Cross-posted on Facebook...
A new year and a new semester has brought, once again, some more discussion about that tiresome old chestnut that Iowa City debates from time to time: what to do about the drinking problem we seem to have downtown. When I read the editorial piece by former Iowa City Mayor Ernie Lehman, I rolled my eyes. The same old crap that the City Council always talks about and then does nothing about- ignoring the underlying problems that keep downtown solely the province of students and bars. But then, I got forwarded another piece by Nick Johnson- who actually did something rather unique- he proposed a model for a solution. Mr. Lehman fails to grasp the realities of the situation in his piece, Mr. Johnson fails to expand on the key point in his- but put them together and something resembling a good idea emerges.
Teeing off the latest round of discussion was former Iowa City Mayor Ernie Lehman, who in an editorial piece to the Press-Citizen on 12/26/2009 decried what he saw as the City Council's 'moral character' problem and once again urged passage of a 21 only ordinance. Mr. Lehman's main point seems to be that not having a 21 only ordinance is seen as an open invitation to young people everywhere to come to Iowa City and drink. He cites the support of former University Presidents David Skorton and Mary Sue Coleman (and the UI College of Public Health) for such an ordinance and seems to imply that the increase in liquor licenses and bars in downtown Iowa City has a direct correlation to the exodus of retail from the downtown area. In short: per Mr. Lehman, NOT having a 21 only ordinance is an open invitation for college students to drink, the proliferation of bars is directly responsible for the exodus of retail businesses from downtown and the City Council lacks the moral character to do anything about it- and should 'step up and do what's best for our young people and for our community.'
Epic Fail, I'm afraid Mr. Lehman. We'll get to why in a minute... I was going to post a rebuttal to Mr. Lehman and leave it at that, but another round of discussion found its way into my email inbox from the Director of the University Police Department (my bosses' bosses' bosses' boss) this time written by prominent Local Citizen Nick Johnson. Unlike Mr. Lehman, who seems to recycling tiresome old talking points without actually looking for solutions, Mr. Johnson is to be commended for seeking out examples from other university towns and actually proposing a model for how to tackle this problem. He seems to conclude that the model employed by the University of Nebraska would be the best one to adapt for Iowa City. Basically, law enforcement, business owners, university and community officials got on the same team and declared a data driven 'war on drinking'- enacting a 21 only ordinance and sending out 'party patrols' on weekends to break up the more noxious house parties. The response was so blanket, Johnson says, that eventually, students began to police themselves to a certain degree- and the data backs up the fact that Lincoln and the University of Nebraska set goals for themselves and got the job done.
Mr. Johnson concludes that with the right levels of cooperation from University, City and Business Leaders a similar approach could well bear fruit here in Iowa City. But the key point is achieving that cooperation and will to tackle the problem. And here Mr. Johnson (although he does not address the problem directly) touches on what Mr. Lehman fails to mention- that it isn't that people don't want to solve the problem of excessive drinking here in Iowa City- it's just that as it stands now, it isn't in everyone's benefit to tackle the problem with the level of cooperation that's needed.
What do I mean by that? Well, this question has always been tough for me. I have to be careful to step back and look at things objectively, because although I myself don't enjoy going out and drinking a fifth of Jack and being completely stupid, other people do. What Mr. Lehman fails to grasp however, is that merely enacting a 21 only ordinance will not stop college students from drinking. In fact, it's arguable whether any law will stop college kids from drinking, since I imagine that young people getting drunk and ending up achieving varying levels of stupidity is something that's been going on since time began. The larger problem is one of culture- and legislating changes in culture can't work. We as a community, as a nation, in general just because of common sense need to de-emphasize the evils of alcohol and emphasize responsible drinking habits. Booze is out there, it's inevitable that young people are going to come into contact with it- yet it's still, to a certain degree demonized and treated as a moral 'evil.' There needs to be a wider change for this problem to be truly ameliorated- one that a 21 only ordinance will not provide. It may curb some drinking downtown, but it will also push the problem of underage drinking out to neighborhoods near campus.
The second point ties in both Mr. Johnson and Mr. Lehman's pieces- Mr. Johnson is correct- for a concerted effort to be made to tackle this problem- University, City and Business Leaders need to be onboard. And right now, there is no compelling interest for bar or to some degree business owners downtown to join in such an effort- it's the same reason that bar owners helped to mobilize students against the 21 only ordinance the last time a serious effort was made to pass one- and it's why when Mr. Lehman suggests that the increase in bars downtown is tied into the exodus of business from downtown, he couldn't be more wrong.
With the opening of the Coral Ridge Mall in 1998, there was a large exodus of major retail outlets from downtown Iowa City. JC Penny's and Younkers both went to the Coral Ridge Mall and the undeniable fact is that the overall retail climate downtown was adversely affected- and, over the course of the next decade, whether implicity or explicity, downtown Iowa City pivoted hard in the direction of speciality retail stores. From my point of view, prior to the opening of Coral Ridge, there was a healthier retail mix downtown- general retails, locally owned and speciality stores rubbed shoulders with restaurants and bars. Removing one major element in that equation left us with an unbalanced economic model for downtown whose efficacy has deteriorated over the course of the preceding decade.
Why? Well, simply put- the problem with basing your downtown off of speciality stores is that it doesn't bring people downtown on a regular basis. The only businesses left downtown that do are bars-- curb their business by enacting a 21 only ordinance and some of them would fall by the wayside- to be replaced with what? With rents and property values so cripplingly high downtown it would be difficult if not impossible to bring back general retail chains, but we need to do something to correct this imbalance. If members of the community don't have a reason to shop downtown everyday, then business owners will have no reason to help curb what amounts to the only game in town, business wise- bars.
Mr. Johnson's proposed solution has never been tried in Iowa City, but for the necessary will to be achieved, the City Council needs to take a hard look at how to broaden the business climate downtown. We need more than just bars if business leaders are going to get onboard with tackling this problem- there is a distinct lack of variety that's been emerging downtown and to be frank, students are the only ones that have a reason to go downtown everyday. If we are to push back against the entrenched culture of drinking here at the University of Iowa we need to craft a strategy to bring the community back downtown--
--the problem isn't one of moral character, right now, it's merely a lack of will.
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