About 25 Harvard students joined Cambridge residents last night to protest the planned demolition of several Central Square businesses.

According to Shoshana Weiner '98, Home Realty Trust, the landlord of Central Square Plaza, intends to knock down stores in the plaza to make way for a multi-level complex featuring luxury apartments, chain stores such as the GAP and a parking garage.

Speakers at the rally called for a reconsideration of this plan, citing the lack of affordable housing and products in Central Square.

"We need affordable housing," said James Williamson, a member of the Save Central Square effort and one of the rally's organizers. "We need to respect businesses that have been here 90 years."

Respecting the Elder

The businesses include Sermons, the first black-owned establishment in Central Square; a Greek market; and the Lucy Parsons Center, a bookstore.

Jon Bekken is on the Board of Directors of the Central Square Neighborhood Coalition and a member of the steering committee of the Lucy Parsons Center.

He said Home Realty Trust has a "disregard forthe city."

He said that the leases Trust holds with itstenants have demolition clauses that allow thecompany to evict tenants with four to six monthsnotice in the event of a planned demolition.

Most of them have already left, and the restwill be out by March 31, he said.

"People became complacent about signing theirleases" because Home Reality Trust did not seeminterested in acting on the clause, Bekken said.They were told "nothing would be happening in theshort term," he said.

However, four weeks later, the businesses readabout the planned demolition in the paper.

"That's how much you can trust them," Bekkensaid of his landlord.

Harvard students from the activist group UNITE!and the Progressive Student Labor Movementattended the rally.

"It's really important, especially as a studentat Harvard...to support local communities to be incontrol of their own situation," said Stephanie I.Greenwood '99, a member of both studentorganizations.

"It's part of a larger process around thecountry," she said.