Program One

The Role of Planners

Program Two

The Community Organizers

Program Three

The Legacy of the Inner Belt

Introduction

The Inner Belt was a proposed eight-lane highway that would have connected U.S. Route I-93 to U.S. Route I-90 and I-95 through a ring road through Somerville and Central Square and across the B.U. Bridge and beyond through Boston to the Southeast Expressway. A group of city planners, community activists, universities, and politicians formed a coalition to block the construction of this road. Their actions preserved much of Cambridge and attracted national attention as one of the earliest community efforts that blocked an infrastructure development. It became the rallying cry of many later political movements in Cambridge. The Society hosted a series of programs on the history and legacy of the inner belt in 2012. Read on to learn about this history and our speakers.