Scott Levitan, Harvard's director of University and commercial real estate, says Harvard also prefers the little guy, trying above all to keep the businesses it currently houses in its buildings.

"We don't have many opportunities, but the turnover that we have had has been filled by tenants like Toscanini's which is a Cambridge store, and its owner is local," Levitan says.

End of Student Market

G. Pebble Gifford, president of the Harvard Square Defense Fund, says even if chains and independent stores alike face tough times, the change is ultimately away from the student market.

Inexpensive retailers and restaurants open late to catch the student crowd are scarcer than in the past, though the Square has never been held by many as a typical college area.

"There used to be stores for the students, but I'm told that students aren't buying that stuff anymore, that they go to malls and buy discount," Gifford says.

Cambridge resident Andrew Herrmann '82 says he agrees that the Square selection has changed since his days at the College.

"I don't know that overall it's changed for the worse. It's kind of fashionable to say that. The sad thing is that it's not really a college town anymore," Herrmann says.

Oona's, which sells used clothing and costumes, is one of the Square's constants and one that caters to the discount crowd. Owner Kathleen M. White says the change in the target market was driven by the hike in residential rents.

"When you look out the window, you see TV personalities walking by as opposed to kids with mohawks," White says. "I'd say the college kids are here, but the high school kids tend to go to Porter or Davis or Central."

Indeed, some say the kind of trendy, quirky neighborhood Harvard Square was traditionally touted as is now a more suitable label for these other squares.

The Upper Crust

Square retailers say this trend makes sense in the context of the area's consumer base. Tourists, wealthy area residents and visitors from elsewhere in the Boston area predominate, they say, and make an upscale Square possible.

Jessica LeBlanc, manager of the April Cornell clothing and housewares store on Brattle Street, says her store sells to "professors, teachers, and a lot of grand-mothers."

And with students eating most meals in the dining halls and selling most of their furniture upon graduating, Crate & Barrel, also on Brattle Street, admittedly peddles its wares to the non-student crowd.