Someone needs to tell me what’s happening to State Street.
As a junior, I have a little over two years experience Downtown, and those times have passed by quickly and without much change. For the most part, our favorite late-night venues have remained consistent from semester to semester and are shared by the majority of party-goers.
However, there seems to be a different atmosphere this fall, for better or worse. The bars that I remember being the hotspots — Scoreboard, for one — are now taboo. It’s almost considered a turn-off for students to frequent these holes in the wall — nay, ground.
It may be a demographic change, or that the crowds of freshmen are more inclined to enter a club than a sports bar, but regardless, the sudden changes are intriguing, and I posed a few questions to myself to better understand the population shift.
So why now? Are these freshmen more abundant now than in previous semesters? Is it even freshmen who influence the growth of a bar or club?
Do clubs like Paradigm attract us because we like the strobe lights and the disco-lit floor, or because all of our friends are waiting on line to get in?
We certainly know that it’s not the drink specials.
But it’s interesting that Paradigm is not a new venue, and only now is it gaining some steam as a new late-night hotspot. It has that big-city club feel, unique among the blase “clubs” on State Street, but it hasn’t renovated or improved its décor from last year. So … what the hell?
The locales on State Street now seem to be hit or miss, packed or empty. It’s almost as if you’re either rushing through a football huddle with your head ducked, trying to avoid a high elbow, or you’re walking in at 6 p.m. on a dry Wednesday, trying to make conversation with a bartender.
Another change, albeit small and pretty predictable, is that The Rat is back. It’s surprising, though, that it has bounced back this quickly with a shot of adrenaline and a fortified vengeance. The Rat, at least for the time being, has got some of its notorious swagger back — and let’s face it: What is Binghamton without the Rat?
And lest we forget the action happening on the street itself? The hordes of students who line the street every weekend night was an event usually reserved for Halloween and Parade Day, but is now commonplace.
Now, it’s still early in the semester and things can change, the popularity in bars can fluctuate as the imminent winter approaches. After all, Binghamton’s winter season is perhaps one of the top reasons for its accolade as one of the most depressing cities in our great country.
With that in mind, perhaps people will be increasingly apprehensive about waiting outside when the temperature is less than the number of drinks they will have throughout that night.
I guess we’ll just have to wait and see and let the drinks do the walking.