With more boutiques moving in, there's less reason for students and artists to spend much time here hanging out and frequenting the stores and restaurants which cater to them. Those places are already hanging by an economic thread, and with rich chain stores ready to pay higher rents and bump the small stores out of the Square, they'll soon be gone, too.

Once the youth culture dissipates, there will be less reason for tourists to come visit. Sure, the Statue of Three Lies will remain, but without Bartley's and Discount Records and the Garage, there's little reason for tourists to make the trip.

Which, in the end, means less business for the boutiques and chain stores. People can find trendy shops in the suburbs now, and the last visitors to Harvard Square, the rich, yuppie shopper who started this whole decline, will stay home, leaving the Square empty.

The scenario is quite possible. The chain of events has already begun, with a number of great bookstores and restaurants having been booted in favor of Gaps and HMVs.

Of course, that's just what the critics say. I, eager for the day when homeopathic care stores loom on every street corner in the Square, simply can't wait.

Michael K. Mayo '94, associate editorial chair of The Crimson, isn't sure what "homeopathic" means.