Cal Poly official: SLO neighborhood problems require 'culture change'

A new effort to improve relations between permanent San Luis Obispo residents and their student-aged neighbors boils down to two words, according to a Cal Poly administrator: culture change.

“While this is a report filled with tasks with measurable outcomes … and recommended timelines, this effort is really about culture change in San Luis Obispo,” Keith Humphrey, Cal Poly’s vice president for student affairs, told the San Luis Obispo City Council on Tuesday evening. “And culture change is something that takes time.”

The City Council heard recommendations from a “civility working group” of Cal Poly and Cuesta College administrators, city staff, residents and students who have been brainstorming ways to improve the relationship between residents and student-aged neighbors.

At issue is improving “neighborhood wellness” in areas surrounding Cal Poly, addressing problems with noise, parking and large parties, among other issues.

Over the past dozen or more years, the neighborhoods surrounding the university slowly transformed from homes occupied by owners to more and more rental homes housing students. Some longtime residents have called it an exodus of permanent residents.

According to the 2010 census, in San Luis Obispo, 62 percent of available homes are rentals — well above the statewide average of 43 percent.

The council did not take action on the report the working group presented but could in the future consider some of the specific programs outlined in it, such as party registration and keg registration programs (the latter would allow police to determine who purchased a keg).

In addition, the council asked city staff to bring back its unruly-gathering ordinance for discussion, which will happen in late summer or early fall. Some local residents have pushed the council to review the effectiveness of the ordinance, which is intended to prevent substantial disturbances on private property in neighborhoods.

“Residents have tried engaging with their student neighbors hoping the interaction would result in more respectful behavior,” said Sandra Rowley of grassroots group Residents for Quality Neighborhoods. “We believe stricter enforcement should at least be tried.”

Community Development Director Derek Johnson said he also plans to return to the council in the late summer or early fall to discuss recommendations where the city would take a lead role.

Cal Poly, Cuesta College or the Student-Community Liaison Committee — a group that brings together students, residents and city officials — would work to implement others.

Other ideas in the report include:

San Luis Obispo resident Genevieve Czech said she wants Cal Poly President Jeffrey Armstrong to commit to building more on-campus housing as a priority so that “the burden on the neighborhoods can be redressed.”

Some of her student neighbors are charming and courteous, Czech said, “but what bothers my sense of propriety is the proportion.”

“If you have a transient turnover each year, I can’t keep track of their names, what they’re studying, whose car belongs to whom,” she said. “There isn’t a sense of consistency that’s needed to give a neighborhood a bit of strength and health.”

San Luis Obispo Mayor Jan Marx said in order to change the culture, an effort must also be made to address alcohol use.

“Alcohol is really right at the middle of a lot of these problems that we’re talking about,” she said.

It’s also important, she said, for more permanent or long-term residents to move back into some of the neighborhoods.

“The more it becomes segregated by age, the more we’re going to find this extreme party behavior like Isla Vista,” she said.

Councilman Dan Carpenter said he isn’t in favor of introducing new ordinances, but enforcing those already on the books.

Councilman John Ashbaugh said he envisions the party registration idea as an incentive-based program, but not as something that would be used just as “an additional hammer.”

He said he’s also skeptical “that we will be effective in changing the culture.”

“The reality is with diversity of rentals and owner-occupied homes side by side that we have a generational, biological difference between these generations,” he said.

This story was originally published May 19, 2015 at 10:54 PM with the headline "Cal Poly official: SLO neighborhood problems require 'culture change'."