One Town, Two Communities: An Oswego Resident’s Perspective

By: Emily Shaben and AnneMarie Dehm

Every year, as the students of the State University of New York at Oswego finish up their summer vacation and flow back into town, the community prepares itself for a change in its nightlife.

SUNY Oswego is home to nearly 8,000 students, with some 7,000 being undergraduates and 4,400 living on-campus. According to a 2010 census, the town of Oswego has approximately 18,000 people. With the two varying cultures closely neighboring each other, the college and town nightlife has had to learn to live in harmony with one another.

According to most students, the bars most frequented are The Ferris Wheel, Alley Cats, 2 Cans, The Sting, The Brick and Old City. These are all located on Bridge Street, a common area for campus nightlife. While the Ferris Wheel, Alley Cats and Toucans provide more of a club-style and dancing atmosphere, The Sting, The Brick, and Old City allow a more relaxed place to socialize, listen to music, and play pool.

Other bars around town include Greene’s, Cheap Seats, Gary’s, Gibby’s, Thirsty’s, and a plethora of other locations built into restaurants.

In one college bars, The Ferris Wheel, Oswego resident Lisa P. balances a drink in one hand as she leans against a wall in the girls bathroom. She is in her 40s and surrounded with two of her other friends; as she talks, groups of college students filter in and out, adjusting their hair and makeup in the mirror. Lisa P. watches them every once in awhile, but doesn’t seem overly interested or bothered by their mannerisms.

“We understand that it’s a college town,” she said. “And we understand the students here.”

Nearly every weekend, students at SUNY Oswego prepare to go out and hit the bars that line Bridge Street. With the most popular days being Thursday, Friday and Saturday, the Oswegonian’s have been used to molding their own evening plans to the adventures of college students. Many residents said they go out the same days as college students.

Eric Bowman, who is in his late 30s, has lived in Oswego his entire life. He said he is aware of which bars are more heavily populated with students and plans his evening activities accordingly. Normally, Bowman will go to Greene’s and only go out on Wednesdays, Fridays or Saturdays.

“I kind of avoid Water Street because the bars down there tend to be a mix of college kids and scumbags,” he said. “I wouldn’t say I purposefully avoid college kids. Greene’s doesn’t have a whole lot of them normally anyway.”

Bowman said he has found there are two different kinds of college students: the “loudmouth idiots,” and the ones who are “fine to be around.”

Native Mary Lisk, 60, said she also does not make an effort to avoid the students; she just prefers bars that college students do not frequent to.

“I normally go to Canales or Cheap Seats,” Lisk said. “On Sundays, we [Lisk and her friends] have a Bloody Mary and conversation.”

She said on average, she goes out at 4 p.m. on Fridays, and 12:30 p.m. to 2:30 p.m. on Sundays. Lisk tends to drink more leisurely and casually without much of the campus nightlife excitement.

Matthew Warren, a bar-back at The Ferris Wheel, orders a panini sandwich at Port City Cafe, another local hangout. He has lived in Oswego for his entire 21 years, and often frequents local businesses such as this. He says that the only time he goes out is when college is not in session, preferring to wait until his friends from high school come back home.

Warren and his friends usually go to 2 Cans, located on Water Street, or other local bars such as Old City or Gibby’s, he said.

The older crowd will often be drawn more frequently to The Ferris Wheel when a band is playing, Warren said. This starts around 7:30 to 8:00 p.m., and then will finish up around 11:00 to11:30 p.m., when the students start coming in.

“There’s a couple regulars that will hang out there primarily throughout the whole day and all weekend,” Warren said.

Warren normally works every Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights.

Jake Annal, 21, goes to college at Rochster Institute of Technology. Oswego has been his home his whole life, and he often comes back during the summer and other breaks.

“I prefer going to Old City because I like to use my time at the bar to converse with people I haven’t seen in awhile, and sometimes hear live music,” Annal said. “I never really enjoyed the ‘college’ bar scene.”

With students filling the bars during the school year, the townspeople have adjusted to their presence in terms of nightlife. As Lisa P. said, people in Oswego have come to accept that they live in a college town; for her, there’s nothing wrong with that.

“I just worry about the girls,” Lisa P. said. “They always seem so cold, I wish they’d wear jackets.”

*Residents interviewed: Eric Bowman, Mary Liske, Matthew Warren, Jake Annal, Lisa P.*