A neighbourhood close to a university or college is often an area of conflicting views and values.
To some extent, this is understandable and natural. The young people who reside in the neighbourhood during the school year are going to feel differently about the area than the permanent residents.
The students’ prime interest is likely to be having a room where they can study in the daytime and sleep in the evening. They aren’t likely to be particularly interested in parks, schools, community groups or whether Waterloo council will raise or lower the tax rates.
Also, some students may want to live a more rambunctious and wilder life than, say, the average young family or senior citizens.
At some point, the different attitudes produce regular, serious conflicts as opposed to the occasional disruptive incident. This point appears to have been reached now in the Northdale area of Waterloo, north of Wilfrid Laurier University.
The strong feelings felt by both permanent residents and students in the Northdale area were apparent when they packed Waterloo’s council chambers on Monday. Many of the residents felt the neighbourhood had become noisy and filled with trouble. Indeed, Waterloo regional police records show that police are called to Albert Street, which is in the Northdale area, more than twice a day. In short, some permanent residents thought their neighbourhood was decaying.
Rightly, Ian Kasper, a University of Waterloo student, responded by saying, “Not all of us students are beer-swilling, street-peeing, fireworks-shooting deviants.”
There may well be truth in both perspectives: The area has more troublesome short-term residents than it once did, and many students are responsible, law-abiding residents.
Understanding this reality, however, doesn’t resolve the problem for either the permanent residents or the students.
Now, the dilemma is on Waterloo council’s agenda. The concerns expressed at the meeting certainly made an impression on the councillors. They voted 8-0 in favour of the city preparing a new land-use plan that will consider the possibility of permitting more low-rise apartment units in the area. If council does end up endorsing this concept, the theory would be that the owners of small apartments would better manage their properties than the absentee owners of houses converted into student accommodation.
Speaking about the vote, Coun. Mark Whaley said, “It endorses change. We’ll put the status quo behind us.”
He’s right. No one appears to be happy with the neighbourhood as it is.
If the area does spawn more apartment buildings, the neighbourhood might attract more nonstudent residents. Waterloo’s mushrooming high-tech industries employ a lot of workers who need accommodation.
The residents of the neighbourhood should be careful not to think that this concept will quickly solve their problems. It won’t. It would take years to change the area. Councils, however, are in the business of planning for the future, not the past.
