By Laura Clark
lclark@kykernel.com
Students will have a chance to voice their opinion on the student housing report that will be issued to the city government Tuesday.
The UK Student Government Association is hosting a “March on City Hall†at 10:30 a.m. to protest the proposal made by the Student Housing Task Force that will prohibit college students to rent homes in specific areas near campus.
The proposal is currently undergoing evaluation. Â If the proposal passes at the Lexington-Fayette Urban County Government Council Planning Committee, it will then continue for a final vote in the City Council.
Students will leave from the Student Center patio around 11 a.m. and walk to the downtown government building, said SG President Ryan Smith. Smith said he expects around 200 people to attend to voice their opinions.
“What we’re hoping to do is just to go down there and show that students … and landlords are frustrated with this,†he said.
The neighborhoods that would be affected include residential areas around UK’s campus, such as Maxwell and Elizabeth streets.
Smith said he thinks the committee has been pushing the proposal because they were feeling pressure from those neighborhoods.  He said the proposal was not clearly thought out because it lacks a clear meaning of a “college student.â€
“There’s no definition of what a student is,†Smith said.  “Do they mean a graduate student?  Or a 50-year old student?  The whole thing is unorganized.â€
Michael Haag, a human nutrition junior, was planning to move into a house in the State or University Street area next year.  However, Haag said he’s going to the meeting because he doesn’t want to make the move farther from campus.
“Students should voice their right as a student, as a Lexington citizen,†he said.  “If we don’t take a stand for  that area, what will they take away next?â€
The Planning Committee meeting will begin at 1 p.m., but Smith said students are marching early to guarantee seats, since seating is limited.
The proposal will cause an increase in traffic congestion from a growth in commuters while rent for limited houses will rise, Smith said.
However, he said students should remain respectful when voicing their opinions.
“When we go down there, we want to have solid points and a legitimate argument, instead of yelling ‘Lexington hates students’,†Smith said. “We want to be vocal … but we want to be respectful and have facts in hand.â€
Students must have a valid driver’s license in order to sign in to the council chambers. Those participating in the march will be escorted by UK PoliceBy Laura Clark
Students will have a chance to voice their opinion on the student housing report that will be issued to the city government Tuesday.
The UK Student Government Association is hosting a “March on City Hall†at 10:30 a.m. to protest the proposal made by the Student Housing Task Force that will prohibit college students to rent homes in specific areas near campus.
The proposal is currently undergoing evaluation. Â If the proposal passes at the Lexington-Fayette Urban County Government Council Planning Committee, it will then continue for a final vote in the City Council.
Students will leave from the Student Center patio around 11 a.m. and walk to the downtown government building, said SG President Ryan Smith. Smith said he expects around 200 people to attend to voice their opinions.
“What we’re hoping to do is just to go down there and show that students … and landlords are frustrated with this,†he said.
The neighborhoods that would be affected include residential areas around UK’s campus, such as Maxwell and Elizabeth streets.
Smith said he thinks the committee has been pushing the proposal because they were feeling pressure from those neighborhoods.  He said the proposal was not clearly thought out because it lacks a clear meaning of a “college student.â€
“There’s no definition of what a student is,†Smith said.  “Do they mean a graduate student?  Or a 50-year old student?  The whole thing is unorganized.â€
Michael Haag, a human nutrition junior, was planning to move into a house in the State or University Street area next year.  However, Haag said he’s going to the meeting because he doesn’t want to make the move farther from campus.
“Students should voice their right as a student, as a Lexington citizen,†he said.  “If we don’t take a stand for  that area, what will they take away next?â€
The Planning Committee meeting will begin at 1 p.m., but Smith said students are marching early to guarantee seats, since seating is limited.
The proposal will cause an increase in traffic congestion from a growth in commuters while rent for limited houses will rise, Smith said.
However, he said students should remain respectful when voicing their opinions.
“When we go down there, we want to have solid points and a legitimate argument, instead of yelling ‘Lexington hates students’,†Smith said. “We want to be vocal … but we want to be respectful and have facts in hand.â€
Students must have a valid driver’s license in order to sign in to the council chambers. Those participating in the march will be escorted by UK Police.
This is probably the greatest article of all time.
The LFUCG has been anti-student for years. The Urban Council looks upon ‘college students’ as a ‘public nuisance’ and are ashamed of the ‘student ghetto’ . The Urban Council has chosen the ‘college students’ lifestyle and economic status for genocide through selected code enforcement. This is just another attempt by the Urban Council to rape an entire neighborhood to make way for the Urban Sprawl of the University of Kentucky. Entire neighborhoods have been condemned for the University of Kentucky, Rupp Arena, Central Baptist Hospital and various government housing projects. This is what will happen to the “student ghetto’ : (1) Someone like Dudley Webb will buy up all the houisng promising the LFUCG to improve the real estate. (2) Someone like Rosenberg will manage the properties into condemnation. (3) A parking structure will be built and everyone achieves nirvana when students are made homeless.
