Athens' innate beauty can seem surreal
Messenger - 31 May 2008
... ATHENS, OH -
What was going on? Was this a "Twilight Zone" episode? Was this whole town designed by the WPA? America wasn't supposed to look like this. People walked everywhere. Largely because of this, they were friendly. The scale was human. Even the gay pride marchers were Rockwellian. It was not hard to picture Rockwell, had he lived this long, using the Richland Avenue painting wall as a model, with young female student working on a half-finished feminist slogan while a shy and admiring male stands at a discreet distance.

Even better, there was nothing cutesey about it. The place wasn't gentrified beautiful, it actually grew up this way.

And it's still that way, despite the efforts of improvers who would like nothing more than to turn it into Upper Arlington. Thank geography. We're not on an interstate highway. Thank topography. The blight stays out on East State, where it's flat. And thank Culture. The chic think twice before trying to colonize Appalachia ...

Beautiful landscapes preserved for centuries
Herald News - 31 May 2008
... BRISTOL, RI - Bristol Ferry Landing is the oldest neighborhood in Bristol, starting as a small fort of homes on what is now the campus of Roger Williams University. There were taverns and hostels there, serving the travelers who needed to cross the mouth of Mount Hope Bay to pass from Providence to Newport ...

“This is a university town,” Chapman said. “There are thousands and thousands of people who come here because of Roger Williams University. That has certainly increased real estate values.”
Plus no one wants to leave the neighborhood ...

Home care business 'meaningful' venture for couple
Business Times - 31 May 2008
... COLUMBIA, MO - Brown said he was pleased that the Powells chose Columbia to set up shop because college towns are popular with retirees for their many amenities at reasonable prices ...

The Future of Student Housing
The City of Waterloo Develops a long-term housing plan
Imprint - 31 May 2008
...WATERLOO, ON - The City of Waterloo develops a long-term housing plan — but how will it affect UW students? And do local residents believe the plan goes far enough?

Where students should live, how those buildings should be constructed, maintained, and managed, and where the line between the community and student revelry should be drawn, are debates that have been raging since the first UW party keg was tapped decades ago.

For some, the city’s long standing plan fails to address student needs, for others it’s deemed harmful to neighbourhoods meant for families, while others argue it is neither environmentally nor community friendly enough. Despite these criticisms, City Hall remains steadfast in its commitment to current development plans.
City Hall has been working under a 25-year “nodes and corridors” development plan. The purpose of this plan is to provide student housing in the form of multi-level apartments along specific nodes and corridors of the city so that students no longer have to occupy single-family homes ...

BZA strikes down proposal for former Wendy's site
Oxford Press - 30 May 2008
... OXFORD, OH - The city's Board of Zoning Appeals unanimously denied a variance request for the 2 S. Main St. property at a May 21 meeting, arguing it failed to satisfy five of seven decision standards required to grant the variance.

"This was a blow that I did not expect," Main & High Development President Bernard Rumpke said. "These gentlemen had the opportunity to allow us to build a first-class building at the height the city desired, but they didn't see it that way." ...

[Editor's note: The partially burned and tarped former Wendy's on the main intersection of Oxford's town square has been an eysore for more than two years as the owners argue with the city over rights to add as many student apartments to a replacement structure as possible, splitting 10 residential units between the second and third floors (with a limit of four people per apartment)..

The BZA decision is partially based on keeping sight lines open to the best public experience of uptown Oxford as possible. Surely, with student apartments in the area renting for around $4k per student per semester, the Rumpkes and Rodbros (owners) could bend a bit for the long-term public good. Even with the restrictions placed on them they still will be raking in plenty of income from a replacement building.

Leaving the burnt-out shell of the former Wendy's at the site for another two years in protest is about as publicly low as you can go.]

Governor Heineman Declares State of Emergency
action3news - 30 May 2008
... KEARNEY, NE - Governor Dave Heineman has declared a state of emergency in central Nebraska after tornadoes hit Kearney and Aurora. The Buffalo County Emergency Management director tells Action 3 News that "amazingly enough" there don't appear to be any injuries or deaths. A shelter has been set up to take in people who need a place to stay, although the shelter, like much of the city, is without electricity. One person tells us downtown Kearney is "pitch black." ...

