A full-color map of the Arbor District, showing landlord-owned and owner-occupied properties, is now available on the Arbor District website.

Working with me, Christina Bearden-White created the map using data from the Tax Assessor’s office. Property ownership is also available on the site: one data set is organized by the Tax Assessor’s “Property Identification Number” (PIN), one is organized by owner, and one organizes the data by street.

Chris worked this school year as an Undergraduate Research Assistant. She is a History major and will be entering SIUC’s graduate program in History next fall. She also wrote a history of the neighborhood from the founding of Carbondale to WWII.

Chris has done a wonderful job. She has taken this project as her own and run with it.

Last year, at the initiative of Marjorie Morgan, two student interns interviewed neighborhood residents about the history of the District, and compiled a data base evaluating housing in the area. They were directed in their research by D. Gorton. That data will be published to the web, as well.

Several Ordinances before the City Council addressed these concerns, including one proposed Ordinance that would charge a licensing fee of $35 to each unit inpsected in the City of Carbondale. There are currently around 9,000 rental units, overwhelmingly student occupied. though there is a "mandatory" inspection program, it has not functioned in accordance with the law that mandates all units be inspected every three years.

The other proposal gives an incentive of $5,000 for each single family house that is converted from a rental to a private home.

At the Council meeting on November 6, members of the Arbor District spoke in favor of the proposals. The Council decided to create the "conversion program" and it was voted on affirmatively. The question of fees for rental inspections was debated by Council Members as well as landlords, residents and student renters. The proposal was passed in much the original form with 4 Council members voting in the affrmative. Mayor Cole voted for an alternative proposal and Steven Haynes voted no.

We live in Carbondale, a college town in a largely rural region of Southern Illinois. Outside our town, the scenic hills are still dotted with wooden barns and the peach and apple orchards which once made the region famous. Within our town, much of the pre-World War II housing still stands. It's a reminder of a time when neighborhoods were "walkable" and services were nearby...and cars were far more rare.

But, after World War II, Southern Illinois University expanded from a small regional college to a major research university. Across the United States sleepy college towns awoke to the heightened national interest in higher education following WWII. They all shared the problems of growth in the universities that we face. Similar issues have been dealt with in towns like Ames, Iowa and Albany, Georgia, Durham, North Carolina and Lawrence, Kansas. We are fortunate in that the internet now connects the neighborhood organizations of all those cities, and more.

There is an entire web magazine devoted to the subject:

http://www.collegetownlife.com/

We encourage a careful study of these sites, and the links that they afford.

http://www.owdna.org/siteindex.htm
They contain valuable examples of programs that have revitalized their historic neighborhoods. Duke directed the building of townhouses and separate housing for staff and faculty in a planned community. In Ames, Iowa, the University finances low cost loans for faculty and staff . In a number of college towns historic preservation is accomplished through revolving loans that are backed by the universities and communities.

Our Carbondale neighborhood is located between two of the largest employers in Southern Illinois, Carbondale Memorial Hospital and SIU. Living here dramatically drops the costs of transportation. Many people actually walk to work in reasonable weather! Grocery stores, dry cleaners and service stations are nearby. Precious time is saved.

But, we also face the continued degrading of housing stock by landlords as well as the inappropriate use of the single-family dwellings. These issues have been addressed many times by college town neighborhood associations. Here is an ordinance from W. Lafayette, Indiana, the home of Purdue. Might be a worthwhile idea for Carbondale:

http://www.city.west-lafayette.in.us/ government/ minutes/ord17-01.htm