Students get drunk in Madison, New York Times finds

Note the Capital in the background. Caption: There are more than 100 drinking establishments in downtown Madison, home to the main state university campus. In recent years thousands of young professionals and retirees have moved to the area. Andy Manis for The New York Times.

I somehow missed last Monday's NYT. It had a story on what the paper reported as student-generated revitalization of downtown Madison, Wisconsin and drinking problems as a result. (Not sure how long this article will be accessible: "This Remaking of Downtown Has Downside.")

The title of this entry comes from a Wisconsin State Journal article in response. According to this State Journal article, "Don't break Downtown by 'fixing' it":

Does anyone, other than perhaps The New York Times, seriously think that Downtown Madison is in trouble? The reality is that our Downtown has never been more fun or vibrant. Little more than a decade ago you could walk up King Street at night, and about the only food for sale was stale popcorn and candy bars at the barren Majestic Theater.

Now you can find almost any food imaginable on King Street -- gourmet pizza from a wood-fired oven, duck sushi rolls, peanut stew with butternut squash. The Capitol Square used to be a ring of empty storefronts next to a red-light district. Today it's buzzing with shops, sleek offices, live music and special events.

Downtown used to house almost exclusively students and service-industry employees in dive apartments. Now condo towers dot the skyline and help create more of a neighborhood. To be sure, Downtown is experiencing a culture clash. Wealthy condo dwellers don't care for drunken university students loudly carrying on at bar time.

That's understandable. But it's hardly a reason to "tone down downtown," which the Times identifies as the central need for our city's center. "As an urban issue, the downsizing of downtowns has little precedent because many cities, particularly in the Midwest, are struggling mightily to bring people back to their cores, not send them away," the Jan. 1 article reads. The last thing Downtown Madison needs is downsizing. And we certainly shouldn't be "sending people away."

In "A Culture Clash Downtown?" from the Madison Capital Times, Doug Moe takes a historical perspective, commenting that for more than 100 years, people have been trying to close downtown saloons and the salacious behavior they promote

Ex-Mayor Paul Soglin comments in his blog, "New York Times Plays New Years Joke on Madison" and here, "More on UW - Madison and Drinking."

Index Keywords: urban-revitalization; quality-of-life-advocacy