Hey, neighbors, lay off Harvard
RE "HARVARD building project stirs fear: Arboretum neighbors dread open space loss" (City & Region, June 27): It is becoming increasingly tiresome to read of some Boston or Cambridge neighborhood up in arms against Harvard, which is pursuing its educational mission on property on which it is entitled to build. From the community rhetoric, one would think that Harvard is a strip mall developer.
Right now, a world-class modern art museum, Boston's MoMA, would be opening on a dramatic site on the Charles River, were it not for a cabal of Cantabrigians who fought Harvard to protect their miserable view of the power station and Pike-bound traffic. Harvard's collection and Renzo Piano's architecture could have revitalized the entire environment, but instead the "not in my backyard" suburban parochialism of a vociferous few sabotaged a huge public amenity.
Without Harvard, MIT, and other world-class universities, Boston would be Baltimore -- a historic but deteriorating city. Rather than being assailed at every turn, it is high time such institutions are recognized for their immeasurable contributions to the economic and cultural vitality of our city, and its urban dynamism.
JONATHAN UNGLAUB
Cambridge
The writer is associate professor of fine arts at Brandeis University. 