Illustration by Joe Lai.

The flood of application packets and mobs of students touring open houses signal the start to the off-campus house-hunting season. This year however, student tenants come armed with another piece of knowledge — where the parties are.

In 2005, the city of Santa Cruz put into law municipal code 9.37, otherwise known as the Loud and Unruly Gathering Ordinance. It empowered police to cite homes that were deemed loud or unruly to the degree that they constituted “a threat to public health, safety, quiet enjoyment of residential property, or general welfare.” In other words, the police could do more than just break up loud house parties. They could fine them.

Now, at many community members’ request, the Santa Cruz Police Department (SCPD) is making the list of cited homes available to the public through the Santa Cruz city website.

Fines incurred due to violations of the ordinance double with each additional citation, from $250 to as high as $1,000, not including response and service charges by the police. Houses that are cited as violating the ordinance remain on the list for an entire year, regardless of whether or not the tenants’ lease expires. This means that a new tenant’s first violation of the ordinance could potentially cost them as much as $1,000.

The ordinance and its terms — as well as the subsequent decision to publicize the homes cited — was formed and supported by community collaboration. Local nonprofit Santa Cruz Neighbors, the SCPD, UC Santa Cruz Good Neighbor Initiative interns, and other members of the community worked together in negotiating the ordinance’s formation and implementation.

Some student tenants might find the public nature of the list intimidating, especially if their own homes are listed. Others, like Laurel Lansford, a second-year UCSC Cowell College student who is looking for off-campus housing, are unsure how to interpret it.

“I’m not worried about violating the ordinance, so it shouldn’t be a problem for me,” Lansford said. “I think the list could attract just as many partygoers as it does repel tenants.”

It’s unclear if the list’s publication is drawing lines in the community or uniting it. Peter Cook, a local Santa Cruz landlord, said that while the list itself is a useful tool for police, its publication could potentially divide the community.

“I rent to students all the time,” Cook said. “While I don’t necessarily have a problem with the list itself, I believe the system is geared against students. I mean, how loud is ‘too loud’? It doesn’t say.”

Cook, who owns property on the list, believes the Santa Cruz community should be less concerned with penalizing student tenants and more focused on providing alternative locations for students to blow off steam on weekends.

“Look, it’s great the police officers now have a list to refer to where the trouble usually springs up at,” Cook said. “But public policy punitively goes after student tenants without providing them with somewhere else to go. Downtown is unsafe, the university isn’t fun enough, and nothing constructive seems to be being done to remedy the situation, so where else are students going to kick back if not their houses?”

Deborah Elston, founding member and president of Santa Cruz Neighbors, believes the list’s publication will actually come to help student tenants looking for a house off-campus.

“For years, landlords have been charging ridiculously high rent prices at the expense of the neighborhood. One of the unintended consequences that may occur as a result [of the list becoming public] is a drop in rent prices due to discouraged tenants,” Elston said. “The ordinance is not geared to work against college students, but to encourage them to go meet their neighbors and get to know them. That’s how you can figure out ‘How loud is too loud?’”

Cook, however, was skeptical as to how effective the public nature of the list would be at deterring student tenants.

“Students are always looking for a place to live. While it’s possible that some students may get discouraged, I haven’t seen any significant drops in interest,” Cook said. “The public nature of the list really just shows the disconnect the community has with the campus. Students are young, energetic, and they do party, but they also usually make for wonderful tenants.”

According to Cook, the nature of the list could be potentially misleading, because there is no distinction between houses on the list as to the size of the parties or the number of times the house has violated the ordinance.

“I support the ordinance, and I have no problems with the list,” Cook said. “But when it’s made public, people who refer to it looking for housing won’t be able to see the difference between the accidental violations and the chronically troublesome.”

For students like Laurel Lansford who need to find a house before migrating away from both the campus and city of Santa Cruz until fall, necessity outweighs whatever leverage the public nature of the list has.

