Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: The back porch was a pile of garbage bags and empty Natural Light beer cases. A ramshackle shed held rolls of filthy old carpet.
City Councilman Dan Gilman grimaced.
“Look at this,” he said, standing behind a large three-story house at Centre Avenue and Dithridge Street in Oakland that houses nine tenants, including college students. “It’s just disgusting. And this is what neighbors have to live next to. ... This property is a disgrace.”
15 comments:
So off campus housing is great because you're no longer living at school but because I moved off campus I've noticed a lot of problems too. Obviously it's not fun for permanent residents to live right next door to a bunch of college kids. I mean come on! Typical college students throw parties, drink, go crazy, not so much responsibility yada yada yada so I get it, it's no picnic for the neighbors. But I will also say there seems to be a lack of responsibility from the landlords here too. I have this feeling that most landowners here in Pittsburgh see that they are renting out to college students and so don't care as much about our living conditions because, well we'd live pretty much anywhere. My landlord couldn't give two hoots about the condition of our house as long as the money is not coming from her pocket. (I will say that my landlord hired an absolutely amazing property manager, so... I'll give her that). But over the summer, my friends' roof came in on their apartment and the landlord lied to them saying that there was a huge storm. I had seen other apartments that the landlord owned and they were all terrible living arrangements. Most off campus housing isn't taken care of like it should be. It doesn't matter who you are renting to, there will be a person living in that space and it out to be fixed when it needs to be and roof should be checked when the house is over 100 years old! If my friends were living in there this summer, the roof would have collapsed on at least one of them and they honestly could have died. That's not something you should be able to brush off!
In this article they mention that the fire escape is broken and so if there was a fire people will die... THAT IS NOT OKAY. That is someone's life being put at risk... but wait, they're just college students so who cares... WRONG! If someone were to die due to a fire, the landlord should be charged for homicide and even if there's a fire and no one dies, the landlord should be charge for attempted homicide! I am from New York City and I know what cheap housing looks like, my brother lived in a really cheap 1 bdrm apartment with four other guys and they had cockroach and spider infestations all the time, even so it was better than most of the living conditions for college students here... AND THAT IS SAYING SOMETHING...
This article made me a little mad, at least the end did with the landlord paying the fines instead of fixing the place up. It's their job, if they don't want to fix the place up, they shouldn't be allowed to own property and rent it out. College student, fresh out of school, or adult, it doesn't matter. If you are a landlord, your job is to make sure your tenant is living in the best living conditions you can possibly offer. Right now, most (not all) landlords here in Pittsburgh disgust me with the blatant disrespect to humanity. They're a bunch of self absorbed money guzzling pigs. Yeah... I said it.
Oh and the rent is way to high for some of these places too. Really not worth it... Just saying...
But I still do recommend living off campus, it's a lot nicer for your personal health to not constantly be surrounded by school! haha!
Wow... I never had a rant on the green page before... Thanks Boevers! I really needed this haha
It's always pretty easy to find where college housing is located in any city you are. There's always the kind of run down, trashed look that follows college housing around. And while landlords are partially to blame for not taking care of their properties, there is also a large portion of blame that can be put on the tenant. There is definitely the mindset of people that they are only living in a space for between 1 and 3 years and so why would they take care of their properties? Yes, that's one of the points of having a property manager to take care of these things but you have to take personal responsibility for where you live and the space you occupy. It would also be nice to learn in undergrad (even in grad) more about what responsibilities you have when renting an apartment as well as what your landlord is responsible for. Especially in our industry where we're probably going to be renting for a good portion of our lives it could really be useful.
Im going to avoid making any CMU versus Pitt statements but the comparison is slightly irresistible. Having walked down the Pitt party streets and the neighborhoods that they are referring to, it is disgustingly easy to distinguish which houses belong to college students. Now I do not make a common practice of going through this neighborhood, their is a hookah bar that I enjoy visiting but the task of walking to and from there is not one I particularly enjoy. The piles of trash on the streets, the disgraced look of the houses, the noise, the people, its all overwhelming and disappointing. Pittsburgh is a great city, but such lack of responsibility tarnishes our city.
What irritates me is the sentiment of "Oh I didn't realize normal people also live here." that should not make any difference. People seem to think that just because we are in college we can be irresponsible, we can destroys houses, party crazy without consequence, leave messes. We are in college, we are all adults... F***ing ACT LIKE IT.
I have nothing against having fun going out drinking. Theres nothing wrong with going out and letting lose. But the next day you wake up, you drink some water and you clean up after your damn self. It doesn't matter who lives next to you, the fact that you're ok living in that filth is pathetic.
Now I can think of plenty of CMU houses off campus that need to be taught the same lesson. im not sure if anyone remembers the house next to rez on fifth or if it is even still lived in by CMU students, but there is a prime example of a used and abused drunken stupor CMU house.
And here is where I state my argument with Becky, Yes the landlords are godawful in pittsburgh. Many shouldn't be allowed to rent and the truth is that most aren't. A lot of people rent houses cash under the table. Things like the broke n fire escape yes absolutely fall on the landlord and borderline criminal charges should happen for the landlord to allow such a thing. But the dismay of the house, the trash, the noise all falls on the tenants. Any decent landlord should be holding their tenants accountable.
