Harry Moxley remembers stepping onto his porch and gazing down Bailey Street toward downtown East Lansing - one of the epicenters of action during the MSU riot of 1999.
Although the scene of the April 2-3 disturbances this year wasn't nearly as destructive, Moxley said his neighborhood still believes the high concentration of liquor licenses is at the root of unruly behavior in downtown East Lansing.
And residents believe city officials are to blame, said Moxley, vice chairman of the Bailey Community Association.
There are 27 liquor licenses in use in East Lansing, and 15 of those currently operating businesses are packed into the downtown area. The combined capacity in those facilities is about 3,550 people.
"There is just a real failure on the part of the council to face up to the fact that they've allowed the businesses down there to run amok serving alcohol," said Moxley, a 1990 MSU graduate. "Until the city begins to deal with that and disperse the licenses into different parts of the community, this is going to be an ongoing problem."
But government officials and bar owners said the operation of alcohol-serving establishments in East Lansing has improved during the past few years.
Joe Goodsir, co-owner of Rick's American Café, 224 Abbott Road, said the disturbances in the streets weren't a result of the bars and restaurants.
On April 2-3, when MSU lost to North Carolina in the Final Four, police used tear gas to break up crowds, which police said reached about 1,500 downtown.
"We're just the easy target," Goodsir said of bar owners. "We took a lot of steps to make sure our premises were safe for our patrons and all the people coming to town."
Goodsir also is the director of the Responsible Hospitality Council, which was established in 1998 to promote ways for establishments to work to handle such issues as underage drinking and celebrations.
For this year's March Madness, bar owners met with police to create a set of guidelines addressing everything from staffing to drink specials.
"A lot of people fail to realize that the bars and restaurants only make up 20 percent of the alcohol sold in East Lansing," Goodsir said.
He added that the remaining percentage comes from sales at party and grocery stores.
According to the Michigan Liquor Control Commission's findings, for every drink consumed in a bar, about three times that amount will be consumed from take-out stores.
Ken Wozniak, director of executive services for the Michigan Liquor Control Commission, said alcohol sales in stores could cause as many problems as bars because they have a steady stream of customers, rather than limited capacity.
Wozniak said the high concentration of licenses in downtown East Lansing isn't surprising because the city has a large base of potential customers.
But the liquor-license violations for bars in downtown East Lansing have declined in the past few years, especially for overcapacity, he said.
The liquor commission has not issued any violations for East Lansing establishments for the disturbances of April 2-3.
