"Since rents have been escalating, some places going for $60 per square foot... only high-profit-margin, national chain stores or those that appeal to faddish markets survive, since they are able to pay top dollar," Gifford said." The Ma and Pa stores are being forced out, and that's a shame."

Olive Holmes, president of the Harvard Square Defense Fund, said residents hoped to preserve aspects of Harvard Square that made it unique. Harkening back to the times of allnight diners where people talked politics, Holmes said "Harvard Square used to have all sorts of creative alternatives in the '60s. Now those are being replaced by more regional stores.

Other casualties over the past two years include two inexpensive restaurants: Brigham's ice cream parlor, now about to be replaced by an expanding buyback, and, two summers ago, the inexpensive Mug 'N Muffin coffee shop, now home to the Cambridge Savings Bank.

The Square is also after a much narrower market now, said Gifford. She said the recent closing of shoes & Things, next doors to Store 24, showed the inability of smaller stores to sustain themselves. "Cobblers are a victim of the times, " she said.

The result, Gifford said, is that "The Square has become less of a place for daily shopping needs. Now it has clothes for one generation only." Meanwhile, said Gifford, "Harvard Square has 30 book stores. What other community could support that many?"

The Square may be a victim of its own success, said Holmes, commenting that its homogenization could take away its attraction. "Now that parking is so expensive in the Square, why would anyone come here if they could get the same things at a mall?" Holmes asked. "You just don't want to kill the goose that laid the golden egg."