Mattresses atop cars, stacked crates being carried into dorms, large groups of freshman making their way down narrow streets in search of the place to be.
Back to school is here for college students who will call Riverdale home, at least for a few years. To those who are new to the area, we extend a big welcome — and a small warning.
This neighborhood is not only a place for you to learn, have fun and leave. For many people it is home. Permanently.
Manhattan College’s yet-to-be-completed five-story, 67,000-square-foot Student Commons on Waldo Avenue may have you psyched, but it has raised the hackles of scores of people who temporarily lost space on the street where they were accustomed to parking or whose views it will obstruct.
“I’m concerned about what it could mean for the neighborhood, primarily aesthetically and congestion wise,” said Waldo Avenue resident Doris Matt, when the school announced the construction in September 2010.
The Majestic, a building that has become a common crash pad for students, was recently added to the Housing Preservation and Development’s Proactive Preservation program, meaning the city has snatched it from the clutches of a neglectful landlord so that the building might be brought up to a livable standard.
This was done only after much advocacy on the part of tenants, who may be less than pleased if you trash the hallways and dump beer bottles in the courtyard.
Each year around this time we get calls, letters and hear complaints about how your carefree fun bothers those around you.
They complain about your litter, your noise and your lack of awareness that you are spending your party years where many others are trying to enjoy their retirements, raise their kids and enjoy a little peace and quiet.
That’s not to say you don’t have rights, too. Riverdalians would be wise to acknowledge the amount of local commerce, intellectual and artistic energy that you bring to the area.
And everyone would contribute to the harmony of this rather peaceful neighborhood if they would only remember that they are not alone in it.
