"Both the universities add enormous luster to the city and it would be a completely different city without them," he says. "If not for Harvard and MIT, there would not have been the economic growth in the city."
Current city councillors are not as positive.
"We can say Harvard wouldn't be where Harvard is without Cambridge," Reeves says. "People choose not to go to New Haven because of the condition of the city."
Decker says any contributions Harvard makes to the local economy do not make up for their failings in other areas.
"Whatever they provide for this community will never excuse being a poor neighbor and a poor communicator," she says.
Because Cambridge politics are so fragmented, they say, finding fault with Harvard provides an effective way to
unify constituents behind a single issue.
"Harvard can't escape the fact that it's often viewed as a 500-pound gorilla, and it becomes a lightening rod," Power says. "In a political setting, it makes the challenges of creating a constructive dialogue with neighborhood groups even more difficult."
In a proportional voting system, attacking Harvard can be a powerful political tool for councillors to employ, Zeckhauser says.
"They come up every two years and have to get a few number one votes," she says. "What can [voters] agree on? Harvard has made a few mistakes in the past year."
"It's something they can rely on," she adds.
Grogan says City Council meetings portray the University in an almost entirely negative light.
"The overall impression you'd get, you'd think that Harvard is a plague that had been visited upon the city," he says. "It's unfortunate that there's as much negative comment as there is, but it doesn't affect us."
"We're obviously a big issue," Grogan add. "We reek with symbolism."