University of Minnesota - News & General Topics

[gpete]

Is UofM one of the ugliest campuses in America? Travel and Leisure says so... As far as I can tell, they used one criterion: Does your school have a lot of 20th century architecture? Yes? Well then, your campus is ugly.

The only thing that annoys me is that they keep calling the UofM a "commuter campus." Get with the times, man.

http://www.travelandleisure.com/article ... e-campuses

[Nick]

Tool.

[go4guy]

Tool.

+1000

[uptowncarag]

I always thought that curvy W thing stood for white trash.

[FISHMANPET]

Yeah that flag has been up there the whole school year. Definitely takes some balls to fly that on Washington Ave.

[TheUrbanGopher]

Much of the U of M student body is part of a Facebook page called "Overheard at U of M", which is mostly to post funny overheard quotes around campus. With the recent crime increase, more people have been posting about a crime watch program. Somebody just posted this to the page, and before my head blows off, I wanted to share it here.


"Here I'll post this here to create dialogue. This is the hypothesis I've developed about the spike in crime lately. What do you guys think? I believe a part of the problem is gentrification resulting from the wildly overpriced new housing. Gentrification is when, for various reasons, a social area shifts to accommodate a higher socioeconomic status. The people who are putting in the new housing are not waiting until they have the capital to put down on a new housing project before they begin building so they are forced to drive prices up in order to simply break even within the first year of renting. They also are all trying to be the most "edgy" apartment complex so they're driving prices up by putting in extra commodities such as sound proofed party rooms on basement floors. I have a friend who is paying 600 dollars a month to share a single studio apartment in one of the new buildings on Washington. These are west coast prices on midwest salaries and clearly only a specific socioeconomic status can afford these prices and thus the area around the campus is experiencing gentrification. At least in my opinion, anyway. I don't have like tax reports on the companies putting in the housing or anything. That's just a trend I've noticed. It's also possible that now that people are figuring out just how expensive all the new housing is they know that's where they need to go to mug someone and get expensive stuff. People who are more well-off are more likely to have the iphone, itouch, ipad, iwhatever all on them at once. Clearly, this isn't the only thing that would be contributing to the issue, I mean college campuses are always a target because who else carries their laptop everywhere they go, but like I said, I'm of the opinion that this is part of the issue."

[Silophant]

Yeah, I left the group when it started to become common to post stupid crap there to make sure a wide audience saw it.

[xandrex]

If that was the case, I think once the perps are caught, it would make a great sequel to The Bling Ring.

[Nick]

Much of the U of M student body is part of a Facebook page called "Overheard at U of M", which is mostly to post funny overheard quotes around campus. With the recent crime increase, more people have been posting about a crime watch program. Somebody just posted this to the page, and before my head blows off, I wanted to share it here.


"Here I'll post this here to create dialogue. This is the hypothesis I've developed about the spike in crime lately. What do you guys think? I believe a part of the problem is gentrification resulting from the wildly overpriced new housing. Gentrification is when, for various reasons, a social area shifts to accommodate a higher socioeconomic status. The people who are putting in the new housing are not waiting until they have the capital to put down on a new housing project before they begin building so they are forced to drive prices up in order to simply break even within the first year of renting. They also are all trying to be the most "edgy" apartment complex so they're driving prices up by putting in extra commodities such as sound proofed party rooms on basement floors. I have a friend who is paying 600 dollars a month to share a single studio apartment in one of the new buildings on Washington. These are west coast prices on midwest salaries and clearly only a specific socioeconomic status can afford these prices and thus the area around the campus is experiencing gentrification. At least in my opinion, anyway. I don't have like tax reports on the companies putting in the housing or anything. That's just a trend I've noticed. It's also possible that now that people are figuring out just how expensive all the new housing is they know that's where they need to go to mug someone and get expensive stuff. People who are more well-off are more likely to have the iphone, itouch, ipad, iwhatever all on them at once. Clearly, this isn't the only thing that would be contributing to the issue, I mean college campuses are always a target because who else carries their laptop everywhere they go, but like I said, I'm of the opinion that this is part of the issue."

Obviously the above is badly regurgitated buzzword CLA freshman nonsense--this is what we get for using the word vibrant--but it's not hard to imagine Marcy-Holmes getting slummy(ier?), at least temporarily, in the next few years.

