Mom 'n' Pop versus the Golden Arches

Big Mac. Quarter Pounder. Happy Meal.

The word "McDonald's" is an internationally known symbol of American cuisine, much in the way "Harvard" is a symbol of American education. But go to Harvard Square looking for a franchise of the popular fast food restaurant, and you'll be out of luck, thanks to an elitist conspiracy.

It would make sense for the institutions t coexist. Harvard, America's first, best and most famous university, ought to be within reach of McDonald's, America's first, best and most famous fast food joint. Students are perpetually low on cash, and McDonald's is easy on the wallet. Students are always busy, and McDonald's is fast. Golden arches and Veritas. It's a match made in heaven.

But it's a much that doesn't exit, thanks to a crew of soft-headed Brattle Street elitists who think they know what's best for everyone else. Opponents charge that fast food would destroy the "historic nature" of the Square, creating masses of litter and generally bringing on the end of the world as we know it.

Harvard Square, which has survived the hurricane of 1938, the renovation of the Red Line and the construction of Holyoke Center, could survive fast food. In fact, it already practically does.

The Au Bon Pain in Holyoke Center is tolerated, even glorified, by the Harvard Square establishment. Part of the reason is undoubtedly that Harvard owns stock in the restaurant. Au Bon Pain is fast food, no doubt about it. But it's overpriced, yuppified, faux French fast food. The store even deliberately slows down its food preparation so the customers feel like they aren't getting fast food.

The argument against fast food is a sham. We already have fast food. The hypocritical defenders of Harvard Square seem only to be against honest, inexpensive, American fast food--food that students want and can afford.

There are good things for people in the Square to be against. Litter, garish advertising and lousy architecture, for instance. But McDonald's is a red herring in all three cases.

Free coupon handouts already make more trash than any food outlet in the Square. McDonald's probably would not make the Harvard Square mess significantly worse. It might even make it better. McDonald's would likely be willing to pay the city lots of money for extra street-cleaning crews.

In Freeport, Maine, McDonald's designed a fast food restaurant that doesn't look like one. The chain could similarly be made to construct a restaurant sensitive to Harvard Square's architectural and visual traditions. Such respect for the environment is more than can be said for, say, Holyoke Center or William James Hall.

McDonald's would be a welcome source of fast, cheap nourishment, with little if any impact on the greatly valued "quaintness" (cuteness and overpricing) of the Square. Bring on the Big Macs.