Albany

They don't want this. They don't want to be in this column. They don't want to be the ones with qualms about their city and neighborhood.

Martin Daley and Jennifer Ceponis love Albany and Pine Hills. But sometimes enough is enough. Everyone has a breaking point.

For Daley and Ceponis, that came Friday morning.

That's when the married couple discovered that some dimwit had vandalized their cherry tree, a sapling they'd planted in their small front yard several months back. The tree was snapped at its base, leaving it pathetically sprawled across the Myrtle Avenue sidewalk.

Who would do something so pointlessly stupid?

Daley, 34, and Ceponis, 31, immediately had an answer. It was college students, of course, the subset of scholars who drunkenly roam select parts of Albany at night. They often travel in packs. They make noise. They like to break things.

"It's just so brazen," Daley said. "That's the thing that really bothers me. It's almost sociopathic."

Daley has lots of examples. Here's one: He once watched as a student walked up to a house across the street and, for no particular reason, began pulling up yard ornaments.

"Seriously?" Martin asked.

"Yeah, seriously," the student said.

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OK, so here's the part of the column where I note that most college students don't behave this way. The vast majority are thoughtful youths who work hard, respect their neighbors and add to the region's vibrancy.

What we're really talking about is a narrow group of dolts. You know them. They didn't light up their high schools, but somehow got into UAlbany. They wear their baseball caps backward. They think puking is hilarious. They grew up downstate. They think they're better than upstate.

"Albany is not a home to these kids," said Daley, who graduated from Albany High and has degrees from UAlbany and Saint Rose. "And I shouldn't call them 'kids,' because they're really adults."

This is a difficult time of year for residents of student-inhabited neighborhoods. Summer, after all, is wonderfully serene. The college kids are home, bothering their parents. Then September arrives and, suddenly, they're baaaack!

Late Sunday night, Ceponis went outside to ask 25 students gathered on the street if they could quiet down because the couple's baby was sleeping.

"It's a public sidewalk," Ceponis says she was told. "We can stand wherever we want."

Such irritations have Ceponis and Daley considering the unthinkable. Five years after they bought their house, they're thinking of moving to another neighborhood or maybe even — insert screaming sound here — the suburbs.

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See, Daley and Ceponis are serious city lovers, and Pine Hills is perfect for them in so many ways. They can walk to parks, shops and restaurants. They love their street's diverse mix of people.

The couple watched friends move to the suburbs and thought, "That'll never be us."

Now, Daley hates that some of those friends will read about their broken tree and think, "See, we told you so."

Daley and Ceponis don't want someone to use their complaints as a reason to avoid living in the city. They hope speaking out will help, because they really do want what's best for Pine Hills.

"It just seems that there's a line that's being crossed more and more," Daley said. "It's frustrating."

Somehow, I've written 500 words on this topic without mentioning the infamous kegs-and-eggs riot from two years back. That, you'll remember, was the black eye that led city officials to promise a crackdown on rowdy parties, code violations and other long-standing problems in the so-called student ghetto.

Deputy Police Chief Brendan Cox told me those efforts are ongoing — and changing the neighborhood. Cox said the wandering groups cited by Daley and Ceponis might even show that the crackdown on big parties and bad bars is working.

"The students," he said, "have nowhere to go."

Cox credited area colleges for working with police to improve Pine Hills. UAlbany, in a statement, said the school "is committed to being a good neighbor, and to guiding our students, both on- and off-campus, to become good neighbors."

But the broken tree on Myrtle Avenue is evidence that significant work remains.

And let's be honest — police aren't baby sitters, and there's only so much they can do. Students should have learned the basic rules of civility long before they got to Albany.

On Friday morning, Daley went out with a roll of tape and tried to put the damaged tree back together. He isn't sure it will survive.

cchurchill@timesunion.com • 518-454-5700 • @chris_churchill