Interested in improving community relations? Sick of fighting with your neighbors about noise? Want someone who’s not necessarily a “resident, tax-payer, or home-owner” to represent you on the Advisory Neighborhood Council? You’re in luck, but you’re going to have to vote. Three students are running in the Advisory Neighborhood Council election that will be held next Tuesday, Nov. 5. If elected, these students will replace Justin Wagner (CAS ‘03) and Justin Kopa (CAS ‘03), who have served on the commission since 2000. An additional student candidate is running as a write-in in a new all-student district.
Unlike past elections, no issue that directly relates to student life is forcing students to the polls. In 1996, an attempt to limit student parking and a zoning overlay battle that threatened to increase housing rates for students living off campus drew students to the polls. Similarly, in 1998 a motion to deny students’ eligibility to vote in the District made them do just that. In 2000, student representation on the ANC was crucial as the University submitted its Ten Year Plan. Unlike the climate surrounding these past elections, this November the community is experiencing only a normal amount of the animosity to which students and neighbors have become accustomed. As a result, some students may not be inclined to vote.
However, past incidents in the relationship between Georgetown students and neighborhood residents prove that we need student representation on the commission now as much as ever. In years past, the ANC has addressed student parking rights, attempted to decrease the number of students that can live together off campus, eliminated Block Party and capped the University’s enrollment. As these issues develop, student representatives are better able to present the needs of Georgetown students to the council. For example, Wagner pushed a bill which is now before D.C. Council that would make it easier for the Metropolitan Police Department and the Department of Public Safety to coordinating their patrols in Burleith. Students need to vote in next week’s election in order to ensure that student input is heard on issues that develop over the next two years.
