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Students face Center City problems too
By RYAN HUTCHINS
Contributing Writer
PLATTSBURGH — I know it’s hard for some city residents to have sympathy the for likes of college students, but I think it shouldn’t be too hard in this case.
Chris Burroughs, a Plattsburgh State senior, knows about absentee landlords. He had an interesting (and for our purposes, nameless) one last school year.
One day, Burroughs, his roommates and the way-too-many others who lived in his building on Court Street came home to find a sign that told them to start packing their bags — the landlord, apparently, hadn’t paid the mortgage, and now they were about to be out on the street. A friend of mine was among the tenants.
Fortunately for everyone who lived there, a college professor purchased the home and has since been an acceptable landlord. But that’s just one, quirky example of the troubles that plague college housing.
Just talk to a few Plattsburgh State scholars who have called Center City home, and the stories start to percolate.
Mayor Don Kazprzak and City Councilor Chris Jackson attested to that last week. They joined the rest of the Plattsburgh City-College Coalition, a new group organized to improve relations between college students and residents, at a meeting with on campus.
OK, just two students came, but Kasprzak blamed that on bad marketing. The mayor, Jackson and City Building Inspector Rick Perry still engaged the students in a discussion about their rights as tenants.
And they encouraged students who have problem landlords to get help, either from someone at City Hall or from Plattsburgh State’s housing office.
“Even though you’re a student at Plattsburgh State, you’re a member of this community while you’re here,” Jackson, who also works as the school’s facilities financial manager, told the two students.
Good point, Chris.
