McCready has served on a study committee examining development issues in Riverside since April, but little progress has been made. Mary H. Power, Harvard’s senior director of community relations, will now represent the University on the committee.

McCready said the obstacles he has faced involving Cambridge relations are natural, and that he did not expect all Harvard initiatives to go smoothly.

“Community affairs and community relationships are always works in progress,” McCready said. “If one thinks that one can walk into a situation and have the magic fix to it, they’re dead wrong.”

The history of difficult relations between Harvard and Cambridge goes back decades, particularly in the Riverside neighborhood, to the building of Peabody Terrace and Mather House in the 1970s.

“Fighting the institutional history of both Cambridge and Harvard is extremely difficult,” McCready said.

McCready said he wished residents and city officials were more cognizant of the benefits derived from the University and understood the relationship between Harvard and Cambridge is “symbiotic.”

“I think that folks in the community underestimate the amount and the intensity of dialogue and communication that exists between Cambridge and Harvard,” McCready said. “Any individual that lives in Cambridge has to appreciate what tangible and intangible benefits are brought by Harvard.”

But despite the difficulties, McCready said he will miss some aspects of his Harvard position.

“So much of this position and how I approach it is personal,” McCready said. “The people who work at this University are absolutely fantastic, and it’s hard to walk away from that.”

The University will fill McCready’s position after Harvard’s new Vice President of Government, Community and Public Affairs Alan Stone arrives in November from Columbia University.

—Staff writer Imtiyaz H. Delawala can be reached at delawala@fas.harvard.edu.