The State Landmarks Comission refused the group's request, and the McDonald's is already under construction.

Although it is the largest single landowner and the richest locally-based corporation in town, Harvard tries for the most part to keep out of Cambridge's official affairs. All the University's land is, under state law, tax-exempt, but to keep town-gown relations smooth Harvard pays the city about $500,000 a year in in-lieu-of-tax payments. And whenever and wherever the name of Harvard is likely to be mentioned in public, the University sends a representative from its Office of Government and Community Affairs to sit quietly in the back of the room and take notes.

But with the controversy over the construction of the John F. Kennedy Memorial Library coming to a head this fall, the University will find itself in the middle of Cambridge's most highly charged project.

Construction of a $27 million memorial complex, including a library, a museum and facilities for several Harvard departments, has been in the works since 1964. In early September the federal General Services Administration will release the draft environmental impact statement on the project, planned for the site of the subway yards across from Eliot House. The public hearings that will follow hold the promise of Graham mobilizing her troops, business and labor counter-attacking, and Harvard once again remaining silent publicly while privately hoping the Kennedys can clear the way for construction of the University's new buildings.

A group of about 40 Harvard professors who recently complained to President Bok about the effect the legions of tourists the library will attract will have on Cambridge may upset the careful balance of forces. Their voices may not be enough to stop the project, but they may force the University to take a public stand on the Kennedy Library. Continued University silence will permit the splinter group of professors to substitute its views for University policy.

A columnist for The New York Times recently observed that New Yorkers are the only people in the world who cheer when you tell them of the city's horrors. People live in New York even though they know it is crimeridden, overcrowded and over-rated; having to struggle with New York is the sadistic pleasure that lures people to the city.

Judging from its problems and controversies, only a New Yorker could love Cambridge.