Ivy League halts new construction

A tough financial environment for us may mean that Poe field lies fallow for lack of a new academic building, the Dinky and the Wa remain where they are, and the Psychology department stays in Green Hall.

But at Harvard, the recession means that large swaths of Boston neighborhood remain eerily deserted. Harvard purchased 350 acres of land in Allston in anticipation for building a science neighborhood and other academic buildings, but is postponing the plans as a result of the recession.

The New York Times reports that Harvard just announced that it would suspend construction on part of the expansion indefinitely: plans for a four-building science center, originally slated to open in 2011, will now be put on ice.

Alston residents are none too happy at the empty storefronts lining their streets, which Harvard owns and refuses to sell. The Boston Globe quoted Allston resident Molly Adelstein as comparing Harvard to a suitor standing up a date.

"Our relationship with Harvard is an abusive one. Harvard has shown that it can slap us around," Adelstein said.

Matters are not much better at Columbia, where a court has ordered their eminent-domain-backed takeover of buildings in upper Manhattan illegal.

Yay for being in suburbia!