Town Gown

Tommy Wilson ascribes many motives to Councilman Dick DeCamp. The DeCamps have been friends of my family for a long time. Mr. DeCamp is not power- or money-hungry. In fact, he is a civil servant in the best sense. He wants to work for the people of Lexington. As a homeowner in his district and an alumna of UK, I fully support his efforts on behalf of his constituents.

Landlords are lazy and cheap. That's a problem. The Historic designation tries to address that problem. Lazy and cheap landlords look for ways to weasel around the requirements. Does that mean the Historic designation is wrong? I don't think so. I think it means that landlords are lazy and cheap. Let's hear more ideas to change that.

Not all, but many UK students are loud, drunk, and trashy. They trash the streets around UK every weekend. The photograph accompanying the article showed just one instance of one residence. It was disgusting.

Surely Ms. Reeves and Mr. Wilson are not saying that it's a "Good Thing" to allow the trashy students to destroy residences and entire streets. Yet nowhere in the article or the sidebar was a solution presented, except for a vague reference to "visionary leaders."

I applaud Mr. DeCamp for at least trying solutions, even if they are unpopular. I don't see Ms. Reeves or Mr. Wilson doing anything except making snide remarks.

Molly Stone

Ace covered the H1 overlay in the Aylesford neighborhood when it was proposed, and interviewed many homeowners, elected officials, and business owners about the problems it posed for the property values of non-temp residents (who'd have to watch neighboring rental properties collapse into the dust before repairs were made), along with prospective solutions that might do something to allay the aforementioned problems of "lazy and cheap landlords" and "trashy" residences, "destroyed" by students. It was railroaded through anyway, despite much cogent discussion and debate from the opposition, and the result is more "lazy and cheap landlords" who do less to keep up their properties now than they did before. Sometimes a solution may be deemed "unpopular" because the "solution" is stupid.

If students want to be recognized as citizens, more community involvement and respect must be expected of them (they could, for example, recycle bottles and cans instead of tossing them on our lawns). Likewise, If citizens want the students to behave like neighbors, they have to act a little neighborly too (and that probably doesn't mean involving the police every time you hear a stereo at 10 o'clock on a school night).


Alarmist Dribble

Why is it so difficult for Tommy Wilson to believe that the goal of the college town proposal is to revitalize the area? Is he bitter over the passing of the LAPP or does he just dislike politicians? It certainly was simplistic to allege that Decamp's reason for supporting this proposal is mainly political. This just diverts attention from the real issues of uncooperative landlords, inconsiderate neighbors, and a need for attracting businesses to this area.

The allegation that the purpose for the college town proposal (or the LAPP) is to push students out of the neighborhoods around UK is alarmist dribble. What should make students leave is the poor condition of much of the housing along with the very high rents, while there are many decent rental options around Lexington. Nowadays so many UK students have cars that living farther away from campus is a reasonable option-there are always alternative modes of transportation! And parking is a problem for EVERYONE at UK, employees as well as students. Agreeing to live in such poor conditions as the house on Woodland park shows lack of good judgment and self respect. If students refused to occupy those nearly uninhabitable properties, maybe the landlords would make the needed improvements. Most importantly, students must demand that UK construct new apartments and dorms!

So Mr. Wilson, instead of focusing energy on a misguided belief over Dick DeCamp's or even Lee Todd's motives, work on making UK and the landlords take responsibility in this issue!

Anne Marie Stamatiadis