For years, many College Park residents have complained about the steady infiltration of their neighborhoods by student renters. With fears of noisy parties, trash-covered lawns and cars jutting out from driveways never leaving their minds, these residents now face an open threat: The Landlord Candidate.
Bob Weber, who is running in the city’s District 2, operates five rental properties in College Park and several others in neighboring Adelphi and Berwyn Heights. He said his occupation, which he describes on the city election website as “involved with investment management,” is an advantage that gives him a unique perspective on student issues.
But although Weber “[doesn’t] think it matters at all” that he rents to students, some doubt that the city’s voters would choose someone who rents houses to students over two longtime incumbents who have traditionally voiced colorful criticism of the city’s landlords.
“We have a small group of people who vote in the city of College Park, and this group does not really like landlords,” said David Dorsch, chair of the College Park Landlords’ Committee.
Bob Catlin, who has represented District 2 since 1997, has led the campaign. In 2003, he introduced controversial rent control legislation that city officials said was designed to protect students from landlords who overcharge. Dorsch and many other landlords have maintained the intention was to force landlords out of business so students wouldn’t be able to live in College Park’s neighborhoods.
Earlier this year, Catlin had described landlords as “taking advantage of the situation” of a lack of on-campus student housing, saying “they feel they’re entitled to be rich.”
Weber said growing up in a College Park house where his father rented out rooms to students has left him with a different impression of landlords than many of his neighbors.
He said he speaks daily to his tenants, allowing him to understand where students are coming from. Being a landlord, he said, is in some ways a strength rather than a weakness of his candidacy.
“Due to my contact with students, I do have an appreciation for what their challenges are, and I also appreciate the other side: of the residents,” Weber said.
Weber has reached out to students — including his tenants — and permanent residents alike, but students typically represent a small fraction of College Park’s voters.
Several of Weber’s tenants said they were not voting in the council election because their voter registrations were out of date or they were registered at home — issues that afflict many of the city’s students. If they were registered, Weber would likely get their votes, the tenants said, praising his attentiveness, the quality of his properties and his affordable rates.
Peter Drysdale, a history major who graduated last year and is now considering graduate school applications, said Weber was the best landlord he’s had, contrasting from the tenuous relationship with the landlord he rented from before.
“I hate that guy,” Drysdale said of his previous landlord. “[Weber] is very responsible.”
Other tenants also raised complaints about their past landlords and said they’d experienced no such issues with Weber.
Weber is pitching himself as someone more connected to the community than the “absentee landlords” who bear the biggest brunt of residents’ ire for not frequently checking up on the condition of their properties.
Although he only recently moved into College Park, Weber said he has lived his entire life in the area and worked with his properties here for many years, and he now lives on 50th Place in a home he shares with five of his tenants — two tenants are brothers, he added quickly. Zoning rules prohibit more than five unrelated people from sharing a single-family house.
At a District 2 candidates’ forum earlier this month, Catlin had described the absentee landlords “who are just focused on getting a check” as one of the city’s biggest problems. He did not return phone calls over the weekend to share his views on Weber personally.
Dorsch said he didn’t know a landlord was running for the council because he doesn’t live in District 2. He said he would need to know Weber’s policies to have an idea of any impact he might have on the council from a landlord’s perspective, but did not seem optimistic.
“He’s only one person … and just because he owns property doesn’t necessarily mean that he’s in favor of everything that other landlords are in favor of,” Dorsch said.
Policy-wise, Weber said as a council member he would vote primarily based on what he hears from residents in his district, even if he were personally opposed to legislation, like the city’s rent control.
“If everybody said [they wanted rent control], well, if that’s what the constituents want, that’s what they have to get. It’s not based on what I want,” Weber said.
“No one’s told me they want that,” he added. “I’ve had many people tell me this rent control doesn’t make any sense.”
The City Council election will be held Nov. 3.
bholt at umdbk dot com
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