There has been a lot of college-student-bashing around Savannah recently, especially in relation to a new student-oriented apartment complex on 61st Street near Habersham Village.
And this isn’t the first time. I hear Savannah residents talk derisively of apartments being rented by students all the time.
Now, let me begin by saying that if I were a landlord, I’d rather have older tenants and avoid renting to students for the most part. But that’s not what I’m talking about here.
I’m talking about living near students.
There are only six residential units on my block, much of which is taken up by a parking lot and by the Wesley center.
My house is obviously owner-occupied, and so is one of the townhouses across the street. The other four units are rentals, with a cumulative total of nine bedrooms I think. I don’t even know how many renters live in those units most of the time, but I’m guessing that the total is 10. The vast majority of those renters since around 2000 have been SCAD students.
I have found them to be very good neighbors, in general — certainly as good as one can expect from residents with little knowledge of the neighborhood and only transitory ties.
A few downsides:
- Some of these kids aren’t very good at parking, and we end up losing a space or two on the street because of their inefficiency.
- When it comes time to move out, they frequently leave big messes.
- Sometimes they seem to have no idea how to use the recycling vs. trash bins.
And that’s about it for the downsides. I’m guessing that those issues aren’t unique to students, either.
“What about noise? What about parties? They’re college kids! They must party — loudly — all the time!”
Hardly.
There have only been a couple of times when parties were so loud as to be even mildly annoying — that’s since I moved here in 1996. Apparently the police were called to a recent party in the courtyard across the street, but I had no trouble falling asleep — even with a window open to the street, I couldn’t even hear the party from my bedroom.
Upsides:
- No crazy people with leaf blowers and lawn mowers disturbing the neighborhood early on weekend mornings.
- No screaming, squealing kids.
- An ever-changing stream of creative young people with ambitions and vision.
- Long stretches of the year when most if not all of the renters aren’t even in town.
- The college students are invariably nice to and entertained by my cats.
- Minimal contact. If you want neighbors whom you can watch turn gray as you gossip over the back fence, living near renters is not for you. Since the population is so transient, I’m comfortable interacting with them as much — or as little — as I want.