Repelling UMD Students?! Clash Over College Park's Rent Control Extention.

With the economy finally starting to recover, even though the real economy will not see a recovery anytime soon, it's still important for people to keep or to be able to afford a home, even if it means renting an apartment. This is especially true for students studying in the University of Maryland. Problem is that apartments will be more expensive if the landlords get their way to abolish rent control.

Many landlords accused the city of having an ulterior motive behind the ordinance — to rid neighborhoods of students from the University of Maryland, College Park.

"You can't come out and say, ‘We don't want students living here,'" said Bryan Mack, a College Park landlord who lives in Mount Airy. "But I think that's what's lying underneath everything."

While many landlords favored the outright abolishment of the ordinance, students at Tuesday's hearing spoke in favor of extending rent control to apartments as well as houses.

"The new [apartments] that are being built have an unfair advantage. They can charge rents that are artificially high," said Bob Hayes, a UM junior. "The only reason that I can afford to live in College Park is because I'm able to rent a single-family house with a group of people."

People should be able to rent rooms to other people, as long as they pay their share of the rent and don't disturb the community. The vote is scheduled on August 11 and this blog will cover it.

That's What You Get With Media Consolidation

Comcast has been benefiting from little competition by raising rates and giving sucky customer service while earning huge profits. College Park Council: "Improve your service or get a $200 daily bill."

A report submitted by the city’s cable commission, which has met with Comcast representatives several times over the last year, submitted a report last month suggesting College Park fine the cable company.

Under the terms of the city’s 1997 contract with Comcast, College Park can fine the company $200 if 90 percent of customer calls are not answered within 30 seconds. The commission’s statistics showed waiting periods around a minute in nearly every month of 2005 and 2006.

The lowest average call time was 22 seconds in February 2005. The highest average was three minutes and 27 seconds in September 2006. The most recent data showed a one minute and 15 second average waiting period last December.

While those averages include all of Prince George’s, a spokesman for the Maryland Municipal League (MML), which represents municipalities throughout the county, said he had not heard customer service complaints surface anywhere else.

Even though Version has also got a cable franchise agreement with the City, it's will not solve the fact that the cable industry is anti-competitive. (read: No multiple cable companies or phone companies)

Police Prepared for Riot! Left Disappointed!

Last night while there was dozens of students screaming crazy, there was no riot. Route One was still flowing with traffic. Students going to and from restaurants to eat or to their bars. Prince Georges County Police however took no chances and set a two-rowed riot squad lined up along Knox Road next to city hall. A black police truck was standing by opposite of the City Hall building. College Park Fire and EMS Department also stood by as a precaution as well as additional officers and patrols of County Police. After around 7:50pm, the riot officers left the area, the black truck with them too. They realize that a riot will not going to happen.

So that was it, Terps won, no riot, everyone slept peacefully. The Diamondback also written a piece of tonight's peaceful night.