Mark Rowley in Imprint

Thoughtful and well-written

article by Mark Rowley

from Imprint

(UW campus paper).

ReSHAPEing Waterloo

By now, many of you will have heard about the student group ReSHAPE — Redefining Student Housing Attitudes and Perceptions Everywhere.

Their goal is noble — to get people within the broader Waterloo community to reconceive student residences as something other than “ghettoes” to be avoided or a problem to be fixed.

This question is, to a certain degree, political — the rhetoric of local leaders has a huge effect on these perceptions. However, as I hate politics, I'd like to present an alternative.

Maybe it isn't the perceptions of residents that need to change first; perhaps the university needs to reconsider its approach to student housing before any inroads can be made.
Why should students be forced to choose between homogenous, carefully controlled environments on campus, and absentee landlords and unfriendly neighbours off campus?
Perhaps student residences need to be recast as something more. Perhaps the university should recognize that the number of students is not going to decline anytime soon, nor are housing prices in the city. Perhaps they should recognize that keeping students and residents apart will not dissolve tensions, but rather reinforce the idea of “two solitudes.”
Perhaps they should be thinking of new, innovative living spaces that are more integrated into communities.
What is needed is not necessarily a student residence, but a community residence. The demand for social housing in Waterloo is proven, but very few areas are willing to see it built in their backyards. Students, however, may feel differently. Couldn't our school involve planning, social work, and environment students in the creation of a new kind of living space which incorporates housing, public space, and small businesses?
One needn't look far to find a model for this sort of development. In Europe, university campuses have been dealing with space constraints for centuries.
Their solution is to build their residences away from their main faculty buildings, connecting them with dedicated, efficient public transit, and relying on local businesses to provide some of their services.
In Waterloo, we could take this one step further and create housing developments that incorporate space not only for students, but also for recent graduates, new Canadians, and the working poor.
This would provide a critical mass of people needed for effective delivery of mass transit and social services (such as English classes, provision of computers, and internet access).
It would also aid in the sustainable development of small businesses (such as pubs, cafés, school supply stores, etc.) and public spaces (reading rooms, study areas, and desk-shares).
The possibility of this kind of development is not in question; look at any major European city and you will see an agglomeration of these “hubs.” It is desirable not in question either. By mixing people of different socioeconomic backgrounds, and giving them a sense of common identity, strong, sustainable communities can be developed.
The idea that it would be profitable is not doubtful either. One need only plant the seeds of this development and allow other developers to get in on the game.
Buying up land around these sites would be a very shrewd investment, as these new community and cultural hubs would become sought-after places to live. Placing some of the burden of student services on outside companies would drive down prices (as firms compete) and absolve the university of some of its present costs.
These businesses would not just have access to students, as they presently do on campus, but a whole range of people living in the communities. So long as the school commits to keeping rent low, the problem of gentrification displacing residents need not enter into the picture.
The ultimate problem is that the university is applying old models to new problems. The suburban sprawl that has characterized Waterloo's development is beginning to show its weaknesses, but our leaders are reacting by trying to apply the same old models of building more residences and getting bogged down with higher support costs.
These developments isolate students from their communities and build walls between community members.
Perhaps the school's finances are not in the best shape presently, but times of economic uncertainty are often the ones in which it is most expedient to act. What is certain is that UW's present course is unsustainable, and that something needs to happen quickly.
A new kind of residence would provide a window of opportunity for Waterloo to separate itself again from the herd of other institutions, and perhaps provide a model for other communities looking to reshape themselves.