Students vow to fight for UCI trailer park

Marisa O’Neil

Supporters of a campus trailer park slated for demolition this summer

will continue their fight to keep it open, even after a university

official said he would not entertain negotiations to preserve it.

At a forum on Friday, Vice Chancellor of Student Affairs Manuel

Gomez told university officials, students and faculty that the park’s

fate is sealed and denied a request by the residents to discuss

keeping the Irvine Meadows West trailer park.

William Zeller, assistant vice chancellor for student housing,

stopped short of saying he would enter into talks to preserve the

park but said he would take part in a committee to discuss a

“spectrum of housing,” to possibly include a different trailer park

in the future.

“That’s close, but not exactly what we’re talking about,” said

graduate student Matthew Cardinale, an outspoken supporter of the

park. “We didn’t think it was [asking] so much to join an exploratory

committee. We were not saying on the spot ‘Save it today.’ We just

want them to discuss it.”

The closure of the park, which is home to about 100 students, is part of the university’s long range development plan to increase

enrollment, student housing and parking. A parking structure is

planned for the space where Irvine Meadows West now sits and new

housing under construction will supply about 4,000 new beds on

campus.

Trailer park residents argued, however, that they and other

students are being priced out of the market and an education. Spaces

rent for $130 a month at Irvine Meadows West, while the new housing

on east campus will cost between $550 and $1,512, depending on occupancy.

That far exceeds affordable housing standards for graduate

students who receive $12,500 annually in financial aid, Cardinale

said.

“The $950 single apartments have gone the quickest for grad

students,” Zeller said. “That says to me that there are a spectrum of

needs in the graduate student population because, clearly, other

students need rental rates in the Irvine Meadows West range.”

Some of the new housing, Zeller said, is part of a public-private

partnership, but still remains 10% below the cost of off-campus

housing. But Irvine has some of the highest rents in the nation, the

students argued.

Cardinale read a letter from Irvine Mayor Larry Agran applauding

the forum. Agran said he hoped it would “elevate public discourse on

the importance of affordable housing in Irvine.”

The university already is struggling with a 40% proposed increase

in graduate tuition and a state-mandated 10% reduction in freshman

enrollment for next year, Gomez said. While he negotiated in 1999 to

keep the park open for five years longer than originally proposed,

Gomez said it was “crystal clear” in students’ lease agreements that

it would close July 31 of this year.

“I fought in 1999 to extend the life of Irvine Meadows West and I

did so in good faith,” Gomez said. “I hope you live up to your end of

the deal.”

Residents and supporters described the eclectic enclave of

trailers surrounded by gardens and a hodge-podge of add-on fixed

structures as “funky,” “distinct” and “quaint.” Professor of

psychiatry Gary Lynch said that he uses its uniqueness to attract

graduate students from the East Coast.

“In paving over Irvine Meadows West, you are also paving over a

little more of the soul of Southern California,” history professor

Mike Davis said.