Student complex turns one

WHEN 880 UCT students return to Obz Square residence in Main Road on 29 January, they will be celebrating the first birthday of the giant student complex, providing a good opportunity for Observatory to assess the impact of the giant hostel on the suburb.
There is little evidence that any of the fears of parking congestion and noise expressed during the development of Obz Square has been realised. Local residents shared only minor complaints with ObsLife.
Marc Turok, Observatory resident who used to live in William Street behind the site where the seven-storey Obz Square went up, said pedestrian congestion has been successfully handled and students seem to be crossing Main Road safely. But the Jammie Shuttle, UCT’s student bus service, tends to block Greens Passage, the narrow road alongside Obz Square, when it stops for up to fifteen minutes. It effectively uses Greens Passage as a bus terminus, blocking it for other vehicles.
A nearby resident who did not give his name told ObsLife that the area sometimes it gets noisy but he said it was usually caused by students passing through, not by those living in Obz Square.
Another resident living behind Obz Square, Tapusaz Jonathan, said the students seem to be parking everywhere despite the presence of parking bays in the basement of Obz Square: “They park where they feel like parking. They park in the streets in front of houses anywhere, but it doesn't bother me because I don't have a car," he said.
A manager at Obz Square who did not want to be named because of UCT’s strict policy forbidding employees direct contact with the media, said Obz Square had a “hectic” start at the beginning of last year. They had to deal with"a lot of attitude" from the neighbours, but by June last year things had settled down.
According to Kemantha Govender, the media liaison at UCT, Obz Square received complaints about the noise generated from the residence, but the issues were addressed with the students and resolved.
Comments from local business owners, who had eagerly awaited the flood of business from 1 000 extra students in Observatory, shows a similar subdued impact of Obz Square on life in Observatory. Mike Webber-Harris of Obviouzly Armchair in Lower Main Road says he had experience no significant increase in turnover last year. His comments were echoed by other business owners along Lower Main Road.
There is also no sign of any of the retail shopping spaces on the ground floor of the building has been let yet, probably because the rentals charged does not fit the current slow economic conditions.
Perhaps the greatest impact of Obz Square on Observatory was to seal the fate of the section of the suburb on the mountain side of Main Road as a high-rise apartment precinct.
Marc, who successfully fought Obz Square’s application for an additional eighth storey, moved elsewhere in Obs  after his neighbours in William Street behind Obz Square sold their homes to the property developers, and his was one of the few residential  homes left.
Students and managers at Obz Square says because most of the students living there are seniors, including post-grads, the focus of the residence tends to be on academics and not on partying.
Rizaan Samuels, senior sub-warden for the second-year students at Obz Square, said that that he was at UCT’s Smuts Hall residence for four years before moving to Obz Square, and that Smuts Hall had many more traditions and organised activities than Obz Square because it is a much older residence.
He said it was “very exciting” living at Obz Square because it's different and new, and they are trying to establish a community-focus tradition for the residence. Students are encouraged to do community outreach, for example with the Arcadia Place old-age home next to Obz Square.