Try a Little Tenderness

As if placing cages over the grates near Holyoke Center to keep away the shivering homeless wasn't enough.

Although we agree that the Shops may not be the best investment to put in the middle of Harvard Square, we sympathize with the vendors and lament that HPRE has once again placed the value of money over the importance of human beings' livelihoods and Harvard's relations with the community.

The idea of filling the alleyway with University-owned shops and services could turn out to be a good one. But we wish the University had decided to do this three years ago, before it leased the shops to unsuspecting vendors out of a greedy profit motive unrelated to students.

Some storekeepers, such as Renato D. Reis, who owns the men's accessory shop Renato's, will suffer greatly because of the University's decision. He said he invested $60,000 in his 180-square-foot store and had to undergo six months of interviews to obtain that space.

He has been there fewer than three years; according to conventional business wisdom, it takes five years for a small business to establish itself and make regular profits. Harvard is not giving Reis and the other vendors a chance.

Harvard should have treated its vendors, at least one of whom is a College graduate, better. It should have given them more notice or allowed the shopkeepers to try for another few years. In this decision, it is establishing itself once again as a monolithic Cambridge entity that cares more about the bottom line than the people in its community.