Students alienated by high prices
On Friday, I received notice that I would have to move out of my apartment on Landfair next September because the landlord would be tearing the building down and replacing it with “luxury three bedroom apartments.”
My boyfriend sarcastically responded to the manager, “Before long, all the students are going to have to move to Watts to find affordable housing.”
A former UCLA student himself, our manager just shook his head and shrugged. It’s happening all over the Village: Opportunists leveling the older buildings to make way for monstrous “luxury” apartments and condos, clearly not in the price range of any college student I know.
And with rent going up every year, it doesn’t seem like it will be long before the entire student community will be pushed out of the neighborhood for good.
And we all know the established “adult” portion of the Village won’t be sad to see us go.
Westwood city council also didn’t hesitate to raise rent control to 5 percent.
It’s probably not a coincidence that the most student-populated streets to the west of campus seem to be littered with potholes, cracked sidewalks and broken street lights while the more affluent Hilgard area is in pristine condition.
Rent prices skyrocket yearly while financial aid is cut and tuition is raised. It just doesn’t seem like anyone cares.
My solution? Civil disobedience. Make the Village a totally undesirable place for nonstudents to live. We students just need to be rowdier and ruder. More frat parties and a bigger Undie Run! More screaming drunks puking in the streets at all hours of the night!
How is it that the kids at UC Santa Barbara can afford to live on the beach? It’s a zoo, that’s why!
As for my beautiful little studio with the drafty, poured glass windows and faulty wiring and brittle pipes?
C’est la vie.
Sara Davis-Murray
Fourth-year,
Art history
“˜Green’ is a misnomer
I was excited to read about LuValle Commons’ efforts to reduce waste and energy use (“LuValle Commons adopting greener habits,” News, Sept. 27) but I was disappointed when I patronized the facility the next day to witness the “green pilot program” myself.
It is true that individual packets of ketchup and mustard (not cream and sugar) have been replaced by pumps from which diners can dispense what they need and that paper towel dispensers have been replaced by low-energy hand driers (I was not able to confirm the “waterless urinals” in the men’s room.).
However, there are several additional changes that would have a bigger impact.
For example, LuValle Commons could make Spudware available to customers instead of plastic utensils, as they already do at Greenhouse in Ackerman Union.
This innovative material made from potato starch is, unlike plastic, fully compostable.
The most shocking revelation upon my arrival at LuValle Commons is that they continue to use Styrofoam cups for soup, hot beverages and to-go containers.
I think it is widely known that Styrofoam is a petroleum product that does not biodegrade. Paper cups and containers are a perfectly acceptable alternative; they may still end up in a landfill, but at least they are biodegradable.
In fact, why does UCLA allow any Styrofoam on campus? If UCLA banned Styrofoam food and drink containers, then the term “green” would be appropriate.
One happy note: I was pleased to see that LuValle Commons had placed can and bottle recycling containers next to all of the trash cans.
Convenient placement makes it a whole lot easier to do the right thing. I hope to see them inside other dining facilities on campus.
Stacey Beggs
Assistant director,
Institute for Pure and Applied Mathematics