It’s not every day that a professional sports stadium lands within a block or two of residential streets.

St. Paul resident Jim Franczyk is taking a wait-and-see approach, but his wife, Helen, is dead-set against the prospect of a Major League Soccer stadium opening a mile from their home.

Architect Adam Jarvi, a season-ticket holder, can’t wait to walk five blocks to see a Minnesota United match just down the street from his living room. Mary Lau worries about the future of her restaurant, Peking Garden.

Yoga instructor Paul Busch is skeptical of sports stadiums in general, particularly the promises of economic development that tend to accompany them.

And web developer Bill Connell and his fiancee, mortician Angela Woosley, are eager for the new shops, greenery and bike lanes that could spring up around the 21,500-seat stadium planned for their neighborhood.

The Pioneer Press recently asked a number of Midway residents and business owners for their take on the changes coming to their neighborhood. Most agreed that the planning has moved quickly since a stadium deal was announced in October, but they split on whether the project would benefit the surrounding neighborhood.

Minnesota United FC plans to privately fund construction this summer of a $150 million stadium off Snelling and University avenues in St. Paul, with the goal of conveying it to the city.

To do that, the team has partnered with the city to seek property tax relief from the state Legislature for a 12-acre site that includes portions of the Midway Shopping Center.

In addition, the city has promised $18.4 million in public funding for sewers, green space and other infrastructure improvements, including makeovers for Pascal Street and Shields Avenue. A Snelling-Midway Community Advisory Committee has been seeking public input on the stadium and the future redevelopment of the shopping center.

STADIUM WILL BENEFIT BUSINESS

Afeworki Bein, 61, has served up gyro wraps, lattes and curries at the Snelling Cafe at Snelling and Lafond avenues for 12 years. An immigrant from Eritrea, Bein said his restaurant fills up with customers when he shows international soccer championships on his television screens.

A stadium, he said, will benefit his business and the neighborhood.

“It’s a plus for the community, for the Midway area,” Bein said. “Soccer is getting attention and getting popular in the United States, especially for us. The immigrants, the only game we know is soccer. It’s an attraction to draw people in. Younger immigrants, they’ll enjoy it. (The team has) got to work on the (ticket) pricing. … When the big clubs play, the place is full. During the World Cup, we’re full.”

WHAT WILL HAPPEN TO MALL BUSINESSES?

Lau, 42, moved the family restaurant, Peking Garden, to the Midway Shopping Center 10 years ago when construction of TCF Bank Stadium in Minneapolis forced them to leave the University of Minnesota campus. She worries yet another stadium will elbow her out.

“At this time, I’m hoping the landlord will come and say, ‘We have this plan, and here’s what your costs are going to be, and when it’s going to happen, and what your new spot is going to be,’ ” she said. “Right now, we don’t know what the heck is going to happen. It might be five years. It might be one year. The media news, it makes it worse. My customers think we’re going to be gone tomorrow. … All the people think the Midway mall is going to be torn down at the same time.

“(RK Midway owner Rick Birdoff) said, ‘I’ll honor all the leases here.’ At the time, we questioned, is the rent going to go up? … Can you imagine my restaurant having to rebuild everything at a new spot? That would easily cost over $1 million.”

STADIUM IS BONUS TO REDEVELOPMENT

Minnesota United season-ticket holder Jarvi, 33, lives on Herschel Street, about five blocks from the future stadium, with his wife and two dogs. An architect, he has lived in Uptown Minneapolis and downtown St. Paul.

“That part of me is excited as a soccer fan, but as a resident and a homeowner, I’m mostly excited about the surrounding redevelopment,” Jarvi said. “The soccer stadium part of it is gravy for me. Really, it’s the improvement of the site that the stadium is going to bring on the 330 days a year that there isn’t a soccer event going on.

“If it was just a stadium surrounded by surface parking, and to tear down the Midway Shopping Center and just have it be parking lots with no development, that wouldn’t benefit the neighborhood. … And, frankly, I feel that doesn’t appeal to the owners of the team. If they wanted that, they could build that up in Blaine, and it would be a lot easier.

“I’ve got to be honest with you, I don’t (have parking concerns). I don’t know if it’s a generational thing. I think there are valid questions that folks are asking, but I don’t think those are things that should be used to prevent something from happening. As somebody who used to live in downtown St. Paul, was there extra activity going on during Wild games? Sure. Did it prevent my life from proceeding as normal? Absolutely not.”

STADIUM ISN’T BEST USE OF SPACE

Busch, 57, lives on Saratoga Street, about a mile from the future stadium, and runs a yoga studio on Selby Avenue, west of Lexington Parkway.

Busch — a member of Neighborhoods First!, a grass-roots organization that has been highly critical of the stadium and the planning efforts around it — noted that strip mall owner RK Midway has repeatedly entered into failed negotiations with the city of St. Paul and the Metropolitan Council over the Met Council’s former “bus barn” property over the years. The stadium deal likely will allow the company to privately develop segments of the site that are not devoted to the stadium itself.

