The West University Neighborhood is living up to its name more than ever, new Census data show. People ages 18 to 24 comprise more than 60 percent of the neighborhood population, and in some parts more than three-fourths of the population fall within the traditional student age — more than any other area in Eugene and Springfield, according to the Census 2000 numbers.
And the pond of Ducks is getting continuously more crowded. The concentration of 18- to-24-year-olds has increased by about 3 percent every decade in every corner of the neighborhood since 1970. Many residents said they flock to the area out of necessity. The heavily bike-, foot- and bus-bound students say they need the short campus commute, especially those working late jobs or studying past midnight in the Knight Library.
But the University is expected to admit a record number of students for the second year in a row this fall. Simultaneously, vacancy rates in the neighborhood are at record-low single-digit levels, according to Duncan and Brown, a local company that studies housing trends in Eugene. Apartments are also scarce in the Duck’s Village, University Commons and Chase Village complexes built near Autzen Stadium about two miles from campus by private companies in the late 1990s.
The combination has administrators worried that it will be harder than ever for students to find a house or apartment in the campus’ backyard.
“My impression is that next fall is going to be pretty tight,” University Housing Director Mike Eyster said. “It’s going to be a real problem in the community.”
Fall enrollment is expected to surpass 20,000, due in part to large freshman classes over the past two years.
Associate Vice President Anne Leavitt said she has already seen students heading as far as Springfield or the Whiteaker neighborhood where the rents are lower but the commute is longer, and she said the University is working with Lane Transit District to make sure bus routes run through student areas.
Jeff Osanka, a spokesman and former chairman of the Fairmount Neighborhood Association, said many students also are heading for property east of campus. Rents are higher, but the neighborhood has fewer houses, bigger lawns and a traditional neighborhood feel.
“It’s a different, quieter atmosphere,” Osanka said. “We want and welcome students to move into our neighborhood.”
But many West University Neighborhood residents said the combination of campus proximity and affordable rents is an advantage that express bus routes and larger front yards can’t trump.
“Location played a huge factor, probably even more so than who I was going to be living with.” said junior Derek Bell, who will live next year with a roommate in an apartment on 18th Avenue across from Hayward Field.
Bell, who spent the past two years as a resident assistant, said he would have kept his job for a third year if he couldn’t rent a place in the neighborhood.
“Everyone has a car, it seems sometimes, and parking is so limited that it’s really hard to find a spot,” he added.
Senior Martha Grover has lived in the West University Neighborhood for almost two years and works at a market in downtown Eugene to help pay for school. She said classes and homework consume enough of her day, and biking two miles or waiting for the bus would be a massive inconvenience.
“Basically, the only reason I live here is because of the convenience,” Grover said.
But Bell, and many other residents, said location is not the only deciding factor. The neighborhood’s atmosphere is also a major draw. The area is high-density with little space between houses and apartment complexes, adding to the close-knit social atmosphere.
At night, some people go from party to party, others bump into friends on the street and make plans like friends would if they lived in a small town. Bell said he’s looking forward to walking half a block to see what his friends are doing on a Friday night — instead of them being just a few feet away in another room. He adds that he’ll appreciate the extra control over his privacy.
“I’m getting older, and all the freshmen are still 18,” Bell said.
When the weather is nice during the day, students relax on porches, balconies and yards, studying or chatting. They sit on rickety plastic furniture, or recliners and couches they purchased at nearby garage sales — or simply claimed from the side of the road after other students moved out and abandoned the furniture.
But Grover said the social life is the biggest drawback to her time in the neighborhood, and she’s looking forward to leaving.
“I’m a country girl, so the biggest problem is the traffic,” Grover said. “Both foot and car traffic.”
She said she’s had to deal with a number of bizarre invasions of her privacy, including the time she and her two roommates came home last month and found a couple having sex in her garage — or Friday night when a massive party turned into a riot 100 feet from her front door.
Grover said the two amorous lovers politely and apologetically left when she found them, but there was nothing she could do but watch as riots charged and fled up and down her street.
Eyster agreed that, regardless of the drawbacks, students are going to want to live as close to campus as possible, and he thinks the West University Neighborhood can expand. He said property owners need to take the initiative. The area is high-density and much of the property is old and could be torn down, making way for larger apartment buildings. Eyster said national companies like the ones that built Duck’s Village and the University Commons could also renovate the area.
“All it would require is for someone to buy the property,” he said.
In the meantime, Leavitt said the University is looking at institutional changes it can make that would have an effect on rental rates, such as expansion of LTD express routes to campus.
She said there could be unintended benefits from University President Dave Frohnmayer’s May 20 decision that all Greek houses must achieve higher academic standards and have alcohol and drug free housing by December to remain affiliated with the University. She said once Greek houses adhere to Frohnmayer’s new standards, administrators will be more comfortable suggesting the Greek system as a housing option, taking some pressure off the rental property in the neighborhood and helping the Greek chapters improve their recruitment and membership, which has been down over the past few years.
“I would really like our Greek houses to be at a place we can recommend to people who want to live with others but don’t want to live in a full apartment,” she said, adding that many administrators also want to build a new residence hall as soon as possible to house the large incoming freshman classes.
Leavitt is part of the 17-member Enrollment Management Council, a group that analyzes enrollment figures and makes suggestions for how the school should handle the ebb and flow of students.
But so far, the council has focused solely on how the increased student population will affect the availability of classrooms, professor offices and public computer terminals. The group hasn’t said who should work on how enrollment affects housing in the West University Neighborhood or any part of Eugene.
“You have to ask, ‘Is that even part of the institutional mission?’” said Associate Vice President Jim Buch, the chairman of the committee.
Eyster said he wouldn’t be surprised if other national companies are looking at building more property like Duck’s Village and the University Commons, which would be attractive to some West University residents with the ability to commute to campus. Eyster added that he hasn’t heard of any specific companies with their eyes on Eugene, but “I’d be surprised if there aren’t any.”
“They can see this bulge or boom just like anybody else,” Leavitt said.
E-mail managing editor Jeremy Lang at < A HREF=”mailto:[email protected]”> [email protected].