Column by Austin Hill

Lexington’s Student Housing Task Force is ruffling a few feathers on campus by proposing a new campus living plan that would limit the number of students under one roof. Students have been raising their voice in outrage, as they formed lines to billow into the courthouse earlier this week to protest the plan.

What the “big, bad government,” is telling you is that you can’t live five deep in a two bedroom house, sleeping on pizza boxes, to save $50 per month on rent. They are doing you a favor. No successful human being lives that way. The college experience is to educate you and prepare you for the real world. Living in a cracker box of a house with six other people is not OK, even for $300 a month plus utilities.

Whether or not the current living conditions are right should not be taken to students but to slum lords and the college real estate pimps.  Third district representative Diane Lawless, who also joined the Task Force in January when she took office, recognizes that and plans to do so. When asked what the objective is in the housing issue, Lawless replied, “We don’t want a two bedroom house turned into a de facto apartment building anymore.”

My wonder was if the Task Force has already begun to crack down on this problem, and Lawless wasted no time in showing their assertiveness. “There have been numerous permits on Elizabeth Street issued for additions, and I am trying to obtain a temporary moratorium to halt the building until we figure out what to do.”

I have lived in one of these buildings myself, and the conditions were bad. These landlords gut a two or three bedroom house and replace it with miniature jail cells and slap a “discounted” price tag on it to attract young college newbies that have to save money.  It may not be a way people should live but it was made that way for students like you and was marketed as acceptable to live in such poor conditions, because after all it’s cheap and that’s all that matters, right?

The landlords are to blame for the rooms, but student behavior is up to the individual. I understand why the powers that be want to break up the current state of college living. It is uninhabitable for upstart families and anyone wanting to live downtown and have a career, or lead a life on the outskirts of the city without having to deal with student parties and mayhem. The areas off Nicholasville Road and Euclid Avenue that students have overtaken are a dump, and students feel that because they attend classes, that these neighborhoods should be theirs to treat as they see fit.

I realize it is an unpopular notion to believe that school is not just about getting trashed, and “having a good time,” but there is more to it. If you disagree, then you should stop lying to yourself. There is nothing cool about hanging a plastic beer sign across your porch that you stole from the campus bar the night before.  Beer bottle collections of your nightly escapades are not admirable. They don’t prove anything about your tolerance except for the ability to acquire garbage.

They are saying this in so many words while trying to protect the personal interest of property; property they benefit from having in habitable condition for everyone, not just students. Local government does recognize students and their needs as Lawless repeated several times: “The students are a very important part of the community, and I want to be their voice.”

Along Columbia Avenue, several times I have seen a burning couch on game day after a big victory. Who does that? What does that symbolize? It says, “Hey, Mr. Government, please form a committee to tell me I can’t live next door to another student because I can’t handle my liquor!” It gives the impression that the area is inhabited by a bunch of rioting prisoners, rather than adults who are responsible enough to form rebellious marches downtown to go tell the council person their two cents as taxpayers, unleashing their rebellious spirits as grown ups.

The point of the committee is to try and preserve our neighborhoods from destruction and poor carpentry skills by landlords with greedy intentions. This is a committee that supports the historic districts. The same districts that supported that beloved block that people still whine about losing to commercial development in a business plan that produced a plot of grass instead of a high-rise hotel. They are not picking on anyone because they are young. They are just trying to clean up the community and preserve what we have while making it a better environment for everyone.

Again, I think it is out of place to tell anyone where he or she can’t lay his or her head at night, but if the problem is detrimental to the whole, then so be it. That’s what students need to see — the punishment fits the crime. It would have never reached someone’s attention had it not been made a problem.  The easy solution is adults should stop putting such a childish spotlight on themselves, get serious about their education and start growing up.

Please contact Diane Lawless at [email protected] or at 859-258-3222 with any concerns or  questions regarding this matter.