On the Melrose Merchants, Kinnick Stadium, and the Continuing Evolution of Iowa City to Evanston

Technically, Evanston is a more primitive version with the attendance of Iowa games maybe circa 1890. I just wanted to emphasize the obvious and astronomical “step backwards”

Hey, if the football blows, something else should, too, right?

/collegeeducationpun

it is far better to be “pissed off” than “pissed on.”

that the larger problem was the slippery slope that is tailgating regulations. Tailgaters lose a little more every year, Lot 6, Olive Court, Myrtle Hill, open containers, food vendors, etc.

This is a concerted effort to curtail tailgating little by little. Just enough so that you see articles like this one pop up with lots of comments but not enough that there is an actual backlash.

It’s absurd and it will only get worse until there is a serious effort by those with a little common sense to end this bullshit.

One question I have is, what does Kirk Ferentz think of all of this, deep down? He’s conservative enough that he would probably enjoy seeing Prohibition reinstated yet he’s got to be realistic enough to realize that much of his salary and at least part of his success are due to the environment surrounding Iowa football games.

Very nice article PV.

Here in semi-rural PA, I can hardly hear about the local dirt track racing scene (Yes. We are German rednecks. Some idiots even have Confederate flag bumper stickers when their ancestors probably fought for the right side.) from my friends and family without hearing about the latest person to write in to the papers and complain about the noise from the tracks that are a couple of miles from her house (They’re not that loud). The track in question was built within five years of World War 2 and her development was built within the last ten years. The developer probably didn’t warn her because, hey, he’s a sleazy real estate developer, and no one else warned her, so here we are.

Frankly, I’d be shocked if no residents ever complained about those damn salmon swallows always flying back in those giant flocks to that damn mission in Capistrano.

When I lived in Chicago, I used to hear people (usually twenty-something females) that bought condos in Wrigleyville complain about the noise and congestion on game days. I used to feed them a ration of shit. “Did you know that the ball park was there – you know, the one built in 1914?” One girl told me she wasn’t prepared for the parking issues. “Where did you think they were all going to park? In that huge parking lot next to the stadium?”

I have no (NONE) sympathy for people who buy next to something like Wrigley Field, Kinnick Stadium, etc., and then complain about it. MOVE!

And for the record, complaints about noise was the downfall of my beloved Tunis Speedway in Waterloo, just a few blocks from where my parents still live. We used to be outside on Sunday evenings and hear the hot laps start, then head over to the track.

…not to mention the continued rise in property value based on the University and the football games. We all forget that these douches can sell at any time for a premium.

they are politicians who can be swayed by whatever wind is strongest the University tells them to do

If the UI comes out and says they like having the vendors on Melrose, sorry Jean Walker – game over.

but that’s just my opinion

I’d also add that removing the vendors will leave more room for people to walk on the grass and destroy the lawns. They’ll also create more trash because people will be more spread out and litter (because it’s easier, duh).

when I saw this, that was the 1st thing I did. glad you put up the emails!

Hello, Mr. Hayek.. You’ve got mail. MOTHERFUCKER!

scum of the earth

they are seriously the best landlords ever!!

if you have a problem, they are there within the hour to fix it. they also will give back 100% of your deposit if there is nothing wrong (I did!)

between the tailgating stormtroopers and this, the mentality of both the city and school seem to be “Leave your money and get the hell out.”

I don’t have a lot of spare cash or time and almost never make it back. I was all jacked up to come “home” this year of Iowa/Michigan (hopefully introducing a Wolverine friend to what a real atmosphere is like) and now I’m expecting a Bloomington, IN atmosphere. Maybe I’ll just stick to seeing the Hawks play in away venues where I know things will resemble college gamedays.

So I could casually put my beer down if the popo came in. It’s a skill the young’uns now don’t get to develop outside FAC hours.
Which by the way, anyone at the bars recently has to laugh at the mass exodus from the bars around 9:45 on Friday nights.

thousands of well thought out letters and decelerations that the mayor wont be the mayor in a few years anymore if this keeps up may change a few minds however

Letters aren’t going to work, especially not from people outside the community. They have constituents and they aren’t us. What works is hitting them in the pocketbook. Stop going. Stop dropping a grand in their pockets every weekend in hotels and food and entertainment and, yes, in tickets. Stay home. Watch the game on your couch. Until that happens, they can do anything they want with no actual repercussions.

The new indoor facility, offices, locker rooms, etc will be taking the RV lot very soon. Does the “fuck you lot” become the new RV lot? Where do the displaced high money donor, non-RVers go?