The Nebraska Emergency Management Agency tells Action 3 News there is damage to the Buffalo County Fairgrounds, to several buildings at the University of Nebraska Kearney campus, including student housing, and to numerous buildings in the city. There is a train derailment in the city, and numerous trucks off the road. Bill Crosier owns a gas station in northwest Kearney, the tornado ...

Coping with Rising Gas, Food Prices Audio
NPR Morning Edition- 29 May 2008
... CARBONDALE, IL - Many people have been watching the rise of fuel prices with dread. Now they're worrying about increasing costs of food staples, like bread, eggs and milk. People in one Illinois city are trying to adjust ...

NPR's Cheryl Corley traveled to one college town to talk to people about their coping strategies ...

Oxford edges Cambridge, says TV chef
Mews - 30 May 2008
... CANBRIDGE, UK -
TV CHEF Jamie Oliver has rated rival Oxford over his "home city" of Cambridge.

The culinary star is due to open the first of his new restaurant chain - called Jamie's Italian - in Oxford next week ...

He says he wants to focus on traditional university towns for his new chain of restaurants, offering everything from a daytime sandwich or breakfast to a full-blown "dining experience" during the evenings ...

High-rise apartments transform student housing options in downtown Madison
The emergence of high-rise apartments could decrease the overall cost of housing for student renters in Madison.
Daily Cardinal - 30 May 2008
... MADISON, WI - Each day, Carli Morgan wakes up to a sweeping view of downtown Madison from the window of her eighth-floor apartment. However, the UW-Madison sophomore’s peaceful mornings are interrupted when she walks to class past soaring cranes and jackhammers, as construction continues on a flurry of new high-rise buildings near campus.

Morgan lives at the Embassy apartments at 505 University Ave., one of almost a dozen high-rises built in the last decade as part of a city strategy to boost housing options near campus.

“Because so many students live [near campus], it’s more likely your friends will live close by. Even if it’s not in the same building, there’s at least four high-rise apartments right here,” she said.

According to University Housing, nearly 22,000 undergraduates live in off-campus housing. To address the housing demand, the Madison City Council has endorsed higher-density urban development near campus with the approval of many high-rises over the last several years ...

Fredonia holds forum for downtown district
Observer - 30 May 2008
... FREDONIA, NY - “What comes to mind when you think of Fredonia?” asked Mackay. ”Dunkirk has the waterfront, Westfield has antiques, we’re a college town but what else? We are right in the center of the fishing communities. We’re a close town that could handle a lot of tourism during its six annual festivals.”

The business leaders talked about ways to boost tourism and take advantage of all the educational travel that comes with being a college town.

Lots of ideas were thrown around such as putting artworks in empty store fronts, making a television commercial, posting signs for and maintaining a public restroom, adopting design guidelines for downtown businesses, painting parking meters and extending the maximum time you can park, landscaping options, better litter control, and compiling a walking brochure, possibly with Dunkirk ...

Town hires lawyer, preps for dorm fight
Journal - 30 May 2008
... POUGHKEEPSIE, NY - Preparing for a possible legal fight over a proposed 450-student dormitory they oppose near Dutchess Community College, Town of Poughkeepsie leaders have hired an attorney to handle any litigation that may arise ...

Town officials and others contend the project should go through the town planning board for approvals. No such review would apparently be required under the current proposal, and may be an issue for a court to decide ...

EDITORIAL: Studying Princeton's Town-Gown Equation
Packet - 29 May 2008
... PRINCETON, NJ - When we were considering the right photo to use on our front page of May 16, with the first installment of senior staff writer Lauren Otis’s series “The Town/Gown Equation,” the choice seemed obvious. It was the view through Princeton University’s famed FitzRandolph Gate, looking out onto the borough ...

From the perspective of a community newspaper determined to examine the issue in detail, the complexity argument is daunting. Few, if any, apples-to-apples comparisons are available, whether with other Ivy League colleges and their respective communities or other Princeton-area institutions. Thus our decision to give Mr. Otis, an experienced and award-winning business writer and editor, the assignment and our commitment of an unusual amount of newsprint, over three successive issues of The Packet, to the subject matter.

