Academic facilities are easy to get to from Cambridgeport: Boston University is just across the bridge, MIT down the river. And every 20 minutes in the morning and evening, the number 47 bus takes passengers to and from the Longwood Medical Area.

"It's not a place dominated by any one university," says Malenfant, a 35-year resident who moved to Cambridgeport from Rhode Island because her husband went to graduate school at MIT.

"If [universities] become too dominant, then we become a college town," she says. "I like the idea that there's industry in the city."

Industry in Cambridgeport began when the Grand Junction Railroad was built in 1853. Factories produced soap, railroad cars and candy, among other products.

The tracks are still used today and form the neighborhood's eastern border with the MIT neighborhood.

After the Second World War, many industrial buildings remained standing, though they are no longer used for traditional industry. These days, many house technology start-up companies or biotechnology research firms, with names like AstraZenca and ImmunoGen.

Across Sidney Street from these transformed industrial warehouses is University Park at MIT, a 27-acre complex of corporate office buildings, managed in part by the school.

The park bears little resemblance to the rest of Cambridgeport. Though some of its buildings date back to the turn of the century, even those have been extensively renovated. Along one side of Sidney Street hang banners painted with double helixes; on the other is a park dotted with modern sculptures.