say it with pie

Getting excited for Queen’s University’s famous Homecoming celebrations? The keggers, the pancake keggers, the kegger riots in the streets? Non-student residents who live near campus aren’t; in fact, they’re pretty pissed off. And they’re mobilizing.

Resident Don Rogers has launched a website, saveourneighbourhood.ca, to protest the rowdy behaviour that takes place in the “student ghetto” and is seemingly condoned by the university administration. The site provides a interesting glimpse into what a pain in the ass it must be to live in the “ghetto” if you’re not a 19-year-old frat kid.

When I was an undergraduate at the University of Toronto, we used to hear tales of the rowdy Queen’s students and roll our eyes, but the stories don’t have quite the impact of the photographs. The header photo to this post with the shoes strung over power lines; if you look closely, there are actually ten pairs of shoes visible. Rogers says there are actually seventeen pairs on the single street. Also, check out these classy kegger cups left out on the lawn.

It doesn’t seem malicious, just annoying. I mean, if you’ve grown out of frat boy behaviour by third year, imagine how long ago local residents got tired of it.

If I sound like the crotchety neighbour down the street, it’s because I am. Recently, some students moved in a few doors down from us and threw a weekend-long party that woke me up at 5:30 a.m. one morning. Our street’s residents association went absolutely ballistic, circulating e-mails urging people to phone the police and lodge noise complaints. And quite frankly, I’m planning on it if I ever get woken up at 5:30 a.m. again by some guy sitting outside being like, “Dude, dude, dude, that is so sick, guy! That is so fukkin SICK, guy!”

However, I did get some satisfaction when, the next morning, the out-of-town party guests were loading up their car and found that they’d be slapped with a parking ticket. I definitely laughed and took a picture. See behind cut.