Stone and Power both say that Harvard officials are not discussing a lawsuit.

“Our efforts are focused on resolution, not on planning a lawsuit,” Power says.

Stone says he thinks even the councillors who have already said they support the Carlson petition could be won over by a new compromise.

“Often times elected officials will have a position that is their preferred one, but there might be a solution that is acceptable that is not their preferred one [but] that is still better than the other alternatives, so you have to keep talking to them,” Stone says.

According to Cambridge political pundit Robert Winters, neighborhood zoning petitions typically ask for more extreme provisions than the councillors are inclined to accept.

But he adds that zoning petitions are often timed to come up in election season to increase the political pressure on the councillors—and the Carlson petition is no exception.

“There are several sitting city councillors who would love to be seen as the champion on this issue,” he says.

Winters says the neighborhood activists who are most vocal on the issue do not necessarily represent the views—and the votes—of the entire neighborhood. He says he believes most Riverside residents would accept a compromise.

“As long as nobody has the feeling in the end that an enormous amount was given away in exchange for nothing, I think the neighborhoods tend to be pretty accepting,” he says.

Staging a Protest

If a compromise is reached, it would mark a major step forward for a neighborhood that has long resented the University’s expansion.

According to Saundra Graham, a longtime Riverside resident and former city councillor, the town-gown rift goes as far back as the 1950s, when the University began to look at possibilities for expansion in the area.

This expansion included the construction of Peabody Terrace and Mather Tower in the 1960s—two buildings that are praised by architects but hated by neighbors who say the tall structures cast shadows across their homes and block their views of the river.

Graham says the residents were outraged that the University was evicting local residents and taking up space that could have been devoted to affordable housing.

In the spring of 1970, Graham and other neighborhood activists penned a letter to the Harvard Corporation, requesting a meeting.