City Council Looks to Change Future Operations of Harvard Square Kiosk

The Cambridge City Council is reconsidering the future operation of the Harvard Square Kiosk, asking City Manager Yi-An Huang ’05 to explore other stewardship models as councilors have voiced disappointment with the city’s current contractor.

The Kiosk was first reopened last May, and has been jointly operated by the city’s Office for Tourism and CultureHouse, a Somerville-based nonprofit that repurposes underused spaces. CultureHouse regularly organizes programming at the Kiosk, including arts and crafts workshops, live musical performances, and comedy shows. The Office of Tourism primarily provides information to visitors.

The Council first called into question the operation of the kiosk in April, arguing that CultureHouse’s programming has not engaged residents or been reflective of Cambridge. They again discussed an order that would direct Huang to explore other operators on Tuesday.

The kiosk has been a fixture of Harvard Square for nearly a century — first built in 1928 as an entrance to the Harvard Square T Station. And the kiosk served as a newsstand for Out of Town news from 1984 to 2019, but remained vacant during the Covid-19 pandemic.

The policy order calls for restoring the historic Out of Town News neon sign and reinstating the name “Out of Town News Kiosk” to preserve the landmark’s history while maintaining its role as an active public gathering space. Since CultureHouse and the Office of Tourism reopened the kiosk, it has been renamed the KiOSK.

The Council did not take a vote on the order, as Councilor Jivan G. Sobrinho-Wheeler exercised his charter right — punting the order to a future meeting. He said that several aspects of the policy order needed clarification, and wanted more time to discuss the order than Tuesday’s meeting allowed.

Many of the residents who spoke at the Tuesday meeting opposed the order, urging the Council to acknowledge CultureHouse’s responsiveness to feedback, adaptability, and effective use of limited resources. Several residents also argued that the Council should consider ongoing construction to the plaza behind the kiosk when evaluating its performance.

Councilor E. Denise Simmons said that, while the history of the kiosk is important to acknowledge, its performance since reopening has not reached the city’s expectations.

“Not to put any shade on CultureHouse, it’s just it’s not doing what we normally do, what we’ve seen happen,” Simmons said.

The pit, which sits on the backside of the kiosk, has been fenced off for construction since July 2022, and construction began last March. The redeveloped area was originally planned to open by summer 2026, but the city’s Department of Public Works website now says construction is expected to be completed by this fall.

Councilor Marc C. McGovern, however, emphasized that the concern is not about CultureHouse’s management – rather, whether its programming is appropriate for the Kiosk’s location at all.

“It really needs to be something that is incredibly vibrant and attracts people,” McGovern said. “So this order is to make sure that that incredibly important central space in Harvard Square is used in a way that more of what it was back in the day, when it was the Out of Town news, as a place that you know you could find hundreds of people at a time.”

Councilor Patricia M. “Patty” Nolan ’80 similarly said that, though the order wasn’t a jab at CultureHouse as an organization, its programming is “the wrong model for what’s going there now.”

“It’s not working. So I really hope that we can bring something that is much more vibrant and extends into the city,” Nolan said.

If the order passes, Huang would have to return to the Council within 60 days with a report of the performance of the current operating model, available contractual options, and logistics for a proposed long-term stewardship structure.

—Staff writer Maya Fu can be reached at [email protected].