 It would start sometimes on a Thursday night with parties and pre-parties and late parties and they would be very loud. Some would have music in the backyard, some would have bands. They would grow in number until you'd have up to 150, maybe 200 students walking down your block. I think what we primarily had was an issue of student misbehavior. And that was parties, noise, traffic, trash. They all entail furniture, porta-potties and solo cups. Those are the main ingredients for the parties around TCU area. There was a lot of beer and alcohol things and a couple times things came over my fence, my back fence. You feel so victimized by that which sounds silly but it's so disrespectful. Neighborhoods surrounding the TCU campus are generally quiet and peaceful. Beautiful homes on tree-lined streets, but when school is back in session, the atmosphere changes, especially where college students are living on their own for the first time. Loud parties, loud music, but the biggest thing is just frustration. I mean, everybody, all the neighbors talked and we didn't have a solution and we didn't know what to do and we had wrong information, there was no communication, we didn't have a voice. And so what developed over time was a hostile environment between the neighbors and the students. The students felt like they weren't wanted in the neighborhood and the neighbors were just livid, calling TCU, calling the mayor, and nobody ever felt there were any resolutions back in those days. Neighborhood leaders reached out to the city of Fort Worth for help. The community engagement office arranged a series of meetings and the TCU Neighbor to Neighbor program was born. The top people from the city manager's office, it's the top people from TCU, it's our neighborhood police officers, it's the head of security at TCU, it's amazing. I mean, code compliance, very interested neighbors. Our monthly meetings and moving to quarterly meetings, we get to talk about issues that we're seeing and we can come together to say, okay, are we all seeing, hearing the same things, how do we work together? This meeting has allowed us as neighborhood leaders to get to know the compliance people, get to know our NPO, and get to know the people at TCU. By working with them, we've been able to mitigate a lot of issues. Communication and relationship building were the key to finding realistic solutions. Steps all stakeholders could take to improve neighborhood relations. I think it's more widely known that neighbors can call our office and that we'll respond to people. The police are clearer with students when they're going to talk to them about issues. I'm hands on with the TCU police as well as they share information with me and I share information with them. So if we have repeat problems from neighborhood parties and kids are unruly, if we go to TCU, they're taking administrative action against them, which has substantially decreased I think some of our parties. I get to know people on a personal level, face to face. They know how to contact me and we have a great working relationship. Some kids have never lived on their own before and they really don't know to take in the trash or the trash carts or how to be a good neighbor. So education became a top priority. The city of Fort Worth worked with TCU to create a neighbor to neighbor webpage and brochure, specifically aimed at students living off campus. It details parking, noise, trash and recycling roles in TCU Purple. The city has a wealth of resources and what we needed to do was be able to find better ways to put those resources in the hands of students. And our brochure that we've developed, website improvements, just knowing how to get students to the information has been a very big help. So we have the TCU neighbor to neighbor pamphlets that I definitely initiate and give to the students when I come in contact with them so that they can know when their boat pickup is, when their trash day is. They have non-emergencies, what number to call. The education effort must be repeated every semester. As new students move off campus, but it pays off. Complaints to the city and TCU have declined since the neighbor to neighbor program started. And the message also resonates with students. People should definitely have to pick up the trash. Especially with a lot of college students it gets kind of dirty. I mean if you've got your trash out in the lawn or if you don't keep everything like nice and tidy, it starts to look run down and ratty and it just kind of brings down all the people around you. Don't be too loud on the weekends. Recognize that there are families and students and children all around and that you just have to be a little bit more respectful to them. I think our students know more about how to live within the neighborhood, how to be a community member because the neighbors are out talking to the students. The students are out talking to the neighbors. Neighbors have noticed the change too. Not only are there fewer complaints, but attitudes have changed for the better. Some neighbors stopped being so angry and now we encourage, meet your TCU neighbors, ring the doorbell, exchange phone numbers. If they're going to have a party, let them come tell you and work out details. I think they understand the rules and it's been really good. It's night and day, night and day. We realize that we're all kind of in this together. We love the university, we love the neighborhoods surrounding the university and by working together we can make all of it a better place for our students, for our neighbors. For more information about the city's TCU Neighbor to Neighbor program, visit Fort Worth, Texas dot gov slash TCU neighbors.