Recently, the U’s fraternity and sorority members have come under fire for parking their cars.
Every year, residents who live in the Greek Row area complain the chapter houses are too noisy. As a member of Delta Delta Delta, I’m obviously biased toward the greek side of this debate.
Greeks argued that the neighbors knew what they were getting into when they moved onto Greek Row. Why are they complaining now?
Imagine building a house in the middle of the Sage Point complex and then spending the next 20 years complaining about the noise. It sounds ridiculous because it is.
The U’s greeks have been occupying homes on 100 South, Wolcott and Butler since 1908. None of the neighbors who are now complaining can out-date that.
In the newest development in the greeks vs. neighbors saga, some of the more dissatisfied residents have started a petition to end all on-street parking in the Greek Zone.
Currently, members who live in greek houses may purchase a residential parking pass and out-of-house members may park on the road during certain hours.
The creators of this petition believe that if students cannot park near their homes, the noise on Greek Row will decrease. They want greeks to buy U passes and walk from the school’s lots.
Most of the neighbors are reasonable people. However, there is nothing reasonable about asking hundreds of students to buy over-priced parking passes and then walk to the homes for which they help pay.
There’s also a safety issue. What’s reasonable about suggesting that sorority women park their cars on campus and walk to their houses for late-night meetings, officers’ council, philanthropy events and study groups?
The 12 greek houses on the row have the capacity to house about 20 students each. The petition would restrict parking on the street to only four or five cars. That means live-in members would have to buy parking passes just like commuting students do, even though they live a two-minute walk from campus. Out-of-house members will be completely unable to park near the homes.
Obviously, the new rules would not apply to non-greek residents. They don’t need to park on the street because they have driveways.
If the petition goes to the City Council ,then it will pass. Each residence receives one vote. That means the 750 students on Greek Row only receive 12 votes.
The neighbors have some legitimate complaints, but they’re not unique. Every neighborhood has problems, but most don’t resort to such underhanded tactics to solve them.
Rather than working with students, these people have set in motion legal action to discriminate against their neighbors and endanger the safety of young women at the U.