re: City of Auburn evicts students in certain neighborhoods

"The thing that hath been, it is that which shall be; and that which is done is that which shall be done: and there is no new thing under the sun." - Ecclesiastes 1:9


From the Auburn Plainsman, sometime in January 1982:

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I have only had B happen twice in three years. Did not complain to the municipality or the cops. Just went and had a serious conversation with them about it. They took it pretty well once we talked about how it is normal to party a lot in college, but keep in mind that others who live in the neighborhood have jobs and need to be up before 6 AM on any given weekday.

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You are a reasonable homeowner in a college town.

In the case I posted above, the homeowner was not terribly reasonable. The band in question had set up their practice space in a heavily soundproofed interior bedroom. To make sure no one would be disturbed, the band conducted a test with their next door neighor, the homeowner nearest the practice space. She stood in her carport and was unable to hear the band playing at full volume. What's more, in order to maintain friendly relations with the others in the neighborhood, they limited their practice time to early evenings (before 7pm) and never played at any of their own parties (which tended to be pretty tame).

As a result of all this effort, they remained in the house completely undetected for 6 months - until they made the mistake of loaning their PA gear to another band, who stupidly attempted to deliver it to the house of the lady who ended up filing the complaint against them to the housing authority. Until then, she had no idea there were any students in the neighborhood, much less a band. When the three attempted to approach her and work out some sort of compromise, she refused to budge, saying that they had no legal right to live there (sadly she was right).

The realty company ended up providing a trailer on Wire Road for the bass player, the drummer, who was graduating at the end of Winter Quarter, stayed with a friend, and the guitarist lived in the house until the end of Spring.

But this story has a happy ending - Mrs. T.W. Ledbetter is dead now. So there.

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On the specific case in this thread, the family that bought in the regulated neighborhood knew the rules. they can move a couple girls out and will be fine with their investment.

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Or they could pair up and gay marry.

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The cost of thank you notes alone would be prohibitive

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That and the fights on whose monogram they should go with? That's a nuclear disaster waiting to happen

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Being fairly young and owning a home in a rural area, this whole concept is far beyond my reach

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So the basic theory is that the actions of Person A may have negative externalities for Person B and creates inefficient behavior

What I mean by that is if you do something that gives you +2 happiness but it causes someone else to have -5 happiness it is suboptimal outcome

Extreme Hypothetical Example-
Key background- Schrute Bucks = Valuable and everyone wants more
Say an Alabama fan who refuses to step foot in Auburn inherited property on Toomers Corner and wants to lease it for rental

Only two people want to lease the property

In N' Out Burger for - 500,000 Schrute Bucks / year
Billy's Exotic Obese Male Strip Club for - 1,000,000 Schrute Bucks / year

Community Value of In N' Out - 500,000 Shrute Bucks
Community Value of Club - Negative 5,000,000 Shrute Bucks

Obviously the Ahole Alabama fan will lease to Billy as it is so clearly in his favor to take the 1mil Shrute Bucks

The problem is that the community is down 1bil Shrute Bucks, which means they lost significantly more than that guy gained. This one guy's decision could cause huge losses to the community

Solutions
-Auburn Do nothing: Community value drops, which negatively impacts the economy and property values in Auburn

-Auburn Community pays lease: After 10 years Auburn loss in value is greater than if they did nothing + held hostage and risk repeat situation w/ larger Billys offer

-Auburn Creates Zoning Laws: Auburn restricts the usage of the land so Billys cant be on Toomer's Corner, Alabama fan still experiences profit of 500,000SB/year and Auburn Community gets In N' Out benefit of 500,000 Shrute Bucks

I understand that rowdy jackasses that raise hell all night, don't cut their grass, and leave beer cans all over their yard bring down property values. My opinion is just less valuable because I am not far removed from the described a-hole.

Props! That was a super thorough, elaborate explanation.