First they took away the only grocery store on the ASU campus. Then they robbed us of the right to climb our only "mountain" and paint our school's most recognizable symbol.
And now it's come to this.
Most ASU students may not know this, but a shadowy four-officer "party patrol" has begun patrolling the Tempe streets and issuing warnings to excessively loud house-partiers, essentially saying, "Cut out that racket, or the party's over."
And if a new addition to the Tempe City Code passes, they could append that warning with "until next semester."
The current law states that if the party patrol, comprised of Tempe Police officers, issues a warning to a disruptive house with five people or more in it and then must return within 12 hours, a fine of $1,000 will be assessed to the tenants.
Five people is a rockin' party? Some of us live in houses with more than five roommates; we'll have to be sure to keep our hair-dryers set on low, so Tempe police doesn't come a-knockin'.
Seems fair, right? Twelve hours is enough time to clean up the vomit, drag the spent keg out to the curb, get the passed-out hippies off your lawn and crash for eight hours. And then you're ready to start partying all over again.
But apparently somebody, whether it be city officials or unreasonable neighbors, decided they want the dispensable income that comes with college students without evidence of us actually living here.
In the next few weeks, the council plans to vote on a revision to the 'party-house ordinance' that would make it possible to fine landlords for the noisy exploits of their inebriated tenants. It might also change that post-warning probationary period from 12 hours to 120 days.
One hundred and twenty days is just about the length of a semester at ASU. Is that really a reasonable amount of time to wait between rockin' shindigs at one's bachelor (or bachelorette) pad? We at The State Press don't think so.
Every time we look around, it seems another part of what makes ASU a great school, and Tempe its college town, is disappearing. It started three years ago with the closure of Stabler's Market, the only grocery store to which penniless, car-less freshmen could walk. ASU offices now occupy its space in the defunct Tempe Center.
Last year, someone decided that students painting "the A" on Tempe Butte were disrupting the delicate natural balance of the three birds and two chipmunks that live there. Now, thanks to an ordinance making the mini-mountain a state preserve, police can issue tickets and make arrests for painting our beloved "A."
The Phoenix area is already one of the toughest places to have fun without spending money, so why is Tempe making that endeavor even tougher? We're not sure, but we don't like it.
It's time for the mayor, City Council and crotchety neighbors to realize that as long as ASU resides here, Tempe will always be a college town, complete with college students. It's time for them to stop punishing students for doing what they do best.
