Mary H. Power, Harvard’s senior director of community relations, says she recognizes how the desire to develop directly near neighborhoods can hurt relations.

“The interaction between town and gown a lot of times can create tension,” Power says. “Neighbors sometimes wish buildings were more residential and we want those buildings to be for institutional use.”

Recently, the Cambridge Riverside neighborhood has been the most vocal—and the most effective—in blocking University initiatives, as a core group of residents uses the past to direct their opinions against Harvard.

“They have a history of dishonesty,” says Riverside resident Cob Carlson, citing Harvard’s purchase of residential leases in the early 1970’s so that they could construct Peabody Terrace and Mather House as examples of the first strains in relations between Harvard and the Riverside community. “Their lip service is that ‘we care.’”

So when Harvard proposed building a new modern art museum along the Charles River at the current site of the Mahoney’s Garden Center, many residents were adamantly opposed, saying that any Harvard building would block access to the river and overextend Harvard into their neighborhood.

“Everyone is concerned about quality of life issues,” Carlson says. “They’re taking away the sun and the sky and our neighborhood. They just keep chipping away at it. It’s about how our lives are impacted on day-to-day basis.”

Because of their concerns, a group of residents joined to sign the Loose Petition, calling for an 18-month moratorium on development in the Riverside neighborhood. When the Cambridge City Council passed the petition last fall, Harvard’s museum plans were effectively halted.

The moratorium showed Harvard officials that resident interests could unite to block Harvard’s plans.

“History has proven that people can get 20 signatures on a petition, and the next thing you know you have a moratorium or a down-zoning that will stop you cold in your tracks,” says Travis McCready, Harvard’s director of community relations for Cambridge.

And as shown through the Loose Moratorium, the political activism known of Cambridge residents sometimes goes against what the University considers productive community relations.

“Cambridge is a great city, where everything’s all about community activism and participation,” McCready says. “[But] it’s frustrating sometimes that there are people who want to be activists and are not always tempered by reason.”

City Hall vs. Mass. Hall

While active residents are often the ones who act to halt Harvard development, local officials sometimes use Harvard as a political target—attacks that Harvard seems incapable of preventing or dealing with effectively.

Grogan and Power say Harvard’s position as a large, well-known University with an easily targeted $19 billion endowment makes it easy to use as a political punching bag.

“As a lightning rod, Harvard draws a lot of attention from all sorts of individuals and groups,” Power says. “People see a lot of money and they are nervous about what Harvard will do.”