Harvard Donates To Agassiz

Harvard has deposited $250,000 into a newly-created neighborhood fund that will go toward community programs in the Agassiz area of Cambridge, local residents announced at a sparsely-attended meeting last night.

The University’s deposit into the Cambridge Charitable Fund is the first of several benefits agreed upon in the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU), which the University and residents adopted after lengthy negotiation in December 2003.

“I suppose this is representative of a continuing relationship between the Agassiz neighborhood and Harvard that seems to be bearing some fruit,” said William Bloomstein, a representative from the Agassiz Committee on the Impacts of Development (ACID), the group of residents that negotiated the agreement.

Under the agreement, Harvard will carry out 1.6 million square feet of construction over the next 25 years in the North Yard-—currently home to the Law School, the Divinity School, and the science departments of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences—in exchange for providing “community benefits.”

In addition to continuing its contributions to the Charitable Fund, Harvard has agreed to begin a partnership with the Cambridge Public Schools to enhance the science curriculum, and committed itself to mitigating the traffic and noise concerns associated with construction.

The money in the fund will be distributed in the neighborhood for “youth, culture, and recreation,” but no definite plans have been determined yet. Representatives from the Agassiz Neighborhood Council say they intend to solicit ideas from the community.

In February, Harvard got the go-ahead from the city’s Planning Board to begin construction on the Northwest Science Building, one of three science buildings scheduled for development in the next few years.

Of the current deposit, $50,000 will go solely towards the planting and upkeep of new trees in Agassiz. Many residents said they suspect the University ignores trees in their development plans. Residents said last night that Cambridge has a fund devoted to planting and watering trees, and a law that prevents streets from being planned with only one tree.

Bloomstein said Harvard intends to begin construction by June on two raised intersections designed to slow traffic around the Baldwin School in Agassiz.

“It can’t be set in stone, of course, but it looks very solid,” Bloomstein said.

But despite these successes, some anticipated continuing difficulties with the University.

They hope to convince Harvard to enhance Oxford Street by planting trees, noting that the agreement included this specification.

“That’s where we can work Harvard,” Bloomstein said. “That’s where I think we should work Harvard hard. It’s in writing and there’s no place to hide.”

—Staff writer Natalie I. Sherman can be reached at nsherman@fas.harvard.edu.