Picture this: The sky is crisp and clear and you’re soaking in the splendor of a sunny, winter Saturday as you walk back to campus from a friend’s apartment. You feel content striding down University Avenue, but your mood quickly sours. You stand on the threshold of Stadium Village trying to cross the dreaded intersection at Huron Boulevard, waiting for so long you momentarily wonder why you needed to cross in the first place. The cars rush past as you breathe in their acrid fumes and scowl at the traffic light that refuses to change. 

“Welcome to Stadium Village,” you mutter.

You finally cross and walk over to the main stretch of Washington Avenue. Passing the front lawn of the McNamara Alumni Center, you admire what seem to be the only trees in all of Stadium Village. The relief is only momentary because the glorious winter sun suddenly disappears from your Vitamin-D-deficient skin. 

The Hub apartment building looms above you, a hulking, blue-gray middle finger to students who could never dream of affording such astronomical rent (a one-bedroom apartment costs $1,885 per month). 

Sulking down the sidewalk, you look over at The Graduate and scoff at the architectural shortcomings. Your fifth-grade Minecraft creations were more visually appealing and somehow less blocky than this red-brick monstrosity. The light rail barrels down the street honking its horn. After passing the second Caribou Coffee within two blocks, you begin to wonder if urban development in America has lost its sense of integrity altogether. 

So goes a typical (and not at all dramatized) walk through Stadium Village — for me, at least.

What makes this University of Minnesota neighborhood so disappointing?

Besides lacking any quaintness, charm or curb appeal, Stadium Village is a discouraging demonstration of how corporate greed can squeeze the life out of a campus community.

Mikai Tasch, a second-year civil engineering student who lives in Stadium Village, mentioned how his father and uncle — both alumni of the University — noticed dramatic changes in the area since graduating in the ‘90s, especially within the past few years. 

“It’s just expanding rapidly and I feel like it doesn’t really have the character it used to have,” Tasch said.

With modern buildings in jarring shades of yellow, dark gray and beige crammed next to 20th-century brick-and-mortar storefronts, the aesthetic of Stadium Village is incongruous.

“They’ve kind of been building new right next to the old and I don’t really like that,” Tasch said. “It’s just kind of awkward, I suppose.”

Looks aside, Stadium Village offers students convenience with its proximity to campus, sports stadiums and the East Bank light rail stop, but this convenience comes at a cost. 

Edward Goetz, a professor of urban and regional planning at the Humphrey School of Public Affairs, explained that Stadium Villages rents are high because of an increased demand for university housing in recent years that led to a series of cost-cutting construction projects. He said, despite a lower quality of craftsmanship, the new landlords charge higher-than-average rent prices.

“A lot of developers and builders got in quickly, and I think their primary concern was to get in at a cost that, relative to the potential for rents, would leave them most well off financially,” Goetz said.

He explained how owners of new developments charge rent that is often too difficult for local businesses to meet, allowing corporate businesses to proliferate. With a strip mall, three banks and more chain restaurants than you could count on both hands, the commercial offerings of Stadium Village are more similar to an outer Minneapolis suburb than a quintessential college town. 

“That’s unfortunate because you start losing what’s distinctive about the neighborhood,” Goetz said. 

Stadium Village has plenty of hidden gems, like Kimchi Tofu House, The Test Kitchen, Hong Kong Noodle and Afro Deli, among other beloved local businesses. But as rent prices continue to rise, a family-owned establishment could become a Subway faster than you can say “capitalism.”

Perhaps the changes in Stadium Village are an inevitable result of a growing university, but it’s hard to watch such a lively college neighborhood become devoid of any distinguishable characteristics. Stadium Village should look and feel like a place for students, not for out-of-state corporations looking to make a profit. 

Although Dinkytown has managed to maintain some of its historic characteristics, it faces an uncertain future due to a recent boom in new housing developments. Luckily, other campus neighborhoods such as Como and the often-overlooked West Bank have retained their uniqueness.

But I’m afraid that Stadium Village, with its flimsy apartment buildings, massive parking garages and heavily trafficked streets, is too far gone.