“[The list] wouldn’t stop me from choosing if I’d move into a place or not,” Lansford said. “I’d be surprised to see if it made very many people reconsider, frankly.”

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The Santa Cruz Police Department was unavailable for comment.

Photo by Maggie McManus.

Illustration by Kenny Srivijittakar.

It’s about that time of night: eleven o’ clock — maybe 11:45 on a lucky night. Less inebriated attendees sense it will happen any minute. It’s sudden but predictable: knock on door, music stops, expletives are hurled, beers fall out of hands — the cops have arrived to break up yet another Santa Cruz house party.

This recurring scenario seems to be something that students have grown to accept. It has become an unavoidable part of attending college in a city that refuses to be called a ‘college town’.

“Basically, the university and the community have been in conflict since day one,” remarked city council member Ryan Coonerty, former mayor of Santa Cruz and legal studies lecturer at UC Santa Cruz. “Both sides have a distrust of each other almost completely.”

Most students can sense that they are not always unequivocally welcome in this small coastal city. What may not be as clear, though, are the exact roots of this acrimonious relationship.

UCSC third-year Uday Mathur says that as a student and member of the Sigma Pi fraternity, he often feels like an outsider in Santa Cruz.

“As students and fraternity members we’re not very accepted,” Mathur said. “When I wear my [Greek] letters in town I stand out — and not in a good way.”

Coonerty explained that the geography of this town, as well as its history, both play a role in the equation.

“If anything causes the tension it’s just that geographic reality of not having specific neighborhoods where students can live like students,” he said.

In addition, Coonerty explained that some residents have objected to the existence of UCSC since its founding in 1965, but often for opposing reasons.

“When the city was recruiting for the university to come here, [more conservative residents] thought they would be getting a football team and city growth was considered a really good thing,” Coonerty said. “Then the university came and it turned out to be a very different university than what Santa Cruzans thought it was going to be.”

Other residents, who tended to be more politically liberal, opposed any university coming to Santa Cruz, rejecting the idea that the city needed to grow.

“It’s hard to be in politics here because the university has historically been disliked by the most conservative and the most liberal residents,” Coonerty explained.

Nevertheless, years later, the university remains.

Santa Cruz Neighbors, a local nonprofit group, is at the forefront of local efforts aimed at relieving tension between residents and students.

The organization, founded in 2000, seeks to foster good relations in the community by engaging students with their neighbors and holding community forums where residents can discuss their concerns.

“I’ve heard every possible story from neighbors saying, ‘Help, help, help!’ and this is how the Loud and Unruly Gathering Ordinance came to be,” said Deborah Elston, founding member and president of Santa Cruz Neighbors.

Illustration by Kenny Srivijittakar.

Party Blues: The Loud and Unruly Gathering Ordinance

Santa Cruz may not accept the college town moniker, but it’s still home to numerous college students and their parties, which has long been a curse to their neighbors.

“A couple years ago student parties were a large number of [the city council’s] complaints,” Coonerty said. “Both the size of the parties and also some of the impacts such as noise, parked cars, trash, etcetera”

The Loud and Unruly Gathering Ordinance, more commonly referred to simply as the party ordinance, was passed by Santa Cruz City Council in 2005 to combat these problems.

Upon a noise complaint from a neighbor, the ordinance allows police to issue a warning for any house that throws a party as a first-time offense. These houses are then flagged for 12 months, and subsequent offenses result in fines.

Many students believe the ordinance creates an “us versus them” mentality, pitting off-campus students against their buzz-kill neighbors. Santa Cruz Neighbors president Elston insists that the ordinance was created to do just the opposite, however.

“We look at it as an opportunity for better communication,” Elston explained. “Prior to the ordinance, there were no tools for police or students or neighbors to [use] if something got out of control.”

June Coha has been a Santa Cruz resident since 1968, and has lived in a neighborhood close to campus for over 20 years. Coha estimated that in any given year, five houses on her street off of Western Drive may be occupied by students, and if each hosts two parties a month, that amounts to ten nights a month where she is kept awake at night.

