Editorial

EDITORIAL BOARD Editor in
Chief  Cuauhtemoc Ortega

Managing Editor
 Corey McEleney

Viewpoint Editor
 Cody Cass

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 Kelly Rayburn

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 Edward Chiao
Amy Frye
Derek Lazzaro
Robert Salonga
Amanda Schapel

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The North Village Improvement Committee, dedicated to cleaning
up Westwood, last week presented impractical proposals to deal with
students living in the village. Among these were punishing rowdy
residents by imposing academic penalties and going after sticker
manufacturers if any of their merchandise is found plastered on
public property.

The problem is UCLA cannot hold students’ academics
accountable for acts committed off campus ““ and the sticker
proposal is a clear violation of manufacturers’ first
amendment rights to free speech.

Property owners routinely claim they don’t want Westwood
to deteriorate into Isla Vista, which surrounds UC Santa Barbara
and is known for being a crazy party place. Instead, they want
Beverly Hills ““ which would be fine if Westwood didn’t
have 24,000 20-somethings making up a bulk of the local population.
A village with this kind of demographic makeup will never be able
to go toe-to-toe with a town as affluent and sedated as Beverly
Hills for the nicest in Los Angeles.

With that in mind, property owners and managers need to take a
second look at their expectations of the North Village. Instead of
berating students for the thrice-yearly midnight yell or for trash
strewn on the streets, a compromise should be reached. Students
would be much more likely to take good care of the neighborhood,
for instance, if they were solicited for input.

Ignoring students won’t help them feel attached to their
neighborhood, especially since they already have to deal with
expensive and often poorly maintained apartments which make their
Westwood experience a bitter one as it is. After all, homeowners
have succeeded in making Westwood less fun, virtually eliminating
dancing (see the Gypsy and Habibi cafes) and adult merchandise
(Zone d’Erotica … or Amour as they call it now). Remaining
local businesses have the student body to thank for keeping them
afloat ““ an economy with such an oppressive stance against
entertainment would flounder under normal circumstances.

At the same time, this doesn’t excuse students from taking
care of the neighborhood they reside in; regardless of the brevity
of their stay, everyone has a civic responsibility to their
community. The NVIC should invite students to meetings, but
students themselves should proactively attend the public gatherings
and voice their concerns and defend their interests. Whimsical
stories about Westwood’s golden years when students went to
class in shirt-and-tie get old fast, but there is some truth in
their message: students’ lack of respect for their
neighborhood has led to a run-down community.

More disturbing than Westwood’s lack of aesthetic appeal,
though, is the NVIC’s apparent disregard for students’
right to an education. To suggest penalizing them academically for
misbehavior in Westwood is no more outlandish than suggesting local
homeowners lose their property rights for unpaid parking
tickets.

Until homeowners start taking partial responsibility for the
problems plaguing Westwood and compromise on reasonable solutions
with students, couches will continue to find a home on Gayley
Avenue and no student will care.