With students once again roaming the College Area, there’s not so much innate tension between generations as there is “residential anxiety,” said Scott Moomjian, a member of the College Area Community Council, when I chatted with him this morning.

Neighbors pay close attention to the tenant turnover, which ones are coming in, which ones are leaving.

“It is a feeling of general anxiety when the school year begins, and it’s because there are new waves of tenants going into single-family residences,” he said.

“Are they good students such that they will respect the neighborhood? But no matter what tenants go into the home, residents think, ‘OK, we have to brace for another year.”

Moomjian said he doesn’t believe College Area residents, for the most part, wish students were gone forever. They just don’t want so many of them living in each home.

“The problem gets a lot worse when you start increasing the number of students in a home,” he said. “When you have 8 or 9 students, it’s inevitable that you’re also going to have 8 or 9 friends, and when you have that many people there at one time, it lends itself to a good time.”

KELLY BENNETT

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