It’s been more than a year since the City of San Luis Obispo passed new unruly gathering and noise ordinances aimed at reducing the number of rowdy college parties. The ordinances fine hosts of “unruly gatherings,” parties of 20 or more people, $700 for a first time offense and raised noise violation fines to $350 for the first offense.
Some Cal Poly students, like city and regional planning sophomore BJ Kavadas, said the ordinances singled them out specifically, creating a rift between permanent residents and those who live in San Luis Obispo during the school year.
“I think it definitely put a bit of a damper on students’ perspective of the city because it made us feel like we weren’t a part of San Luis (Obispo),” Kavadas said. “The unruly noise ordinance was sort of a slap in the face, like, ‘Yeah, you’re here for the next four years, and we’re not going to let you enjoy your time as much as you could.’”
This separation of locals and college students is a current issue in San Luis Obispo, and Mayor Jan Marx hopes to help remedy it by visiting Cal Poly more often.
The stereotypical party lifestyle of many colleges like Cal Poly has created friction between local residents and students, said San Luis Obispo vice mayor John Ashbaugh. Students like to enjoy freedom during their first few years out of their parents’ house.
“(Cal Poly students) work hard up there, and you party hard,” Ashbaugh said.
The division between local residents and college students becomes more prominent when young adults move into older neighborhoods. Renting out older homes to college students in the same neighborhoods as permanent residents is “a formula for conflict,” Ashbaugh said.
The San Luis Obispo City Council attempted to reduce this conflict by creating the unruly gathering and noise ordinances, and Ashbaugh said it is part of the plan to improve student and city relationships.
“We’re all working on that relationship,” Ashbaugh said, “and we have a long way to go.”
City officials and Cal Poly students also try to improve that relationship through the Student Community Liaison Committee (SCLC). The SCLC is a student-run committee attempting to lessen the conflict between long-term residents of San Luis Obispo and college students.
SCLC chair and Associated Students Inc. (ASI) President Sarah Storelli said the SCLC is ramping up efforts this year to improve neighborhood relations with a new website, as well as increased publicity for the committee.
“I feel like in SCLC this year, we’re trying to take some large strides,” Storelli said.
The committee is working on a video campaign to foster a healthy community atmosphere. The campaign is part of an effort to improve community relations on a neighbor-to-neighbor level, San Luis Obispo Marx said.
Students should be committed to meeting their neighbors and establishing a connection once they move into a new neighborhood, Marx said.
She encourages bridge-building actions like greeting neighbors on the street and carrying on conversations. She said reaching out to permanent residents will help students avoid conflicts with their neighbors later in the year.
“Everyone needs to give 51 percent for it to work,” Marx said.
She is even taking her own advice by planning “office hours” for next quarter to reach out to students.
Marx will hold the office hours on campus during UU Hour twice next quarter to answer students’ questions and get input on city government projects. The dates are still undetermined.
City officials, students and ASI agree there is no singular way to improve relations between permanent San Luis Obispo residents and college students, but Marx said improving the community relationship is going to be an ongoing effort.
“I’m committed to just continuing to work on relationships just the way you do in your daily life,” Marx said.
“Everyone needs to give 51 percent for it to work,” Marx said.
What is this political PR load of BS. I have not seen one thing in my four years here that makes me think the city has tried to reason with us.
I hope Target puts all you small business owners out of business and all the old people move to Atascadero.
Seeya
Funny how the community at large keeps up the facade of wanting to work together. As far I can tell, things are pretty cut and dried: old people don’t like us. What they don’t realize is that we ARE this town, at least as much as they are. What makes SLO what it is? I can say this much confidently:
It’s not blind old men driving up Santa Rosa, half of his car in each lane, at 30 miles an hour.
It’s not hump-backed, closed-minded, conservatives looking disapprovingly at my piercings and tattoos.
It’s not plain-clothes police searching my car on the off chance that they might snag some substances. Bullies shouldn’t be given quotas.
It’s not angry neighbors calling in noise complaints for “acoustic music and talking,” at 8:30 PM.
And t’s not the stern dude in the suit with the repent sign that thinks he owns the farmers’ market.
This is supposed to be the happiest place in the country. But most of the smiles I see in this town are on the faces of the young, the hopeful, the forward-thinking, and the accepting. We need ordinances that get those crotchety old haters walking barefoot down Hathway at 2:00 AM right along with us. Adults ought to be able to handle a beer bong every now and again, and if someone passes that grandma in her tube top and heels a joint, she better hit it and pass it on.
Jan Marx, where are the laws that protect the essential, definitive San Luis Obispo lifestyle? You seem to me to be doing your very best to kill everything that’s good and beautiful about this place. Step up your game, look around, be honest with yourself. You’re playing for the wrong team. And we students don’t even want there to be teams. We’re looking to be friendly and have a good time, it’s the rest of the community that’s turned local politics into a partisan affair.
And let’s bring back Mardi Gras and Halloween while we’re at it. Only this time, no barricades, no riot gear, and no tear gas. Or we’ll push back like we mean, because this is AT LEAST as much our town as it is yours.
The city always says they care about students, and this is shown here through Marx’s near-comical “office hours” on campus. At the same time, the city consistently passes anti-student legislation. What’s going on here?
The answer is simple – who is actually voting? College aged Americans have the lowest voter turnout, especially during non-presidential elections. Additionally, a good percent of the small number of voting students are not registered in SLO; they vote absentee in their hometown.
While the city council likes all the money students spend here, they don’t have much to lose (in terms of being reelected) by passing anti-student legislation.
Consider that in the November 2010 election a total of 15,622 votes were cast, and Marx won with only 6,775 of them. Consider that there are about 20,000 students at Cal Poly – more students than the total number of mayoral votes cast. If students would start voting en masse they might be taken more seriously.