Depending on who you listen to, State Rep. Alvin E. Thompson (D-Cambridge) has been either a long-time advocate of tenant and worker rights or an ineffectual politician relying on the force of his personal popularity to stay in office.

Many say Thompson has worked for more than 15 years to improve the quality of state services and state funding, but critics contend that he has been largely ineffectual in the State House, doing little to improve his constituents' lives.

Cambridge political personalities seem to adopt one or the other view of Thompson, the state representative from the 28th Middlesex District, which includes the Cambridge neighborhoods of Riverside, Cambridgeport, Area Four and parts of mid-Cambridge and Harvard University.

Thompson, a lifelong resident of Cambridge and the city's only Black representative to Beacon Hill, is by all accounts a quiet and unassuming person. "He's a thoroughly likable individual," says Glenn S. Koocher '71, host of "InsideOut," a weekly Cambridge political talk show. "He has never climbed the political ladder over the backs of anyone else."

'Good Strides'

Thompson's political rise appears to be the success story of the typical American grassroots politician. Born in Riverside, Thompson represents a city with two of America's largest universities although he did not graduate from college.

"I've tried all my life" to be a role model, Thompson says. "We've done a lot of good strides but we have more to go, in all areas."

Thompson says he has worked hard to ensure his accessibility. "I'm always available and accessible," he says.

The representative maintains close ties to his constituents, ranging from participation in political forums to attendance at funerals. Early this year, he was named chair of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People's Cambridge chapter, an office he held before, in the 1970's.

Although optimistic about the city's future, Thompson says Cambridge has changed remarkably since the begining of his political career, when it was better defined by communities of solid blue-collar row houses than by the coffee parlors proliferating in Central Square.

"If you go to Harvard Square, many of those stores weren't there; Mass. Ave. was a two-way street," Thompson recalls.

Critics and fans say Thompson is unusual for the number of positions he maintains. Along with his seats in the State House of Representatives and on the Cambridge NAACP, Thompson works as a residency checker for the city's School Department and as part-time security guard for the University, working in the Quad.

While some have faulted Thompson for having too many commitments outside his elected office, the representative says he has not worked in the School Department and Harvard positions since a foot injury in February at the NAACP national convention.

After unsuccessfully running for a seat on the City Council, Thompson won his first political office in 1980, beating the activist candidate Saundra Graham for the Democratic nomination for state representative.

The incumbent, Graham, whose antics included walking onto the graduating platform at Harvard's 1970 commencement, was perceived as a shoo-in for reelection, although critics perceived her as a militant radical. Graham was the only Black state representative from Cambridge.