Grand & Finn Apartments - (2124 Grand Avenue)

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BigIdeasGuy
Union Depot
Posts: 381
Joined: March 27th, 2013, 8:22 am

Re: Grand & Finn Apartments - (2124 Grand Avenue)

Postby BigIdeasGuy » July 7th, 2013, 12:20 am

The area around St. Thomas has become NIMBY central. The neighborhood literally opposes every possible student housing idea presented. Students can't live off campus in single family housing because of sex, drugs, and rock & roll. Developers can't build new mixed use buildings or apartments off campus either because it "doesn't fit the area" along with sex, drugs, and rock & roll in large scale. Which leaves us with students having to live on campus.

But looking at campus, it's pretty much full with buildings already and St. Thomas can't grow and expand because that would just be sacrilege and they are somehow terrible neighbors (how a university building can be a bad neighbor is beyond me). That means that the only option left is to build higher on campus, and we can't have that either because that would cast a shadow on my backyard between 10:56 and 11:02 AM for 2 1/2 weeks a year.

It's like the people who live around St. Thomas, and most university's for that matter, never stopped to think that students need a place to live when they bought their house. The university didn't spring up overnight, it was there when you moved in and it will be their when you move out. They don't want to students to live in the area but will then complain about commuter students parking on streets along with students not spending time on campus and spending money at local businesses.

Also that building is terribly ugly and the developer should be shamed publicly for how ugly it is.

cond8147
Block E
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Joined: April 20th, 2013, 11:45 pm
Location: Saint Paul

Re: Grand & Finn Apartments - (2124 Grand Avenue)

Postby cond8147 » July 7th, 2013, 10:15 am

^^^ -1

MNdible
is great.
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Re: Grand & Finn Apartments - (2124 Grand Avenue)

Postby MNdible » July 7th, 2013, 11:11 am

Unlike most of the other St. Paul colleges, St. Thomas has undergone a very ambitious growth campaign over the last decade. I suspect there may also be some political tension due to St. Thomas's rather conservative ideology.

mattaudio
Stone Arch Bridge
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Re: Grand & Finn Apartments - (2124 Grand Avenue)

Postby mattaudio » July 8th, 2013, 8:20 am

BigIdeasGuy, best post ever.

Snelbian
Rice Park
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Location: Mac Grove

Re: Grand & Finn Apartments - (2124 Grand Avenue)

Postby Snelbian » July 8th, 2013, 8:34 am

My only quibble would be that there are some people who are essentially NIMBYs that ARE calling for St. Thomas to grow in the sense that they want the university to follow through on a plan to build on-campus residences on vacant land they own.

Nathaniel
Metrodome
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Re: Grand & Finn Apartments - (2124 Grand Avenue)

Postby Nathaniel » August 30th, 2013, 6:02 pm

Yes, it should have been built.
Yes, it's an ugly building.

My thoughts are that the neighbors should have fought for quality, not lack of density. Architectually, I'm cool with allowing a large variety of options. However, a cheap building is a cheap building, and this is a cheap building.

I can't also help but note that living on campus at St. Thomas (or anywhere else for that matter) is expensive (and you're typically locked into expensive cafeteria meal plans on top of that). Take Ireland Hall, a mostly freshman dorm on St. Thomas' campus. You live there maybe 9 months a year and pay $5,042 to share a room; or about $560 a month. If you want your own room, you pay $6,602, or about $733 a month. I bet that college rental house a couple blocks away in the neighborhood charging $500 a month per room looks pretty damn tempting.

http://www.stthomas.edu/admissions/unde ... s/ireland/


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