ANN ARo
Section D
Wednesday
September 8, 1999
www.michigandaily.corm
_--e-NEW
rVelcome to a m lr
STUDENT EDITION
AAPD fights fae IDs
college town -
ou stilhave to
eoutfun here
"Make me recall my days in the
New Jerusalem." ,
-Lauryn 2:11
here are certain refrains you get used to hearing if
you spend enough time in this town. It won't take
very long.
C he girls at Michigan suck."
abatt's? No, thanks. I only drink Bell's, served in a
reshly washed glass bong."
"I'm finally done with my thesis. I'm going to make
nuisance of myself at Ashley's."
"Know of any parties tonight? Man, this town is
ead."
Which brings us to the grand champion refrain of
very student; from the rankest greenhorn freshman to
he paint-by-numbers fifth-year senior:
"Man, I can't WAIT to get out of
nn Arbor."
*1 be the first person to James
cknowledge a need for a vacation Miller
r temporary respite from one's
urroundings.
That's a fairly understandable
suman impulse. I get bored with
nn Arbor too, and I've been here
onger than any two of you put
ogether.
But what I find more interesting
s that this impulse to leave Ann t sit
r, in particular, is almost ow1 TAP
athological and rabid, like the
eed to get insulin or the need to
et off Riker's Island.
"I am just like so sick of Ann Arbor. The club scene
s just shit, the bars suck and you have to drive to
etroit just to see anything interesting. I can't wait
fitil I: graduate/leave for the summer/transfer, etc."
Id like to look at this a little more closely.
First, there is a misplaced sense of social cachet
ttached to leaving town.
Memember it from high school. Moving to another
il when you're young automatically implied that you
ere going to have some kind of life-altering transcen-
ental experience.
Anyone who tires of Ann Arbor and tries to remedy
his by going to another university in another town is
n for an expensive and inevitable-disappointment. This
s not to say that one college town isn't different from
he others. Each has its own character, its own kind of
tudent, it's own style.
But it's still a college town.
er you get over the little differences,-there's not
fucl else there. You'll find several thousand fairly
vell-heeled children of fairly well-heeled parents in
ost college towns.
Preppie guys like preppie clothes and the Dave
atthews Band. Bookish types like Woody Allen and
kafka. Most of the student body will have approxi-
fately the same tastes, within certain limits, the same
eactions to things and the same aspirations for their
dult life. Once you get used to a different library,
treet names and student union, you're right back
here you started.
@e second most popular reason for wanting to leave
nn Arbor is that the city is boring.
Okay, I can kind of see that.
If you're from New York (I hate you) you are used to
certain critical mass of consumable entertainment,
rom Korn to God Street Wine to Blues Traveler to
orn.
People from other large cities have the same feel-
ngs. Yet I dare say that there are few cities in the
ountry of this size that have such an impressive and
og-standing tradition of supporting and promoting
l rforming arts.
Name another city of 100,000 people that gets the
larlem Nutcracker every year.
Bow about the Jazz and Blues Festival?
Restaurants of every taste and ethnicity in the known
eorld?
Dozens of different bars?
I could go on.
The point here is not to sound like a tourist guide for
he Ann Arbor Chamber of Commerce. Rather it's to
oint out a weakness of the "boring" defense.
Instead of going out and looking for fun, these peo-
Oave this illusion that Method Man, J.D. Salinger
nd the Beastie Boys are supposed to show up to their
partment every weekend night.
"Yo, what's up, G?" says Adam Yauch, letting him-
elf in.
"Me and Meth and J.D. was just in the area like and
ye wuz wondering if you wanted to come to this club
sith us, throw back some free drinks and like spin a
ittle bit, maybe freestyle. Hey, bring those lyrics and
tuff. J.D. says he's looking to come out of retirement
(jpublish your work, you undiscovered genius you."
you're waiting to begin your life as a raging hip-
ter at the height of the college experience, going
there someone said cool things happen to cool people
von't help.
No matter how close to San Francisco you move, or
ow crappy your midtown walkup is.
Bottom line: Cities are only as stimulating as you
nake them. Wait for fun to happen to you, and you'll
e waiting awhile.
Former Daily Columnist James Miller can be
reached over e-mail at jamespm/umich.edu.
)ave Matthews CDs? Check.
nflatable goats? Check.
knn Arbor's eclectic retail scene meets
ieeds that students didn't know they had.
age 3D
The Ann Arbor
Police want to
make sure beers
like the one
being drawn at
Cottage Inn,
don't get Into
underage
drinkers' hands,
DHANI JONES/Daily
By Marta Brill
Daily StaffReporter
The next time students try to use a
false form of identification to buy alco-
hol in a local restaurant,, they may
receive more than a just a server's
rejection. They may find themselves
face-to-face with a police officer and a
ticket.
The Ann Arbor Police Department
recently received a grant from the state
govemment to crackdown on underage
drinking in area restaurants, said Sgt.
Michael Logghe, an AAPD spokesper-
son.
Logghe said the grant proposes that
officers be inside and outsid restau-
rants and bars to check customrs IDs.
Tlse.AAP1D has .stiers to area,,
rests 'raniss schas (otta_ Inhili,*Ia
House and Good Tim Charly's
iforming then of the proposed pro-
"they are trying to turn the tables,"
said Pizza House owner Dennis Tice,
explaining that usually it is the restau-
rants that the police target, not under-
age buyers.
