Speaking for myself alone, I have nearly always supported putting high-rise student housing as near to the University as possible. There was one occasion when I didn't, while on the Council, and I'm sorry now. I strongly supported University View while on the Council and I strongly supported Mazza as President of NCPCA.
High-rises give students choices they don't have now, and high-rises also increase the competition with other landlords -- just by being there they lower what landlords of single-family dwellings can charge for rent. Being against them on principle is obviously anti-student. The Diamondback once unfairly labelled me as "anti-student" when I was on the Council, but let's assume the worst -- that you, the reader, and I are both in fact anti-student. Opposition to high rises is a preposterous way of being anti-student. If we are going to be anti-students, let's be logical about it.
Putting high-rise student housing next to campus has the following advantages:
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1. It takes cars off Route 1. It is no accident that the worst jams occur when students are going to and leaving classes. The proof of the importance of the student traffic is how much easier it is to get around town in the summer.
2. It is disagreeable but necessary to point out that undergraduates as a group are often noisy and sometimes drunk. I say this as the father of a recent Terp who was neither. High-rises give potentially unruly undergrads an alternative to living next door to you or me.
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3. High-rises have full-time paid managers who monitor tenant behavior, as opposed to absentee landlords who don't. This is importantly related to point #2. Nearly all the City's noise complaints are generated by absentee owners' rentals.
4. High-rises create a concentrated market for retail, which nearly everybody wants in downtown CP. If you want a more diverse set of businesses, you will need a more concentrated group of customers.
5. Because high-rises reduce the amount that single-family-unit landlords can charge less for rent, "investors" bid less on homes in residential neighborhoods. They are more often outbid by homebuyers, and this helps to preserve the share of homeowners in the neighborhoods.
Summary: If you are pro-student, you favor high-rises near campus. If you are rationally anti-student, you favor high-rises near campus. If you're an "investor," of course, you don't want the competition, and you don't mind what that means for the neighborhoods. The remaining position is to be against everything, and still expect the City's problems to get better. Dream on.