The resulting report has been commended by people on both sides of the FitzRandolph Gate and has heightened interest in the community’s ongoing discussion of the issue ...

Guest Opinion: Walk and bike with us
Camera - 29 May 2008
... BOULDER, CO - Boulder launched its first Bike to Work Day in 1983. Through the mid-80s, the event grew to Bike Week. Participation was around 1,100 people--an astounding number given that bikes in most places were considered toys. There were less bike lanes and fewer miles of paths in Boulder, yet the city was regarded as a very bike-friendly place and Boulder's Bike to Work Day was the largest in the country.

Bike Week in Boulder eventually became Walk and Bike Week, as the city continued to build more safe places to ride -- including over 300 miles of paths and bike lanes -- and worked hard to promote walking and biking. Bike to Work Day has grown into an institution with over 5,000 people in Boulder participating each year ...

Residents seek height limits on South University-area structures
Business Review - 29 May 2008
... ANN ARBOR, MI - As the A2D2 zoning and design plan for downtown Ann Arbor goes through the approval process, the South University area has emerged as an area where the interests of developers and homeowners clash.

The issue is height restrictions, which currently are unlimited, allowing for the University Village development that is due to be considered by the city Planning Commission in June. Plans call for two towers of 26 and 22 stories ...

Council discusses eco-friendly housing
News - 28 May 2008
... SAINT CATHERINES, ON - Developers have come up with a solution to Thorold’s spill-over of students into residential neighbourhoods.

And it’s an environmentally sound one at that, they said during a presentation Tuesday night.

Darren Steedman, project manager of Metrus Developments and Carlo Di Gioacchino, vice-president of business development, Dundurn Capital Partners Inc. spoke to councillors about the concept of building a LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) platinum, multi-use residence to deter students from settling in the popular Confederation Heights area and draw them closer to Brock University ...

2 Voter Rights Cases, One Gripping a College Town, Stir Texas
NY Times - 28 May 2008
... PRAIRIE VIEW, TX. — “Vote or Die,” exhorts the faded slogan on a roadway at Prairie View A&M University, where black students once marched for the right to vote here in the town where they attend school, on a former cotton plantation about 50 miles northwest of Houston.

The students won that battle in 2004, long after the United States Supreme Court supposedly decided the issue in 1979. But disputes over minority voting rights — along with accusations of election fraud — continue to rouse Prairie View, home to one of the nation’s leading historically black colleges, and other Texas locales ...

Ypsilanti boasts trendy, cultural downtown
News - 28 May 2008
... YPSILANTI, MI - The News is right: Ypsilanti, like Detroit, is a former manufacturing town. We have found our identity. As our industry began to close in the late 1970s, we formed the second largest historic district in Michigan. Along with a strong rental inspection program, we have kept our 19th-century neighborhoods as very attractive places to live.

Our Depot Town area is now a thriving restaurant/shopping area. Our downtown is filling with trendy loft apartments on the second and third floors of our commercial buildings. With the increase in people living downtown, our store fronts are filling with shops and restaurants ...

Students warned against mortarboard celebration
Times - 28 May 2008
... OXFORD, UK - It is a rite of passage for all university graduates but now a university has warned students not to throw their mortarboards in the air in case they injure themselves.

Anglia Ruskin University told those about to graduate after three years of study they should refrain from the post-finals tradition of flinging hats into the air because it can damage the hats and “cause injury” ...

Parents purchase new nests for kids
Favorable real-estate prices have college students' parents buying homes for their children rather than paying rent
Post - 28 May 2008
... DENVER, CO - A weak housing market was among the reasons Bennett Boeschenstein decided to buy a one-bedroom condo for his daughter Brianna, a journalism student at Metropolitan State College of Denver.

He's one of a growing number of parents of college students who are recognizing the benefits of buying rather than renting a home for their kids ...

