Young Scholars Defend Property Rights
Nine none-too-bright-sounding Georgetown frat boys do what Georgetown frat boys do best: infuriate D.C.'s most obnoxious residents.
The $2.4 million house that J. Brian O'Neill Sr. bought for his son is allowed only six unrelated residents under zoning laws. But if it's a residence for a "religious community," the number jumps to 15.
The solution? The Apostles of O'Neill. That's the name the young men used Oct. 2 when they filed paperwork to incorporate as a nonprofit religious organization.
O'Neill, who according to his Facebook page "doesn't really read much," is even hosting meetings with concerned citizens:
With a poster of porn star Jenna Jameson as a backdrop during the meeting, everyone avoided the subject of the Apostles and stuck to polite talk about such things as proper landscaping and noise, people who attended said.
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I should ask my students about this. Since they're grad students, we can all chuckle about those pesky undergrads.
Hoya Saxa!
(Georgetown didn't actually get fraternities in the past five years did it? PBK, et al, excepted of course.)
I dunno. They sound plenty bright enough to game the D.C. government.
Of course, that's setting the bar pretty low.
It has less to do with the DC government than legal games played by the residents.
Georgetown, fancy neighborhood that it is, has a university in the middle of it where the High Life does flow. Idiots who want to be able to say they live in Georgetown move in too close to the student areas and bitch about the students being students. Then the buyers complain that they are part of the neighborhood and are there longer than the students, etc., etc, nevermind the fact that there has been a university there for, oh, about 217 years. The university administration caves in and puts the hammer down on the students.
While I was there, 97-01, it got increasingly worse and they shut down the block party where much underage drinking occurred. I am just glad to see that the administration is not putting the hammer down on these students.
Maybe the current president isn't as much of a milquetoast as the last one.
FingFangFoom beat me to it.
...although Georgetown University, to the best of my knowledge, doesn't have fraternities (one of St. Elmo's clear frauds), the house in question is in Georgetown and I think that's what they meant.
If I had to guess, though, I'd guess they go to George Washington. ...which should, I suppose, merit a "Hail to the buff and blue!", hippo pride something or other.
...everyone avoided the subject of the Apostles and stuck to polite talk about such things as proper landscaping and noise, people who attended said.
Hey joe! Didn't you go to George Washington?
...and now he devotes his time to proper landscaping and noise--must be somethin' in the water! ; )
You don't have to be in a fraternity to be a frat boy. It's a state of mind. Georgetown actually does have one frat (or did when I graduated) but that's beside the point.
I'm just asking, I know they didn't when I was there. I would assume that Ms. Howley herself knows since she went there, presumably after me. Though I suppose she could mean "fratboy" in the "drunken yahoo" sense of the term.
Oops, question answered.
Hey joe! Didn't you go to George Washington?
WTF!?!? He went to a private liberal arts collage, and he is calling me undereducated...Jesus fucking Christ!
You don't have to be in a fraternity to be a frat boy. It's a state of mind.
Amen to that.
"The $2.4 million house that J. Brian O'Neill Sr. bought for his son"
That's a good argument for the estate tax, right there. A fool and his money parted for the sake of his foolish son and his foolish frat buddies.
GW is not a "private liberal arts college," it is a full-sized major university. It also has a metro stop. And frat frats.
The only frat I recall is the foreign service frat. I don't think that really counts. Glad to see we have a number of Hoyas reading hit and run.
Well, I can't stand frat boys, but in this case, good for them. Even people I despise are entitled to the same rights as everybody else.
FYI to all the frat boy haters out there--frat boys don't like you either.
In the "college town" where I am from, the limit is 2 unrelated persons in a house of any size. Similar student/community dynamic though a less prestigious university/town. I haven't been there in awhile, but I imagine by now they have outlawed renting and landlording completely.
Darn, a missed opportunity for the Apostles of the Flying Spaghetti Monster.
Proof, yet again, that money donesn't buy you class.
Someone send Borat there with some release forms stat.
lets play "Guess".... when these scions get caught up exploiting desperate CA gal refugees- fleeing hellholes propped up by US tax bucks & military support- theyll snivel about the "free market". And "teases".
Hey, I got an idea- How about transferring these parasites to a frathouse in Ramadi? Oh, thats right: they have more important things to do.......
Why all the animus to rich kids? I certainly fail to see what they've done wrong.
And, MUTT, Jesus, please get back on your meds.
There's also a town near me that is trying to use the 2 unrelated people in a house law. It's interesting since many of the houses have been converted to apartments.
Other "student friendly" policies include mandatory yearly inspections and a government registration of all rental properties. When the town finds that some evil landlord is taking advantage of these poor students by violating one of these ordinances, the town kicks the student out of the apartment. Since all the leases in the area are academic year leases, the poor student is pretty much screwed.
J. Brian O'Neill Sr., chairman of O'Neill Properties Group in King of Prussia, Pa., bought the house for his son in August. He has told the Philadelphia Inquirer that his company's real estate holdings are worth $4 billion.
Seems to me the most painless and sane way to resolve this is for Sr. to buy Jr. another house next door for the 3 excess people. Problem solved, and he could probably find enough dough shaking out his couch cushions.
On the other hand, gotta admire those plucky kids. Fighting the good fight against arbitrary rules and favoritism for religious organizations.
"doesn't really read much,"
Where have I heard that before?
The only frat I recall is the foreign service frat.
That wouldn't be The Best and the Brightest would it?
Mmmmmmmm, fratwurst.
Money quote (literally!) from the WaPo article:
"The neighbors call it blasphemy and a possible precedent-setting threat to property values."
What, after all, could be more blasphemous than threatening Georgetown property values?
To be fair, Mammon does live on that street.
"There's also a town near me that is trying to use the 2 unrelated people in a house law."
Hmm, how about changing that to 1 unrelated person...could be a novel way to keep the frat boys chaste and improve morality in town.
Wonder if it's been tried someplace.