Battle over Case Estates? That's rich.
So what do you get when you pit the wealthiest town in the Commonwealth against the richest university in the country? A bunch of ticked-off suburbanites, that's what.
The citizens of Weston (median family income = $181,000) have known for a while that Harvard was planning to sell the 62-acre Case Estates, which gained considerable fame during the 20th century as a farming and horticultural school for boys. Marian Roby Case donated the property to the university's Arnold Arboretum in 1944. Ms. Case's will stated that the Estates "shall be used for the general purposes of the Arnold Arboretum. It is, however, my earnest hope that the estate may be maintained."
Well, not by Harvard. Arboretum director Robert Cook says "we do not have a need for the physical land. We believe it can better support our mission as an endowment. We've been focusing our attention on the collections here on Boston." Harvard's real estate arm says it has a $22.5 million bid from a developer, which they are allowing the town to match. This week Weston will vote whether to buy the property with a bond issue.
Emotions are a bit raw out in Volvoland, with many Westonites feeling betrayed by the World's Greatest University. Certainly Harvard had no obligation to hang on to the property; Case's will was far from ironclad. But faced with Harvard's threat of selling the land off as 30 McMansion plots -- did someone mention that $29 billion endowment? -- local citizens may have to dig into Poppy's trust fund to preserve the Estates as open space. The town selectmen estimate that the average annual tax increase for Westonites to buy the property could range from $57 to $214, depending whether the town itself sells off development plots or not.
"How ironic that after paying no taxes for 60-plus years, the Arboretum has now put us in a position where we must raise taxes to buy and bring the property back to a decent state," resident Nina Danforth wrote in a letter to the Weston Town Crier. She quoted a former Case Estates staff member as saying that "Miss Case would surely be rolling in her grave."
"I don't think there's any controversy about this," Cook told me. As my father used to chide me, maybe he should read the papers. "There is some sentiment in the town that Harvard should have brought the price down a little bit rather than having us match the price they got from a developer," says Brian Donahue , a professor of environmental history at Brandeis.
Bill Brady is chairing a private fund-raising effort that he hopes, in combination with Community Preservation Act money and with the proposed bond issue, will preserve the entire Estates as open space. "Because their asking price is $2 million over the appraised value of the property," he says, "it puts more pressure on the private fund - raising to save the land." Harvard real estate boss Jim Gray says the university has an obligation to get the best price to fund "the academic and stewardship mission of the Arboretum. These proceeds are not getting buried in a huge endowment."
So guess who's back in court again? This time LIG is suing another company called LIG, Life Is Gay, which has been selling gay-oriented caps and T-shirts out of their New Jersey headquarters. The Life is Goodies may have a case. To my eyes, the Life Is Gay accoutrements replicate the oval design and distinctive typeface of the Back Bay entrepreneurs.
LIG COO -- that stands for Chief Operating Optimist -- Roy Heffernan explains that his company isn't anti-gay, they're just anti-getting ripped off. "We have no problem with what they stand for," he says. "But they've used some of our graphics and the exact same font." LIGay founder Bettina Kretz didn't return my call.
Alex Beam is a Globe columnist. His e-dress is beam@globe.com 
