IPD Attributes Rise in Tickets to New Policy
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The Collegetown Neighborhood Council met yesterday afternoon in the basement of St. Luke’s to discuss an increase in the number of noise and open container violations recently issued by the Ithaca Police Department in Collegetown.
Neighborhood Council co-chairs Gary Stewart, deputy director of Cornell’s Office of Community Relations, and Mary Tomlan (D-3rd Ward) led the meeting. 15 other people attended, including representatives of the Ithaca and Cornell police departments, Collegetown landlords and concerned Cornell students.
The first issue tackled was whether or not there had actually been an increase in the number of noise and open container tickets issued.
Acting Ithaca Police Chief Ed Vallely explained that there have been 698 tickets issued thus far this year, compared with 305 tickets issued during 2006 and 480 tickets issued during 2007. He explained that this increase in the number of tickets issued does not mean that there has been an increase in the number of students ticketed.
Noisy neighbors: College Ave. (shown above) and other streets of Collegetown have been targets of noise violations this year.
“The increase reflects a new policy promoted by the District Attorney to issue multiple tickets to a single violator rather than to only ticket violators for their most egregious offense,” he said, calling the number of tickets issued this year “business as usual.”
Discussion followed regarding the efficacy of the current noise and alcohol violation codes and the need for balance in Collegetown, which houses a large student population but also has many non-student residents.
Lauren Wein ’09 expressed frustration with the current state of affairs.
“My biggest concern at this point is that overall student morale at Cornell is that students don’t trust the Ithaca Police Department,” she said. “I think that if we continue on the current path, students might be afraid to call the police in event of a serious problem.”
Svante Myrick ’09 (D-4th Ward) agreed that student-police relations are dysfunctional at the moment.
“There is all this talk about reasonable noise, reasonable parties and reasonable times for parties,” he said, “but students have their own lifestyle and I think that the enforcement of these [codes] feels arbitrary to us, like our lifestyle isn’t being respected.”
Both Wein and Myrick expressed concern that the current noise code, which mandates community service and fines of $100 – $500 for first offenses and $200 – $750 for second offenses, is overly harsh. Both also stated that the fact that it allows police to issue noise tickets without any complaints from neighbors was a problem.
“I think that students feel like they’re being picked on and that it’s being done in an uneven way … we need to open up lines of communication and tell students more specifically what is, and is not, acceptable,” Wein said.
Some of the older community members present recalled times when Collegetown was a much more dangerous and unruly place.
“I’m the longest-serving officer in Ithaca, and I’ve seen Collegetown completely out of control, with near-riot conditions and older citizens outraged. The new ticketing procedures have resulted in a dramatic reduction in citizen complaints to the Chief’s office,” Vallely said.
Tomlan agreed with Vallely, explaining that a few years ago she became accustomed to phoning the police about nearby noise violations almost every weekend, but she has not made such a call in the past two or three years.
Kyle Couchman, property manager for Po Reality, also spoke appreciatively of the recent crackdown on student noise and alcohol abuse.
“This tough policy is a way of establishing that students still have responsibilities, and it gives landlords another tool to use in dealing with uncooperative residents,” he said.
Various solutions to the problem of noise and other disturbances in Collegetown were discussed.
One of the most talked-about ideas to emerge during the meeting was a proposal to offer a “Living Off-Campus” orientation program at the beginning of each semester, during which Cornell students would be quickly and specifically briefed about their rights and responsibilities regarding noise, alcohol, parties and parking.
Stewart suggested that such a program might be offered through the newly established Office of Off-Campus Housing.
Still, it became clear at the meeting that the intractable issues discussed will probably remain unresolved in the near future. The meeting also provided evidence of a clear dividing line between students living in Collegetown and non-students living in Collegetown, with each group adamant about its own rights and angry at the other group.
As Myrick noted, such a situation certainly does not bode well for town-gown relations.
“I think that students hate the city of Ithaca right now,” he said, “… and we wonder why they don’t give back to the community in more ways.”
“There is all this talk
“There is all this talk about reasonable noise, reasonable parties and reasonable times for parties,” he said, “but students have their own lifestyle and I think that the enforcement of these [codes] feels arbitrary to us, like our lifestyle isn’t being respected.”??
PUHLESE. If your lifestyle involves 200 decibels, have you ever thought that it's not suitable for community living?
Give the citizens a break here. They don't play opera at 200 dB at all hours without giving you any consideration.
PUHLESE indeed
"PUHLESE. If your lifestyle involves 200 decibels, have you ever thought that it's not suitable for community living?"
Have you ever considered that living in an area called Collegetown might involve college students throwing parties? Honestly, if you voluntarily move to an area primarily populated by college students who, generally speaking, are known to work hard and play harder, how can you possibly be surprised that that's exactly what you find?
Before you get into the "Ithaca citizens can live wherever they want" spiel, answer me this: why would they actually want to live in Collegetown? For the most part, the apartment buildings are old, dirty, and generally poorly maintained. The houses are usually even worse. Rent is, on the whole, indefensibly high, and property taxes are no laughing matter either. But beyond all of that, what incentive is there to live in Collegetown if you don't go to Cornell or have some overwhelming desire to be around college students? There are no elementary, middle, or high schools to be close to. It's not some cultural "center of the action" location, unless you just have to have your CTB fix. Parking is either a) expensive, almost to the point of extortion if you want a permit, or b) nigh-impossible to find on the street, and it's not like Collegetown is walking distance from any non-Cornell points of interest.
I'm still waiting for someone to provide a rational reason for people who aren't students to live in Collegetown. Again, people are free to live wherever they want, but the WANT is what I don't understand. If you, the original poster, have an answer to that question, I would love to hear it.
(on a technical note, while I'm fairly certain you chose 200db for dramatic effect, you should know that windows break at around 160db, ear drums rupture at about 190db, and exposure to 200db at close range can be fatal)