This letter is in response to the Aug. 27 Daily staff editorial, “Building boom no good for Ames.”

About the “hefty” price tag of $350 — $450 a month for Ev Cochrane and Associates’ new apartments, guess what? After all the rate increases for the dorms and Fredericksen Court, those prices are right on par with what the Department of Residence is charging for much more cramped living quarters.

I’m glad there’s a building boom in student housing. Students will benefit from the competition between property management companies and the university’s for-profit Department of Residence. I agree that Ev Cochrane and others like him are slum lords, but more often then not, it seems the Department of Residence is as well.

Pete Stoltenow

Senior

Computer Engineering