Coha also said that engaging students and voicing her concerns directly to them is always her first course of action.

“Calling the cops is a last resort for me and I won’t do it unless I’ve talked to [the students] first,” Coha said. “I hate that it’s us versus them, but with the disparities in lifestyle I don’t know how it’s going to work out.”

Ben Gesing, a second-year UCSC student and the social chair for Sigma Pi Fraternity, agrees that engaging with neighbors is an effective way to prevent the problems caused by differing lifestyles. He feels that the party ordinance goes slightly overboard in its punishments, though.

“This isn’t a college town — Santa Cruz has been around a lot longer than UCSC and it’s not okay for us just to barge in on that,” Gesing said. “The basic problem with the party ordinance, though, is that you can’t legislate morality. College kids are going to keep partying.”

Amid other concerns, Gesing believes the fines specified by the ordinance, which increase with each offense from $250 to $500 to $1000, are too egregious to be applied to struggling college students.

Mathur echoed his fraternity brother’s dislike of the ordinance.

“It’s a bit heavy-handed and harsh,” Mathur said. “And we haven’t stopped throwing parties — nobody has.”

Councilman Coonerty understands students’ concerns, but he noted that actual implementation of the ordinance isn’t quite as harsh as some might assume.

“I think it would be silly to say students have embraced the party ordinance,” Coonerty said. “When its matched up against the reality though, which is that very few people are getting cited and that its mainly being used as a tool, I think in that way it has been effective.”

Economic Engine

While a Santa Cruz free from UC students might make for quieter neighborhoods on Friday and Saturday nights, most agree that the culture and atmosphere of the city would be markedly different without the presence of a major institution of higher education.

Bill Tysseling, the executive director of the Santa Cruz Chamber of Commerce, explained that the commercial influence of the student population on the city is significant.

“The mix of businesses would be substantially different if students were not here,” Tysseling said. “There would be fewer businesses that are entertainment-oriented, such as movie theatres, music venues and even bookstores.”

Bookshop Santa Cruz, a locally-owned store that has been perched on Pacific Avenue since 1966, has seen both the benefits and downsides of doing business in a university town.

Casey Coonerty-Protti, sister of Ryan Coonerty, took over ownership of the shop from her father, who bought it in 1974. Coonerty-Protti explained that being in a university town has helped Bookshop Santa Cruz remain profitable amid the shift toward purchasing books online as well as an overall national decline in independent bookstores.

“For an independent bookseller to thrive it needs to be in an environment that’s debating ideas, and the students and professors bring that to the community,” she said.

However, Coonerty-Protti concedes that the presence of students means the presence of chain store competitors, such as Borders, which opened on Pacific Avenue about ten years ago.

“One segment where we lost sales [when Borders opened] was among students because they’re used to seeing a Borders in their hometown, so they go there,” Coonerty-Protti said. “I wish students would think about supporting businesses that are unique to Santa Cruz and that can help them become Santa Cruzan while they’re here, instead of a large multi-national corporation.”

In addition to the stimulus provided by student pocketbooks, a landmark 2007 agreement drafted by UCSC Chancellor George Blumenthal and then-Mayor Coonerty placed greater financial responsibility on the university to compensate for its massive strain on local resources.

“The university actually agreed to provide some subsidies for services like fire and water to the city, and also to participate in repairing some streets and providing transportation subsidies to Metro,” Tysseling said.

Coonerty explained that he and Blumenthal, who is the first UCSC chancellor to also be a longtime Santa Cruz resident, drafted the agreement with the intent of finding ways that the university could lessen its overall impact on the city.

“It’s not just about paying their fair share, it’s about actually doing things that improve life here,” Coonerty said. “[The city] gave UCSC incentives so the more traffic they reduce, the less they have to pay, and the more students they house on campus, the less they have to pay.”

