Franklin Street has a reputation for being a happening place where everyone from over-zealous high school kids to suspiciously old “recent” graduates comes to party and spend a great deal of their hard-earned cash. Downtown Raleigh is usually accepted as the closest location for finding high-class nightlife around N.C. State. Conversely, Hillsborough Street has a sad reputation for being a complete waste of space and time for anyone looking to party hardy.

But are these reputations really warranted? With comparable numbers of bars and restaurants in these locations and all the points for proximity to NCSU campus going to Hillsborough Street — the main factor keeping Hillsborough Street down may not be the availability of fun, but the willingness of students to take a chance on the underdog and spend an evening on Hillsborough Street.

At some point or another, everyone realizes the importance of having a good reputation. The problem for Hillsborough Street is that literally generations of N.C. State students have ignored Hillsborough Street in favor of the more flashy and popular Franklin Street or Downtown Raleigh. And yet, everyone also knows that reputations can be changed easily if everyone commits to making and accepting the change.

As concerned students, it’s important that we realize that the only real way to improve the reputation of NCSU’s nightlife is to actually spend time, and inevitably money, enjoying the things that Hillsborough Street does have to offer. As consumers we have very real power to effect changes in our environment. If we want more of a certain business to open then simple economics dictates that we should frequent similar businesses already on Hillsborough Street and create enough demand that business owners take notice of Hillsborough Street and the vast untapped possibility therein contained.

Businesses open in places where there is a demand for their services. We have the power to create that demand right here in our own backyard. Imagine it, a Hillsborough Street of the future, full of exciting nightlife, great restaurants and stores people will actually want to shop at. It doesn’t have to be a fantasy, it’s actually very possible.

The main thing needed for this dream to be realized is to stop letting the man tell us that we need to go Downtown or to Franklin Street to have fun. We do enough losing to UNC. We don’t need the added pain of having to spend our money on their precious little Franklin street. And Downtown Raleigh is nice, but who really wants to travel for fun when there is an opportunity for fun much closer to home.

Realistically, comparing Hillsborough Street to Downtown Raleigh or to Franklin Street doesn’t do anything constructive. If anything, it frustrates efforts to improve the state of Hillsborough Street. The truth is that if students really want to make Hillsborough Street a popular and fun place to spend an evening then all we have to do is go there.