Am I the only one picturing the molerat right now?

Also – this post is dead on. Huzzah, sir! I only wish those in power would have the nerve to read it.

What the fuck? You said I was moving in next to an airport, not a runway. Where the fuck did all of these noisey planes come from?
Sincerely,
Stupid Buyer

i cant remember the exact numbers, but of the residents of Iowa City (non students), it was something like 80-85% of them are employed by the University of Iowa. Unless I’m mistaken, you need students to have a University. If you start driving students away, you’ll have to start cutting back on jobs for the locals, which I’m guessing will lead to them leaving Iowa City in search of a job.

the Greek lamb dish called the “gyro”, is not pronounce “gyro” but rather “kkkkkkheeroh.”

I know she’s the Braveheart of my dreams (that wake me in a cold sweat).

but it took its toll on Mel Gibson and drove him into batshit insanity.

And don’t think I’ve forgotten about that scotch. The good kind, I accept. And what your saying sounds to me like “get ready for the smug”. Everyone wants to turn us into Ann Arbor, starting with Mary Sue Coleman (from what I’ve always heard, anyway), now the IC Michigan-grad Mayor. This whole thing just makes me think and say a lot of F words. I don’t like Christmas future.

It’s really not that hard to fathom, either.

I grew up in Madison in the 80s. You know Madison – Jump Around, The 5th Quarter, Crazy student section, one of the best atmospheres in college football. I was a lowly soda vendor in the mid 80s, and that 80,000 seat stadium was often half-full. No one even bothered to go up into the upper deck to sell soda, because there were no fans there. The Iowa game was the one I looked forward to the most, because the bumblebees would swarm in with wads of twenty dollar bills needing Coca Cola to mix with their smuggled booze. They’d take up nearly a third of the stadium.

And that is in a city of a quarter-million,

Iowa City better be damned careful to not cut off its nose to spite its face. You kill that gameday experience, and people will stay away in droves when – and I said WHEN because Iowa football history dictates it – there is a dropoff in success on the field.

Thank you.

You really should have done your research before writing this. The world ends in 2012.

I tried to rec this again. That didn’t go well.

One is to go back on Melrose Court, take a left at the end of the street, then a right at the end of that street.

The other is to take Koser south, left at the stop onto George.

Both of these ways get you onto Benton, from there, head toward Highway 6, then 280. It is so much quicker than trying to get out via Melrose.

The power-trippers seem to have the time and tolerance for plenty of meetings.

A lot.

once deemed by playboy as the #1 party school in the nation
they mess up the local republican party plans too
and even though i was only IC visiting my daughter
albeit sober for soe time
amatuer night compared to athens
they have cracked down lately,
but only to a point
because the kids have the vote

That’ll never work. This is America! Hysteria, hyperbole, shouting, and sensationalism – that’s what gets things done these days. You are the Lisa Simpson to the general public’s Helen Lovejoy.
That said, please run for mayor or governor or something.

there are easily twice as many bodies outside the shoe
than in, and even though they too have cracked down
easily 100k come to Ctown on gav\me dame to tailgate

"I’ll send someone over to your house to clean up the yard after the games, in case there’s any trash. Give me a call if there’s anything else we can do."

Years ago, there was a very wealthy country gentleman here in Pennsylvania who saved Port Royal Speedway (A dirt surface race track in the middle of a town) by guaranteeing an old lady that her house would be cleaned of any dirt after the races on Sunday mornings. The rumor is that he also slipped a $50 bill into her hand, but that’s just a rumor. In any event, I like his style.

Yes, I know that the gameday experience zone does have room for more tents, but I doubt them simply putting the vendors in that space. I’m also not sure if there are legal or policy reasons that the university wouldn’t want the vendors in the Kinnick lot. I’m pretty sure that the people who currently park next to the stadium aren’t really providing nearly as much revenue in parking fees as they do in donations, press box suites, etc. The ability to purchase parking in that lot is a perk of all the money they spend. Besides, the RV lot will be going away in a year or so which is probably just going to make people donate more money for the ability to purchase a parking spot.

Also, I doubt that moving the vendors off of the South side of Melrose would have all that much of an impact on the pedestrian situation. Pedestrians spill onto the street along Melrose before you get to the vendors from either direction. To reduce the amount of pedestrians crossing Melrose or walking in Melrose you would need to find a way to remove all parking south of the street in IC or anywhere in UH.