When you live in Boston, a metropolis with one of the largest college student populations, seeing a student taking a jog on the Esplanade is as common as catching a cold during flu season. Students from Suffolk University, Northeastern University, Berklee College of Music and other institutions make up a large portion of residents living in Beantown. Students who come in September and leave in May have become a part of Boston’s character.
Last week, the Fenway Community Development Corporation asked Mayor Martin Walsh and the Boston Planning and Development Agency to slow down university development in the neighborhood, according to an article from Boston Herald.
Fenway is the home of many major private universities, more so than any other Boston neighborhood. The Fenway CDC said that freezing current university development projects would give them a chance to look at each project’s long-term effect, according to the article.
Current initiatives in the neighborhood include Northeastern’s proposal to lease spaces in the Christian Science Center and Emerson’s plan to transform a hostel into dorm space for students.
Though Boston is a special city, Fenway as a neighborhood is especially unique. Students filter through the businesses of Fenway on a daily basis, many of which came to the neighborhood because of the student population. While residents of Fenway want to be more involved in the process as their neighborhood is changing, as they should, the Fenway CDC should not ask for development to be stopped. In reality, updating the university buildings and dorms implanted in Fenway further evolves the neighborhood. Fenway has become so intertwined with colleges that rather than fighting their development, residents should be embracing the growth that academic institutions bring to the city.
Neither residents nor students are leaving the Boston area in the near future. These two sides must learn to coexist, grow with each other and build upon what the others can bring to the neighborhood. Without compromise, Boston will not live up to the stellar reputation it has managed to keep intact since its beginning.
Though students only stay here for a set amount of years, they still have a tremendous impact on the community. Students in this city have been dealing with one question for as long as there have been colleges in Boston — are we residents or merely visitors? Some students might take the opportunity and become immersed in the local culture, food, people and issues that the city face. Others may spend their four years in the library and their dorm room. Either way, there is no doubt that colleges and their students shape the city, for better or for worse.
That said, people who decide to live in Boston should anticipate and embrace the student population’s impact on the city. After all, living with students who are eager to explore the city is not the worst thing in the world.
