In Morgantown, It's Not Your Father's Student Housing Any Longer (Fairmont: apartment complex, leasing)

[CTMountaineer]

New housing projects are springing up and gradually replacing the old student ghettoes. These are private developments with no direct connection to The University, and they offer first rate amenities.

This one being constructed at University Town Center in Granville will be completed for Fall 2012, and is catering to students from WVU, Fairmont State, and Waynesburg Universities. Complete with transportation to and from classes, handy access to shops, theaters, and restaurants, a beautiful outdoor swimming pool and exercise facilities, it is adding to an amazing array of housing opportunities for students in the Morgantown area.

Article - The Domain complex to be ready in fall 2012

[cry_havoc]

Originally Posted by CTMountaineer

New housing projects are springing up and gradually replacing the old student ghettoes. These are private developments with no direct connection to The University, and they offer first rate amenities.

This one being constructed at University Town Center in Granville will be completed for Fall 2012, and is catering to students from WVU, Fairmont State, and Waynesburg Universities. Complete with transportation to and from classes, handy access to shops, theaters, and restaurants, a beautiful outdoor swimming pool and exercise facilities, it is adding to an amazing array of housing opportunities for students in the Morgantown area.

Article - The Domain complex to be ready in fall 2012

How sad. Those old slums had characters and were great for the student culture. These new boring and generic apartments will not provide students with the same experience I got when I was in school. Sure they might be nicer, have a pool, and a starbucks in them but they will never see the Grant Ave Block Parties. The houses with basement art on the walls going from the 70s.

Let me give you an example. My friends rented this house and in the past it was a hippy house for decades called Tiki house. The whole basement had murals on it. The people who lived there also blew glass, and hanging on the ceiling were dozens of pieces of blown glass.

Much harder to throw a big gathering in an apartment than an apartment.

I see this as a negative development. The student ghetto is changing from a unique and vibrant place to anytown USA>

[CTMountaineer]

There is a movement afoot to shed the party image of past years in favor of a more academic character. I can see pros and cons to that develpement, but nobody can deny the trend is making Morgantown a nicer city.

[cry_havoc]

Originally Posted by CTMountaineer

There is a movement afoot to shed the party image of past years in favor of a more academic character. I can see pros and cons to that develpement, but nobody can deny the trend is making Morgantown a nicer city.

They are trying to change the culture of Morgantown. I am against it. They can increase its academic character while still keeping the festive atmosphere.

I am also not sure it is making Morgantown nicer. Sure those old houses were dumps, but these new apartment buildings are generic cookie cutter McBuildings. They scream, "suburban sprawl." They arent making Morgantown nicer, they are just making it more boring.

When I went to school living in a dump was part of the student experience and we loved it. Getting a nice apartment with a pool was something you did when you graduated school and became a yuppie. I guess todays youth demand more.

[drs72]

Originally Posted by cry_havoc

They are trying to change the culture of Morgantown. I am against it. They can increase its academic character while still keeping the festive atmosphere.

I am also not sure it is making Morgantown nicer. Sure those old houses were dumps, but these new apartment buildings are generic cookie cutter McBuildings. They scream, "suburban sprawl." They arent making Morgantown nicer, they are just making it more boring.

When I went to school living in a dump was part of the student experience and we loved it. Getting a nice apartment with a pool was something you did when you graduated school and became a yuppie. I guess todays youth demand more.

Agree 1000%! I made the mistake of signing a lease at one of these big complexes and it has been a terrible mistake. They lure you in with their inclusive rent, free shuttles, and shiny websites. What they don't tell you is how cheaply built these places are, how they don't maintain them, how unreliable their shuttles are, how much they add to our traffic problem, and how you feel so disconnected from the university and campus life living way out there. I'm tired of wasting my gas sitting in traffic during my daily commute back and forth to campus. Yes, it's only a few miles, but it makes all the difference in the world when it inhibits your taking part in all there is to do downtown. I tell every freshman I meet to find a place close to campus when they leave the dorms because these complexes really aren't worth it. Unfortunately, a lot of my friends have been swayed by this new place. Personally, I'm trying to find a good landlord with some decent properties downtown for next year (my lease runs out at the end of July). The only way I'll sign on with another one of these complexes is if I'm really in a bind (can't find good roommates, etc.). On another note, no matter how reliable the shuttle is with this new complex, I wouldn't expect overall ridership to be much better than abysmal (at least based on the existing complexes). Traffic in and out of UTC is already bad but it will be an absolute nightmare once this place is up and running.

