Colby we had assistance today from Stephen dare. I'm Greg Woods Gerald goodnight.