Bloomberg’s City Lab runs an article about the economic impact on college towns with all the students sent home to study online and to not share the Covid-19 in big, drunken parties. Bars, restaurants, and landlords are all impacted negatively, as are supermarkets, gas stations, and clothiers.
Let me share with you an evolution that happened at my undergraduate campus after I left. It could presage some of what’s in store for college towns everywhere.
When I attended San Jose State College (now University) it was a party school. Young people from all over CA came there to get a bachelors degree, and have a good time within easy driving distance of the San Francisco night spots and the Santa Cruz beaches. All this, while being away from home and still paying instate fees. I liked it a lot.
There were a few dorms but most students - seeking freedom to party - lived in newer apartments, Greek houses and old Victorians and bungalows converted to rooming houses spread around the three sides of the campus that didn’t run up against downtown San Jose.
When the Free Speech and Filthy Speech movements hit Berkeley and were publicized everywhere, they also if somewhat later hit SJSC with only local publicity. This proved a buzzkill, and the party was over. Political and anti-war activism wasn’t what the typical party school undergrad sought.
Since San Jose State was then one of 16 nominally similar campuses scattered the length of the state, and was no longer a fun place to go, they stayed home or went instead to the Chico, Humboldt and San Diego campuses. These became the new party schools where one could get away from parents and still pay in-state tuition and fees.
The owners of all those old houses and apartment buildings around the San Jose campus lost student renters and instead rented to poor people - illegal immigrants, welfare mothers and their hoodlum boyfriends. The campus neighborhoods deteriorated and became markedly less safe which further drove away those tempted to live near campus.
San Jose State transitioned into a commuter campus, built parking garages, and survived. The neighborhoods surrounding it? Not so much.
All this is ancient history, but something similar could come out of the Covid-19 trauma. Landlords with empty units, desperate for income to meet mortgages, taxes and upkeep costs, choose to rent to whoever will accept high density/low cost housing. Doing so can seriously change the nature of campus communities, perhaps in ways that cannot easily be reversed.
