Comments on: “Mazza Grandmarc” Student Housing Project Languishes http://rethinkcollegepark.net/blog/2007/301/ Helping imagine a great college town for a great university Wed, 15 Feb 2012 18:30:13 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: Paul Barone http://rethinkcollegepark.net/blog/2007/301/comment-page-1/#comment-16459 Paul Barone Wed, 25 Apr 2007 22:07:37 +0000 http://rethinkcollegepark.net/blog/2007/301/#comment-16459 I don't agree with providing a waiver for developers on these projects. I hear your point David (here and in your op-ed piece), but the same argument can be made (and often is...) for other development projects as well. Why should development residential development targeted at seniors have to pay the fee, when none of those seniors is going to be having kids? Why should an large industrial project with very few employees have to pay, if those employees are at most going to add just a handful of kids? The answer is that that is just the way these things work. You mentioned that you don't plan to stay in CP after graduation (please reconsider--you're a great member of the community right now!). Well, wherever you go, should you decide to have kids, there probably is a school ... that someone else already paid for. (Maybe some unfortunately grad student at that...). In fact, if your are like many Americans, you may well choose where to live based on the quality of existing schools .. that someone else already paid for. These developers have the money to pay this fee, believe me; I know a lot of them. They just want to avoid if they can, in the same the way that they want to get a good price on sheetrock if they can. Don't take their arguments too much to heart. Some (not most) of the fee will be passed on to students (some portion will be borne by the developers, and all of it will be amortized; remember micro), so this will raise rental prices, but not much. Perhaps not as much as those bricks... I don’t agree with providing a waiver for developers on these projects. I hear your point David (here and in your op-ed piece), but the same argument can be made (and often is…) for other development projects as well. Why should development residential development targeted at seniors have to pay the fee, when none of those seniors is going to be having kids? Why should an large industrial project with very few employees have to pay, if those employees are at most going to add just a handful of kids? The answer is that that is just the way these things work. You mentioned that you don’t plan to stay in CP after graduation (please reconsider–you’re a great member of the community right now!). Well, wherever you go, should you decide to have kids, there probably is a school … that someone else already paid for. (Maybe some unfortunately grad student at that…). In fact, if your are like many Americans, you may well choose where to live based on the quality of existing schools .. that someone else already paid for. These developers have the money to pay this fee, believe me; I know a lot of them. They just want to avoid if they can, in the same the way that they want to get a good price on sheetrock if they can. Don’t take their arguments too much to heart. Some (not most) of the fee will be passed on to students (some portion will be borne by the developers, and all of it will be amortized; remember micro), so this will raise rental prices, but not much. Perhaps not as much as those bricks…

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]]> By: Kyle Gustafson http://rethinkcollegepark.net/blog/2007/301/comment-page-1/#comment-9783 Kyle Gustafson Thu, 15 Feb 2007 23:54:25 +0000 http://rethinkcollegepark.net/blog/2007/301/#comment-9783 Please let me provide a couple of facts about graduate student stipends and the role of graduate students in the community. Graduate students who are lucky have an assistantship. The lowest-paying assistantships are about $12K, with the highest being about $20K. I do not know how this compares to the average staff salary at UMCP, but it is improper to imply that graduate students make anywhere near $41K. The University of Md. needs graduate students to do the majority of the teaching and research work. They do this work at cut-rate in order to receive the benefit of an advanced degree and a foot in the door for a better job. Many of these students are PhD candidates who stay in the community for 5 - 8 years, and many stay in the DC area for a job afterwards. Grads are, very often, good tenants, good neighbors and good citizens. They are a vital part of the college town that is College Park, and they deserve decent, affordable housing. Please let me provide a couple of facts about graduate student stipends and the role of graduate students in the community.

Graduate students who are lucky have an assistantship. The lowest-paying assistantships are about $12K, with the highest being about $20K. I do not know how this compares to the average staff salary at UMCP, but it is improper to imply that graduate students make anywhere near $41K.

The University of Md. needs graduate students to do the majority of the teaching and research work. They do this work at cut-rate in order to receive the benefit of an advanced degree and a foot in the door for a better job. Many of these students are PhD candidates who stay in the community for 5 – 8 years, and many stay in the DC area for a job afterwards. Grads are, very often, good tenants, good neighbors and good citizens. They are a vital part of the college town that is College Park, and they deserve decent, affordable housing.

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]]> By: m http://rethinkcollegepark.net/blog/2007/301/comment-page-1/#comment-9708 m Wed, 14 Feb 2007 23:17:25 +0000 http://rethinkcollegepark.net/blog/2007/301/#comment-9708 I looked at the report on grad student housing. One of the points made was that 'very low income families-, defined as those with incomes below $41,400 would have a hard time paying for housing in this area. ()The report is several years old so I'm sure the figure is higher now. The report says that grad students fall into this category. You elitists may not be aware that regular people have the same problems. Who is going to benefit from all of the development that you say is needed to make College Park a real college town ? Do you even think about the thousands of employees on the campus who make less that $41,000? Graduate students will be here for a few years and then move on. What about the other people who live here. I looked at the report on grad student housing. One of the points made was that ‘very low income families-, defined as those with incomes below $41,400 would have a hard time paying for housing in this area. ()The report is several years old so I’m sure the figure is higher now. The report says that grad students fall into this category.

You elitists may not be aware that regular people have the same problems. Who is going to benefit from all of the development that you say is needed to make College Park a real college town ? Do you even think about the thousands of employees on the campus who make less that $41,000? Graduate students will be here for a few years and then move on. What about the other people who live here.

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