Living alone is a popular choice

By the time Pitt senior Michael Baker found the opportunity to look for an apartment last… By the time Pitt senior Michael Baker found the opportunity to look for an apartment last spring, his friends had already found places of their own. So he decided to live alone, moving into a single apartment on Melwood Avenue in North Oakland.

To a student like Baker, the decision to live alone was made out of necessity, though others decide to live alone voluntarily.

Senior Marc Parish transferred to Pitt from the University of Florida, where he lived in the residence halls and a fraternity house. After changing schools, he decided that living alone was right for him.

“Despite what other people have told you,” Parish said, “living alone is wonderful.”

He added that the best feature of living alone was being able to walk around naked in his Shadyside studio apartment. Another benefit, Parish said, was being more productive.

“As much as I love living with people, I get more done living by myself,” he explained.

Both Baker and Parish agreed that one of the downsides to living alone is that it is generally more expensive.

“Financially, yes, it’s a burden on your pocket,” Parish said. He said he has paid three times as much on rent and utilities to live in Shadyside, compared to some of his friends.

Baker agreed that living alone does cost a little bit more.

“If [I] had someone else to share a cable bill with, I could probably get more channels,” he said.

Baker said that even while living alone, he is still surrounded by people, as his North Oakland neighborhood is filled with Pitt and CMU students as well as with young people taking time off from college.

“I still see people from Pitt around all of the time,” Baker said.

Parish noted that there is a “weird mix of people” in his Shadyside apartment building, including Pitt students, Pitt professors and a retired couple, so he isn’t bothered by the seclusion of having his own quarters.

“I just enjoy the solitude,” Parish said. “Nobody comes in here and eats my food.”

While Parish enjoys the privacy, Pitt senior Scott Breloff enjoys the company of roommates.

Breloff has lived with as many as five roommates at a time and said he would recommend his experience to anyone.

“I’m just a people person,” he said. “I enjoy having someone to talk to at the end of the day.”

Breloff, who now lives in a two-bedroom apartment on Meyran Avenue, previously resided on Semple Street during summer 2003 where he, along with his roommates, was robbed at gunpoint. Despite that experience, Breloff said he has lucked out with his housing situations.

Financially, Breloff said roommates take off a little bit of the stress for bill-paying. Pitt Police Chief Tim Delaney agreed and said he believed most students lived with roommates for primarily financial reasons, and that they would live alone if they had the money to do so.

“If you can afford the rent on your own, then [you would say no] to roommates,” Delaney said.

Delaney explained that there is no connection between living alone and a higher occurrence of crime.

“If you reversed your role and put yourself in a burglar’s position; it is opportunity and luck,” Delaney said. “They have no knowledge of who is living in an apartment.”

He added that roommates could pose a problem if they are careless.

“If you have a roommate who is sloppy or haphazard, who does not lock the door, it’s actually detrimental,” Delaney said.

For some students, finances or safety could be a determining factor in deciding with whom they live, but Director of the University Counseling Center James A. Cox explained that they often decide to live alone after having a negative experience with a roommate living in the residence halls.

Living with roommates and having it work out well depends upon the person, Cox added.

“It could be as detrimental living with three people as living with yourself,” he explained. Those who live alone, Cox advised, should try to find other ways to increase socialization, including getting involved in campus organizations.

Cox said there are certain “values” students should agree upon with their roommates to make a living situation easier. He said students often disagree over cleanliness, noisiness and whether a significant other should be in the residence all of the time.

“It’s not always friends that make the best roommates,” Cox warned.

However, Cox recommended that students know their roommates before moving in with them.

“Otherwise, it’s a gamble,” Cox said.

Students generally should seek roommates that have similar values and a respect for one another’s space or consider living by themselves.

“It’s a major decision and students should put some serious thought into who they are living with for a year, because that’s usually how long leases run,” Cox said.