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Student ghetto may result from new zoning codes Just how important are zoning codes in Oxford¹s original square mile? I own a house on Woodruff Court, a small cul-de-sac off North Poplar Street. During the past couple of years, two of the five houses on my block have been sold to entrepreneurs who rented their property to Miami students. What was once a quiet residential neighborhood has become another noisy staging ground for all-night student beer blasts. Ear plugs and our capable police department notwithstanding, it¹s impossible to get a good night¹s sleep on my street, especially on weekends! The other day, the owner of the house next door stopped by to ask me to support his efforts to change our local zoning codes. As an out-of-town landlord, he has recently purchased my neighbor¹s large house, and was determined to fill it with more than the four students currently permitted under our local ordinances. Whether I supported him or not, he pointed out that several of my other neighbors are planning to move and sell their houses to realtors, who will rent to students. Eventually, my neck of the woods will be exclusively an enclave of student rentals, and zoning restrictions will be relaxed to allow more students to fill every house in the vicinity. Nobody wants to see Oxford turn into a student ghetto. Yet apparently nobody will want to stand in the way of landlords greedy for more tenants and heftier revenues. I call upon my fellow citizens, as well as the good people on our town council: we must resist pressure from realtors and wheeler-dealers to ease up on our zoning codes. If two¹s company and three¹s a crowd, any more than four students per house will spell the end of Oxford¹s original square mile as a viable residential neighborhood for all of us in years to come. James Reiss Professor of English and Editor, Miami University Press