Student Joins Square Redesign Committee

In a move unprecedented in recent memory, Cambridge has named a Harvard undergraduate to sit on an official city advisory committee.

Rohit Chopra ’04 was appointed earlier this month to serve on the city committee charged with studying ways to improve the appearance and layout of Harvard Square. The committee will issue recommendations to the Cambridge city manager in 2004.

Chopra, an Undergraduate Council executive who has worked extensively on issues of pedestrian safety in the Square, is the only student on the committee, which is composed of representatives from the city, Square businesses, residential neighborhoods and the University.

Harvard Square was last renovated in the early 1980s when the Red Line—which used to end in Harvard Square—was extended to Alewife.

Since then, many of the sidewalks and streets have fallen into disrepair, according to Katherine F. Watkins, director of Cambridge’s Community Development Department.

The December 2000 death of Shira Palmer-Sherman ’02 while crossing Eliot St. accelerated the need to review the landscape of the Square, Watkins said.

While pedestrian safety will be one of the main focuses of the report, it will also tackle landscaping and the “broader look” of the Square, said Susan M. Glazer, the deputy director of the Cambridge Community Development Department.

The Harvard Square Business Association issued a report in 1998, entitled “Polishing the Trophy” that studied the sidewalks and the lighting in Harvard Square.

Glazer said the committee will consider the recommendations in that report, which mainly focus on cosmetic changes to the Square, while also addressing wider safety issues.

Committee members say they can’t predict what changes will be made to the square. Glazer said, however, that she cannot rule out the possibility that the committee will recommend far-reaching changes, such as shifting traffic flow.

“It’s a pretty open process right now,” Glazer said.

For now, the committee is in the process of hiring a consultant to augment the committee’s work.

The committee’s first meeting is scheduled for the beginning of March, Glazer said.

The Student

The University’s Senior Director of Community Relations, Mary H. Power, forwarded Chopra’s name to the Cambridge Community Development Department.

Chopra, a long-time leader in the Undergraduate Council, sees his selection to the committee as a natural fit, since he plans on a career in urban planning.

“I hope that my voice will be able to help the city plan how to make the area more friendly to students, especially in getting back home at night,” Chopra said.

Watkins said the city officials who launched the committee wanted a student to serve because students constitute one of the main users of the Square. She said, however, that it is rare for the city to invite a college student to join a committee.

This committee is not his first involvement with the city and the Square. Chopra led a movement in the Undergraduate Council last year after Palmer-Sherman’s death to place more traffic signs in the Square and, as chair of the Undergraduate Council’s Student Affairs Committee, has had numerous interactions with University and city officials.

As representative to the committee, Chopra says he hopes to address the poor sidewalks around Adams House, which he said prevents rollerblading, and the lack of a crosswalk on Mt. Auburn St. between Lowell House and Claverly Hall.

—Staff writer William M. Rasmussen can be reached at wrasmuss@fas.harvard.edu