Old Square Goes Yupscale

On November 30, Kennedy Studios of Newbury Street opened its new branch store in Cambridge. The elite art boutique did not, however, locate its newest store in posh, preppy, Harvard Square.

Rather than pay upwards of $60 a square foot in rent, the gallery's owner moved down Massachusetts Avenue, past Cambridge City Hall, and settled in what many are calling the hottest commercial area in Cambridge-Central Square.

Central Square is a study in contrasts. On the one hand, the infusion of commercial development and civic improvements seem to be slowly having an effect on the square's economic outlook. As trendy stores replace mom and pop establishments, more money is pouring into the city's treasury. The hope, as echoed by city officials, is that gentrification will not place a tremendous burden on Central Square's poorer residents.

Kelvin Richard, general manager for the new art studio, firmly believes in the future of Central Square, the commercial area sandwiched between Harvard and MIT. "We'd like to bring upscale business into the neighborhood. We feel this area is on the upswing economically and want to be a part of it," says Richard.

Directly across the street from Kennedy Studios, Mary Carroll peruses the wares of the Salvation Army Thrift Center, a small-discount store where she buys most of her clothing. Mary, who has lived in Central Square for more than 40 years, laughs at the idea that her neighborhood is undergoing some sort of revitalization.

A Mugger's Paradise?

"This area is mugger's island. All there is around here is robbers and muggers and they're still raising everyone's rents," says Carroll. "This used to be the place to shop. Now everyone is scared."

A short walk up from the thrift center, Morris Nagger paints a glowing picture of the future business potential of his family's newly expanded and renovated clothing store. The Nagger family spent over $100,000 to create Coquette, a trendy fashion boutique.

"There are more people coming into the neighborhood to live and to shop," says Nagger. "We saw the expansion as an excellent business opportunity. The square has a great future," Nagger adds.

Morris Nagger does not understand why many Boston area shoppers are afraid to enter Central Square. "I'm not scared here at all, but when I go to Harvard Square, the punk hangout of Massachusetts, then I worry," says Nagger.

Central Square and its future are not easily defined. While it is clear that the city of Cambridge is determined to make the area more attractive to business and potential residents, no one, including those at City Hall, knows whether their effort will succeed.

A Plan for the Future

After several months of hearings, the city's Central Square Subcommittee, issued an action plan in November 1987 which established several development and business oriented goals:

--improve the physical and visual environment of the square;

--to strengthen the retail base of the neighborhood;

--to create an active people oriented space;

--to encourage the development of new mixed income housing.

Although the plan still requires the formal recommendation of the Cambridge City Council, Central Square is already undergoing urban revitalization. The two most visible improvements are the renovation of the Central Square T Station and the Central Square Enhancement Project.

The state of Massachusetts and the federal government spent more than $11 million to completely renovate the underground subway station. In addition to providing subway riders with expanded train platforms, the MBTA also improved surface transit by restructuring the bus stop area along Western Avernue. Bus riders now enjoy benches and weather protection in Central Square.

"The city has been saying all along that Central Square must be made more attractive," says Catharine Woodbury, a city planner and a staffer on the city's Central Square Subcommittee. To that end, the city, along with the state's Department of Environmental Management, contributed $1.5 million to spruce up the sidewalks at the triangle which connects Western Avenue and River Street to Central Square.

"We widened the sidewalk, greened the traffic island, and placed a park where a gas station used to be," Woodbury says. Also, the city contributed to a newly opened housing project in the area which will provide a home for middle and lower income families, she adds.

Woodbury insisted, however, that all renovation and beautification projects will not infringe upon the integrity of the square.

"Central Square has its own character and uniqueness that people around there like. While Harvard Square relies on students and the tourist trade, Central Square is a neighborhood shopping center," the city planner says.

Deputy City Manager Richard Rossi, who chaired the original Central Square Committee in 1983, says that community leaders were most concerned then with crime, street people, and garbage removal. "One of the things we needed to do was coordinate city, non-profit, and commercial leaders in the area," Rossi says.

As a result of the committee's recommendation, the police added more personnel to the Central Square beat and the department started keeping better crime statistics, Rossi says. Like Woodbury, Rossi insists that "the whole thrust was not to change Central Square but to make it more appealing for those who already live there."

Rossi says that the committee proposed a cap on the number of liquor licenses and the number of fast-food operations. "If you go back five or six years, neighborhood stores went out of business and were replaced by fast food places. We want to reverse that," Rossi said.

Improving Business

One merchant not driven out of business is David Galgay, owner of Galgay the Florist, a Central Square establishment since 1919. Galgay says that subway renovations ruined business in Central Square for four years. "People avoided the square like the plague," says Galgay. "Once they clean up this area, business will improve," Galgay adds.

Henry Carter, manager of Surman's Men's Clothing Store is more skeptical. "There is always an element of the population that avoids areas in transition," says Carter who said that the renovations might not help, but that to be against the improvements was to be against progress.

Surman's did not increase its inventory for the holiday season. "We didn't have any indication that business would be stronger," says Carter, adding that he was more concerned with the strength of the overall economy than with subway renovations.

Despite some store-owner skepticism, the majority of the Cambridge City Council remains optimistic about the square's future. The council is in the final stages of rezoning part of the square to allow for MIT's University Park development, a $250 million project on the 27 acres adjacent to the square's fire station.

Plans currently call for a 400-unit housing project along with the construction of classrooms, parks, high rise offices, and a 350-room hotel, according to Walter Milne, MIT's assistant to the president. "The project is expected to provide Cambridge with $50 million in tax revenues over a ten year period," says Cambridge City Councillor William Walsh, who voted with the six-to-one majority on a preliminary rezoning proposition.

Walsh said that rezoning will enable MIT to provide more housing for the Central Square area, particularly for lower income residents who have been assigned 150 spaces in University Park. "The area has been vacant for the last 14 years and done nothing for Cambridge," says Walsh. The councillor adds that the additional automobile traffic will be handled smoothly by improved traffic arteries.

MIT's Milne says that the costs of road improvements will be split equally between the institute, the city, and the project's developers, Forest City Enterprises of Cleveland. Final approval for the rezoning is expected at tonight's city council meeting.

Not all residents of Central Square are happy with the MIT proposal. Austin Elder Jr., a 53-year resident of Cambridge says that MIT and Harvard are the problems, not the solution to improving Central Square.

It's Harvard's Fault

"Harvard and the other colleges mess up the city and don't pay any taxes. They put nothing back for the poor people. We ain't got no place to go," says Elder who also says that he blames Harvard and MIT for making rents unaffordable. Elder adds, "They buy up all the land and make money off it. Then they kick us poor out 'cause the rent's too high."

Simon Smith, immigration counselor for CHAMA, (Cambridge Haitian American Association), said that lower income Haitians will suffer as a result of the increasing land values and rental rates in the square. "When you have new businesses, displacement of the poor results. There are plenty of examples, Roxbury and the South End, to prove it," saysid Smith who adds that he is skeptical of MIT's plan to provide low-income housing.

Smith says that too much money has been spent on subway renovation. "They built a beautiful train station while people are living on the streets and they could care less," says Smith.

Despite opposition from those who fear the negative impact of urban improvement, the revitalization of Central Square, like that of Harvard and Kendall Squares, proceeds on schedule.

As city leaders work to attract upscale business to the commercial district by improving the Central Square landscape, they face the dilemmas that have plagued other revitalization projects in the past--rising rents and dislocation of lower and moderate income residents. In the meantime, with the Salvation Army Thrift Store and posh boutiques existing side by side, contrasts remain.