Unbearable Neighbors

Recipe for hard feelings: Take one small neighborhood. Add a bunch of obnoxious college students (any brand will do, all college students are obnoxious). Add some crotchety old farts that have lived there since Sam Houson was governor. Mix in a generous helping of loud music and loud cars. The result is a lot of hard feelings down in Waco. Residents along Gurley Avenue are not too happy about their new neighbors. Several duplexes have been built along the old street, attracting students from the nearby Baylor University.

According to the Waco Tribune-Herald, students of the former baptist university have been getting on the nerves of their senior citizen neighbors big time. The neighbors complain that the students make too much noise, cause traffic problems and strew garbage everywhere. According to the Trib, one of the loudest complainers is Bill Braden. Mr. Bill says all the noise and congestion forced his momma to have to leave her place on Third Street where she had lived since the late 1920s. He moved her into a nursing home last fall. I did some figuring. If she moved into the home as an adult and has been there since the late 20's, that means Bill's Momma is in her early 90's. Bill, I'd say it was about time, regardless of whether she was a fan of the kid's rap music or not.

Residents have complained to the city, which is making plans to ban parking along some of the streets in an effort to reduce the number of party animals at the duplexes. As far as the university efforts to help? Well, Baylor Department of Public Safety Chief Jim Doak said the neighborhood should count their blessings. Chief Doak says that each meeting he goes to with other police chiefs in the Big 12 Conference, leave him grateful to be at the nominally Christian institution. He told the Trib, most schools have much worse problems, and noted that the University of Colorado has its own SWAT team.