James Rafferty, a Boston lawyer who served as head of the Ward 10 Democratic committee (O'Neill's home ward) says "Tip is an embodiment of the neighborhood."

Many of the people who have known O'Neill from his childhood have continued to help out on his reelection campaigns. Gimigliano would get the petitions signed and keep a stock of buttons and bumper stickers in his shop.

Danehy recalls that several elections back a long-time neighborhood resident told O'Neill, "I voted for you even though you didn't ask me." O'Neill responded, "I shoveled your walkway in the winter when I was young...and I've represented you in congress all these years...I didn't think I needed to ask for your vote." The woman retorted, "It never hurts to ask."

Ever since, says Danehy, O'Neill has walked through the neighborhood and spoken with merchants and residents, asking for their vote.

But now O'Neill's neighborhood is changing, children are moving out after college, and there's a different type of neighborhood cohesiveness.

Rafferty feels the "sense of neighborhood is less pervasive." Gone are the days when Ward 10 caucuses had to be over by 3:45 so the people could attend 4:00 mass at St. Paul's church. "[O'Neill] and the neighborhood itself are representatives of an era of time gone by," says Rafferty.

Although Manelli says his clientele hasn't changed, he feels the area has. "It's not a neighborhood...there are a lot of transients."

Michael Ralph suggests that the younger generation went to college and then moved away. "We've all moved out because we can't afford to live here," he says. Councillor Danehy adds that "a majority of the people who hung around Barry's Corner moved out."

The neighborhood has changed physically as well. The former Oddfellows Hall has been torn down and a Kentucky Fried Chicken now stands at the same site, the old Harvard theatre at the corner of Shay and Mass Ave. is now a bank. The large Knights of Columbus hall has been demolished and the Knights now hold their meetings in a small, rented room adjacent to their former hall.

Leo Pemberton owner of Pemberton's market at the corner of Rindge and Mass. Ave., where O'Neill has been known to shop, also senses that the neighborhood is changing. Pemberton recalls, "It used to be predominantly a two- and three-decker neighborhood; it was all families...Now it's students and professionals."

To keep up with the times Pemberton's has 'upscaled' its stock. "[The yuppies are] big on Haagen Dazs and Ben & Jerry's... We're also selling a lot of Poland Spring water," notes Pemberton.

Gimigliano, who calls O'Neill, "a man that can never be replaced," is worried about the future of the neighborhood. "All the senior citizens are afraid that there's no one to take care of them."

James Rafferty is also concerned about the loss of O'Neill. "[The Eighth Congressional District] was always considered a Cambridge seat...We're not going to have our neighborhood congressman anymore," he says, nothing the the paucity of Cambridge contenders for O'Neill's seat.

Although North Cambridge is losing its favorite son, it will continue to remain an important force in Cambridge politics, according to Danehy, who has comes from a family with an active history in Cambridge politics.

Speaking from many years of political experience, the councilor says, "The neighborhood is a demanding constituency. But it's a fiercely loyal constituency as well.