"We all love the diversity and ethnicity of Cambridge and that will change," says VanIngen.

"Cambridge has already changed a lot," says one rent control tenant on Broadway. "People want to live in 'hip places' and the people who made it sort of bohemian can't afford to live there at free market prices."

Some tenants point to more practical arguments. They say higher rents under 1-2-3 would simply make living in Cambridge economically troublesome.

The tenant on Broadway says he would move if rent control vanished because, "If these apartments weren't rent control they would probably be over $800 a month--then you might as well buy a house."

But the case is not cut-and-dry for many who live in rent-controlled apartments.

The tenant on Broadway, for instance, describes his family as "a young, professional, both-working couple without kids." And he says, "I don't see rent control as having affordable housing for people. They would only rent to people like us."

Tenants like him have joined the ranks of Cambridge's real estate investors and small property owners, citing similar arguments in their defense of 1-2-3.

"Many rent control apartments are not for low-income people," says Morgan. "With my own experience they are well off people who could afford to pay market rent."

Pro-1-2-3 forces argue that the proposition would lead to more privately owned low-income housing, offer low-income earners the option to own their own home in Cambridge and eventually add to the construction of low-income housing.

And Morgan, for one, finds little substance in complaints that 1-2-3 would allow landlords to exclusively seek out wealthy tenants.

"My criteria are not economics," Morgan says. "I don't get people applying who appear to be in dire straights...For whatever reason people who are low-income tenants don't make it into our apartments."

In fact, many Harvard Square rent control tenants could remain in Cambridge even without rent control, some owners and residents say.

"Generally speaking people in Harvard affiliate housing can afford something else, either now or in the near future," says Peter W. Fraser, who lives in Harvard affiliate rent-controlled housing.

Morgan agrees that 1-2-3 would give landlords more control over their units. But she characterized that as one of the proposal's assets, not as its glaring liability.

"Proposition 1-2-3 would be a chance for condominium owners to regain control of their property and raise the quality of our neighborhoods because there would be owner occupied property," Morgan says.