The Smile Politely Editors are comprised of Justine Bursoni, Seth Fein, Joel Gillespie, Doug Hoepker, Brian McGovern, Ryan Neaveill and Dan Schreiber. They, along with the website designer Mason Kessinger and founding Editor-in-Chief Chris Maier, decide to highlight certain events going on in Champaign-Urbana in a democratic fashion, without bias, in order to best bring to you the finest information on the entertainment around town.
WUNA, or the West Urbana Neighborhood Association, is known for its amazing ability to organize and engage its immediate community with relevant and important issues facing its neighborhood, one of the most economically diverse in the city. The association covers this area of Urbana.
Some of the issues that WUNA has brought to light at city council meetings include the number of people living in single residence homes, how to properly police the actions of the landlords and how to control college students who regularly throw parties in the neighborhood.
Despite the association's concerns, however, some of the transient residents in the neighborhood over the last few years have spoken about multiple instances of blatant voyeurism and outright disregard for personal privacy by WUNA members.
Tell us what you think.
Comments (3)
Friday, February 22, 2008 6:56 PM
i'm confused-- by transient residents, you mean students, right? but when you say "blatant voyeurism, trespassing and outright disregard for personal privacy," is this being committed on the part of the WUNA? and is this, in particular, being reported publicly at city council meetings? or is this the goss? just curious...
Friday, February 22, 2008 11:42 PM
This is more of an overly-passionate culture-of-Urbana comment, so I apologize. As a former transient West Urbana resident (a neighborhood which, let's be honest, is a lot richer, students aside, and politically active, than some other parts of Urbana) and employee of the school district, I am slightly offended by the extreme disconnect I see between one physical side of Urbana and the other. I know the WUNA's primary goal is, among other things, to protect all the nice old houses, but the obviously strong political force behind maintaining the integrity of one neighborhood would do well to keep the entire Urbana community in mind, section 8 housing east of Philo Road included. I'm not suggesting the organization shouldn't exist, and their goals seem genuine and well-meaning (and it certainly shouldn't be their mandate take on the all issues of other neighborhoods), but there are definitely two Urbanas, and the unwillingness of the University-centric West to recognize and fight for the rest is pretty freaking shameful to me.
Saturday, February 23, 2008 11:17 AM
The problem I have with WUNA is that the entire success of the neighborhood is obviously based on the university (they don't call it the professor ghetto for nothing), and yet the residents are completely intolerant of the music, art and lifestyles of the students without which there would be no university. Too many of the most vocal members of WUNA are too close-minded to be living in such a liberal town.