In the wake of the Tuscaloosa City Council’s decision to vote against a mixed-use housing complex on the riverfront and citizen comments during that public hearing against the general mess, noise and “sleepovers” associated with UA students, many people on- and off-campus, were left with the nagging sentiment that many citizens of Tuscaloosa were anti-student.

“My first comment to the builders, when they came to us nine months ago, was, ‘Don’t label your project student housing. It’s got a connotation to it,'” said City Councilman Bob Lundell, one of only two members of the council to vote in favor of the development. “Even so, I thought we had it, and all of sudden, we just started dropping, ‘No, no, no’.”

Lundell said the decision frustrated him because the developers had taken every suggestion members of the council gave to them and worked them into their plans.

“There are some folks out there that have this idea that they don’t want students around,” Lundell said. “What people don’t realize is that the city of Tuscaloosa was very fortunate in the economic downturn in the nation this year. We didn’t see it like the rest of the country did, mainly because of the industries that we have and the University. No one wants students around, except when they think about 31,000 students spending money in Tuscaloosa, then they really do want them. It’s basically the only thing that buffered up the city for that economic downturn.”

Mayor Walt Maddox said the vote didn’t reflect an anti-student sentiment, but a desire to find the highest and best use for the property that the development would have been erected on.

“I think what we’re seeing now is a concern among citizens that it may be overbuilt,” Maddox said. “That there’s too many student apartments, and that has detrimental long term effects. If you look at the higher crime areas within the city, the majority of them were actually, at one time, student housing.

“The concerns citizens have about students is nothing new. If you look back 20 to 30 years ago and looked at zoning hearings regarding student housing at that time, we would probably hear the very same issues.”

David Simpson, attorney general of the SGA, said there was certainly room for students and citizens to mend fences.

“I definitely think there could be a better relationship between students on- and off-campus and the city,” Simpson said. “I think a big part of it is that students are seen as short term residents – here for a few years, and they’re gone. People are left to deal with the aftermath, and students aren’t necessarily looking out for property values or their community. We’re easy to write off as immature drunks.

“Great opportunities for a better connection came up after the tornado. Students went into communities with no relations with them, and it showed that we want to take part in rebuilding this city and the community atmosphere in Tuscaloosa,” he said.

Simpson said as long as the unity provided by the rebuilding process stuck, progress could be made between the two groups.

“A lot of this is on the students to reach out to the community and show that we care about this place,” Simpson said. “Hopefully, citizens will reach out to students in return.”

Maddox also acknowledged that there was room for improvements from both students and citizens, but said, especially after the tornado, there was no doubt that students were a necessary part of the community.

“Many of our first search and rescue efforts were led by students,” Maddox said. “And they went into homes, and many of those homes were not student homes. They were their neighbors. I think we’ve learned that we need each other, and I think we need to continue to work the best we can together.”

“We certainly do need our students,” Maddox said. “I think it’s incumbent upon all of us to work together, to have students understand what it means to be part of the community and have the community understand what a privilege it is to have students among us. There is room for both of us to meet in the middle.”

“Students are students,” Lundell agreed. “They’re out for a good time, but they have to respect their neighbors”