[cry_havoc]

Originally Posted by drs72

Agree 1000%! I made the mistake of signing a lease at one of these big complexes and it has been a terrible mistake. They lure you in with their inclusive rent, free shuttles, and shiny websites. What they don't tell you is how cheaply built these places are, how they don't maintain them, how unreliable their shuttles are, how much they add to our traffic problem, and how you feel so disconnected from the university and campus life living way out there. I'm tired of wasting my gas sitting in traffic during my daily commute back and forth to campus. Yes, it's only a few miles, but it makes all the difference in the world when it inhibits your taking part in all there is to do downtown. I tell every freshman I meet to find a place close to campus when they leave the dorms because these complexes really aren't worth it. Unfortunately, a lot of my friends have been swayed by this new place. Personally, I'm trying to find a good landlord with some decent properties downtown for next year (my lease runs out at the end of July). The only way I'll sign on with another one of these complexes is if I'm really in a bind (can't find good roommates, etc.). On another note, no matter how reliable the shuttle is with this new complex, I wouldn't expect overall ridership to be much better than abysmal (at least based on the existing complexes). Traffic in and out of UTC is already bad but it will be an absolute nightmare once this place is up and running.

Exactly. I have lived in an apartment complex close to campus, not a nice one though, and in slummy houses. The slum housing was a MUCH better experience. You really get to know your neighbors and there is character to the neighborhood. Those apartments they are all the same and are just good for living.

I realize many Freshman are not used to living in old run down places, but it is a much better experience than living in those giant box buildings run by people who just want your money and dont care about you.

Check out South Park. They have some good rates on good houses in that area, and you can still walk to school.

[WVUPharm2007]

So...more student debt? Eventually the predatory nature of college expenses will catch up to us all. This stuff is getting ridiculous. Housing used to be crap for a reason...now we just make it the norm to put kids tens, if not hundreds of dollars, into debt. A whole generation into debt slavery.

[drs72]

Originally Posted by WVUPharm2007

So...more student debt? Eventually the predatory nature of college expenses will catch up to us all. This stuff is getting ridiculous. Housing used to be crap for a reason...now we just make it the norm to put kids tens, if not hundreds of dollars, into debt. A whole generation into debt slavery.

Actually, most of these big complexes tend to be cheaper than a lot of the crappy houses close to campus. That's part of how they persuade a lot of residents to move there in spite of their grossly inconvenient locations---not to mention that utilities are included. I obviously don't like these places (as seen in my post above), but I will give them that. On the topic of student debt becoming the norm, I know that situation all too well as I'm borrowing upwards of 20,000 per year to go here. It's depressing to think about.

[cry_havoc]

Originally Posted by drs72

Actually, most of these big complexes tend to be cheaper than a lot of the crappy houses close to campus. That's part of how they persuade a lot of residents to move there in spite of their grossly inconvenient locations---not to mention that utilities are included. I obviously don't like these places (as seen in my post above), but I will give them that. On the topic of student debt becoming the norm, I know that situation all too well as I'm borrowing upwards of 20,000 per year to go here. It's depressing to think about.

Im going to have to disagree with you. Most of the complexes are MUCH more expensive than renting an an old house. Ive lived within walking distance to school paying less than $400 per person with 1 roommate. For those big apartments they charge you per room a lot of the time sometimes the amount per room cost almost as much as the total price for a 2 or 3 bedroom house. Perhaps if you lived far from campus the costs might be competitive with old houses near to campus.

[CTMountaineer]

Young people today have different attitudes than did earlier generations. They have not grown up with responsibility as a guideline. For the most part, they have not earned even basic expense money with part time jobs because most of those have gone to illegal aliens in the larger population areas. The result is they have had everything handed to them by their ever more impoverished middle class parents.

They simply don't know the meaning of sacrifice any longer, and expect the good life to continue indefinitely. Increasingly, they are less willing to live in the dumps of old and are demanding conditions as good as or better than they had in earlier years. It's a basic fact of life now, and due to elitist greed, and policies geared to benefit them, the rest of us are basically powerless to change it. All we can do is adapt and try to compensate as best we can. The super rich have figured out yet another way to benefit as they are building the new complexes to capitalize on the situation.

In Morgantown, that has been exclusively a private matter but there are some institutions that have so extended themselves financially in other areas that they are actually bringing the money guys into their dormatory system as "partners" in the money making methodology. Rather than ivy covered halls, they are allowing developers to construct modern (and less substantially built) dorms and leasing them back to the schools at inflated rates while shoving their new students into them at higher rents.

As with anything, there is usually a flip side and the developments are not entirely a bad thing. The accomodations are better than previously offered, and they are leading to the demise of some blighted areas in favor of more upscale buildings. The fact that students end up owing a house payment when they graduate these days doesn't phase folks who are used to having their government (at all levels) slap massive debt loads on their grandchildren to advance short sighted special interest projects that benefit mostly the very rich.

The key to making the most of the situation in Morgantown will be efforts to get the state to live up to its infrastructure responsibilities here. With an adequate local highway structure and improvements in mass transit, we can find some benefit to these developments. Make no mistake though... we very much need to start to elect populist oriented politicians to office or things will get a lot worse before they get better economically. That goes for both liberals and conservatives. We need to find a way to stop electing pompous, butt headed, inbred elitists to govern us.