How to end Charles Village's cold war - Fit To Print

The cold war of Charles Village is finally heating up. The childish squabbles between students and Charles Village residents have been going on for decades, each side painting an effective picture of the other's Evil Neighborhood Empire. Charles Village residents paint Hopkins students as constantly trying to live out an Animal House dream, while Hopkins students generally think Charles Village Residents are immutable hippie jerks. Neither side will see the reality that students are merely hoping to salvage their already pathetic social lives, and that Charles Village residents are simply trying to avoid having their flowers watered with urine. Yet, students will always be obnoxious. Charles Village residents will always be a pain. How can anyone win this war?

The essential problem may be that each side is too personally invested in the issue to look at the Charles Village area for what it is. It is a neighborhood, that exists as it is now because of Johns Hopkins. It does not exist solely for students, just as no neighborhood exists for one demographic. However, the Charles Village residents needn't be so self-righteous. Students will always have a legitimate claim to live in the neighborhood.

The only way to mediate this conflict is with a third party. The administration needs to step in not only to ease things over with the community, but stand up for students' rights.

Only within the past three years has the University bothered to appoint a community liaison, Salem Reiner. Yet, the position was only created to ensure the successful completion of the Charles Village Project. Reiner has done little to advocate for the students, but merely to advocate the administration's bottom line.

The students needed the administration early on, with the planning of the Charles Village Project. The Charles Village Community Benefits District (CVCBD), however, played a major role in influencing the soon to be developed 3200 block of St. Paul Street. They drafted recommendations that were submitted to the city, focusing on keeping a unified, but cozy feel to St. Paul. In part because of the efforts of the residents, the city has allowed for a landscaped, street-lamped "cityscape" to extend between the new and old development of the 31st and 32nd blocks of St. Paul. Bravo.

Yet after sitting in on a CVCBD meeting last year, it was evident that, in addition to these noble improvements, many Charles Village residents are delusional as to whom and what the new development should serve. By blocking the granting of an appropriate liquor license, the residents have impeded the arrival of another college bar. Ah, but with another type of packaged goods liquor license, they are strongly, and effectively, pushing for a wine bar.

Let's do the math. There are two college bars within walking distance to service the roughly 500-1,500 students that drink and socialize. The maximum capacity of both bars combined cannot physically accommodate these students.

Move the partying on campus? Impossible. E Level's liquor license is unsalvageable. The Beach has been shut down for the sake of Hopkins' pristine exterior. The train of logic offered by the administration and the CVCBD seems to be that, "Maybe if we suffocate all students' possibilities of drinking, they just won't drink."

As one former Charles Village resident wrote in to the News-Letter, "Many are quite adamant that their neighborhood should NOT become a hub for all students in Baltimore because it will disproportionately, adversely impact THEIR homes, businesses, and sleep."

I can't decide if this is selfish, or just plain ignorant. The logic here is that the sleep patterns of a handful of nearby residents should outweigh the overall priority of improving Baltimore on the whole. Who cares if an entire quadrant of Baltimore could be improved? Someone may have a beer can in their yard. Students aside, the stubborn insistence of some Charles Village Residents for only theirdemands is immature and reflects poorly on the community on the whole. As far as the shattered dream of another PJ's, the administration should have fought earlier on for something that students could benefit from. As far as I understand, no effort was made. The wine bar may win.

My hope is that common sense and economics will win out over unrealistic demands and snobbery. Or that someone would throw a brick in the window of the wine bar, should it be developed, with a note wrapped around it reading, "Reality check."

The tragedy is that this is not even the largest issue at hand.

The most imminent crisis is the new Draconian crackdown on house parties. In the past, house parties that have gotten out of control have been broken up by the authorities. City councilwoman Mary Pat Clarke has now provided her constituents with the phone number of a sergeant in the Vice Squad, and has encouraged them to report students who collect fees at parties. Clarke has essentially encouraged police to arrest and make an example of these students. This is not standing up for the community; it is needlessly persecuting students.

With the University's help, we could make sure arrests are reserved for only the most extreme cases. Baltimore should not be filling its jails with well-intentioned Hopkins students.

The residents have the power of the police behind them and the power to win this war -- to squash Hopkins students' already pathetic social lives. The University should not let them. Students without a venue to have any sort of alcohol-related activity are powerless. No wonder a recent columnist, J.P. Balfour, blustered, "Get used to it or leave, because Hopkins students are not going anywhere."

Students are just as frustrated as Charles Village residents, but without anyone's backing. The administration is just as responsible for their students' happiness as they are for the community's. It's time to take a realistic look at the conflict that students constantly face. The division between students and residents in the neighborhood will go nowhere without backing from the deans. Please, Mr. Brody, tear down this wall.

-- Francesca Hansen is a junior international studies major.