That’s the question the city of Ames will try to answer when it installs a stretch of rubber sidewalk along Chamberlain Street on the north side of Fire Station No. 2.

That portion of sidewalk is a designated drop-off point for food and kegs of beer for bars and other businesses in the area, as Welch Avenue and the surrounding streets aren’t spacious enough for a door-to-door delivery service. Repeated battering from full kegs took a toll on that stretch of concrete, and when city employees looked at fixing the area, they decided to forgo a concrete top altogether.

Their solution was a product from RubberSidewalks Inc., a California company that makes what its name pretty much implies. The company originally developed preformed sidewalk pavers made from recycled tires that could withstand pressure from tree roots.

Corey Mellies, civil engineer for the Ames Public Works Department, says the new material has many advantages. While its initial cost is more (about $125 per square yard as opposed to $60 for conventional concrete), he estimates that it will be more cost effective in the long run, as it won’t have to replaced because of repeated impacts. It’s also purported to be easier to replace, as it fits together like a puzzle and can be replaced segment by segment, if necessary.

Not only is the change good for Onion-esque jokes (“Drunken revelers dream of days with rubber floors, walls”), it’s good to see the city looking beyond the usual for solutions to everyday problems.

As students, patrons and residents of Campustown, we often complain that the city couldn’t care less about the area. While real complaints are there, it’s hard to get more basic — and more appropriate for the city to address — than safety. No one walking to a restaurant — or stumbling home from one of the area’s plentiful fine drinking establishments — deserves to be assailed by a sidewalk that, well, has seen a little too much alcohol itself. It’s one thing to be careful, but you don’t have to be drunk to get a flip-flop caught on a crack in the pavement.