As student enrollment at UW-Madison rose from 15,000 to almost 40,000 from 1955 to 1980, many single-family homes on campus were converted into multi-unit student homes. For years, the owners of these homes have thrived by leasing them on yearly terms to student tenants while offering patchwork maintenance and setting very low aesthetic upkeep standards.
Recent student-housing trends have moved toward demand for high-rise apartment complexes. As a result, several neighborhood organizations and property owners hope to convert a portion of these buildings back to single-family homes. Ald. Julia Kerr, District 13, is leading a movement of several neighborhood organizations and businesses in the campus area seeking a $50,000 city-planning grant to strategize the transformation of neighborhoods almost wholly occupied by students.
What happens when all these kids decide to move to University Square?"" said Kerr, who fears that the development of a 12-story high rise in the immediate downtown area will create low-rent homes and vacancies in the Bassett and Greenbush neighborhoods, among others. Although many students may prefer newer complexes, these groups are not representative of the entire student body. Assuming all students want to live in high-priced downtown apartments fails to recognize that many students attend school on a budget and welcome an extra 10 minutes walking or busing to class to avoid paying steep rental prices.
Furthermore, the patchwork repair jobs performed on the houses over the past several decades will lead to extremely costly renovation attempts. If obtained, this grant cannot simply serve as an attempt to give these houses a ""face-lift"" at the city's expense to increase profits for property owners. After several years, the years of poor maintenance will begin to show, and no single-family owners will want to reside in these homes.
Similar attempts are not new to Madison, either. Like Austin King's attempt to renovate Regent Street several years ago, this proposal will die quickly if these attempts maintain a short-sighted view of the groups that reside in specific housing zones. Completely neglecting the preferences of these communities will only create unnecessary trouble among Madison residents.
If this grant proposal is accepted, it must appropriately meet the needs of students and residents alike rather than simply pricing one group out in favor of creating newly branded areas to attract greater profits.
