Don't cry for me Iowa City.........

[AlleyAddict]

I'm not so sure this time around. The townies are mobilizing for this one. They have Kirk Ferentz behind them. He's kinda popular.


Hopefully some of these places go under before November.

Because he's sick of his players getting in bar fights and being caught for under age drinking.

[CycloneYoda]

The 21 law is only there because the state was forced into it under threat of losing federal highway money. If the state, or local governments want to find ways around this law that was forced upon us from washington, by making it de facto ok to drink over 18 in that area, I am perfectly fine with this.

About 10-15 years ago, Louisiana flirted with lowering the drinking age to 18. 1 month later, they were back on track because of the federal mandate. Guess they liked road repair over 18 year olds drinking.

[brett108]

I wonder what the effect will be on the total student population. You see, EIU has an enormous amount of Illinois suburban-expats that choose Iowa because they are to dumb to meet University of Illinois admission requirements. They come to Iowa because it is close to home and they can drink like fish in IC. Will future generations choose Wisconsin?

Why would they chose Wisconsin? UW is one of the best academic institutions in the country. I have a hard time believing their entry requirements are lower than those at Illinois.

[CycloneYoda]

Why would they chose Wisconsin? UW is one of the best academic institutions in the country. I have a hard time believing their entry requirements are lower than those at Illinois.

Wisconsin=party school. And it is much easier to get into Wisconsin than Illinois. Illinois accepts only the best from their own state, while Wisconsin will take almost anybody. The requirements for UW are not much different than Iowa.

[isukendall]

OK, having read that article, why would they need to hand out exemptions at all? The minors are able to be in those places until 10pm...who orders food after that? I mean, the Airliner got an exemption? I haven't spent a ton of time in IC, but isn't that one of the two biggest bars there? Did they hand out an exemption to the Union too?

To me, it seems pretty obvious what is a bar and what is a restaurant. Sports bars can be in the grey area a little I guess. Places like Old Chicago, BWW, Okoboji Grill, Wallaby's...they are restaurants with a bar inside. Places like Peoples (RIP), Whiskey River (RIP), Welch Ave Station are bars that serve pub grub and apps. But at pretty much all the restaurants, they stop serving real food by 10pm anyway.

I used to work at Whiskey River. Grill stopped serving at 10, it was our general policy no minors after 11, in case they ordered their food right before 10 they'd have time to finish it. We were pretty hard on carding minors, at least when I worked there. It was never really an issue. Of course, that's different than a campustown bar.

[Judoka]

The laws are a joke. But until they are changed, I fully expect "responsible" business owners to abide by the laws instead of continuing to find ways around them.

I agree completely. I think having the drinking age be 21 is ridiculous. But I expect bar owners to abide by it. I love how many of them are complaining that they will be going out of business because of this... basically outright admitting that selling alcohol to minors is part of their business plan.

There are a few places that this does hurt though. There are one or two places in Iowa City that are primarily places for live music that happen to have a bar. I wouldn't mind seeing some kind of expemption there - because since they don't serve food they would never hit the 50% requirement, but they are some of the few places downtown after 10 pm where an 18 or 19 year old could legitimately be for reasons other than getting trashed.