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Waterloo‘s first ghetto? Residents aren‘t the only ones with problems say students living in troubled area This is the second in a threeâ€"part series looking at the issues with student housing in neighbourhoods surrounding the universities. Next week will look at some of the city‘s responses to the problems. e buds are out on the trees, I the birds are singing, the sun is shining and the students have come out of hibernation. As the weather turns warm, houses in the neighbourhoods near the city‘s two universities transâ€" form. Streets that might have seemed abandoned in cooler weather become filled with scantily clad undergrads looking to let off some steam after a long winter. On a gorgeous Thursday afterâ€" noon with exams in full swing, Hickory Street, a block north of University Avenue near Wilfrid Lauâ€" rier University, is alive with 20â€" somethings sipping drinks on lawns, porches, patios and roofs. While most of these revellers had been waiting since the last round of exams to get outside and get some sun, this is a time of year that permanent residents in the area quietly dread. Cable boxes along Albert Street were destroyed on Saturday night by rowdy partyâ€"goers, leaving some residents without phone or Internet. "I think we‘re the only people in By GrEG MAacDonaLp Chronicle Staff the city who dread the return of warm weather," said Deborah Easâ€" son, chair of the Northdale Area Residents‘ Coalition. Easson lives on Albert Street near Columbia Street, and over the past week the residents in the area got a reminder about why they hate the return of spring. Aside from the usual outdoor noisy parties and rowdy drunks, residents had to call bylaw officers to complain about vandalism over the weekend. On Albert Street, a stone wall was dismantled and cable boxes were smashed, leaving Easson without a working phone. As these incidents become more common, residents are pleading with the city to do something about the increasing problems, and their frustration is growing. The students are angry too. Most student residents are quiet and wellâ€"behaved and are disgustâ€" ed with some of the behaviour in the problem neighbourhoods, said Kevin Royal, president of the Federâ€" ation of Students at the University of Waterloo. University students have been important to the development of Waterloo and have a vested interest in the city. They don‘t want a rowdy student ghetto to develop either, CITY NEWS SUBMITTED PHOTO Royal said. "It‘s embarrassing," he said. "If anyone is breaking the law or a bylaw, students aren‘t happy about that either. People studying for exams don‘t want it to be loud." Chantal ;m;linger and Erin Townle'y,#tudenb at Wilfrid Laurier University, take a long look at the furnace in their Hickory Street apartment. The secondâ€"year students survived part of the winter without a working furnace or hot water. _ GREG MACDONALD PHOTO It‘s just a small group of people that is causing the problems, he added. â€" "It‘s a small minority that is givâ€" ing students a bad name," Royal Of that minority, most are not students. "There are a lot of older youth or outâ€"ofâ€"town guests who think that area is a real party zone," he said. _ Royal also lives near Albert and Columbia, so he knows the probâ€" lems residerits such as Easson deal with. "I have to give merit to what‘s being said, but we, as students, have the exact same issue. It‘s a problem for everyone in the area," he said. Students do have to take some of the responsibility, however, Royal said. They must realize that there are nonâ€"students living in the area and try to accommodate them. He entourages student.resiâ€" dents to help clean up the neighâ€" bourhood by calling bylaw enforceâ€" ment or the police when they see infractions. HRONMCI "We have to show that this small group of people is by no means reflective of the other 99 per cent," he said. And the problems in the area aren‘t just partying or noise, Royal said. The condition and upkeep of the houses are also huge factors in the direction the neighbourhood is Chantal Amalinger, a secondâ€" year communications student at Laurier, lived without a working furnace at her fiveâ€"bedroom Hickory Street lodging house for weeks â€" and even longer without hot water. In that regard, students have as many horror stories as the permaâ€" nent residents do. "We debated moving but where were we going to go?" Amaâ€" that is giving _ students a bad name." President of University of Waterloo‘s Federation of Students "It‘s a small minority Armed.only with an email WATERLOO CHRONICLE + Wednesday, April 23, 2008 + 3 address as contact for their landâ€" lord, Amalinger and the other tenâ€" ants managed without a furnace or hot water. "Once we actually got a hold of the landlord, he moved pretty quickly," she said. "But it took him a long time to respond." Yet when a group of rowdy partyâ€"goers drove around their house and ran over their nonâ€"stuâ€" dent neighbour‘s downspout, the landlord was quick to show up and collect money for damages. "We didn‘t know the people, but we all had to pay," Amalinger said. Absentee landlords are a big problem in the student world and situations like the one Amalinger and her roommates were in are not uncommon, Royal said. But with leases binding students to apartments and a general lack of awareness about rental rights, stuâ€" dents are often stuck in bad situaâ€" Dealing with bad landlords makes tenants feel disconnected with the community, said Erin Townley, one of Amalinger‘s roomâ€" mates. "This is really not a connected neighbourhood," Townley said. And it‘s not just a rift between Continued on page 6