The Ugly Realities of UW Life

[GatsbyGatz]

Originally Posted by SaltyDawg

I'm approaching 100% certainty that this is the least informative, most troll-tastic thread in Seattle City-Data history.

Why do you say that? Is it possibly because conversation in this thread has degraded into comparing the U District with Soviet Russia...

[Garfunkle524]

Originally Posted by GatsbyGatz

Why do you say that? Is it possibly because conversation in this thread has degraded into comparing the U District with Soviet Russia...

In Soviet Russia, University studies YOU!

[Ruth4Truth]

Originally Posted by RotseCherut

Anyhow, claiming that life was better in Communist Soviet Union seems very awkward..

I never claimed that. Calm down. All I said was that the apartments in Russia are much nicer than apartments I've seen in the US, and that includes the "slum lord" apartments in the U District.

The U district has decent apartments, but they tend to be (relatively) newer construction in dedicated apartment buildings (vs. older homes that were subdivided into apts.) over by the freeway.

[Blackhawk4440]

Ruth:
It's true that is some decent (though overpriced) apartments in the U-District, but the area is still, overall, a slum. In the link above, the City didn't even start inspecting rental houses until less than 2 years ago (something real world-class cities have been doing since, oh about the 1920s).

I was in the U-District today: the Seattle defenders who want to complain about trolls, should check out the human garbage camping out all over University Avenue. Those are the kinds of trolls they should be worried about---but they'd rather have their heads in the sand!

[Ruth4Truth]

Originally Posted by Blackhawk4440

Ruth:
It's true that is some decent (though overpriced) apartments in the U-District, but the area is still, overall, a slum. In the link above, the City didn't even start inspecting rental houses until less than 2 years ago (something real world-class cities have been doing since, oh about the 1920s).

I was in the U-District today: the Seattle defenders who want to complain about trolls, should check out the human garbage camping out all over University Avenue. Those are the kinds of trolls they should be worried about---but they'd rather have their heads in the sand!

I wish someone could provide us with an analysis of why U-Districts went downhill around the US after the 60's. Was it the gradual encroachment of drug activity? The same thing happened at U of O, UC Berkeley, and UNM in Albuquerque. I don't know about other locations.

Well, "decent" apartments means modern, and decent in appearance. I've heard they're cheaply built--thin walls, not well-insulated. But I don't know what they're like to live in.

[BellevueNative]

My husband lived in Moscow for a year when he was in college in the 80s, and he compares it to a war zone. We were in Africa this year and he said it was cleaner and more luxurious than his apartment in the Soviet Union. His experience in Moscow was traumatizing - he was attacked twice on the street by thugs wielding knives (one time was beaten unconscious), his apartment went through long periods with no hot water or electricity, there was no refrigeration (but really that was OK since there were no fresh vegetables or meats anyway), and he slept on a towel on the floor because someone had stolen the mattresses before he and his fellow student roommates arrived. It was so bad that one of the students in the exchange with him lasted only a week before he decided to go home.

The University District is known for having overpriced dumpy apartments, like lots of college neighborhoods. But I wouldn't call it a slum. Isla Vista, home of UC Santa Barbara, is pretty nasty, as are many apartment buildings where students from USC and UCLA live. Half of the time it's because the students are the ones who've made it that way.

[Ruth4Truth]

Originally Posted by BellevueNative

My husband lived in Moscow for a year when he was in college in the 80s, and he compares it to a war zone. We were in Africa this year and he said it was cleaner and more luxurious than his apartment in the Soviet Union. His experience in Moscow was traumatizing - he was attacked twice on the street by thugs wielding knives (one time was beaten unconscious), his apartment went through long periods with no hot water or electricity, there was no refrigeration (but really that was OK since there were no fresh vegetables or meats anyway), and he slept on a towel on the floor because someone had stolen the mattresses before he and his fellow student roommates arrived. It was so bad that one of the students in the exchange with him lasted only a week before he decided to go home.

That sounds horrendous! Is your husband a person of color? I can't imagine why else he'd be attacked. That's a serious problem in Western Russia, though I didn't know violence against foreigners was happening back in the 80's. I thought the police were still strict and on the ball back then.

Right, they do turn off the hot water for the summers. I don't know why the electricity would be off. It sounds like the dorm/student housing he was in was a target for theft and all kinds of problems. So sorry, BellevueNative. The dorm I stayed in didn't have those problems, but the university consortium that set up the program back in 1971 kept a close eye on things, and there were always a couple of professors from the US living there with us.

[BellevueNative]

Originally Posted by Ruth4Truth

That sounds horrendous! Is your husband a person of color? I can't imagine why else he'd be attacked. That's a serious problem in Western Russia, though I didn't know violence against foreigners was happening back in the 80's. I thought the police were still strict and on the ball back then.

Right, they do turn off the hot water for the summers. I don't know why the electricity would be off. It sounds like the dorm/student housing he was in was a target for theft and all kinds of problems. So sorry, BellevueNative. The dorm I stayed in didn't have those problems, but the university consortium that set up the program back in 1971 kept a close eye on things, and there were always a couple of professors from the US living there with us.

Nope, he's an average white male, 6'0''. It was the end days of the Cold War, so there were a lot of desperate people.

[Ruth4Truth]

Originally Posted by BellevueNative

Nope, he's an average white male, 6'0''. It was the end days of the Cold War, so there were a lot of desperate people.

I had no idea. I passed through Moscow for a couple of days during the putsch, on my way east, and saw no hint of problems. But passing through isn't living there. Well, your husband was there during an unusual time.