I'm pretty sure they are still holes. The only bar that has somewhat tried to buck the trend is the District bar, but it's still in the old Capone's building so it still really isn't too nice.
Anyone still on campus and frequents the area that could fill in some blanks?
This is mostly correct. The district is much nicer than any of the other bars in campustown but still not exactly high-end. There is also a new bar directly to the south of Paddies/Sips in the basement called "One Night Stand", which is where Score used to be and a bunch of other bars before that. It's a country rock bar and from my experience there is usually a good amount of people in there. The owners cleaned up the place quite a bit and it is far less dumpy than all of the bars other than The District. They have some cool memorabilia in there.
Ames has changed a lot in the past 3-4 years. It looks completely different driving down Lincoln Way. As someone mentioned earlier in the thread, they need to turn Welch into a pedmall. It is dangerous to drive on Welch from Lincoln Way to the clock tower by Kum & Go on the weekends, there are always so many people walking and spilling over into the street from the bars.
You can't see it from the pictures posted on this thread but there is another huge apartment complex going in behind University Towers and the new Apartment complex "23 21", which is pictured on the left in the original post, kiddy corner from the MU.
