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Is this more common in the US? Because in my country it seems to be the absolute opposite. The permanent residents (or the locals as we call them) are extremely

by pkd 9y ago

Is this more common in the US? Because in my country it seems to be the absolute opposite. The permanent residents (or the locals as we call them) are extremely apathetic towards the students. Whereas the students (me included) absolutely fell in love with the place and find it hard to leave. The locals also take advantage of the relative wealthiness of the students (higher education is not cheap) and you will find them skirting rules everywhere: autos don't run by meter, you are charged extra for cold bottles of soft drinks, restaurants and pubs are extra pricey and so are the rents - all this compared to a bigger non-university town just 5 kms away.

lotsofpulp 9y ago
Unless vendors are discriminating against customers, I don't understand which rules are being skirted in your examples. Higher demand should cause higher prices (or more vendors, but that requires prices to reach a certain amount first).
- pkd 9y ago
  Skirting rules means exactly that - skirting rules. You are not supposed to sell things at a price higher than what is marked as the MRP - yet that is the norm with soft drinks of any kind. Taxis have a meter attached to them and they have to use it to calculate fares but the drivers here don't even bother to switch the meters on. The police is also apathetic. This isn't capitalism I am talking about.
neaden 9y ago
I grew up in a college town (a large state land grand university) and this isn't really how I perceived things. The complaints were more about college students littering, drinking too much, or playing loud music.
panglott 9y ago
There are different kinds of "college towns" in the US. Boston is a big college town because it has several of the nation's most important/prestigious institutions of higher education—but it's also a distinctive and vibrant city in its own right, with a unique history, culture, built environment. New York is similar. But many of the state universities and land grant universities, especially in the West, put the state's largest and most important school in a small and otherwise unremarkable town. Norman, Oklahoma, has a population of 110k and the University of Oklahoma, which has enrollment of 30k. Lawrence, Kansas, has a population of 87k and the University of Kansas, which has enrollment of 28k. West Lafayette, Indiana, has a population of 29k and Purdue University, which has enrollment of 40k. Bloomington, Indiana, has a population of 84k and the main campus of Indiana University, which has enrollment of 49k. These are all nice little towns, but they are all relatively small towns with small enconomies, and there's just a limited number of college graduates they can absorb. They usually have local political cultures strongly influenced by the college and very different than the small and rural communities that surround them. Plus, lots of American communities can seem very generic. Many Americans towns are less than a century old, with only a few generations of traditions and history, and surrounded by similar communities with a similar size, culture, environment, and history.
- iamacynic 9y ago
  one thing the University of California system got right is that they put their campuses in large metropolitan areas, oftentimes in some of the most expensive real estate around. there really is no concept of 'townie' vs 'student' from what i saw.
  - panglott 9y ago
    In Oklahoma specifically, central Oklahoma was largely settled in the land rush of 1889, and within a year or two OKC, Norman, and the University of Oklahoma were all founded. Oklahoma didn't even become a state until 1907. Norman was one of the largest cities at the time; it would not have been clear at all which cities would eventually become large metro areas a century later.
- kratak 9y ago
  I wouldn't consider Boston a "college town", and I doubt it qualifies according to this article.* A "college town" usually means a town where the college dominates the local economy, and the students make up a large portion (or even a majority) of the total population during the school year. I used to go to Virginia Tech; at the time, there were roughly 34k people in the town during the year, 26k of those students. The "townies" were only about 8k (and of course, this included the staff and faculty that lived within town limits, which was a significant portion of the townies). So when it was summertime, the town was seemingly deserted (and it was a wonderful time too!). * As an example, Tempe, Arizona is home to ASU, one of the top 10 universities in the US by enrollment. Look at the map in the article: there's no dot for the Phoenix metro area. Hence, Tempe (and the rest of Phoenix) is not a "college town", because even with over 50k students, the school doesn't dominate the local economy.
  - panglott 9y ago
    "Ian Faith: The Boston gig has been cancelled... David St. Hubbins: What? Ian Faith: Yeah. I wouldn't worry about it though, it's not a big college town." Boston and New York at least have large populations of college students, but certainly they're not iconic of what Americans consider a "college town".

by pkd 9y ago

lotsofpulp 9y ago

Unless vendors are discriminating against customers, I don't understand which rules are being skirted in your examples. Higher demand should cause higher prices (or more vendors, but that requires prices to reach a certain amount first).

pkd 9y ago
Skirting rules means exactly that - skirting rules. You are not supposed to sell things at a price higher than what is marked as the MRP - yet that is the norm with soft drinks of any kind. Taxis have a meter attached to them and they have to use it to calculate fares but the drivers here don't even bother to switch the meters on. The police is also apathetic. This isn't capitalism I am talking about.

neaden 9y ago

I grew up in a college town (a large state land grand university) and this isn't really how I perceived things. The complaints were more about college students littering, drinking too much, or playing loud music.

panglott 9y ago

There are different kinds of "college towns" in the US. Boston is a big college town because it has several of the nation's most important/prestigious institutions of higher education—but it's also a distinctive and vibrant city in its own right, with a unique history, culture, built environment. New York is similar. But many of the state universities and land grant universities, especially in the West, put the state's largest and most important school in a small and otherwise unremarkable town. Norman, Oklahoma, has a population of 110k and the University of Oklahoma, which has enrollment of 30k. Lawrence, Kansas, has a population of 87k and the University of Kansas, which has enrollment of 28k. West Lafayette, Indiana, has a population of 29k and Purdue University, which has enrollment of 40k. Bloomington, Indiana, has a population of 84k and the main campus of Indiana University, which has enrollment of 49k. These are all nice little towns, but they are all relatively small towns with small enconomies, and there's just a limited number of college graduates they can absorb. They usually have local political cultures strongly influenced by the college and very different than the small and rural communities that surround them. Plus, lots of American communities can seem very generic. Many Americans towns are less than a century old, with only a few generations of traditions and history, and surrounded by similar communities with a similar size, culture, environment, and history.

iamacynic 9y ago
one thing the University of California system got right is that they put their campuses in large metropolitan areas, oftentimes in some of the most expensive real estate around. there really is no concept of 'townie' vs 'student' from what i saw.
- panglott 9y ago
  In Oklahoma specifically, central Oklahoma was largely settled in the land rush of 1889, and within a year or two OKC, Norman, and the University of Oklahoma were all founded. Oklahoma didn't even become a state until 1907. Norman was one of the largest cities at the time; it would not have been clear at all which cities would eventually become large metro areas a century later.
kratak 9y ago
I wouldn't consider Boston a "college town", and I doubt it qualifies according to this article.* A "college town" usually means a town where the college dominates the local economy, and the students make up a large portion (or even a majority) of the total population during the school year. I used to go to Virginia Tech; at the time, there were roughly 34k people in the town during the year, 26k of those students. The "townies" were only about 8k (and of course, this included the staff and faculty that lived within town limits, which was a significant portion of the townies). So when it was summertime, the town was seemingly deserted (and it was a wonderful time too!). * As an example, Tempe, Arizona is home to ASU, one of the top 10 universities in the US by enrollment. Look at the map in the article: there's no dot for the Phoenix metro area. Hence, Tempe (and the rest of Phoenix) is not a "college town", because even with over 50k students, the school doesn't dominate the local economy.
- panglott 9y ago
  "Ian Faith: The Boston gig has been cancelled... David St. Hubbins: What? Ian Faith: Yeah. I wouldn't worry about it though, it's not a big college town." Boston and New York at least have large populations of college students, but certainly they're not iconic of what Americans consider a "college town".