Students are losing establishments to drink and socialize in Oakland, which follows a broader cultural trend of young people straying from alcohol use.<\/p>\n
The impending closure of Hemingway\u2019s Cafe<\/a> follows the continuing trend of bars in Oakland ceasing operations. The disappearance of third spaces<\/a>, such as bars, connects to larger shifts in college culture that leave students with fewer spaces for socializing<\/a>. With fewer bars and a changing drinking culture, some young people are choosing not to drink at all<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n Gene Ney, the owner of local bar Gene\u2019s Place<\/a> for 21 years and business professor at Carlow University, said there used to be 14 to15 bars in South Oakland in the 90s and early 2000s. Ney said keeping a bar open in Oakland has been difficult since the loss of Pitt\u2019s on-campus football stadium<\/a> in 1999.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cYou need those football Saturdays,\u201d Ney said. \u201cWhen that was moved down to the North Shore, everybody [went] to the North Shore, and you basically almost had to write off your Saturdays, so that really ruined things.\u201d<\/p>\n Ney said other factors such as the growth of Uber<\/a> and Lyft<\/a> and higher rent also makes it hard for businesses to stay in Oakland.<\/p>\n \u201cYou and your friends can jump into an Uber and Lyft and go to some other area relatively inexpensively. Back in the day, you had to either take a bus or a cab, so that hurt,\u201d Ney said. \u201cWe\u2019ve [also] had a lot of major real estate companies come in and buy up properties here in Oakland, and they\u2019ve jacked the rent up real high. If you don\u2019t own your building, it\u2019s very difficult to make ends meet with the rent.\u201d<\/p>\n Colt Pierce, an urban studies teaching assistant professor, said bars as third spaces are important whether or not students drink. A third space is defined as a place where people can gather outside their home or workplace.<\/a>\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cTo me, what a third space is, is a space where all these different identities collide together,\u201d Pierce said. \u201cThat is actually really essential for the college experience \u2014 to be in a space where you can meet so many different kinds of people.\u201d<\/p>\n Pierce said that while alcohol can be helpful as a \u201csocial lubricant,\u201d it isn\u2019t required for a third space to be successful.<\/p>\n \u201cPlaces like Hemingway\u2019s are more than just drinking spaces. They are social spaces,\u201d Pierce said. \u201cI think that places like [bars] just need to adapt. If students aren\u2019t drinking alcohol as much as they used to, [they need to ask] \u2018What are they doing?\u2019 and \u2018How can we provide that for them?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n Pierce said that institutions that have been near Pitt\u2019s campus for decades, like Hemingway\u2019s and Gene\u2019s Place, are essential to keeping Pitt\u2019s history and traditions alive for future students through old photos and Pitt paraphernalia on the walls.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThey\u2019re nostalgic spaces, because you can go into a bar like Hemingway\u2019s, and you can see 40 years of Pitt social history there,\u201d Pierce said. \u201cThat\u2019s really important to the community. It makes you feel like you\u2019re part of something.\u201d<\/p>\n Lauren Bailey, a senior natural sciences major, said she has noticed a slight \u201cvibe\u201d shift in the environment of the bars she has gone to since last spring semester.<\/p>\n \u201cA lot of bars now have older crowds. Whenever I used to go to Tequila Cowboy<\/a> last spring semester, it was a bunch of people between 21 and 25, but now, wherever I go, I feel like I\u2019m always surrounded by adults,\u201d Bailey said. \u201cIt\u2019s creating a weird divergence in culture.\u201d<\/p>\n