Affordable Housing Institute : US

What’s a family?  And who decides?

 

In that bizarre city across the river from me, I’ve tweaked the mayor for his foolish approach to taxation and applauded him for his visionary pipe dream of moving City Hall out of downtown, but he at least is not the leading force behind the latest splutteringly dumb initiative being promulgated, this time by the Boston Zoning Commission, to placate the neighbors. 

 

 

Let The Boston Globe explain it:

 

The Boston Zoning Commission set a limit of four yesterday [March 12, 2008 – Ed.] on the number of college students who can live together off campus, a far-reaching decision that could spur a citywide crackdown on crowded student housing.

 

Any students around here?

 

Some students and property owners condemned the sweeping measure, arguing that it further burdens already cash-strapped students and may force many into more expensive college dormitories.

 

Possibly it will – or possibly it’ll push them further into the suburbs, or lead to widespread non-compliance an evasion in a tacit bargain between students who want to live in close quarters, and landlords who are happy to charge them extra for the privilege.

 

But proponents – an unusual coalition of neighborhood groups, college officials, and city leaders –

 

‘Unusual coalition’ is frequently newspaper-speak for people with nothing in common except their parochial self-interest.

 

I  hate you but I need your vote

 

– said the new occupancy limit will reduce the number of rowdy late-night parties on otherwise quiet residential streets.

 

Finally the neighbors touch upon a legitimate public purpose – reducing hooliganism and its kissing cousin, rowdy boozing. 

 

Actually, this would be okay, since there’s only three of you

 

Residents from across the city told the commission that homes with large groups of students were frequently disruptive, hosting raucous parties deep into the night.

 

“We were convinced the student population gets much harder to handle when it gets larger than four people,” said commission chairman Robert Fondren. “I don’t think anyone thinks it’s malicious, but sometimes it gets out of control. It’s clearly a problem, and I think this is worth a try.”

 

You can live together …

 

… but you can’t

 

Yet there are already ordinances against disturbing the peace.  Are these ineffective?  Or is it, as I’ve previously posted, that some people see students as merely another species of ‘those people’ that ordinary decent people like us don’t want to live around?

 

Because the measure will make it harder for students to live off campus, it will slow their influx into residential neighborhoods, chiefly Mission Hill, Brighton, and the Fenway, they said.

 

Sounds like NIMBYism gone respectable.

 

Students who crowd into high-rent apartments, they contend, have driven up housing costs and displaced many working- and middle-class families.

 

Oh, says the poker pro, you’ve just cracked out of turn.  You’ve revealed what you’re really thinking.

 

“Oh, you’re a bad pony, and I don’t wanna bet on you no more.”

 

That argument makes negative sense.  If people have a certain amount of buying power, whether they consume more or less housing won’t change that; in fact, packing them in tighter is likely to mean less competition elsewhere.  More likely, packing them in will reduce their housing consumption (relative to spreading them out), again reducing pressure on the market.  In short, if you want lower rents, let the students pack in.

 

You realize, that’s more rent for me

 

“You look at these neighborhoods that were all families, and now you can count them on one hand,” said state Representative Jeffrey Sanchez, who represents Mission Hill. Students from nearby Northeastern University have “essentially eradicated the family housing” in neighborhoods near the school, he said at a morning hearing at City Hall that drew more than 150 people.

 

Here come the students, there goes the neighborhood

 

The zoning change, passed unanimously by the City Council in December and backed strongly by Mayor Thomas M. Menino –

 

Why am I not surprised that the mayor’s supporting this silliness?

 

– has broad ramifications for the estimated 13,000 college students who live off campus in Boston, for the overall rental housing market, and for relations between colleges and their neighbors.

 

Other than that, it’s totally irrelevant.

 

 

The Zoning Commission’s unanimous approval was the final step for the measure, which needs the mayor’s signature and could take effect within days, barring legal challenges.

 

Did someone say, ‘discrimination’?

 

I sure hope you folks aren’t all living together

 

Enforcement of the law would be driven by neighborhood complaints, city officials said.

 

Do you see the tacit bargain?  Landlords will be allowed to keep renting to large home groupings, provided they keep their tenants quiet. 

 

“As with other zoning violations, the Inspectional Services Department will develop an enforcement strategy to respond to any property owners reported or found to be in violation of the code,” Dorothy Joyce, the mayor’s press secretary, said in a written statement.

 

The tattletale police will be on the case.

 

Nobody likes a tattletale neighbor

 

“We will work with local colleges and universities to educate students and property owners about the new zoning. As [with] all zoning, we expect all property owners to adhere to the letter of the law.”

 

We expect you to adhere to the letter of the law

 

Officials have not determined the specifics of enforcement, including possible fines.

 

A good strategy for excommunication: first you declare it anathema, then you figure out what it is.

 

Where is that over-occupied apartment?

 

[Continued tomorrow in Part 2.]

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