This was the case last September,
wshen A APD officers ticketed four
local restaurant-bars for not checking
1or age identification before serving
alcohol.
In the raid, Undercover police offi-
cers posed as customers and asked to
he ,crved alc'ohol. Coisor (INeill's,
'tulinarrestaurant. ihe tParthenon
restaurant and Old Heidelberg restau-
rant were ticketed in the incident.
Tice said AAPD has posed as cus-
tomers in Pizza Ilouse in the past. They
attempted to buy alcohol without iden-
tification, but the restaurant employees
asked to see their IDs and refused to
serve them.
"They want to turn some responsi-
bility" oin the underage buyers, Tice
said. adding that Piza H[louse has a
choice in deciding whether it wants to
cooperate with AAIPD.
See FAKES, Page 2D
Buildings..
ge .
ve City
histoic
.L moop, BY PI C
legracy
By Michael Grass
Daily Staff Reporter
Gables, cornices, doorways, columns,
arches, roof lines, bay windows, f&iezes
- these are the details that compose a
building.
Greek Revival, Beaux Arts, Collegiate
Gothic, Victorian, - these are the styles
that create a city with some of the most
unique streetscapes in the Midwest.
The city's architecture attracts people
who learn and live here.
While many cities have destroyed
their downtowns and neighborhoods
through massive urban renewal projects,
Ann Arbor has committed itself to pre-
serve as much of it as possible, designat-
ing 14 areas of the city as historic dis-
tricts.
Unlike many cities, which grow out-
ward from one central area, Ann Arbor
grew from several nodes.'
This, gave the city its wide range of
architecture of varying age, in many
neighborhoods - unique for a city of its
size.
Historic homes and buildings stand
downtown, on the west side, north of the
Huron River, and in areas on and south
and east of campus. Their continued
existence is no accident.
"The city has made a major financial
commitment to historic preservation,"
said Louisa Peiper, former city historic
preservation coordinator.
Ann Arbor served as a crossroads and
trading center starting in the 1820s. As
settlers continued to spread west, the
Washtenaw County area became a hub
for growth in Michigan, attracting the
University from Detroit in 1837.
One of the first areas of settlement
was Ann Arbor's Lower Town area,
located on the north bank of the Huron
River. The area has some of the city's
oldest existing structures. According to
"Historic Buildings -- Ann Arbor,
Michigan" by Marjorie Reade and
Susan Wineberg, the principal landown-
er of the Lower Town area, Anson
Brown, named the area's streets, like
See LEGACY, Page 61)
Nickels Arcade, built in 1916, is one of Ann Arbor's most unique structures. Constructed in the Beaux Arts style, the glass-covered shopping
arcade, home to artists, a clothier, a tobacconist, a barber shop and other businesses, is considered rare in the United States.
down $30M
By Kelly O'Connor
Daily Staff Reporter
When winter's chill finds its way to Ann
Arbor, many students crank up their car
heaters as they drive to classes and through
downtown. Cars- are a luxury in a Michigan
winter, but in Ann Arbor, finding parking can
be a true hassle.
The Downtown Development Authority -
the branch of city government that oversees,
among other things, the upkeep of city parking
structures -- is trying to help. During the next
10 years, all seven city-owned parking struc-
tures will undergo some form of renovation.
DDA assistant director Susan Pallae said the
ultimate goal is to provide parking for all peo-
ple who come to Ann Arbor.
See PARKING, Page 30)
Voting mayget
harde r for 'U'
By Nick Bunkley
Daily Staff Reporter
University students who are registered
to vote in Ann Arbor but have a resi-
dence elsewhere in Michigan will soon
have to choose exactly where home is if
a bill passedby the state Senate is signed
into law.
The Senate voted 23 to 12 on March
23 in favor of a bill sponsored by Sen.
Mike Rogers (R-Howell) that would
require Michigan residents to have the
same residence listed on their driver's
license and voter registration card.
In late May, several House Democrats
met with college students to discuss the
bill's implications.
If the bill passes, students with two
different addresses listed would have to
choose one or the other. The secretary of
State's office would automatically
change the voting address to the address
otl a citizen's license. The main goal of
the proposal isto smoothly combine sep-
arate voting and motor vehicle registra-
tions into one Qualified Voter File,
Rogers said.
"To have these two separate files is
wasteful," Rogers said. "This is about
making the system more efficient."
Rogers said condensing the system
will aid in the tracking of voters.
"This would make it much more diffi-
cult to commit voter fraud," he added.
"We're making it much easier for you as
college students to comply with the law."
But Sen. Dianne Byrum (D-
Onondaga) said the proposal could neg-
atively affect voting habits of college
students - including her constituents at
Michigan State University. She pro-
posed an amendment to the bill that
would have exempted students, but
Senate Republicans voted it down.
See VOTING;.Page 2D
DANA LNNANE/Daily
The city of Ann Arbor will spend more than $30
million to improve its parking structures.
Ann Arbor's U.S. Representative, Lynn
Rivers, is a University alum - and she has
the student loans to prove it.
The Ann Arbor Hands-On Museum opens
in October after $4.2 million worth of
renovations.
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