This is the second of two stories analyzing the effect of recent police activity in the Heights.
When a party gets busted in the Heights, it's not uncommon to see students flock to Main Street as a backup plan.
This semester, with police activity on the rise, Main Street is feeling the effects as students scramble to find another party, catch the drunk bus, grab some late night eats, or make the last call at local bars.
"If I'm at a party that gets broken up, I'm definitely going to look for something else to do," said Patricia Arend, a sophomore business major. "You try to get into one of the bars or you get a slice of pizza. What else is there to do?"
With nothing else to do, the extra partiers on Main Street have proved both helpful and a hurtful, according to local businesses. Although more students can mean more customers, the often already-drunk clients also spark more fights, rowdiness, and overall unruly behavior.
"If parties get broken up, the students definitely start coming here earlier," said Kevin Diehl, a bouncer at The Steer, a bar on Main Street. "When that happens, we do get more frats in here that tend to get rowdy, but it's nothing we can't handle. These kids get drunk and start talking big, but it's really the same old (stuff)."
Kamyar Khaledi, another bouncer at The Steer, agreed rowdy behavior follows the party crowd.
"We also get more kids trying to sneak in, either by hopping the fence or passing back IDs," Khaledi said. "The sneaking in has picked up a lot since the cops have been cracking down on the parties."
When underaged students get denied from The Steer, they often try their hand at purchasing alcohol at Splash, a convenience store that's just down the street, according to Splash employee Alex Cline.
"We get a lot more people coming in here when parties get busted," Cline said. "It actually brings in more business in the end, because they buy alcohol for their party here, the cops confiscate the alcohol when the party is busted, and then they come back here to buy more."
But while there is an upside, the increased business also has a drawback for both Splash and Sal's, a popular late night pizzeria that has an equally popular stoop within view of many of Main Street's bars.
"The biggest problem is when students who aren't from the area get drunk and mess with the gangsters," Cline said. "People also get very belligerent and disrespectful. Drunks come in and try to use the bathroom, or kids who are obviously underage try to buy alcohol. I often feel like I'm a bartender to the crack-heads."
Sal's employee Chris Santorella said the police often step in aggressively when too many students are loitering out in front.
"The cops come up and tell these kids to leave, but they're sitting there eating pizza," Santorella said. "I've seen the cops respond by taking their billy clubs and hitting the pizza out from in front of them and telling them 'Well now you're done, so leave.' We've actually pulled people into the store and shut the door to keep the cops away from them."
According to Santorella, Sal's has also had many of the same problems as Splash, ranging from belligerent customers to fights in the pizzeria.
"We've had people try to steal pieces of pizza off the counter, and we've had to address that issue. Most of time when kids get dumb though, their friends check them. It only gets out of hand when the fights start," Santorella said. "This past winter half of a frat and half of the rugby team got into this battle royale, right in the middle of the pizzeria. You wouldn't believe these kids."
Some Main Street businesses said they haven't been directly affected by the crackdowns on Heights parties.
"There's always cops in our parking lot, so they scare everyone away," said Mitch Mazurowsky, a Mobil employee. "Our carding policy is tighter now because of crackdowns, but we really haven't had a problem. We get mostly pre- or post-bar people."
Many students also complained about stricter carding on Main Street. Where fake or inadequate identification used to mean entrance to a bar or the purchase of alcohol, the rules have changed.
"I'm on the lacrosse team and we used to have our bar parties at Third Base, but since they've cracked down on IDs we can't do that anymore," said Martha Adams, a junior biopsychology major. "We brought in a lot of revenue to them with our parties. Seriously, we should just lower the drinking age, because that would make for less problems."
Jessica Benway, a junior dance major, agreed with Adams.
"I don't drink, so it's not that an issue for me, but if the cops were more lenient businesses would do much better," she said.
