Here's What City Politicos Talk About

While referendum Question 2 calls on Cambridge voters to voice their feelings about Harvard selling off its property to escape rent-control, candidates for City Council and community activists continue to target what they say is the threat of University expansion.

Harvard and MIT have continued over the years to buy up city property for use by students and affiliates, although the pace of the growth has slowed rapidly--from 22 land purchases in 1965 to just one last year.

That one--a 93-year-old building at 8-10 Mt. Auburn St.--has been a major stumbling block in an otherwise fast-paced trek towards rosier town-gown relations and cooperative constuction and development.

Harvard wanted to tear down the structure and put up 40 apartment units for graduate students, of which the University argued 36 should be exempt from rent control.

After city councilors and the Cambridge Historical Commission voiced their opposition, Harvard said they would renovate the old building and construct a new one adjacent to it. A final ruling on the rent control issue is due this week.

The Mt. Auburn St. controversy typifies the mistrust and animosity between Harvard and its property company, Harvard Real Estate, Inc., on one side, and liberal councilors and tenant and community groups on the other.

As Cambridge Civic Association (CCA)-backed Councilor Alice K. Wolf says of ambitious University development plans, "Harvard is looking down the road 200 years...as they have a clear agenda, we have to have a clear agenda...it has to come from a position of strength."

As zoning battles rage and concerns over Harvard's encroachment into nearby neighborhoods grow, activists are demanding more responsiveness from the University.

As a result, Harvard has been working with the city to hammer out a master plan for the future of Harvard Square, in addition to other projects.

Nevertheless, councilors are pledging to keep up the fight to preserve historic buildings and the character of neighborhoods like Riverside near Mather House. Residents there perceive "Harvard as a predatory animal," says one community activist.

Says CCA councilor Saundra Graham: "You've got to stop them at every single door and make them do what we tell them to."