Goodbye, Harvard Square Culture

With the recent onslaught of winter weather, the Square has once more regained its New England character. But one thing is noticeably absent this January: No longer do scantily clad mannequins mock us from the windows of Pacific Sunwear.

Instead, since Nov. 20, the same location at the intersection of JFK Street and Mass. Ave. has featured an Alpha-Omega, a convenient three-story jewelry superstore, perfect for buying princess-cut diamonds in custom-designed settings. What more could the undergraduate community ask for?

Few students lamented the passing of Pacific Sunwear—this most certainly is not the Pacific Coast, and time for sunwear is short. But Alpha-Omega is hardly an improvement. Recent graduates of the College can remember a time when the Square had more student appeal, a time when the space opposite Out of Town News was dedicated not to retail, but to hamburgers.

The Tasty, a 24-hour diner that occupied that same corner of Harvard Square for 81 years, closed its doors in 1997 because Cambridge Savings Bank, the owner of the building, chose to renovate. The Tasty never reopened. In the face of rising rental costs for the premium real estate, The Tasty submitted to chain stores like Pacific Sunwear, Abercrombie and Fitch and Finagle a Bagel.

Today, the absence of The Tasty, the diner that Matt Damon took Minnie Driver to in the movie Good Will Hunting, is still conspicuous. No 24-hour restaurant has replaced it. There is an IHOP just down Soldiers Field Road, but due to the scarcity of cars among students, few experience the joys of pancakes at 3 a.m.

The popularity of places like Tommy’s, Noch’s and Real Taco is a testament to the fact that students crave a place to congregate after parties or after a long night at Lamont. But the latest of late-night establishments closes by 2 a.m. When it was decided post-renovations that the Tasty would not return, a 1999 Crimson Staff editorial feared that only the Tasty could “satisfy those 4 a.m. hunger pangs with cooked food (unless you count microwaved burritos from Store 24).” Now, even Store 24 is gone and we are on our own if we want microwaved burritos.

Even if the situation seems less than desirable, perhaps it is inevitable. The land is owned by Cambridge Savings Bank, and economics dictates that prime real estate commands sky-high rent. Alpha-Omega representative Amit Handa listed Harvard Square as one of Boston’s top three tourist destinations, along with Quincy Market and Newbury Street. Combine that with the concentrated wealth of Cambridge, and the Harvard Square location reaches a comfortable target audience.

But Harvard Square is losing much of the character and charm that made it unique and drew people to the area in the first place. Other independent stores like Scoops and Beans, an ice cream shop that once competed with Herrell’s, and the Bow and Arrow pub, have shut down in recent years as stores like the Gap and Sprint PCS have prospered.

While it may be an idealistic view, the owners of the land in Harvard Square have a responsibility to maintaining the integrity and distinctiveness of the neighborhood. Even if they see no intrinsic value in doing so, it seems that it might be financially beneficial to sustain property values by protecting the allure of Harvard Square.

Regardless, changes in the past few years mean that Harvard Square continues to become more commercialized and less student-focused. While this may mean that Harvard’s student body is a little hungrier in the early morning hours, perhaps there is a bright side. At least the droves of Harvard students who wind up married to each other have easy access to engagement ring shopping.

—Erin M. Kane