Welcome
Welcome
Thank you for visiting this website. It’s a memoir about our experiences living near Cal Poly University in San Luis Obispo, California, and living with the unchecked proliferation of satellite fraternity houses, some of which operate as the main Chapter house for fraternities in our residential neighborhood. Any opinions expressed are just that, opinions, sometimes written in blog format, but besides that, they are based on our lived experiences.
You may not agree with our opinion but look at the totality of the information. Draw your own conclusions. Imagine if you were our family. Any statements of fact are based on research and publicly available, published documentation. Other information published is our personal media, which we captured and posted on this website. Additionally, website links and videos are provided to give you a sense of life in our neighborhood.
Imagine
Imagine your neighborhood and your life. As you go about your life, you’re living it the best you can in San Luis Obispo, California, a beautiful place, with a fantastic climate. Whether you’re a homeowner or rent your home, imagine living in a single-family neighborhood. You may be dealing with college life, or you may be dealing with the hustle and bustle of family during the week, running errands, buying groceries, getting your children to school on time, or, if they’re older, getting them out the door. You look forward to the weekend so you can relax a little and enjoy the quiet. Take a break. You know the quiet I mean—maybe distant freeway noise, but nothing intrusive. Life slows down a little. You recognize neighbors. You’re invested in your neighborhood and take an interest. Sometimes, you say hello if you meet them outside while walking your dog or on a stroll. You may even have a neighbor who feeds your pets when you’re out of town.
2022-2023 School Year
Now imagine that during the 2022 to 2023 academic year, your next-door neighbor decided to open a nightclub. Right. Next. Door. The thumping music from the nightclub, particularly the bass, penetrates your bedroom walls on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. On weekends, the club sometimes hosted drinking games with players yelling and cheering each other on. The drunker they became, the louder they became, using more profane language. Day or night, the club is always busy. People stumble along the sidewalk between 10:00 p.m. and 2:00 a.m., making their way to another club and randomly screaming and yelling. Sometimes, loud groups would spill out of an Uber or friend’s car to be dropped off at the nightclub. Or they’re just standing there on the sidewalk, arguing loudly. But mostly, it’s random shrieking or whooping as groups of drunk young adults walk up the street looking at their phones, searching for the next club, or otherwise waiting for another Uber or Lyft to take them to the next party destination.
How many?
Your quality of life hits rock bottom, and after some investigation, your wife finds out there are over forty nightclubs in your neighborhood. Yes! Forty such nightclubs operating illegally in your single-family neighborhood. Fifty when you include the Monterey Heights neighborhood, and over sixty are in residential neighborhoods city-wide. What would you do? How would you feel? The elephant in our neighborhood as a whole, is Greek Life. These “nightclubs” are fraternity houses. Some of the fraternities are the main Chapter houses and others are “satellite” houses that operate as full-fledged fraternity houses. That’s where the alcohol and parties are.
Of course, a nightclub would not be permitted to operate in a residential neighborhood. Besides being against the City’s laws, there would be a huge outcry from the neighborhood residents. Fraternity operations are also illegal in low and medium-density residential neighborhoods in the City, however in our neighborhood and other neighborhoods around Cal Poly, especially near campus, fraternities have been allowed to operate where they are not supposed to be because City leadership wasn’t paying attention or decided to look the other way. Why?
Why?
We’ve gone around and around discussing and asking why. Why isn’t the situation adequately addressed? Surely this isn’t normal. Is it too much work or effort to remedy? Do our City leaders just not care? What about the college? Is it because they’re not personally invested? Is it about money? Just what are we talking about here? It took some time, but we were dumbfounded once we started researching. Like peeling back the layers of an onion, it took a little time but wasn’t too difficult. The information was available to anyone who cared to look for it or cared for the impact on our neighborhood. It just took a little digging. Why didn’t someone care?
The System
This website was born out of frustration with our family’s situation and frustration with a city and university system that we feel has failed us, other long-term residents who have fled the neighborhood, and still others who continue to live here. How was the situation allowed to continue unchecked since 2015? This system chooses to be like the metaphoric ostrich with its head buried in the sand.
Respect
This website is not about disrespecting Cal Poly students who respect and follow the social norms of our much-beloved city and choose to co-exist amicably. It’s about our experience living in the Alta Vista neighborhood near Cal Poly’s campus, our experience with illegal fraternity houses, and our experience watching unchecked Greek Life take over. Cal Poly continues to recruit more fraternities and increase enrollment and what has happened in our neighborhood will most certainly come to your neighborhood if you live in San Luis Obispo, California. It’s just a matter of time.