My house, before I moved in, was inhabited by four animals recently graduated from Carnegie Mellon School of Architecture. It was unnerving to me that young, creative, intelligent people, who chose to study the finer points of human built environments for five years, could have inhabited such filth. One of them lived in the basement, sleeping on a twin mattress on the damp floor. The kitchen floor was piled knee deep with trash bags, with trails cut between them so you could get to the sink and pantry. This wasn't laziness, it was either lunacy or some kind of social experiment. I'll never claim to be the neatest person in the world. But I do believe that if you can't first organize and treat with respect your immediate environment, that lack responsibility to yourself will eventually creep into all of your undertakings.
It's absolutely true. I obviously can't speak for everyone, but the tenant mind-set is that either someone else will take care of it or it doesn't matter, I'm only here for a short time. It's awful, disgusting, and repugnant. This is YOUR space, your HOME. Treat it like it. Pick up after your filthy selves and have a little self-respect for the place that you sleep in and eat at. It isn't that difficult, I don't give a damn whether you were out partying until 4am, just take 5 minutes and pick up some trash. You're not a pig, don't act like it. Oink.
I like to keep my apartment extremely clean, always have. I can’t stand living somewhere messy or dirty. I have never understood why other people could. As soon as I could I moved out of campus housing so I could have a one-bedroom apartment all to myself. I very briefly entertained the notion of moving in with other people from CMU into on of these house but one look at how they lived completely changed my mind. If you let trash and dirt pile up eventually it will get that bad, but at the beginning before the mess, why would you let it happen? Why let it build up when all you have to do is take the trash out to the curb. I think at least a little bit though the fault does lie with the landlords in this area. They seem to be bitter about past resident and so form the logic, why should I fix the house you guys will just ruin it. So the house degrades, looks dirty, starts to fall apart, and the people who are willing to live in a house that looks like that re the same people who are not going to take the trash out. If the properties were nicer I’m guessing the tenants would be as well.
Everyone makes really good points about the shared responsibilities of tenants, landlords, and members of the community in keeping a habitable city, so I'm going to try and stick to the article itself. What bothered me about the way the article was written is that the landlords weren't mentioned in it at all, even though things, like a broken fire escape, are completely 100% landlord responsibilities. Obviously tenant-turnover is a problem in a college area, but landlord turnover isn't, and that's something that can 100% be addressed by increasing fines, enforcing or increasing the 3 person per residence law to give people an incentive to actually adhere to it. While this block party thing is a great idea to raise awareness for the Natty-light on the back porch problem, and the "real people live here" is always a great reminder, it does sometimes feel that the both city and the landlords use "those damn kids" as an excuse to not actually address code and safety problems that really aren't a tenant's, college student or not, responsibility.
While I wouldn't be surprised if a majority of student tenants were less respectful and more of a mess than typical tenants, I do not think it is fair to paint all student tenants as a nuisance. I wouldn't be surprised if only some of the tenants on Dithridge were causing the problem, overshadowing others. My property has 4 tenants, all of which I believe are students. I could see how in a block where there were many student tenants and a few regular tenants mixed in it could be a difficult dynamic. If you started zoning, saying these houses do not allow college students, you're crossing the line into zoning and institutional prejudice. In the end it comes down to respect and unfortunately some people think being in college erases that requirement. It's disappointing to hear that landlords would rather pay fines then fix their property to meet code. I know we would not let that happen at our place. It's good that Pitt is trying to mediate in the situation mentioned.
It is nice to know that the university is working with residents of off campus apartments as well as with the community around them. What needs to happen more, though, is that there needs to be communications with the landlords that run these houses but do nothing to maintain them or help with the community relations. These slumlords decrease property value for all the surrounding houses as well as encouraging an air of general disrespect for property in their tenants.
It is really hard for me to imagine anyone willingly living in the conditions described in the article or the comments. Being in a college whether it be a school like Pitt or CMU shouldn’t matter, cleaning up after yourself and get the important thing in your home fixed should be a priority. Some of the liability is definitely on the landlords for not giving the same consideration to college tenants, but things like trash pile ups and parties that break fire code and general disrespect for the neighborhood is all the responsibility of the students. Like Sean said, we are all adults, act like it.
Off campus housing has its ups and downs, that's for sure. In terms for fixing the issues for everybody, like the others have said, there are multiple people at fault here. Landlords need to manage their properties better and take care of them, especially when it comes to life safety. But residents/tenants need to be respectful and take care of their home, however temporary as well. Finally, the city also needs to enforce its rules and make landlords fix their properties.
Also, forgot to mention this, I applaud the block parties sponsored by the university, they sound really successful!
I think people who decided to come to a university should at least have some sense of responsibility in their mind. It's sad to read about something like this but at the same time I have to admit that it's what always happen. I kind feel bad for permanent residents where there home is here and they have to live here while college kids come from all around the place and stay here for just a short period of time and they left trashed and having loud parties all the time. It's unfortunate. I also feel bad for the one who also have to clean up their trash is... the landlord. This summer I helped my friends move to their new house and the second we walked into the house, what we found is an ocean of trash and the landlord was sitting one the floor trying to clear some space for us so we can walked in and drop our boxes. We met the neighbors and what they told us was that "we hope you guys are not party animals, cause we've been suffering this whole year every time they throw a party and making a super loud noise at night that we couldn't sleep". I would call a police if I were them, but they are so nice and understanding. So.... Students, have some responsibilities.
The block parties are a fantastic way to get the university students and the local people living there together and not just think poorly of one another. I do agree, however, that the college students should keep clean and orderly at least outside of their residences because they are living in someone's permanent residence. I don't really understand the fire escape point in this article, but I do think that everything should be regulation considering the university should take good care of its students properly.
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