Harvard Square

Despite 14 street lamps on seven green posts standing like ushers at a party and another eight on two black posts, each about 10 meters tall, in the middle, Harvard Square, which is, in fact, shaped like a triangle, did not appear a bright, warm spot on Sunday, November 5, 2000. At a close look, only nine out of the 22 lamps did their job: shining. Nearby a red digital timer showed 17:10 but it was already dark and cold as the rain kept falling down.

Under a roof of a four-story building flanked by the world famous Harvard University Co-op book store, now run by Barnes and Noble, and Fleet bank, a 62-year-old woman was standing beside her fully-loaded pushcart, drinking a cup of hot coffee and eating a bar of chocolate with her trembling hands. “My name’s Nelly Newton,” said the woman who tried several times but failed to recall her husband’s last name. “What’s Joe’s last name?” she asked herself.

Born in Massachusetts (but she didn’t want to mention a specific place) in 1938, Newton said, “A lot of times I sleep here.” Not too cold? “Sometimes it is,” she said, “But I have pretty good provisions.”

About her pushcart covered by a white and red checkered cloth, Newton, who was about 157 cm tall and wore a red coat, a brownish scarf, and brown shoes, said, “I have things to clean with, things to wear, and things that I take, either, you know, soda to drink or coffee. And I take medicine, too.”

At Harvard Square, Newton at times sang for an hour or two for donated coins and dollars, though she said she wasn’t a professional. “I just do it to make my ways sometimes.” She sang anything her father taught her, she said. “He had a book. He played the piano and he sang, too.”

Newton expected nothing from people watching her performance but if they gave her a donation she was happy, she said. “But sometimes I try to do something for the community, like singing at the square.”

Commenting on what she performed, Newton said she didn’t enjoy herself very much and wanted to do other things. Singing wasn’t too bad, but she was an amateur. What were the other things she would like to do? “Oh, I don’t know … I like to do more quiet things, such as, sleep and rest,” said Newton.

As the rain kept falling down, Newton sat on the floor under the roof and waited to perform. Her lips moved up and down as she hummed to herself, as if she were a faith-healer reciting magic words. Right behind her were two pairs of blue and green glass doors, and above the doors read a warning: No Trespassing. Private Property, which Newton ignored. It was the only place facing Harvard Square that had a roomy space under a roof.

“I can’t read,” said Billy Ecarlo, 56, of Cambridge, who would repeat ‘Spare change, please’ right at the entrance of Fleet Bank. “I can only write my name and that’s okay for me.” Ecarlo proved it by writing down his full name in capital letters on a piece of white paper. To fight against the cold weather, Ecarlo wore a dark blue coat which his eldest sister, Mary Ecarlo, gave him. “I only finished the kindergarten … St. Peter’s at Cambridge,” Ecarlo said.

Ecarlo said he had no regular job, “I can’t handle heavy manual work because my back hurts. I’ve been hit by cars three times, and they broke my back.” He said he asked for money to buy food and drinks.

Sometimes people would tease or mug him, Ecarlo said. “When I bought a candy at Nini’s Corner the other day, the clerk there shouted at him ‘Hey Stupid, wanna buy what?” He said other people at the store heard that and he responded, “Hey man, listen! I’m not as stupid as you think.” He paid for the candy and headed for the door, Ecarlo said.

Meeting different people was the reason for Christopher Louis, 22, of Roxbury fan, Ma, for frequenting Harvard Square by himself. “I have no friend who likes coming here with me, so here I’m all alone. I like meeting foreign people though we seldom talk to one another,” Louis said. “It’s not easy to start a conversation. But I know they’re foreigners from their faces, and sometimes from their hair.” He said he liked street singers performing at the square. Since that day there was no show due to the rain, he spent about 15 minutes for his visit. “It’s pretty cold,” Louis said “and I feel like smoking a cigar.” Holding a folded one-dollar bill, Louis braved the rain to get himself a 75-cent cigar at Nini’s Corner, headed for the subway under the square, and disappeared.

After awhile, a middle-aged man in a blue jacket was staggering. He smelled of alcohol; his left brown trouser was completely wet. While making various hand movements and mumbling under the building roof and in the rain, the man drew no attention from passers-by as if they smelled, saw or heard nothing. To and fro he kept staggering as others’ business ran on.

In a red pullover, a man, also a middle-aged, examined the two black iron rubbish bins in front of the Fleet bank and of the Harvard Co-Op book store. In his pushcart he had already about 20 empty plastic bottles and cans. Finding nothing he wanted, the man approached the crossing in front of the store, looked up at the light, waited for it to turn red, and then pushed his cart across to continue his search in other rubbish bins around the square.

Harvard Square is situated between John F. Kennedy street and Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, Ma. It is more like a triangle measuring about 450 meters square; at the tip stands Omphalos 1985, a sculpture by Dimitri Hadzl. There are 10 black rubbish cans made of iron. To cater phone services, the square provides nine coin booths forming a line along Mass. Avenue. Close to the phones, four trees still breathe silently though none of them has a single leaf.

In the square, three different structures stand out. Near the sculpture is a reading-material kiosk, called Harvard Square, facing west. To the left of the kiosk a glass structure faces west has a sign: Harvard. To Buses and Subway. In front of this sub-station is an elevator facility in a round structure.

An open space right behind the station plays a double function: a stage for street performers and a get-together spot for young people. In wet weather like on Sunday, November 5, the space went solitary; it invited no singer or gatherer.

Despite the cold and dark situation on that Sunday, Harvard Square normally attracts visitors. On the back side of a postcard photographed by Robert Tobin, the note says, “Students from all over the world meet in Historic Harvard Square (the nation’s oldest) buildings and gate are located on this square as is the site of the ‘The Washington Elm’ where George Washington took command of the Continental Army in 1775.”

According to the Cambridge Police Department Crime (CPD) Report for the second quarter (January 1 – June 30, 2000), Harvard Square area is bordered by Waterhouse Street, Garden Street, Mason Street, Ash Street, the Charles River, Flagg Street, Putnam Avenue, and Massachusetts Avenue. And its major areas of business include, among others, establishments and business offices on Massachusetts Avenue between 1050 and 1540, the numerous restaurants, shops, offices on Holyoke, Dunster, and Winthrop Streets, as well as, the Charles Square and University Place complexes.

How safe is Harvard Square? The Crime Analysis Division of the CPD reported that “during the first two quarters commercial robberies involved note-passers at local banks in February. One of the suspects was subsequently arrested by the FBI’s Bank Robbery Task Force and was linked to several similar crimes in the Greater Boston area.

The Crime Analysis Division also said, “Commercial burglary is recording dramatic decreases in Harvard Square. With only four burglaries reported over the first six months of the year, this year’s sixty-nine percent decline piggybacks 1999’s twenty-two percent drop.”

Among the six crime categories (larceny from building, larceny from person, commercial burglary, commercial robbery, shoplifting, and fraud/flim flam/counterfeiting), larceny from person still topped the Crime Analysis list, with 52 cases reported. The police reported, “Despite the fact that larceny from the person declined thirteen percent, the professional pickpocket remains a concern with over 100 incidents annually.”

In the rain and cold, the police kept watching. On that Sunday one of them in a raincoat stood in front of Nini’s Corner opposite the square. When approached and asked if he saw something eye-catching, the officer replied, “Nothing.”

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BB

(Note: Harvard Square is in Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA.)

The end