When Cambridge political commentator Glen S. Koocher '71 talks about rent control, he now has to use the past tense.

"Rent control was the catechism of the organized religion that is Cambridge politics," says Koocher whenever the topic comes up in discussion.

Rent control in Cambridge did not survive for its 25th anniversary. Rent control fell a year shy, disappearing from the city--and the state of Massachusetts--on January 1, 1995.

The controversial ordinance was instituted the year of Koocher's graduation, partly to check University expansion and partly in response to skyrocketing rents around the city.

City Councillor Francis H. Duehay '55 blames developers and real estate agents during the 1960s for buying property, raising rents and quickly selling in a cycle of modern land speculation.

"What we had was our own version of the last American gold rush," Duehay says.

In addition, Duehay says that in the 1960s Harvard aggressively bought up property in Cambridge.

"If things were for sale, and they were close to other University activities, they were bought," says Harvard Planning and Real Estate Director Kathy A. Spiegelman.

For nearly a quarter century, rent control was the cornerstone of Cambridge politics. The issue was both the litmus test for local politicians and the battleground over which they frequently and passionately fought.

For tenants, rent control meant affordable housing and a predictable future. For landlords, rent control meant endless government oversight and meager returns on their investments.

For people entering the community, rent control meant housing was hard to find because tenants lucky enough to find a protected apartment were reluctant to part with their bounty.

Lenore M. Schloming '59 inherited a nine-unit apartment building on Inman Street from her father in 1984. When she and her family tried to move into the building in 1989, they were stymied by rent control regulations instituted to protect her tenants.

Schloming says she is amazed at how difficult it was to live in her building, and as a result of the struggle she became actively engaged in the city's rent control debate.

"[Rent control] looked like it never would end," Schloming says. "But I used to say that the Berlin Wall fell down, and the morning it happened, people didn't expect it."

Whether rent control was an iron curtain descended across Cambridge is a matter for debate, but in 1994, rent control's opponents had an insight into how to tear it down.