Boston’s City Council has quietly endorsed a proposal, spearheaded by Councilman Michael Ross, to cap the amount of students that can rent an apartment in our city.
If passed, what has been marketed as a bill to curb “Animal House Antics” by the Boston Herald, no more than 4 students will be allowed to occupy an apartment. Naturally this has set off a firestorm through neighborhoods such as Allston/Brighton, Beacon Hill, The Fenway, & Mission Hill pitting long time resident vs. landlords who rent to students.
What has caused a lot of consternation is that this proposal now goes before Boston’s Zoning Commission. Which, if approved would usurp the rights of private property owners and place added restrictions and regulations on income properties that they depend on. This is a public taking of private property rights by way of zoning who can live and who can not live in an apartment.
Looking at this objectively I am trying to find the “why” as to what may have caused this latest round of Government vs. Property Owners battle. It seems to me that Councilman Ross’ issue is noise complaints. Scott Van Hooris, of the Herald, mention on more than one occasion that the families in these neighborhoods want the noise levels produced by students to be curbed. Can we really believe that only students make noise?
Councilman Ross has received a few complaints from a very small yet vocal group of people that vote. This is the only reason why he is bringing this issue to the forefront. Councilman Ross also knows that it is very easy to blame students for all matters as it is an easy win because they don’t vote in the districts that he represents. However, is this knee jerk solution going to solve anything?
As a Real Estate Agent who got his start in this city as a rental agent I can confidently say I have seen 100’s of apartments in all neighborhoods. I have seen apartments that students, young professionals, professionals as well as families live in. Let me tell you something folks, students are getting a bum wrap! There are plenty of apartments that I have walked through that are ill kept by all of the above. And Parties? Let me tell you another thing, in talking with hundreds of landlords on the phone, ( this is what I do all day – talk to landlords) I have determined through my non-scientific study that: Landlords actually complain more about professionals and young professionals throwing parties than students.
So lets get back to the matter at hand, will fewer students in an apartment actually solve anything? I have had the liberty of calling over 200 landlords in the past two weeks, and nearly all of them said, “There will be more parties and noise if you give less students more room in the same apartment”. There will be more noise because you created a party room that used to be a bedroom. Another landlord put it best, by saying, “if we put only 4 students in a 5 bedroom (what the %^$#) do you think is going to happen to that 5th bedroom?” He went further on to say, “their going to build a bar in whatever room becomes vacant.”
This makes perfect sense to me. Even to this day, at a party, people usually gravitate to an empty room or a room with the most space rather than a crowed living room. I think we can all agree to that. So in essences what Con. Ross is trying to prevent is actually going to come back and hurt him politically.
Here’s a better solution if the real issue is noise complaints supposedly caused by students.
I would suggest increasing the fine for noise violations. Maybe we should just double the fines? Right now if the police come to your house for a noise complaint it will result in a $500 fine and an arrest. How many students or professionals for that matter will throw a party if the fine is $1000? I know I sure wouldn’t and I believe most of Boston would never throw a party if they knew that type of fine could be levied against them. So aren’t we going about this in the wrong manner? Lets just increase fines and there will be no parties ever because only the rich will be able to afford the fine. I certainly know I was poor in college – a $1000 would send me home packing.
One more thing that I have noticed about college students today that has dramatically change since I was in school is that they actually speak far less than we did 5 years ago. When I walk into an apartment and I am showing the property all I ever hear is students typing away with their head phones on. They prefer email, texting, instant messaging, chatting in online forums and social networks. To be quit honest this new socially wired student has become completely introverted and less social. What I see are students far less willing to throw parties at their house when they can throw one on facebook, my space, & second life. I think we are building a world of kids that will be socially stunted and never be able to communicate.
I would like to point out that students are not a protected class under state or federal laws and although they are vital to the economy of this city they are often the brunt of a couple of politicians pushing their own agenda. We should start embracing America’s future rather than targeting them for easy political gain. We should not make Boston such a difficult place for our best and brightest. If we continue to make them feel unwelcome here they will leave to other states. Where will that leave our city? There have been numerous articles written lately that say we are losing college graduates from our state in unprecedented record numbers. By passing this ordinance, which clearly attacks students, I think we are setting ourselves up, long term, to make intelligent people not want to live here. Do we want to loose our next Bill Gates, Marc Zuckerburg, or Shawn Fanning Do we want to loose that? Shouldn’t we be embracing our young bright minds that helped build our great city?
Filed under: Boston Real Estate Blogging | 1 Comment »
