When the college students started to get out of control at Wintergreen Apartments in Westville, some tenants took matters into their own hands.
Alvis Shaw, a mortgage underwriter, moved into Wintergreen’s Building Five almost ten months ago. On Thursday night he explained how he had managed to quiet down a building that was overrun by rowdy college students, and how other tenants have been taking leadership roles in the five buildings that make up the 293-unit apartment complex.
Contrary to the wishes of its Westville neighbors and original promises by developers, Wintergreen has become an increasingly popular housing choice for Southern and UNH students. And the apartment buildings have drawn increasing complaints from neighbors concerned about drinking and rowdy behavior. (See a previous story here.) Police were recently called to the building after someone dropped a firecracker into a toilet.
Since relocating to New Haven from North Carolina last year, Shaw has experienced firsthand what it’s like living with young college students. He said that he’s seen people drinking in the parking lot and bringing alcohol into his building. He suffered through loud music and having the fire alarm pulled at 4 a.m. Then he took action.
“I took control of my building,” Shaw explained, standing in the well-appointed lounge at Wintergreen, before challenging a reporter to a game of pool.
Shaw said that he started to talk to the college kids he saw bringing in alcohol. “I’d ask them ‘How old are you? You got ID?’”
If students were being loud and disruptive, he’d go knock on their door with another tenant, using words and physical presence to bring the noise levels down. “I’m kind of a big guy,” Shaw explained. “We worked the building.”
“Building Five became a real quiet building,” Shaw said. He said that he has a lot of football players from Southern in his building, but you would never know it, since they’re so well behaved.
Shaw explained that he transformed his building by becoming both a bouncer and a father-figure to his young neighbors.
“We had barbecues last summer and I would talk to the guys,” Shaw said. “I became an adult parent to the students.”
Shaw said tenant leaders have recently emerged in several of the other buildings. A man named Val has taken over Building One, and Faith and Wayne are heading up Building Four.
Shaw said that Wintergreen management has taken some steps to deal with student behavior in the building. But when something happens, they go to Shaw to find out what’s going on.
The Attempt
Shaw was one of the only tenants to show up for a “Getting to Know Westville” event held in the Wintergreen lounge on Thursday night. The drop-in meeting was put on by the Westville-West Hills Management Team as a way of reaching out to Wintergreen tenants and connecting them with Westville. Unfortunately, not many people dropped in.
Westville Management Team Chair Mary Faulkner passed the time sipping cider and munching cookies with with local Alderman Tom Lehtonen and a few other management team members.
Jamir Dickens, a tenant and sophomore at Southern, stopped in to log onto Facebook on one of the lounge’s computers, ignoring the strangers in his building’s common area. Dickens, the roommate of Chris Woodhouse, said that there’s “still some tension” between student and non-student tenants in Wintergreen. He said that and his roommates have received some complaints from the management and are “on the edge” of getting in trouble.
After an hour and a half, Faulkner and the others packed it in.
“We made the attempt,” said Faulkner. “That’s all you can do.”
Faulkner said that members of Wintergreen’s management will be attending the next meeting of the Westville-West Hills Management Team to discuss relations between the apartment complex and the neighborhood. That meeting will be next Wednesday at 6:30 in the Westville Police Substation.