Slices of life in the McMaster-area party zone
Some students help neighbours; others urinate on houses
Firecrackers at four in the morning. A five-and-a-half-foot-tall ice penis on the lawn across the street one winter.
Realtors and speculators knocking on your door (to the point where, says Lynn Morandi, “I have to be rude”), wanting to buy your house and put 12 students in it.
Then, last Saturday, the beast with 2,000 bladders. A boozeborne babble of young people, like starlings suddenly blackening the sky, swooping down on Dalewood Avenue in unprecedented numbers — and like the birds uninhibited in their urinary behaviour.
It was McMaster Homecoming weekend.
Hundreds of young people in an enormous congestion of youthful public drinking and noisy revelry along this hub street of student rentals — Dalewood Avenue, south of Main Street.
Such is life, it seems, in a university housing enclave.
But, adds Lynn Morandi, “there’s a street presence here.” It’s not dull.
“And they (students) will help me get my lawn mower started or shovel the snow or I’ll lend them something. The vast majority are good. The cream of the crop.”
But the Dalewood party was a shock, says Lynn.
“But these mobs yelling. It seemed dangerous and I didn’t like them thinking there was nothing wrong with coming on our property, though some knew it was wrong. I heard one girl say, ‘My dad would kill me.’”
Some residents on and around Dalewood felt outrage and disgust.
Heli Stephenson is less sanguine than Lynn about living with student housing in the area, where she grew up.
“Those days, every house was a home with children, a great area to grow up in. My parents came to Canada after World War Two as displaced people from Estonia escaping communism. They raised me with strong values and respect for everyone.”
In the early ’80s, she and her husband moved to Dalewood Avenue when it was still great for f amily, she says. “But as older residents passed away, the houses were bought by investors and rented to students, probably parallelling the university expanding.”
Now, she says, there’s only one young family left on Dalewood; things are worse.
“Three years ago at 4 a.m., we were woken by fireworks, nonstop. I finally went outside and asked them to stop. They carried on shooting these fireworks including one aimed at me that landed at my feet.”
A spark started a fire that melted the siding on one side of a neighbour’s house, and charges were laid, she says.
The Dalewood party shocked her. The lawn damage and urination disgusted her.
“What occurred I have never seen before. There was one thing that really disturbed me while standing out front. A group of girls with some guys behind walked by being noisy. The girls were chanting ‘Stop Means Stop.’ I thought to myself, ‘You silly naive girls to use such a serious statement as a joke.’ As far as coexisting, I don’t think there’s an answer.”
Hamilton lawyer Craig Burley has lived in student housing and now he’s bringing up his kids in Ainslie Wood, and wouldn’t be anywhere else.
“Ainslie Wood is fantastic. There are trade-offs as in all neighbourhoods. It’s ideal for me because of the student profile. It suits me better than (suburbia).” It’s diverse, says Craig, a member of the Ainslie Wood Community Association.
“They (party organizers) should’ve applied for a street closure,” but he adds, “I didn’t see a direct danger to the public. There were some angry confrontations.” But the peace held.
“We were far worse (back then),” says Craig, a member of the Ainslie Wood Community Association.
“Now university students take it more seriously. It’s vastly more expensive and their lives (and employment futures) more precarious. Nothing I did back then would follow me around (on social media) the way it would today.”
That’s not how Heli sees it. She finds the students less respectful.
Better, worse or the same, Lynne has no plans to move.
Neither does Lester Krames. The retired University of Toronto psychology prof lives on Stroud, partly because as an Orthodox Jew he has to be in walking distance of a shul.
He was shocked but not surprised at the numbers at the Dalewood party. “Mac should’ve known. This happened at Brock.”
He says students get a bad rep because outsiders, nonstudents, prey on such parties, and indeed, covering the event last week, I noticed that. He says there are student rental houses occupied by nonstudents who like the party culture and the opportunity.
“Over the years, I have seen our neighbourhood evolve from residential to an extension of the campus. For the most part, students bring vitality to the neighbourhood.”
But Ira Rosen, president of the Ainslie Wood-Westdale Community Association, calls the student rental situation “brutal.” He lived on Haddon until a year ago.
“People walking and not realizing or caring how loud they are,” at all hours.
There’s also the garbage. “It attracts wildlife to the point where rabies is now a serious issue.
“What upset me most (about the Dalewood party) is the attitude that this is OK. This is not OK. This is grossly inappropriate.”
If a silver lining exists, perhaps it’s the fire being lit under all stakeholders to find ways to avoid a repetition, to keep things from getting like Waterloo and London, where Homecoming and fake HoCo parties attracted more than 10,000 each, with injuries reported.
Everyone’s on high alert — university, student union, police, community associations, residents and the students in the houses themselves.
Some, like Lester, have been critical of McMaster, which, he says, did a good job of cleaning up drinking and security on campus but by pushing it out into the community.
But, says MSU associate vicepresident municipal affairs Stephanie Bertolo, even if the university tried to pull some activity back onto campus, they can’t serve underage and they can’t serve underprice, part of the attraction of the street parties.
“We do take this very seriously,” says Sean Van Koughnett, dean of students. “Having fun is part of the university experience but most (rental housing) students themselves don’t want this. We’ve heard from them. ‘I don’t want this in my house,’ they say.”
Meetings are planned.
What upset me most is the attitude that this is OK. This is not OK. This is grossly inappropriate.
IRA ROSEN
AINSLIE WOOD-WESTDALE COMMUNITY ASSOCIATION