Smith attributes some of the decline in activism to the fact that rising rents are putting financial strains on many residents.

"Now people are so desperate that a lot of people don't stay to fight," she says.

Smith says the new, more affluent population is less inclined to public demonstration.

"The differences that I see in the new wave of people is that they've never faced oppression," she says. "They're more inclined to deal with problems by getting a lawyer, whereas with working class and minority populations, they're more likely to make an effort with collective action because they've faced oppression before."

While Duehay acknowledges the effects the end of rent control has had on the Cambridge community, he down-played its influence on political participation.

"Probably the jury is still out on that," he says. "It is unclear what political effect this will all have."

The Value of a Vote

Not all Cantabrigians have lost faith in the political system. A handful of residents turn out each week to make their voices heard at city council meetings.

The Eviction Free Zone, which recently held an affordable housing rally in Central Square, and other community groups still practice grassroots activism, and 17,000 Cambridge residents still cast their ballots for city councillors in last year's election.

One of these 17,000 is 90-year-old Harriet Whitehead. She lives in an immaculate house on Avon Street, filled with bookcases of leather-bound volumes and mahogany furniture. She has lived in Cambridge since 1948, and her husband served on the Harvard Business School faculty.

Whitehead has missed voting only twice in her entire life.

The first was in 1940, and Whitehead said she had a rather compelling reason.

"I worked for a lawyer under [Republican challenger Wendell L.] Willkie's campaign, before [Franklin D.] Roosevelt's third term. We went all over the country on a campaign train, stopping twice a day for short speeches and at night for one long speech," she says.

"All the newspaper men were for Roosevelt, and I was for Roosevelt, but everyone else was for Willkie."

"We didn't get back in time to vote," she says.