Eight Great Party Schools for 2008
CollegeOTR - 27 May 2008
... USA - Everyone probably claims that their school is the greatest party school. With help from MSN Encarta and PubClub.com, we made a list of the eight greatest in the country:

1) State University of New York at Albany
2) University of California-Santa Barbara
3) Indiana University-Bloomington
4) University of Wisconsin-Madison
5) University of Georgia
6) University of Texas at Austin
7) Ohio University
8) University of Mississippi

Ask Geo: Take a swig of beer pong
Register Star - 27 May 2008
... ROCKFORD, IL - Lindsay’s 84-minute movie “Last Cup: Road to the World Series of Beer Pong” will be shown at the 10th CineVegas Film Festival, June 12 to 21 at the Palms Casino Resort. The movie follows four of the best beer pong players in America as they compete in the second annual World Series of Beer Pong.

Lindsay had seen people play beer pong but hadn’t played himself before he took on the project. He’s 29, and it’s his observation that you’d be hard-pressed to find anyone younger than 27 who has not played beer pong. “It’s in every college (town) at every party,” he said in a telephone interview last week ...

Family sues friends who partied with Jax
The parents of Amanda Jax sue her friends who bought her drinks the night that she died.
Star Tribune - 27 May 2008
... MANKATO, MN - The family of a woman who drank herself to death at a Mankato nightspot while celebrating her 21st birthday is suing not only the establishment but also the friends who bought her a steady stream of drinks ...

College towns
Daily Press - 27 May 2008
... WILLIAMSBURG, VA - H... C... suggests that the College of William and Mary needs to provide more dorms to relieve Williamsburg residents of student-rented, off-campus housing or, as he calls them, "rooming houses" ("Three-person rule," May 12).

Apparently, [he] has never been to Charlottesville, where 56 percent of University of Virginia students live off campus, or Harrisonburg, where 63 percent of James Madison University students live off campus.

At William and Mary the number is just 24 percent, hardly the kind of "problem" that warrants a letter demanding more dorms ...

Former Walgreen's property sold
Champaign-based group plans for apartment, commercial complex
Journal Star - 27 May 2008
... PEORIA — A Champaign-based partnership has purchased the former Walgreen's pharmacy on Main Street and plans to redevelop it into a mixed-use commercial building with a new apartment ??complex for Bradley University students next door.

Eldorado Partners intends to put a new facade on the 15,000-square-foot building at 1109 W. Main St. and build a three-story student apartment complex called 'Main Street Commons' that will feature 24 four-bedroom units and underground parking ...

UO students fuel rental boom
Register-Guard - 27 May 2008
... EUGENE, OR - While the pace of residential construction is generally sluggish this spring, the neighborhood on the University of Oregon’s west flank is undergoing rapid gentrification block by block by block.

In the 400, 500 and 600 blocks of East 14th Avenue, for example, developers are squeezing shiny new seven- or nine-unit apartment buildings onto generous old home lots.

Over the last three years, the 10-block area next to campus saw $30 million to $40 million worth of new construction, said Terry Shockley, whose property management company leases much of the new construction to students.

Construction “is off the charts,” Shockley said. “It has been for the last three or four years. This is the one bright spot for Eugene where growth is just going insane. There’s such a demand.” ...

Bike to Work Day observed in Oxford
Oxford Press - 26 May 2008
... OXFORD, OH - As gas prices continue to rise, more people are finding the economic value of bicycling in addition to its exercise and health benefits.

Many Oxford residents use bikes to get to work regularly and say benefits go even beyond the economic and health benefits — finding parking is a lot easier.

A group of Oxford residents gathered at the Uptown park Friday morning, May 16, to promote riding bikes to work as part of the national observance of Bike to Work Day, sponsored by the League of American Bicyclists ...

The cost of students
Evening Post - 26 May 2008
... LEEDS, UK - It is not a question of Leeds being "a university city". Leeds should be a city in which all residents and visitors feel welcome and at home.

At the moment, a thoughtless, selfish minority are making Woodhouse Moor a no-go area for the majority of residents – student and non-student alike.

Everybody should be able to enjoy our public parks and places like Mandela Gardens without them being trashed. Students are just as sick of this as everybody else.

And it isn't a question of either having universities or not having them. Of course we want world-class universities. But the people who are fortunate enough to attend them should respect Leeds – as most students do; and the universities should take responsibility when problems arise, including financial responsibility...

