E-Mail This Article to a Friend CHAINED AND BOUND Is Harvard Square dying? BY DEIRDRE FULTON

Call it gentrification, mall-ification, yuppi-fication, or bank-takeover-fication. Regardless of which term you choose, it’s clear that Harvard Square isn’t what it used to be.

Where quirky shops and the Tasty Diner once stood, banks and chain stores are taking over, foot traffic is dwindling, and the Square’s unique flavor is evaporating.

"It’s always changed," said Jeff McKenzie, executive vice-president of Carpenter and Company, a Harvard Square real-estate-management firm that’s been around through years of neighborhood evolution. "The problem is, now it’s not changing — it’s dying."

Last week, McKenzie joined about 60 local residents and business owners at a community meeting at Christ Church Cambridge. The attendees broke up into small groups to discuss what’s gone wrong in the Square, and how to fix it.

In the end, they blamed the problem on high rents. But they also devised ways to lure people back. Coffee shops should stay open later, suggested Catherine Duffy, a 26-year-old urban-planning student at the Boston Architectural Center. The area should have more entertainment venues like those overflowing in Central Square, and better incentives to entice street performers — who have declined in numbers and outlandishness, said Robin Lapidus, executive director of the Harvard Square Business Association.

Other suggestions we liked: public bathrooms, more (free) parking, a liquor store, art galleries, an Apple store (it’s a testament to Apple’s appeal that more than one group came up with this suggestion), and better marketing of what Harvard Square has to offer.

Elaine Thome, of the Cambridge Development Department, seemed a bit deflated by this last suggestion: "There was a time when you didn’t have to market Harvard Square — people just came."