But Grogan says that positive attitude towards Harvard was not reflected in Cambridge City Council meetings.

“If you confined your research to that single source, you would conclude that Harvard was a kind of plague that descended on the city that caused all sorts of awful things to go on,” Grogan says.

Despite the council’s vocal stance, Grogan says the University does not let the council dominate Harvard’s community relations efforts.

“In some ways, the task of community relations in Boston and Cambridge is to balance somehow what overall seems to be a lot of good feelings about the University, with the political dynamic which can be really different,” Grogan says.

“I think it’s apparent to leaders in Cambridge, particularly those not in elected office, that the University is doing a lot for the city, and is interested in doing a lot more,” Grogan adds.

The Great Divide

But while community relations with Cambridge seem to constantly go through up and down phases, relations with Boston have never been better.

The University was chastised four years ago for its secretive purchase of 52 acres of land in Allston over the course of the last decade in which it used the name of a private developer to purchase land so that it would not be overcharged.

But through a process of increased disclosure combined with political maneuvering and efforts to build community partnerships, the University has made amends for its actions, setting the course for the future of development across the Charles River.

“I would say that things in Boston are in great shape,” Grogan says.

The situation in Boston and Allston differs fundamentally from the course of relations in Cambridge. The nature of development and government institutions has elicited different reactions in each host community.

Because only a few undeveloped areas remain in Cambridge, development projects are done in a more piecemeal fashion, as the University seeks to transform its remaining holdings on the edges of the campus into University-used spaces.

“What we’re doing in Cambridge is completing the campus,” Power says. “There’s an opportunity to transform certain remaining areas into academic uses and facilities.”

But this piecemeal development often causes individual communities to react to each of Harvard’s initiatives.

“For Cambridge where space is rather limited, this development means more complicated issues,” Rudenstine says. “Sometimes there are genuine misperceptions and sometimes genuine differences.”