Harvard changed presidents in July and got a new vice president for government, community and public affairs this month. Cambridge will be welcoming two new members to its City Council in January.

The transitions on both ends could herald an end to an always-rocky town-gown relationship that was at a low point in recent years, say some observers of the Cambridge political scene.

Brian P. Murphy ’86-’87 and E. Denise Simmons will be joining a council that spent much of the past year struggling with Harvard’s community relations office.

In March, when Harvard invested $5 million in an afterschool program in Boston without making a comparable donation to Cambridge, councillors characterized the action as “arrogant” and “condescending.”

Then this fall, Mayor Anthony D. Galluccio bristled when he felt Cambridge was ignored during President Lawrence H. Summers inauguration speech, telling The Crimson he was “surprised” and “disappointed.”

But a change might be on the way, according to some longtime Cambridge politicians and political pundits.

“I think the new president has a great capacity for positive thinking and I’m sure that he will bring it to bear on town-gown relations,” City Councillor Kathleen L. Born says. “I am enormously optimistic that this relationship can be repaired.”

Change in the Works

When introducing President Clinton to an audience of thousands last week, Summers carefully amended the rhetoric of his inauguration speech, referring to Galluccio as “Harvard’s mayor”—a title that was a big hit at City Hall.

And Alan Stone, Harvard’s new vice president of government, community and public affairs, told a crowd of local officials at his welcoming reception that he will work to increase Harvard’s “transparency” to the community this year.

Meanwhile, while Harvard has been working with Cambridge councillors, Cambridge’s politicians have been espousing a diplomatic approach toward Harvard.

In an extremely unusual move, one of the council’s new members, Brian P. Murphy ’86-’87, made improving the city’s relationship with Harvard one of his campaign issues.

“Most people don’t ever even bring up the whole Harvard issue, that’s just something that comes up over time when the first incident happens. It tends to be entirely reactive,” said Robert S. Winters, a longtime Cambridge political observer and a member of the Cambridge Civic Association.

During his campaign, Murphy—who “came to Cambridge to go to Harvard”— cited undergraduate public service programs such as those of the Phillips Brooks House Association as a way that Harvard is a positive force in the community.

Along with Mayor Galluccio, who has pushed hard for improving the city’s relationship with Harvard, Murphy could build an effective Harvard-friendly coalition on the council, Winters said.