The Cambridge City Council voted 8-0, with one member absent, this week to demand a fresh look at how the Harvard Square kiosk is being run, more than a year after the long-vacant Out of Town News landmark reopened with new programming. The policy order directs City Manager Yi-An Huang to report back within 60 days on the kiosk's current operating arrangement and on options for managing the site over the long term.
The vote, first reported by Cambridge Day, comes as officials and community members continue to disagree sharply about whether the roughly 500-square-foot kiosk is working as intended. CultureHouse, the Somerville-based arts organization that has run programming at the site alongside the city's Office of Tourism and Culture since it officially reopened on May 30, 2025, according to the Cambridge | Somerville Independent, has filled the space with everything from collage meetups to live music, but councillors say the results have been uneven.
Even the basic question of how many people are showing up is in dispute. Cambridge Day reports that city-commissioned data cited by the council put kiosk visitorship at more than 250,000 since the May 2025 reopening, while CultureHouse manager Cleo Brigham has put the figure at 47,500 over the same period — a gap the available reporting does not explain. Brigham told the outlet the organization's year and a half at the kiosk had produced mixed results: “There have been great successes and also times we fell short.”
A Landmark With a Complicated Past
The kiosk sits on the former longtime home of Out of Town News, a periodicals stand that served Harvard Square for decades and became one of Cambridge's best-known landmarks, according to The Boston Globe. The structure underwent a multimillion-dollar renovation before reopening after years of work, per the same report. As part of this week's order, the council also called for reinstalling the kiosk's historic neon signs, which the Globe reports are currently stored at Cambridge's Department of Public Works, and it called for a new request for proposals next summer to guide the kiosk's future use.
Assistant City Manager Melissa Peters confirmed to Cambridge Day that the city does plan to issue a new request for proposals next summer, ahead of the December 2027 expiration of CultureHouse's current contract. The council's order stops short of ousting CultureHouse before then — councillors noted the group may apply to the new proposal process alongside other applicants, per the Globe's account, and the policy order itself recognizes the cultural programming CultureHouse has brought to the site since it reopened.
Residents and Officials Split on What the Kiosk Should Be
The disagreement isn't just about numbers. Councillor Marc McGovern said CultureHouse's work is good but not the right fit for the kiosk, according to the Globe, while fellow councillor Tim Flaherty described the space as bland and said it should offer more active engagement in the heart of Harvard Square. Resident Catherine Zusy argued the current programming is inappropriate for the site and that it needs to become a more active place, the Globe reported.
Not everyone agrees the kiosk is falling short. Aaron Greiner reported that the kiosk draws ten times the visitors per square foot as the Museum of Fine Arts. CultureHouse's slate has included live performances with the Cambridge Symphony Orchestra and with local production company Hipstory, weekly Wednesday collage meetups, a partnership with the Boston Institute for Nonprofit Journalism on an exhibit about Cambridge newspapers, and the Harvard Square Gift Shop, a free gift exchange running through this month.
Business Association Withdrew Its Proposal
The Harvard Square Business Association had sought the chance to lead programming at the kiosk and spotlight local businesses. Cambridge Day reports the association withdrew its most recent application after director Denise Jillson concluded it could not comply with the city's requirement that the space be shared with the Office for Tourism.
Space constraints have also shaped what's possible at the site. Construction projects around Harvard Square have affected access and visibility. CultureHouse's contract with the city restricts noise to conversational levels while tourism staff are present. A separate Office of Tourism report cited by The Harvard Crimson found that of nearly 1.24 million people who passed through Harvard Square in November 2025, only 1,308 actually stopped at the kiosk.
Looking ahead, CultureHouse has said it was preparing to shift away from its first year's more experimental approach toward a series of three-month seasonal artist residencies, after staff said the initial lineup sometimes left visitors confused about what the kiosk was for, Cambridge Day reported. Under that model, each season would feature a single artist or collective installation for three months alongside a broader rotation of creative residents.
