The Heart of the Square

THE SQUARE changes, often for the better. But the past year has not been good to this home of bearded chess players and apprentice pundits.

Gentrification is everywhere: The Mug 'N Muffin's bottomless coffee cups have been replaced by a bank. Another bank is about to succeed Brigham's across the street. A Mt. Auburn St. building that housed three bars and a restaurant is gone; soon offices and boutiques will occupy its site. Two of the old establishments will return--no doubt to upscale surroundings and a different clientele.

The Harvard Motor House, ugly but relatively cheap, is about to close its doors, so the parents who have booked rooms there for Commencement 1989 will have to look else-where. On DeWolfe St., behind Quincy House, a hundred luxury condominiums will soon offer a view of the Charles to those who can afford it--and traffic hassles to everyone else. To the east, the foundation holes for two more office buildings gape across Mass. Ave.

Is this progress? It would be cynical to think so. Rather, it is the product of developers' eagerness to cash in on the local economic boom. More than ever, the Square is a hot property. Not only is it in a prosperous intellectual and technological center, but it also draws legions of tourists and well-heeled students each year. No wonder property values have reached the stratosphere.

But Harvard Square is pricing itself out of existence. One by one the gathering places that provide a sense of community for its sometimes motley natives are giving way to sterile purveyors of luxury goods or paperwork.

The efforts of the Harvard Square Defense Fund, whose members include many University administrators, show that citizens can stop the likes of Holyoke Center from further encroaching on local historic buildings. Because of this organization's work, a special zoning law now applies some regulations to the size and appearance of developments in a district surrounding the Square.

But this is not enough. No legislation can protect the fifty-cent cup of coffee. Harvard University, though, can join forces with the many local residents pushing for tighter zoning restrictions to keep the business district from sprawling upward and outward.

Too many American cities destroyed their own hearts before they learned to value them. We hope this will not happen to Harvard Square.