Cambridge mayor Kenneth E. Reeves '72 agrees that chain stores have brought more people into the Square. Although he regrets that some small businesses have been forced to close, he says the phenomenon is nothing more than part of the business cycle.

"Stores do come and go; nothing in America stays the same," Reeves says.

But the mayor says that in the future, he would prefer places like One Brattle St., which contains such large, trendy shops as Structure and Express, be anomalies.

"In the future, I don't want to see any more One Brattles...I hope the smaller size stores can continue to be a part of the mix," Reeves says.

But Kristen Sudholz, the executive director of the Harvard Square Business Association, says the mix between larger, trendier stores and smaller, more traditional shops already exists in the Square.

"The number of owner-operator stores [in Harvard Square] has actually increased since I've been here, from 165 to 240," she says.

Sudholz warns residents not to draw false conclusions about the Square based on the closing of several bookstores--including Barillari Books--in the past couple of years.

"It seems like a lot of bookstores have closed recently, but it is just because there's such a high percentage of them in the area," she says. "It's all relative."

A High-Rise Future?

Many small business owners and Cambridge politicians, however, do not share Sudholz's optimism. They believe the Square will change dramatically, for the worse, in the next 20 years.

"I am concerned that under the current zoning regulations of the Square, the Square could go high-rise, which would make it even more dense, more congested and more tourist-oriented," Duchay says. "That would be most regrettable."

Like Duchay, Marc Starr, the long-time manager of Starr Bookstore, says that high-rises in the Square will be "inevitable."

He concedes that if his store was not housed in the Harvard Lampoon building, it would face the distinct possibility of being sold to a real estate company who might shut it down.

"We are in the Lampoon building, so we know [my store] will not get torn down," Starr says. "But if we were in some private building, it would get bought and torn down."

The Costs of Development