21-Only Can Go To Voters

Ack, ack, ack... well, it looks like the anti 21-only crowd managed to get the signatures they needed to get the question to the ballot box in November. Which probably means that it will, most likely be overturned, depending on how effective their message is going to be when the students get back in the fall.

To me, there are two things at work here. First, is the rather sad knowledge that the one thing that will send students to the voting booth in droves in their beer. Which is a very pathetic commentary on my generation as whole- especially since, despite the sermonizing and protestations of bar owners, this question is more about protecting the revenue streams of bar owners than about students having a 'safe' place to drink.

Secondly, once again, we see an indictment of the Iowa City City Council's failure to redevelop or develop anything resembling an economic model that will work for downtown Iowa City. The past ten years have witness a gentrification and upscaling of downtown that has priced most of the rest of the town clean out of downtown. No one is going to shop downtown, because no one in their right mind is going to spend $75 on a pair of jeans. (Sidewalk sales at Catherine's last week. I kid you not.) Students have no means of entertainment other than bars and there's nothing that can afford downtown other than bars. Until the basic economic model is changed and until business friendly policies are pursued that encourage investment and involvement in downtown instead of pricing the entire community out of downtown, nothing will change.

So I'll be voting in favor of keeping 21-only- but with reservations. I'm in favor of 21-only, because I think students are being fed a line of bullshit about what this is about- and I'm not about to vote to protect the profits of bar owners, even if that may be a minority point of view. My reservations: the City Council won't change their ways, so I'm not sure what keeping this ordinance or getting rid of it is going to do. We need to bring business back downtown and we need to bring people back downtown and the idea that Iowa City can be the speciality store-bar-restaurant mecca to Coralville's more generic retail environment isn't paying dividends anymore. What alternatives to students have to drinking? When the City Council starts delivering some results, I might start believing.