Along with the mayor, Galvin has called for the sale to be nulled by the Governor.

Fault Lines

The controversy over the 91-acre deal highlights fundamental disagreements between town and gown about the degree and ways that the Harvard should consult the city—disagreements that have remained unresolved since 1997.

Harvard officials say they try to keep Boston officials in the loop about the University’s plans.

“We make courtesy calls so the mayor doesn’t have to read about it in the paper,” Stone says. “We try to keep him informed of what we’re doing.”

But the mayor says he wants more of a voice at the table.

“There should have been more consultation with the city,” Menino says. “They told us they wanted to do it, yes. But what’s the future use of it, we don’t know. And will that have any economic impact on the future of our products coming into our city? There’s uncertainty about whether the railyard will be shut down.”

Now as then, local and state politicians say they are particularly anxious to know what Harvard is planning for the broad swaths of Boston the University now owns.

This spring, as the Turnpike Authority and Harvard tried to negotiate a land deal, local and state politicians asked again and again what Harvard would do. Mass. Hall remained mostly silent.

On multiple occasions, University spokesperson Lauren Marshall gave the press the same prepared statement: “We have no plans to change this property in the foreseeable future. This is a long-term investment and we are thinking about the needs of the University in the future.”

Later, as the controversy heated up, Stone released another statement: ”As we have said before, we’re fully prepared to sit down and discuss all issues of concern.’’

While planners in the Holyoke Center—home to the University’s newly-formed Allston Initiative—are exploring a host of particular options, University officials say they don’t know what Harvard will do with the land, and won’t know until a variety of consultants and committees wrap up their work.

“Because the University hasn’t made a commitment to an academic objective for Allston we cant figure out where to start,” says Kathy Spiegelman, the director of the Allston Initiative.

Stone says he wants to make it clear to City Hall that Harvard has no interest in hurting the city.

“We don’t want any transportation needs in the area to be compromised, and that continues to be our position.”