Housing rental properties:
Increase in burglaries sparks off-campus security concerns
Post - 26 May 2008
... ATHENS, OH - A string of recent home invasions prompted an Ohio University department to lobby city council to mandate stronger locks for rental properties.

OU’s Office of Off-Campus Living asked Athens City Council to require stronger locks, such as deadbolts, on rental home doors. This would ensure students have the opportunity to keep home invaders out, said Michael Hess, associate director of the office ...

College Town
Telegram & Gazette - 25 May 2008
... WORCESTER, MA - College Town has made note of the expanse of curbside items up for grabs: mattresses, coffee tables and other things left behind by students moving home for the summer, or moving on for good. Dumpsters around the area seem to be fuller than usual, too, but some students thought ahead and scheduled a pickup, and benefited from one of the Central Massachusetts Housing Alliance’s trucks and drivers who came to remove the students’ castoffs.

The nonprofit Housing Alliance is a donations clearinghouse that provides furniture and household goods, for free, to families and individuals who have lost everything. Donated household items are given to families who are leaving area shelters, victims of fire or flood, victims of domestic violence, the elderly at risk, and reunification cases from the state Department of Social Services.

“A lot of students living off-campus are closing out leases and can provide things that would be so helpful to a family starting out again,” ...

Bookstore owners made the right read on Brockport's needs
Democrat & Chronicle - 25 May 2008
... BROCKPORT, NY - Archie Kutz thought running a bookstore in his hometown of Brockport was worth a try back in 1972.

"Somebody said," says Pat Kutz, Archie's wife and partner, "'What this town needs is a good bookstore.'" It was the counterculture '70s after all, really sort of a '60s-lite. "It wasn't an era when planning for your retirement was big on anyone's list," Pat adds. But here they are, 36 years into running Lift Bridge Book Shop. The Kutzes now are in their early 60s, when retirement is big.

But they say they're about to add a garage onto their home, so retirement isn't in the picture just yet.

The store has evolved since Archie started it with a high school friend, who moved on to other ventures. After Archie and Pat — they met as students at McGill University in Montreal — started a family, she began working in the store. As the kids grew, Pat started Lift Bridge Kids, a store with toys, games and children's books ...

Early presidents' homes in cluster
Tribune - 25 May 2008
... CHARLOTTESVILLE, VA - From his home in Monticello, Thomas Jefferson made an appeal to James Madison and James Monroe, his friends and political collaborators: Move closer to his Virginia mountaintop plantation in Charlottesville and help create "a society to our taste."

Though Jefferson's request was only half successful - Monroe built a home 2 miles from Monticello, but Madison stayed at his childhood home of Montpelier, about 30 miles away - the society that Jefferson envisioned, one focused on his ideals and range of interests, is alive in Charlottesville today ...

Developers sign option for building downtown
News - 25 May 2008
... ANN ARBOR, MI - Looks like the building that formerly housed Kaplan and Instant Furniture Rental in downtown Ann Arbor will be redeveloped.

Jim Chaconas of McKinley said developers Ron Hughes and Dan Ketelaar - the men behind the student housing tower planned off South University Avenue - signed an option to buy the building ...

Thomson Terrace is planned to have 17,000 square feet of ground-level retail space with a rooftop terrace. The Web site boasts an "Italian village'' ambiance and says some lofts could be ready for rent by 2009. The project still has to go through the city's planning approval process ...

Easton seeks ‘fair’ share from Stonehill
The town administrator wants more than the $20,000 a year the college donates to the town.
Enterprise News - 25 May 2008
EASTON, MA— Town Administrator David A. Colton would like more money from Stonehill College than the $20,000 a year it now provides in lieu of taxes.

In a letter to Stonehill’s president, the Rev. Mark Cregan, Colton said many colleges are switching from payments in lieu of taxes to “beneficiary agreements” that recognize what it costs cities and towns to provide public safety services to the colleges.

“Our challenge is to define the meaning of good citizenship for tax-exempt organizations,” said Colton. “Paying a fair share of the cost of services should be included in the definition.” ...

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