For its final issue of the year, The Daily Cardinal spoke with Mayor Dave Cieslewicz. He offered his opinions on Halloween, the smoking ban, house parties and everything else that mattered to UW-Madison students.
On the Smoking Ban...
There's no question that people are safer. Many students work in bars and they're not breathing second-hand smoke anymore. A lot of students are musicians and they play in bars and they're not breathing second hand smoke anymore. From a public health standpoint, there's no question it was a success.
And the bars it hurt…
They tend to be bars that haven't had other ways of bringing in customers. But I do think it's a relatively small number, and most bars have been able to adapt. If you look at the overall numbers, we actually issued more liquor licenses in the first six months after the smoking ban than in the six months before it took effect. That's a pretty good indication that people who are interested in opening bars aren't being dissuaded by the smoking ban.
On Halloween…
Every year for the past four years, things have gotten somewhat better. Four years ago we had broken windows, we had fires set on State Street. The year after that, we had another fire started. The year after that, no fire, no broken windows. This year, no injuries, no fires, no broken windows. So you can see an improvement. But we do need to get to a point where we don't have to end the event with cops in riot gear using pepper spray. Nobody wants that.
On his plans for future Halloweens…
I just don't want folks coming here with the intention of starting a riot or witnessing a riot. To the extent that people like that are attracted to the event, I want to cut that off. It's a relatively small number of folks who are causing trouble and I would like to make the event unappealing for those kinds of folks. And we haven't quite figured out how to do that yet.
On house parties…
We had the big one at Halloween that had around 600 people in a relatively small house. That creates a dangerous situation. And to the extent that these things start to become profit making deals for a lot of people. It's really essentially running a bar without a license.
On college drinking…
I am a graduate. I have to be honest; when I was an undergraduate at the UW I probably drank too much from time to time. It's been part of the culture at the UW for a very long time, and it's been part of the culture of Wisconsin for a very long time. It isn't just students. It's really about a culture of heavy drinking that really goes well beyond the campus.
On the changing face of Madison…
There's spirit of optimism at those (immigration) rallies. They're people who really do think they can influence the policies of their government in a positive way. We had easily 25,000 people at the rally a few weeks ago and not a single incident. It's a very hopeful thing. Right now, we're about 20 percent people of color. That's probably going to be more like a third over the course of the next couple of decades.
A message to UW-Madison Students…
You guys make the city what it is. The most important part of the city is not the state government—I don't think it is. I think it's the UW. Go away, have a good summer, come back and you'll continue to build the city. If you're going to graduate, go to Paris, go to New York, in a couple years come back here and make your life here.
