I understand that he probably has a tough job, making up inane ordinances and all, but there are more important issues here.

There is no question about how much I love the East Side. It basically goes without saying.

I’m worried though. The East Side has an alderman who seems to have a strong dislike for most of the people in his district. Ald. Mike D’Amato doesn’t like students and this is obvious from his actions.

While there have been problems with residents and students coexisting basically since the inception of the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, it seems like D’Amato just wants the students out of the East Side. D’Amato has long been criticized by students for his unfair treatment of them.

I used to live two blocks from campus. It was incredibly convenient and I really lucked out with the neighborhood I was in. We had families and students all living together on the same block with very little problems.

In fact, it was one of the families on the block that caused the most problems but we need not get into their issues here. One day as I was walking to class, I noticed that there weren’t any cars on the street. I looked back and saw that my block still had cars on it, but this block was curiously vacant.

Then I saw a girl crying on the curb and talking on her cell phone. Her car had been towed. I quickly walked back to my house, moved my car and was upset about the parking ticket I received but realized I was very lucky not to have had my car towed.

Street sweeping is ridiculous. The streets all look just as trash-filled after street sweeping as they did the day before. It’s incredibly inconvenient and the inconvenience is primarily placed on students.

To me the kicker that further solidifies my belief in D’Amato disliking students is his proposed rezoning of UWM to make it so students cannot live within 400 feet of each other. That’s a lot of feet!

We are all aware of how hard it can be to find a place to live, but can you imagine if we had to live that far away from each other? We could all move to Riverwest, which D’Amato would probably love because he’d finally be getting some of us out of his district.

I understand that he probably has a tough job, making up inane ordinances and all, but there are more important issues here. There needs to be an effort between the students (and a real effort, we can’t do it half-assed) and residents to find a way to coexist.

And not merely coexist — actually get along. I’ve been on both sides, I’ve been the irate neighbor trying to get some sleep and I’ve also been the obnoxious partier. It can work. I seriously believe that it can.

So instead of D’Amato alienating students, perhaps he should understand their side. Students are an integral part of the East Side — they always have been and they always will be — as are the residents.

There’s got to be a way for a functioning symbiotic relationship between the two. Because before you know it, D’Amato will get his way and we won’t have the East Side to call home anymore.

> Comments