Won’t you be my neighbor?

If goodwill is to prevail despite the drastically different lifestyles of residents and students, active engagement from both sides will undoubtedly be key.

In an attempt to foster community engagement, Santa Cruz Neighbors enlists the help of two student interns from the Good Neighbor Initiative, part of UCSC’s Office of Government and Community Relations. These interns run outreach programs and provide resources to students and residents alike.

Sarah Finder, a second-year student and Good Neighbor Initiative intern, focuses her efforts on educating students before they move off-campus.

“We target on-campus tenants and begin teaching them that when they move off-campus they have to be respectful and responsible,” Finder said. “It’s an ‘us and them’ situation and not an ‘us versus them’ anymore.”

Coonerty observed that, in fact, students and residents get along more often than they realize.

“I think the reality is that the tension is more loud,” he said. “If you have one interaction where someone says something negative to you because you’re a student, you’re going to remember the one negative one rather than the twenty positive ones. The positive ones are everyday events in which we all live harmoniously together.”

Chamber of Commerce director Tysseling agrees with the notion that it’s not all tension, all the time. He holds a more measured view of the daily interactions in Santa Cruz.

“Obviously when you live with a lot of people in a small space you’re going to have problems, but don’t mistake that for a general judgment about UC students,” he said. “It could just as easily be the farmer down the street that’s taking your parking space.”

On Sunday, October 4th Santa Cruz Neighbors and the Good Neighbor Initiative will host ‘Santa Cruz Neighbors Night Out’ — a series of block parties hosted throughout the city to promote friendliness and familiarity among all residents. http://www.santacruzneighbors.com

Commumity members come together to discuss the impact the university has on the city and on individuals, focusing on reining in college partying. Photo by Hilary Khteian.

Since the founding of UC Santa Cruz in 1965, the relationship between residents and students has been a tenuous one, to say the least.

To encourage a conversation between the two groups, the Santa Cruz Neighbors, an organization representing a network of local residents, hosted a meeting last Tuesday with UCSC Chancellor George Blumenthal to discuss city residents’ concerns with the university and its students.

“Instead of just rhetoric, this [meeting] shows demonstration by community and university members to have a relationship,” said Barry Shiller, associate vice chancellor for communication and public affairs. “It’s a time for us to talk about everything from parties to water conservation.”

Topics at the annual meeting included budget cuts, university traffic, water conservation and 4/20.

The main point of concern for neighbors, however, involved student living within the community and the problems residents face with loud parties and property maintenance.

“After one of these meetings I became aware of how huge of an issue parties are,” Blumenthal said. “I was really surprised to hear how prevalent they are.”

Over the past five years, Santa Cruz party ordinances have been installed that distribute escalating fines for houses warned multiple times for noise complaints, and the UC has increased funding for police patrol. Despite these actions, however, obtrusive student gatherings still pose problems for university neighbors.

June, a lower Western Drive resident who spoke at the meeting, was the first to bring up the topic of party ordinances at the meeting, saying that either another one needs to be implemented or the existing ones needs to be strengthened.

“I live next to a row of five houses that are occupied by students and things can really get out of hand,” June said.

Given the fact that certain properties routinely receive party-related complaints, a new ordinance is being put forward by the Santa Cruz Neighbors that would make landlords of houses rented by students more responsible for managing their dwellings.  

“It may be coming this summer or fall, but it’s mostly to have the landlords who are not paying attention to their properties to be involved in the consequences of not managing them,” said Deborah Elston, head of Santa Cruz Neighbors. “These houses would have regular inspections and owners would pay a fee using their property as a business.”

Neighbors present at the meeting showed much enthusiasm at this idea and agreed with the notion that the disruptive behavior is not a reflection of all student residents. 

At the meeting were two student interns with the Good Neighbors Initiative (GNI), a program that works with students planning to move off campus, instructing them on how to be responsible community members. 

