The Wake

A couple of weeks before heading off to college for my first year at the University of Minnesota, an old gentleman at the county fair asked a friend and I where we were going to school. My friend said she would be heading to Carleton, while I stated that I would soon be at the U.

To her, he replied, “excellent.” To me, he said, “You’re never going to get the true college experience, miss, because you aren’t going to be in a college town. Northfield, now that is a good college town…”

I meekly replied that I was specifically going to the U because it was not a college town. Growing up in a town of 20,000 people makes you want to live in a big city. Besides, I said, we have Dinkytown.
I remember that, as a freshman, Dinkytown seemed downright mythical. Nestled between frat row and I-35, it was a virtual no-man’s land to us. That was where upperclassmen lived. That was where you could go to parties and get free alcohol. It was, most importantly, where Mesa Pizza was located. In fact, as scared freshmen who stuck close to campus at all times, we only ventured into Dinkytown to buy a slice of Mac ‘n’ Cheese or Guacamole Burrito.

Dinkytown. What exactly is it? It isn’t really a neighborhood, at least not according to the city of Minneapolis. If you want to find out where to park in a snow emergency, the option of “Dinkytown” does not appear on the list of neighborhoods. You must select “Marcy-Holmes.”

But for students of the U, Dinkytown and Marcy Holmes are two very different places. Dinkytown is for students. You can walk around late at night on weekends, you can be rowdy without worrying about waking children or old people next door, you can get something to eat, go to a bar, stop at an ATM, all within minutes of your house.

Yet, even though Dinkytown is not Marcy-Holmes in style, it does fall under her jurisdiction. And it seems that Marcy-Holmes does not care that Dinkytown is for students. The new 15th Ave SE Development Plan rezones 15th Ave, the eastern edge of Dinkytown, for high- and mid-rise buildings. The goal is to attract permanent residents as well as students. When reading the plan, it seems like a good idea, but in reality this new vision for the neighborhood will push students out, both in terms of affordability and comfort. What college student can afford a $1,000 apartment? What college student wants to live next to a family with small children who go to sleep early?

It isn’t that the other neighborhoods aren’t good places to live. I hold a special place in my heart for Seward and it would be amazing to live in Uptown. The problem is that those neighborhoods do not belong to students.

Rent prices will rise naturally, despite the current economic crisis. But there is no reason to artificially force them higher. I can’t speak for everyone at the U, but I know that I can only handle a slight raise before I have to move farther from campus; to Como, maybe if prices are low enough, or maybe even farther. I will no longer live next door to all my friends, I will no longer be within walking distance of Mesa Pizza and I will no longer feel the sense of community that Dinkytown gave me.