The Chronicle

Issue date: 10/23/07 Section: Columns
Last update: 10/23/07 at 7:43 AM EST

Jon Detzel

It's entertaining when people argue that Durham is a great place to go to school. I tend to agree, but only in the sense that by "great place to go to school" these misguided individuals actually mean Duke is a great place to go to school.

Because describing Durham as "great" is further away from the truth than your average bold-faced lie.

For me, the biggest issue isn't that Durham is a relatively small city, that it is generally unsafe, that it isn't especially affluent or that it lacks a reliable source of fresh water.

Indeed, like most other Duke students, I can deal with taking my life into my hands every time I go out at night to Brightleaf or Ninth Street.

The worst that's going to happen is that I get robbed, maybe at gunpoint, and then possibly beaten up.

The real problem is that Durham isn't all that fun. It seems like your typical college town-because what is Durham without Duke?-but it lacks the vibrancy or excitement you might expect when 6,000 alcohol-driven young adults descend on a metropolitan area.

If there is one thing we should concede to our rivals down the road, it's that Chapel Hill beats Durham hands down.

Unlike Chapel Hill, Durham doesn't have much to offer when you sit down and think about it.

There isn't much in the way of unique dining, shopping or entertainment. Going to a Bulls game can be fun, but only about once a year. The World Beer Fest sounded pretty cool, but I find it interesting that it was held on the one weekend in October when the majority of Duke students were guaranteed to miss it.

More importantly, the bar scene is pretty weak. There aren't terribly many of them and they aren't all that nice, either.

Certainly the specials nights are attractive, but lately even the benchmark Tuesdays at Chucks have been poorly attended. It is increasingly becoming the case that the only positives about late-night Durham are when Duke organizations are hosting events.

Unless you enjoy being resented by all the locals at the Federal on Friday nights, I'd like to think we should and could do something about the Durham desert. I'm sure all of you have been to some other school or city where going out at night meant hitting the local dive bars and actually having a great time.

The best solution I can think of is to go out even more. The less business Duke students bring to local nightspots, the less likely those establishments are to cater to our demographic. But if we try to make Brightleaf or Ninth Street much more like Franklin Street, then the bars would likely add specials to compete with one another.

Plus, higher attendance would inevitably make partying outside of Duke that much more enjoyable. After all, no one likes rolling up to Big Beers at Sati's to see only about a dozen locals doing karaoke.

Having a bunch of students fill up the local bars just might make a sweet party scene. Tailgate proves how successful a collective Duke effort can be in turning an otherwise cool tradition into something extraordinary and unique.

Why not swarm the town like we swarm the Blue Zone on game days? I really think Durham could be great if we take some action.

But if you don't think so, I hope you enjoy Busch Light and section parties. Because that's about all that's left to do on campus. And if you think Durham is already great-well, then you should probably be drug tested.

Maybe afterwards I'll see you out there.

Jon Detzel is a Trinity senior. His column runs every other Tuesday.

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