Van wrote:On the one hand, I respect Jon's posts in this thread. These have been fairly solid efforts, considering.
On the other hand, I wasn't aware Iowa City was the only college town with a lot of bars, including bars with promotions designed to attract drinkers.
I'm pretty sure Austin, Texas has a rather popular drinking district. My guess is Madison, Wisconsin has been known to throw back a beer or two, as well.
Berkeley, California, well, there's a decent chance you may become tied up with the Symbionese Liberation Army.
L.A. has also been known to offer a nightlife temptation or two to your average 18-22 frat boy.
At least, that was my impression. I guess I was wrong. I guess only Iowa City offers drinking temptations to college kids.
They should really do something about that. That's quite the competitive disadvantage, for all these other schools to have nothing similar to offer potential recruits.
I'm not saying Iowa City is the only party town.
I'm saying the party atmosphere in Iowa City is unlike a lot of college towns because most college towns don't allow 18-20 year olds in bars, and don't have 30 bars within pissing distance of each other in their downtown area in a location where students are basically encouraged to spend their evenings out there.
Look, I'm not saying there aren't temptations everywhere. What I am saying is Iowa City has a drinking culture that has gotten out of hand. The city does NOTHING about it. Why? Because they're cashing in on it.
That's true that LA does possess many temptations for college kids. Of course it does.......it's LA for crying out loud. However, there's a big difference. How much do those USC football players or even just normal students stand out in that crowd? In Iowa City, you've got the Ped Mall (our downtown area) loaded with approximately 30 bars and many allow 18-20 year olds in. This is where basically EVERYONE on campus hangs out. So where do you think the Cops spend their Friday and Saturday nights hanging out? That's right......the Ped Mall. So thousands of drunk students in one area with a police force ENCOURAGED to give out ticket after ticket because - back to what I said earlier - it's money in the city's pockets.
And on top of that you've got a god damn liquor store at every frickin' street corner. Doesn't matter how far from campus your apartment is- there's a liquor store nearby. Oh sure, some of them might be classified as "grocery stores" but make no mistake, they are liquor stores that sell maybe some bread and ramen noodles!
Iowa City is not like most other campuses. Any campus similar to Iowa City is going to have the same problems. Madison is similar and they've got the same problems. You mentioned Austin, TX too. Yeah, they have just as many alcohol related arrests as Iowa. Knoxville, TN. Same thing. Notice a pattern?
I know from personal experience that it's almost impossible to avoid temptation in that city. The dorms are walking distance to the bars, and so Freshman and Sophomore year I was able to get to the bars no problem. They have campus buses that would pick us up in front of our dorms and drive us downtown. Or if it was nice out we could just walk. And remember, I wasn't even 21 at that time but I could hop on a bus and get into a bar. Then, once inside the bar, they couldn't legally sell us alcohol but ask me how many times I got IDed?? I'll tell you the answer- a handful. Those times I just had someone else buy it for me. You get IDed when you enter the bar, but the bartenders rarely asked. See, at most colleges, the underclassmen would drink in their dorms or go to a frat party. Yeah, we have frat parties, but I can't ever recall going to a dorm party. There was no need to do that. Why would you booze in the dorms when you can go out and do it? You might get an underage ticket, but who gives a crap? It's a $40 fine and you get a free ride back to the dorms from the Cops!
Fact of the matter is this..........you let 18-20 year olds get into bars and make alcohol very easily accessible to them at these bars, and all 30+ of these bars happen to be within walking distance to the dorms, you're asking for trouble.
Van,
What do you suggest Kirk do? Kick everyone off the team when they get busted for acting like a college kid? Or just ban everyone (even the responsible ones- which is the majority) from the Ped Mall? If you kick them off, you can't recruit at all. Same goes for if you ban them from the Ped Mall. If they can't go to the Ped Mall on a Friday night, there's really nowhere else in Iowa City to go except hanging out in the dorms or someone's apartment. But all the hotties hang out downtown, so you'd have some very upset football players. I mean, what do you do?? Should Kirk and the coaching staff sit downtown and look for his players until 2 in the morning???
I mean, we should expect 18-22 year old kids living on their own to all act like they're 20 years older, right? Yeah, that's it...... Imagine that, 18-22 year olds put together in an atmosphere like downtown Iowa City and you get a bunch of drinking related arrests/tickets. Nooooooooooo waaayyy!
