State Street Tailgating
As a student resident at one of the state street houses popular for tailgating at, I'm pretty disappointed in the monitoring of tailgates so far this year by the city. Last week, the cops repeatedly asked my house, as well as all the others, to keep the music down to ridiculously low levels. Today, a few of the houses received e-mails warning us that the city was threatening to file a lawsuit against us if the tailgates continued to "get out of control". It was pretty vague, but they cited things such as high music levels, underage drinking, and crowds pouring into the street (come on, really?). I've been living here for two years, and this has never been a problem. Is there really anything the city could actually do? State street is a huge part of the game day experience for a lot of students, and it would be ridiculous if they actually pursued this.
September 22nd, 2009 at 7:22 PM ^
This will never happen
September 22nd, 2009 at 7:29 PM ^
As a recent Alum this enrages me. State street tailgating was one of the highlights of my campus experience during my four years. Having lived on a house on state that had a decently large tailgate, i have first hand experience with dealing with the police. The gameday cops were usually pretty cool, the one red headed one and the fatter one with the mustache in particular. If I were you I would contact student legal services and talk to them, its free and they can help. Until the city takes you to court, keep partying, make sure people stay in your yard/fenced in areas and most importantly...get fucked up.
September 22nd, 2009 at 7:34 PM ^
Oh Ted Bundy - is there anything you won't do?
September 22nd, 2009 at 9:12 PM ^
I've noticed a much heavier police presence in the tailgate lots. I've been tailgating in the same spot at a further out lot (not the Blue Lot but one of the other Univ. run lots). Never used to see cops. This year I've seen a bunch, particularly riding around on bikes. Can't possibly be that the city is stepping up fear of crime. Must be looking to get more tickets/revenue.
September 23rd, 2009 at 7:59 AM ^
I was STUNNED to see a foot patrol and a bicycle cop nail a beer pong party on the front lawn of a house on 5th, just north of Packard/Jefferson. The fuzz (I'm not quite that old, but...) haven't hit my lot yet, but I felt bad that the students were denied a traditional rite. I don't think the house was ticketed, or any inhabitants, but the pong table went inside, as did Santa and all the students. Almost wanted to invite 'em across the street to party with me!
September 22nd, 2009 at 7:29 PM ^
When I lived on campus we received noise violations for our Saturday morning tailgates multiple times, especially the Noon starts when the festivities would start at the crack of dawn. We also would come home to garbage notices on our front door. I think the police honestly expected us to clean the entire yard before going to the game or something. The Ann Arbor police can definitely tend to be quick on the noise violation from time to time.
September 22nd, 2009 at 7:32 PM ^
Co-sign the littering violations. They will get on those faster than you realize. That said, I couldn't help but agree with them. It doesn't take much to do a quick round up of most of the trash. If you leave it there during the game, it can fly around.
September 22nd, 2009 at 7:29 PM ^
issue some tickets. I lived at State & Hill when in school. We just pooled $ to pay them and had a different person take the ticket every time...
Re: garbage notices - they made that a priority a few years ago (I remember it being in the news) - you basically have to pick up every cup or they'll give you a bogus ticket.
September 22nd, 2009 at 11:28 PM ^
A few years ago when I was living on East U, we were given a garbage notice during a game...the only trash in our yard were the two garbage bags that we had used to put all of the cups and trash in before we left for the game. Apparently the garbage bags siting in our yard instead of in a trash can warranted a garbage notice. Lame.
September 22nd, 2009 at 7:33 PM ^
I'm pretty sure the cops' new enforcement of noise violations and other typically unenforced laws is part of an effort to generate revenue. Obviously the city needs money, and an easy way for them to do that is to pick up several hundred dollars each for noise violations. It's bullshit, for sure. The game day atmosphere is a reason many recruits and students come here. I doubt they'll take it to court, but only because I'd bet they're content to keep collecting fines.
September 22nd, 2009 at 9:06 PM ^
They do this in many ways. I have been here going on 7 years, and every year violent crime and robbery have gone up
Yet the focus remains on revenue-generating activities. Traffic and parking tickets, public urination, and so forth. Get a public urination ticket, you can pay a chunk of change to get it off the record (get two and you're registered as a sex offender, btw) ... man, you should see the lines of people at the courthouse waiting to pay those tickets!
September 22nd, 2009 at 7:40 PM ^
from a greek perspective... sororities are initiating their freshman girls this week, this means that there will be an influx of even more drunk and stupid underaged pre-gamers on state street this weekend. hopefully the AAPD will lay off a little bit.
September 22nd, 2009 at 9:59 PM ^
....We can't initiate them if they haven't even gotten their bids yet. But bid day is Thursday if that's what you mean.
September 22nd, 2009 at 8:45 PM ^
They're bluffing. Talk to student legal services.
September 22nd, 2009 at 10:01 PM ^
Definitely talk to student legal services. I heard that cops were cracking down on tailgating this past weekend and I was very surprised that one of my friends got a noise violation, I figured they were practically unheard of on gamedays.
I live in a student neighborhood and a few weeks ago when everybody was moving in there were city cars patrolling the neighborhood giving out as many tickets as possible. We saw two cars towed from the same spot in about two or three hours.
September 23rd, 2009 at 12:21 PM ^
I am a sophomore but I have been going to games since I was in elementary school. From what I have noticed, especially so far this year, is that the AAPD and DPS have shifted their focus towards state street and student parties instead of regular tailgates. I go down to the golf course to tailgate with my uncle and his buddies. We have noticed a lack of DPS bike cops (the usual law enforcement presence down there) so far this year. You'd figure that they wouldn't ignore the golf course with the influx of so many more tailgaters this year.