Harvard accepted little community didn't have achance to review the design," Pitkin says, "andthey are going to go ahead."

The mid-Cambridge activist also says theUniversity needs to take more responsibility forthe actions of what he calls "satellites" thatHarvard has attracted to the area. He cities theColegio Real Complutense and the Lincoln LandInstitute on Brattle street as examples.

But Pitkin is not hopeful.

"Institutions are unavoidably bad neighbors,"he says.

One source of lingering tensions between theUniversity and the city has been Harvard Square.

Kaufman, for one, charges that Harvard hasturned the Square into a "mall" by leasing isproperty for top dollar without sufficient regardfor the historic character of the area.

Former Cambridge Mayor Alice K. Wolf agrees.

"Harvard Square is not what it used to be," shesays. Taller buildings such as Holyoke Center have"changed the character of Harvard Square."

Even Duehay, the city councillor who isgenerally most supportive of the University notesthat a few years ago Harvard was instrumental indefeating a zoning proposal to reduce developmentand prevent the construction of high-risebuildings in the Square.

Duehay says small shops and shorter buildingsare "essential to the quality of life" in theSquare.

Howard D. Medwed, vice president of both theCCA and the Harvard Square Defense Fund, says theUniversity is no different than than any otherdeveloper.

He says the University's recent purchase of ahotel on Mass. Ave., which was converted into theLaw School dormitory North Hall, is a primeexample of how Harvard still encroaches on thecity.

"One expects better of Harvard," Medwed says,"and one doesn't get any better."

Medwed says his greater expectations for theUniversity stem both from Harvard's status as anon-tax paying, non-profit organization and fromits "tremendous amount of resources and power."

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