The neighbors had put up with enough loud parties, crowded streets and trash buildup. Incessant on gaining revenge against the unknowing college students around them, community members of College Park did something they felt more effective than calling in yet another noise violation or attempting to speak with their younger neighbors. They made it the local government's problem.
Don't let the quaint historic houses and proximity to campus fool you.
The College Park subdivision, located east of Texas Avenue across from campus, has become a breeding ground for conflicts that threaten to endanger the privileges enjoyed by the largest sect of College Station citizens: the students.
It is undeniable that the community depends upon students for its very existance, but unfortunately the permanent residents seem to have forgotten this fact yet again. Their attempt to make College Station better for themselves by seeking implementation of unnessesary legislation would not only burden students financially, but fail to solve the actual problems.
This spring, the tension between permanent residents and students reached new heights when the actions of the students drove the other residents to bring their complaints before the College Station City Council, aiming to reduce the number of non-related people allowed to cohabitate in a single-family dwelling from the current limitation of four to three or two.
Besides the obvious appearance that the residents are attempting to alienate students living on limited budgets, the root of the problem is a false belief that the less students in their neighborhood, the faster problems would be solved and the better their subdivision would appear to outsiders. The solitary act of decreasing the number of students in a house, however, doesn't automatically guarentee fewer problems or smaller parties.
As a result of the complaints came the formation of a task force that spent six weeks evaluating a laundry list of concerns from permanent residents, ranging from recurring noise violations to overcrowded streets.
On May 27 the summary of the task force's recommendations was presented to the City Council, which will decide what action to take from these recommendations on June 24.
The complaining residents may claim they want a neighborhood where college students and older residents can peacefully coexist. Their actions, however, indicate otherwise. The residents formed a petition to reduce the number of non-related people in a single-family home, which only communicates hostility instead of cooperation.
This one-step solution advocated by the residents is not only financially impossible for most students, but ignores that the architecture of many multiple-bedroom houses throughout College Station were built with students in mind.
The less extreme potential legislation advocated by the task force would apply a reduced number of non-relatives for particular neighborhoods that the City Council considers "historic."
The neighborhoods that would fall under this legislation, such as the College Park subdivision and the Southside district, are no more historic than many other neighborhoods within College Station; they are just filled with neighbors who will make any student who does move in wish he hadn't.
If these problems were just about noise violations and parking problems, identical situations could be found in cities statewide. These complaints are only symptoms of the deeper problem, which is the division between permanent citizens of College Station and the students, who are treated as second-class citizens when it comes to any legislation that could favor them.
In the same breath that residents ask students to be more responsible neighbors, residents act like disciplining parents aiming to teach the students a lesson for the audacity of having four cars parked near a four-bedroom house. If this attitude of permanent residents continues, the students will only adopt a resentful and defiant attitude toward local government.
The complaining neighbors in the College Park area haven't stopped to consider that if the legislation did pass, making it unaffordable for most students, it would leave them without occupants to fill the houses.
Abandoned houses with overgrown yards are apparently better to them than an extra car parked in the street.
Granted, the permanent residents have a point: Loud parties and consistently crowded streets are not only an annoyance but reflect poorly upon the neighborhood. Unfortunately, the solutions they came up with don't solve anything but instead placed the blame on an undue recipient.
College students are the easiest scapegoat to carry the blame that really belongs to the local municipal services faulty performance and the lack of enforcement of current codes.
It comes as little surprise that this is exactly what the task force found, who in its final recommendations advised as its foremost suggestion that the city invest more into service improvement and enforcement of codes, said Phillip Shackelford, Student Senate Speaker and task force member.
In order for true community peace, the permanent residents must accept the natural tendencies and financial burdens of college students, and the students must attempt to take on the role of responsible community members. If set standards were enforced and both college students and permanent residents worked together, perhaps the community could peacefully coexist without dramatic government intervention.
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