[Suburban Outcast]

$600/month for a studio shared with one person is definitely not West Coast prices (at least compared to SF). I will admit that is pricey but there are always cheaper options if you live farther away and bike or take the bus. Many Minnesotans always seem to treat an increase in density like it's going to destroy the entire charm and safety of a neighborhood. Besides with or without "luxury" apartments, college students are gonna have expensive electronics on them (making them possible mugging targets) whether they live in a place with a corny name or a dilapidated overcrowded house.

Have any of the robberies taken place inside the new apartments? Based on my knowledge the armed robberies (the ones where they actually went inside) happened at homes. I wish some people wouldn't be blaming something irrelevant to the actual crimes. It isn't just happening at the U, gentrification definitely wasn't the cause of the recent uptick in property crimes in my neighborhood this past month even though they built new developments near my house increasing the population density. It was just because someone on the next street from me decided to go on another crime spree (repeat offender) until getting caught twice this past week.

And speaking on overpriced rents, couldn't the new apartments actually drive down rent prices in places like SE Como due to competition instead of landlords making students rely to choose from a limited choice of housing stock in need of repair versus more options? Stadium Village and Dinkytown may gentrify, but that couldn't that be beneficial for nearby neighborhoods to promote more population growth by having more cheaper properties to entice students on a tight budget to move there?

[min-chi-cbus]

Yeah that flag has been up there the whole school year. Definitely takes some balls to fly that on Washington Ave.

Right, because those die-hard Gophers fans are one crazy bunch!

I hate Wisconsin fans (doesn't matter what the sport is) as much as anyone, but nobody is in danger of flying a foreign flag in the Twin Cities, as evident by all of the Packer Backers who regularly fill up half of the Dome every year. It drives me nuts that it's so easy for WI fans from all sports to raid the TC's (or live here) and then turn around and dog their own local sports teams (yes, I said "dog"!). I am not picking on you in particular, btw.

[MNdible]

Both the Badgers and the Packers have had pretty phenomenal runs over the last couple of decades. It's easy to be a superfan when your teams are winning more often than not.

You don't see nearly as many Brewers or Bucks fans around.

[mplsjaromir]

Its no surprise that the most popular NFL teams (Steelers and Packers) were the most dominant teams of 1960s and 1970s.

[uptowncarag]

I hate the skunks win or lose. Of course you move here if you live in Wisconsin and are looking for a job. It is either here or Chicago. Nobody moves to Wisconsin. I do give them credit for trying to improve their lives. Minnesota is so much better than Wisconsin there is no discussion necessary. Some of them are nice,simple but nice.

[Didier]

The Packers were actually pretty miserable during the 1970s and didn't have their resurgence until Brett Favre arrived, not that it really changes your point, though.

Anyway, the U of M lacks a football culture that most big state universities have, and that really affects how people up here view college sports. A lot of people up here don't think college football is that big of a deal and don't want to invest effort or money into the team, but for a lot of schools (many that are based in smaller cities) the football team is a huge part of their identities. The football team is the main reason why alums stay connected to their alma maters and is a huge reason why they ever return to their college towns. Minnesota students, for a variety of justified reasons, just haven't had the same emphasis on the sports teams as people at most big state schools (including the former Big 12/current SEC school where I went to school).

So my point isn't to suggest that this culture at Minnesota is bad, per se, as people here are much more grounded about college football, which is undoubtedly corrupt. But I guess my takeaway is just to remember that the way people approach college sports here is very different from most similarly sized schools.

[uptowncarag]

If the U was located outstate in St. Cloud or Mankato football would not have died like it did from 1982 to 2008. It is great to see it coming back. The college town atmosphere makes a difference.

[web]

most SEC schools are the only bang in town. Also what are the attendence #'s U of M football was not dead in the dome.

[Nick]

To be clear, the motivation behind the original post/insult was the audacity of attending the University of Minnesota and putting up a Wisconsin flag on Washington Avenue, not the quality of any school's football program.

[TheUrbanGopher]

Idea - lets move the conversation to this thread

http://www.forums.gopherhole.com/boards ... ball-Forum

[Didier]

Sorry. It was late when I made my post and I had conflicting motivations.