The program started five years ago with the intent of addressing the issues voiced by neighbors living among students. According to student intern Tyler Pitts, the GNI holds workshops on campus where students are informed about everything from city ordinances to simple neighborly conduct.

“Some students can be really pleasant neighbors, but others can be absolute nightmares,” said one local resident present at the meeting.

At the end of the meeting one attendee brought up a recent City on a Hill Press column written in response to a fraternity party that took place a few weeks ago off Iowa Street.  Referring to the article, neighbors expressed that they feel discussions of how to coexist are as important between fellow student residents as they are between students and locals.

“We’re in this together, so we have to work it out together,” Elston said. “We all have to be at the table together and we have to have that partnership and openness to find solutions.”

Theta chi’s Luau Party resulted in rowdy behavior and the destruction of a car window. Photo by Lollie Brande.

As of right now, the way I’m feeling toward Theta Chi fraternity can best be summed up with one finger. With a passenger-side window and a repair bill of $256, it’s fair to say that I’m pretty heated.

Last Saturday, the Theta Chi fraternity threw a luau-themed day party at 161 Archer St. that took six police cars and two motorcycle cops to break up. By midafternoon, an estimated 200 students were in attendance, and most (if not all) of them were intoxicated. Once the party had been broken up, guests were left to drunkenly lurk around the neighborhood.

Meanwhile, residents and families of the area were furious about the noise, vandalism and disrespect Theta Chi’s festivity caused.

One community member reported walking outside with her 10-year-old son only to discover a girl peeing on her driveway. When she told the girl to stop, the girl gave her a dirty look and stumbled off.

Another reported that her children could hear all the drunken debauchery taking place nearly a block away, as well as a violent fight right outside her house, which resulted in four police cars, an ambulance and a fire truck being called to the scene.

Regardless of whether or not those directly involved in these incidents were Theta Chi affiliates, the host of the party must assume responsibility. The fact is that they held the party under inappropriate circumstances, putting families at risk of vandalism and violence.

“These narcissistic kids think that the sun rises when they wake and the sun sets when they sleep,” a resident* of the area said. She was absolutely livid, with a voice that quavered with rage. “They had the gall to tell me that I should have known this type of stuff would happen when I moved into a college town. How dare they!”

As university students, we represent UC Santa Cruz. We are ambassadors to the community. To enable and engage Theta Chi’s behavior not only severely damages the school’s reputation, but the campus’s place within the city as well.

Greek life is a privilege that should not be abused — as an organization, every fraternity and sorority has a responsibility to be courteous and respectful. Throwing a wild bash in the middle of a family neighborhood is not only irresponsible but rude and absolutely neglectful.

UC Santa Cruz prides itself on having Greek life that is different from other universities. We have a small Greek community that centers itself on responsible volunteering and community interaction. For Theta Chi to be so inconsiderate negatively affects the reputation of all fraternities and sororities and furthers the already-present tensions between students and the community.

If these guys took even a minute to consider those outside of their little sphere of comrades, someone might have stood up and said, “This is probably not the best neighborhood to host a party.” Sadly, it seems the members were incapable of even this simple thought. 

When attempts were made to reach him for comment, chapter president Eric Yao would not return my phone calls about the incidents. When the head of this chapter fails to acknowledge the negative effects of the organization’s party, the sense of moral and social integrity of the fraternity as a whole is called into question.

If Theta Chi ever wants to be respected by anyone other than their “brothers,” they need to grow up and face the music. The incidents surrounding their luau-themed alcoholfest impacted everyone around them, and unfortunately neighborhood members got caught in the crossfire.

This issue has much wider implications than drunk frat boys littering and tussling, but in the meantime my proposal is that Theta Chi submit public, individual apologies to the community, the university, and all of the fraternities and sororities in Santa Cruz. 

And by the way, Theta Chi: you owe me $256 for a broken window.

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*Names of residents have been withheld to protect their privacy.