Why is this the greatest article of all time? Explain why please
This article doesn’t really state what the plan is going to do… “that will prohibit college students to rent homes in specific areas near campus.” …is a little misleading. Limit the number who rent homes/apartments in specific areas near campus is more correct.
http://www.lexingtonky.gov/Modules/ShowDocument.aspx?documentid=8404
^ has the actual proposal… there are many good… and many bad parts to this. Students need to be informed on whats going on.
If students want to argue their case based on being a “citizen of Lexington”, then they should plan on behaving like an “adult citizen of Lexington”. The reason the neighborhoods mentioned do not want UK/BCTC students (undergraduate, graduate, etc.) living there is because students are disrespectful and oftentimes destructive. Think about it from the viewpoint of someone who has invested in buying a home, which includes paying taxes, and then have to deal with renters who, more times than not, are loud, disorderly and disrespectful of the neighborhood they are living in. Many of the home owners have lived there for years and years. Are they really supposed to tolerate their neighborhood being disrupted and their property values decreasing? The real problem that needs to be addressed, is how the University does not provide enough housing for their students. In addition, while making campus “dry” is probably a good idea, it has created a real problem for the neighborhoods. A problem that UK ignores.
Hey Tedders,
If I bought a house in the neighborhoods mentioned I’d be pretty pissed off at my realtor who forgot to tell me that a gigantic university is situated across the street. Anyone stupid enough to ignore this when making a purchase needs some lessons in adult behavior themselves.
JC,
You obviously did not read my post closely. I specifically refer to people that have lived there for many, many years and have had to watch their neighborhood decline. And, you are right, anyone in their right mind would not buy a house in these neighborhoods at this time. Hence, my comment about declining property values.
I did read your post clearly. Obviously not everyone who disagrees with you is doing so out of ignorance.
I’m under the impression that the university is about 140 year old. The presence of a university – and its constituent students – next to these neighborhoods is hardly a new phenomenon, even for people who have lived there for many, many, many years.
A major problem with this dialogue (that has rarely included student perspectives) is that non-student residents see the neighborhood as “their neighborhood” and ALL students as perpetual outsiders. Attitudes and assumptions akin to this – like the opening line of your previous post – are antithetical to creating partnerships between student and non-student residents of Lexington.
The 27 Page Report by the SHTF is quite vague, however it is an attempt at rent control and a land grab by the ever outward expanding University of Kentucky. Why is it that Coach Cal, Coach Brooks, Mitch Barnyard and President Toad are not mending fences here???? The 27 Page SHTF Report wants to impose special codes and fines on student designated housing only. Wow profiling and discrimination. If the students and their landlords hire a lawyer and file a class action suit they can beat this UN-Constitutional BS. Professor Rick Underwood may take this up on pro bono basis. If everything else fails the students should go on strike and protest each and every day with picket lines outside of LFUCG Main Office and the UK Administration Building. IF the students have to pay for a lawyer, the UKAA (The True Cause Of All of This) can loan money to the students for their housing and legal fees.
The Article says that the march was given a police escort by the UK Police. I wonder if UK would be willing to give the students a police escort to march on the administration building and demand a wet campus? And if so why has the student done that.
The article implies that the students have been denied a voice. If fails to mention that Ryan Smith, the Student Government President is on the Task Force.
The article falsely states that students would be denied the right to live in areas near campus when in reality the task force report has several possible proposals in it, one of which proposed to limit the density of students in any one area, that’s very different.
The article fails to interview and include the other sides opinions, isn’t that sound ethical journalism? Perhaps Laura hasn’t taken that class yet, or maybe since the Kernel gets a lot of advertisement review from landlords, they had no intention of being fair in the first place?
HEY MARK: Limiting Density still denies numerous students the right to live near campus, a NAZI Imposed Rent Control. WOW the article also forgets to state the Chief of Police is on the Task Force. So What. If the LFUCG adopts the suggestions by the SHTF it will result in : increased rent for students, increased fines and taxes for landlords, increased workload for the Police and Code Enforcement, and decreased property values. Not one individual nor the Kernel has mentioned a cost benefit analysis, nor does the 27 Page Report by the SHTF. The problem of student housing around UK and Transylvania has existed since 1780. With the conception of the UKAA and successful Football and Basketball programs the situation worsened. Time for the ever expanding urban sprawl of the UK Campus to end. Build Upward UK not outward and this problem will go away.
Anyone that buys a home in downtown Lex. and doesn’t know that a university is located in their back door is….maybe a little stoned, or on a better note….dumb. C’mon JC deer in the headlight look!
While making campus “dry†is probably a good idea, it has created a problem for the neighborhoods. The real problem that needs to be addressed, is how the University does not provide enough housing for their students. A problem that UK ignores.
If students were respectful of the fact that they are living in a neighborhood with families and other “non-students”, there wouldn’t be a problem. I live in one of these neighborhoods and the house next to me is used as a party house. I have had to deal with loud talking and loud music at all hours not to mention beer cans in the yards and street and cars parked blocking my driveway. to add insult to injury, when asked to quiet down (or move their car) I have been ignored with looks of disgust or cussed at. NOBODY should have to deal this type of behavior.