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. Page 7De Page 7D