U-District Growing Pains

Geov Parrish in the Seattle Weekly writes about a proposed mixed use building in the University District. Essentially the residents fear the new building will be big, and not resemble a gothic church, and block the views of cafe viewers. Worse yet, the units might be too expensive for students.

Parrish's agenda seems to be that the U-District should continue to be a student slum. Granted, I enjoy the U-Districts's variety of ethnic foods found near book stores and art film houses. Plus Seattle wouldn't be Seattle if it didn't have it's collection of greying activist blowhards and college pub barflies.

What's missing in this equation? Well, the idea that an ever increasing supply of students is both natural and beneficial remains unchallenged. Essentially, the University of Washington, the U in U-District, increases the number students through their admittance rates. The responsible provider of affordable of affordable housing for students should be the University of Washington. The condition of the U-District is an outgrowth of UW. Here is my question; does the UW encourage discussion of what the socio-environmental impact is from their tens of thousands of students?