For at least one group of Central Square businessmen, however, dreams of a permanent reversal in the Square's decline are considerably less ephemeral. The 80-member Central Square Association of Business and Professionals, Inc. (CSA) is headed by Chuck Smith, a former Iowan who came to Harvard's Graduate School of Design a few years back, stuck around, and is now the president of Com-Plan Inc., a Central-Square based architectural firm with offices in Cambridge and Caracas, Venezuela.

Smith radiates enthusiasm as he speaks of a risorgimento for Central Square. "I believe Central Square will once again be the heart of the city," he says. "I have a real interest in Central Square--I live here."

Unlike many building and store owners, Smith, whose offices were once located in Harvard Square, has decided to live in the neighborhood where he works, and thus he says he has a vested interest in the Square's preservation. (Not surprisingly, however--oh, perhaps coincidentally--Smith's house and offices are located right next to the police station. Jerry Lane: "It figures.")

Smith is a man with a vision, and he spends a good deal of his time and money attempting, with varying degrees of success, to impart it to others.

You may recall strolling through the Square last year and seeing some rather unwieldy-looking strings of lights suspended across Mass Ave. That was Chuck Smith's idea. Only it didn't work out too well. Smith says: "We had an idea for Christmas decorations which would be dramatic, economical and exciting." Instead of buying the typical plastic wreaths and polyurethane Santas, Smith hatched a plan that called for the participation of Cambridge residents in fabricating and installing decorations; it would save money, it would draw people into the Square, and it would look nice.

With $5000 of his own money, and with cooperation from city officials, Smith assembled miles of reflective mylar, 46,000 lightbulbs, a bunch of wood and a bunch of volunteers from various community groups to assemble the whole thing. "It all looked real flashy," Chuck says.

What a shame then, that no sooner had the decorations gone up than there arose one of those chill Cambridge winter winds, and all the mylar became shredded and began to fall into the street.

"We had to cut all the mylar, and hang regular wreaths from the strings of bare lightbulbs that were left. Some people said the mylar also interfered with radios in fire trucks and ambulances.

"Maybe this year, we'll just put strings of lightbulbs in the trees," Smith says.

Despite the failure of the Christmas project, the endeavor did help to focus public attention on the Square, and it did bring residents together both in the pre-holiday fabrications and perhaps also in the post-mortem vilification of Smith. (Jerry Lane: "Another schmuck.")

Not everyone may approve of Smith's schemes to snap the Square out of its doldrums, but his hit-or-miss approach more often than not reaps results.

By arousing interest in the Square, Smith has often been able to cut across neighborhood boundaries to raise the funds that get things accomplished there.

The trees from which this year's Christmas decorations may be hanging were planted only after extensive lobbying by Smith's group. Smith has also been instrumental in getting the city to install about 100 planters in the Square, and to repave the sidewalks; now, he says he is sponsoring a project whereby small hose outlets will be installed outside most Central Square businesses, so that their owners will be able, European-style, to clean the streets in front of their stores each morning. "I have a dream that Central Square can be the cleanest Square in the world," says Smith.

Working closely with the late Cambridge Chief of Police, Francis Pisani, Smith ironed out a proposal for new community bulletin boards, made of sheet metal, to be placed strategically around the Square.

("Once the board gets filled up, it can just all be removed, and then you can scrape it clean, repaint it, and use it all over again," he explains.)