You are here: Archive » Town and gown and Providence, Rhode Island. March, 2011

Town and gown: we can learn a lot from Providence, Rhode Island. 

During the election I said the greatest challenge facing Sydenham District was the flight of families from the residential area around Queen’s. At a September council meeting, a delegation reported similar problems around St. Lawrence College. One street was 85% students.

I believe a flight of families causing the closure of any of the three public schools in Sydenham (or any other) district would have dire consequences for all of Kingston.

As college and university enrollments expand generally, we are being confronted with a problem we cannot ignore. Students require places to live, but too heavy a concentration leads to ghettoisation. The loss of families, “eyes on the street,” contributes to the increase of petty crime, particularly around Christmas.

If Kingston is to remain an attractive place to live; if we are to overcome the reputation of “the place not to be like,” city council needs to provide leadership, addressing all the related concerns, and encouraging stakeholders to join us.

At the Sydenham District Association all candidates meeting in September, someone compared Kingston and Queen’s unfavourably with Providence, Rhode Island, and ivy league Brown University. As I know Providence, I decided to visit, and meet with various community leaders and did just that on November 23. I had meetings with Council President (a position similar to the Speaker of the House of Representatives) Peter Mancini, and Council Chief of Staff Tom Glavin; Providence Chief of Police, Colonel Dean Esserman and Dr. Margaret Klawunn, Brown University Vice President for Campus Life and Student Services.

We can learn from Providence.
Council President Mancini told me that in twenty years on council he had never heard of anything such as we are experiencing in Kingston. Providence College had been headed on a similar path to Queen’s with “red cup” parties with beer kegs, but alumni protests at the continuing negative publicity had prompted action.

We are fortunate that Queen’s Principal Woolf recognizes the problem. His decision not to have a fall homecoming before 2014, and his discussion of strong links with Kingston, that the city is not the “host” of Queen’s but rather its “home,” are very important.

The Council President also emphasized the need for the city to act using all its available tools, including by-laws, regulation and enforcement. I believe this must include housing and property standards, and fire safety. Colonel Esserman stressed the importance of bridge building with stakeholders, and the role of committees to achieve that. He reported an excellent working relationship with the chiefs of the five different university police forces. (He also expressed surprise at Queen’s pride in not having a campus police force.) Esserman said that the various university police regularly went with his officers to a home disturbance, and that students had a genuine “fear” of campus discipline. Brown Vice President Klawunn explained why. Every police complaint against a student was investigated at a minimum by a dean. If need be, a hearing was then held with the dean, a faculty member and the student. A finding was entered on an offender’s university record. Should that person apply to a post graduate program, such as law school or medicine, if Brown University was asked for a letter of reference, the record would be shared. In other words, there is a real consequence for disruptive actions.

Student housing is a common concern in both Providence and Kingston. Brown University provides on campus accommodation for 79% of its students. If third or fourth year students want to live off campus, they must have the permission of the university to do so. That is granted after attending a town gown relations seminar. Brown also prohibited students from living in a Portuguese neighbourhood, in order to respect its cultural identity.

Other Providence institutions do not have the same ability to house their students. In particular, the University of Rhode Island has a problem. The summer community of Narragansett became a favourite place for their students to rent homes for the winter. As a result student/permanent resident ratios developed similar to those we have in parts of Kingston. Increased local police enforcement has been effective. A URI student explained. The police put an orange sticker on houses deemed to be a public nuisance. While students might think this is “comical,” it does result in the house being watched much more closely.

Improved transit vital for students.
Many URI students have cars but Queen’s has a severe parking shortage. Driving to campus is not an option. If the city wants students to live beyond walking distance, I believe we have an obligation to provide an effective and reliable transit system that gets people where they want to go when they want to travel. We have started that reform, but it needs to be continued.

Further, if we do not want an excessive concentration around either Queen’s or St. Lawrence, the city must also support housing developments in other areas that meet the needs of students. I think there is room here for partnerships with others to provide mixed and affordable housing, for example along the Princess Street corridor in Williamsville. Kingston needs to act and as council is a level of government, it has a responsibility to provide leadership. The last council adopted (then) Councillor Gerretsen’s motion to establish a committee, larger than the current city/Queen’s working groups, to work together on issues. Principal Woolf’s comments suggest that at least Queen’s would be willing to join us. If that group is properly constituted, with members who are able to commit their organizations to specific actions, working together we can resolve our difficulties.

In light of the consequences, failure to act is not an option. I hope with my new colleagues, council will provide the necessary leadership.

I would welcome any comments and ideas you have about this issue. Please email me directly. Thanks.


613 - 549 - 1900
www.billglover.org
bglover@cityofkingston.ca


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