The View From City Hall

The question is: What type of citizen is John Harvard? Is he a good neighbor? Does he hide behind the ivory or is he a committed and responsible member of the world that exists on the other side of the gate?

A number of people believe that I have made my political career by blasting Harvard University. Let me answer all of those people that my political career would go along just fine with or without Harvard University. My attack upon Harvard has been a part of a larger political philosophy; it is not by itself that philosophy. More about this later.

Whether it comes as a surprise or not. I believe that Harvard has on many occasions been a great citizen, is often a good one, and when it is not, the city often has itself to blame for the problems that are created by Harvard. When you need something, you have to ask for it; step up, unafraid, and ask. Often, one man acting alone can get a lot done by following this simple rule.

When things are happening that you do not like, you have to stand up and holler and demand that they stop. I confess to having done this once or twice in my dealings with the University. Here, one man is more limited when he acts alone. I have been an elected official in Cambridge for more than 30 consecutive years. If some of my colleagues in government had joined me in my battles along the way, we could have stopped Harvard from doing some things that have now returned to cause us trouble.

Our complaints remind me of the story that is told to explain the definition of chut: pah: murdering one's mother and father and then pleading for clemency because one is an orphan.

One of the many interesting things about lasting so long in this business is that you can sit and listen to the government whine about living with the conditions imposed by the conquerer, and, at the same time, remember how the same government laid down its arms and rolled over feigning dead when the lines of battle were drawn. There is a lot of chutzpah in Cambridge.

Maybe I can find a better way to explain something more about the University as citizen, particularly as a citizen of Cambridge. These are just anecdotes and observations, but they help to tell the story.

*Derck Bok has made a difference. If there's a Hall of Fame for college presidents, he ought to be in it.

*Go into Macarelli's Bar in East Cambridge and ask the truck drivers and meat packers that drink there what they think of Harvard. They'll tell you that it gobbles up all the property in Cambridge and is populated with strange and eccentric people.

*Go into the markets in East Cambridge and ask the Italian and Portuguese women if they have ever set foot in the Harvard Yard. Almost all of them will answer no.

*Go back to Macarelli's Bar and the markets and tell these good people that you will grant them any wish for their son and daughters. They will all tell you the same thing: they wish that their son or daughter could be admitted to Harvard.

*When we travel, we take pride in Harvard: "I'm from Cambridge, Mass., you know, that's where Harvard College is."

*Closer to home, the pride disappears and we complain a whole lot.

*When it gets real close to home, when our children or our nieces and nephews are admitted as students, then the feelings we have are clear. Our respect and admiration for this University is unmistakable.

*The real problem is real estate. When the College grew in the '60s, it gobbled up neighborhoods and drove up the price of housing for everyone. There is not enough Cambridge for everyone who wants it. That was the war which the city should have fought. Now we can only skirmish over lots and individual buildings.

*Derek Bok has found a number of ways to allow Harvard to speak to the issues of our day. Whether I agree with him or not, it makes a Cambridge mayor proud of his Cambridge college president. He could hide behind the wall.

*Ditto for Matina Horner.

*During the riots, all of the top brass at Harvard knew the phone number at City Hall. We were there for them.

*Ditto for MIT.

*Derek Bok has tried to help with every project I have brought to his door. We are working together on computer education in the Cambridge schools. We host a picnic in the Harvard Yard for 2000 senior citizens every summer. Harvard students volunteer their services in Cambridge neighborhoods I cooked a spaghetti dinner for the Harvard and Cambridge high school football teams. Harvard (thanks, Jack Reardon) put on a great cook out for 300 Cambridge high school athletes in return.

*It's amazing what good things you can do when you just roll up your sleeves and do it.

*The battle over DNA research taught Harvard a number of lessons. Even science has its obligation to deal openly with the public. I think all of us are better off for having fought that one out. And now that the dust has settled, I like to think that I can include Matthew Meselson and Walter Gilbert on my list of friends. I suspect that they feel the same.

*During the DNA debate, I insisted that fame and fortune were reasons for science wanting to push ahead too fast. Not the only reason, but reasons. Now that Walter Gilbert has won the Nobel Prize and has made a fortune with Biogen, Inc., it would be nice if he wrote to me and admitted that I was right.

*I promise to never again call for the paving of the Harvard Yard.

*But only because that would ruin the nice picnic that we hold there every summer.

*All of the women who go to the picnic in Harvard Yard (including Mrs. Vellucci) go away talking about how classy and how handsome that Derek Bok is. I don't want him to become such an involved citizen of Cambridge that he decides to run for City Council. At least not so long as I'm still a candidate.

*When Harvard stretches its arms, working class Cambridge feels it in the ribs. That should be easy enough to understand. They just have to talk to us whenever they make their plans. They really owe that much to the people of Cambridge.

Earlier on I said that my career would have prospered with or without Harvard. That is because Harvard is just one of many institutions of power that I have chosen to fight during my career in public life. The reason for the fight is always the same: The institutions of power have used that power to further their own agenda but in so doing have stepped all over the working class man and woman. That is where I draw the line and when I have always tried to speak out.

The real estate industry in Cambridge took advantage of the housing crunch of the '60s and used their power to drive up rents and increase their profits. Great for them, but what about the meat packer that has to pay that rent every month? So now, we have rent control. I am the deciding vote that makes it law. I have used my power as an elected official to restrain the collective power of the entire real estate industry in the City of Cambridge. They hate me. Every election they organize to defeat me. But on the first of every month, I know there are 21,000 Cambridge households that have a better chance of making ends meet because of the way I have chosen to use the power that I have.

I sleep well and I awake refreshed.

Harvard holds tremendous power. In President Bok I see a man who has come to see that the power of Harvard can be used as a force of good in this world.

There is so much that Harvard can do right here in Cambridge. There is such an unusual match of need and ability. I mention this in the way of a further challenge, as something for him to consider with all seriousness.

There is great reward in using the power that you have to help good people who have less. I have enormous respect for Derek Bok and I honestly believe that his instincts lie in that direction.

Let's just end this by saying that I'd like nothing better than to know that the president of Harvard is sleeping just as soundly at Elmwood as is the mayor of Cambridge across town on Porter St.

Alfred E. Vellucci is mayor of Cambridge.