Forest Lake, where my wife and I have lived for the last 6 years, is the perfect neighborhood for young families and middle class folks. The houses are mostly small and modest, there's a great school in the middle, and there are churches of different denominations throughout the neighborhood. The accessibility to the major corridor of 15th St. means that the neighborhood is positioned perfectly for easy access to other parts of the city.

The problem is that investors started buying houses here about 15-20 years ago to turn into rental units. Initially, it was parents of students who bought when home prices were low. After their kids finished school many of them became absentee landlords, realizing that all they had to do was pay the modest property tax and receive a check every month from a renter. Not only does this absenteeism mean that the houses frequently fall into disrepair, but the influx of college students significantly changed the character of the neighborhood. Houses that would be perfect starter homes for a young couple or a family with one or two kids are now leased to three or four unrelated students (who have no need to be close to a school). Despite zoning laws, there is virtually nothing that has been done in the past in terms of enforcement. It's hard to prove, onerous on the owner-occupied residents like myself, and makes for distrust between neighbors. It's understandable that students want to live in houses (it's what I wanted when I was a student!) but I think the city has to make a distinction between student neighborhoods and neighborhoods dominated by owner-occupied units.

The middle class families of Tuscaloosa are the economic engines of the city and safe neighborhoods promote prosperity and community engagement. The fragmentation of a neighborhood like Forest Lake should be seen as a regressive and problematic trend and should be counteracted by stronger zoning restrictions in the future.