Michael J. Helgerson » Iowa State University http://michaelhelgerson.com The musings of a planner. Thoughtful considerations of the past, present, and future. Sat, 26 Sep 2009 06:50:16 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8 en hourly 1 [1] Ouch. http://michaelhelgerson.com/2009/06/1-ouch/ http://michaelhelgerson.com/2009/06/1-ouch/#comments Mon, 08 Jun 2009 16:26:42 +0000 Michael http://michaelhelgerson.com/?p=24 Having lived in Ames for quite a few years, there have been some notable news stories with a local flavor.  But, in recent months, there has been a strange trend arising: students young men falling from or within apartment buildings. Having witnessed the aftermath of a neighbor jumping from his own (albeit lower) balcony, I beg the question: why?

Maybe this isn’t atypical in college towns generally, but it seems unprecedented here in Ames.  I will be interested (as are some of you) if the City Council of Ames chooses to address this issue – particularly in the student dominated area of Campustown.  Perhaps they will outlaw certain building types or accessible balconies altogether?  Maybe not?

Will the property manager take steps to reduce this kind of activity?  Both the incidents I linked to above occured in Legacy Tower, a property occupied predominantly by ISU students.  I don’t think Campustown Properties could have prevented these incidents even if they had tried.  Yet, it does present them with a considerable amount of “bad PR”.  Thanks to SirTopham (edit: originally from Ron White’s stand-up but still applicable) for the Quote of the Day:

“You can’t fix stupid.”

Update:  It seems the young man who fell down the elevator shaft wasn’t an Iowa State student, but was just visiting a friend.  Still, quite a concerning piece of news.

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