“In general, I think there’s better uses of space than just adding more and more stadiums,” Busch said. “But that’s not my main concern with this. A lot of my concern is that it’s not a democratic process, and it’s not one that’s serving the neighborhood. A friend of mine said … there’s the traffic, there’s the noise pollution. But when they decide they’re not going to use it as a stadium anymore, it’s not going to be an easy structure to convert. You’re not going to convert it into a mom-and-pop business. You’re not going to convert it into much of anything. It’s often the underserved communities that pay the highest prices.”

MORE STUDY NEEDED ON NEIGHBORHOOD IMPACT

Public health worker Mihiret Abrahim, 25, lives off Snelling Avenue and previously lived in the Aurora-St. Anthony neighborhood. She helps low-income clients access health benefits through the state health insurance exchange. She said the stadium needs more study and public engagement.

“Minnesota has a huge disparity between whites and blacks,” Abrahim said. “Wilder Research, they even broke it down by ZIP codes to see which ZIP codes have a longer life expectancy. How does this impact the environmental health of the community? How does this impact the ability of residents to pay property taxes? We don’t see that brought up. Does this increase the disparities? Does this reduce the disparities?

“People in the immigrant and minority community, they’re not against the soccer stadium. But when people are talking to them … they’re not talking about how will this impact your ability to afford to live in the neighborhood.”

MORE COMMUNITY INVOLVEMENT NEEDED

Former social worker and retired human services manager Franczyk, 70, has lived on Portland Avenue in St. Paul, about a mile south of the soccer stadium, for more than 22 years. He’s taking a somewhat skeptical, wait-and-see approach toward the stadium, but his wife, Helen, a former museum communications director, is firmly against it.

“Yes, I believe that the city of St. Paul will definitely benefit from having a Major League Soccer stadium somewhere within its borders,” Franczyk said. “Soccer is a great sport. … It could be a great asset. But is the Midway/’bus barn’ site the most appropriate site for the proposed stadium? And is the proposed design offered by Minnesota United and RK Midway compatible with the neighborhoods surrounding that proposed site?

“My immediate response is simply this: I need a lot more information before I can endorse this plan. … I need to know more about the potential impact regarding traffic and potential traffic congestion on the major streets that would be traveled by customers of the stadium, potential interference with emergency vehicles during stadium events, parking options for event customers, air pollution … noise volume and the impact of that noise on the neighborhoods within two miles of the stadium. We need more information.

“My bottom line is that the city, when they plan things, they don’t seem to involve the community up front before the process of planning and master planning take place. They need to know up front what the community concerns are going into the planning process.”

STADIUM WILL BRING NEEDED IMPROVEMENTS

Connell, 47, has lived on Thomas Avenue for 16 years. A father of two young girls, he regularly bikes and takes light rail from the Midway to his job as a web developer in downtown Minneapolis. His fiancee, Woosley, 39, a former funeral home director, takes the light rail to the University of Minnesota, where she teaches mortuary science. They’re looking forward to the redevelopment of the area around the future soccer stadium, including bike-friendly streets and greenery.

“I’m excited because I feel like Midway is such a busy area, but kind of maligned,” Woosley said. “… There’s so much going on here, but parts of it have been neglected. It’ll bring a greater focus to the area. That Snelling-University intersection is one of the busiest in the Twin Cities. Rather than crab that it’s hard to make a left turn here, why don’t you stop and hang out? Go to (restaurants) like Flamingo, Fasika, go to the Turf Club.”

Connell noted that without the stadium, needed changes won’t come to the neighborhood anytime soon.

“The strip mall, the ‘bus barn,’ they’ve had various plans to do something with that area, but there isn’t the incentive,” Connell said. “I don’t necessarily want Midway to become like Highland Park, but I do want it to become more walkable. I don’t feel like developers have been knocking the door down to come into the neighborhood.

“Borders (Books) was here for years, but it’s gone. Target built a big store, but we lost a hotel. The businesses that have come in have been smaller in scale. I don’t know how to reverse that trend. I want to see things fill in, so you can walk two or three blocks and have things to do. There’s pockets of things, but it doesn’t feel like a cohesive neighborhood as much as it could. If we could add some density, it could be more vibrant.

“There’s no parking at Wrigley Field (in Chicago), and boatloads of people go there. … We need to have better use of our space than just to have open lots. We’ll bike to Target or walk to Cub, and they’re not great to bike to. It seems silly to drive half a mile.”

CONCERN ABOUT NOISE AND HIRING PRACTICES

Financial adviser Nneka Morgan, 35, a longtime resident of Sherburne Avenue, lives within two blocks of the future stadium and sits on Hamline University’s board of trustees. Morgan, a commissioner with the St. Paul Port Authority, has been involved in stadium negotiations. Her fiance owns and operates Elsa’s House of Sleep, a University Avenue furniture store, and her uncle runs Earth’s Beauty Supply next door to it.

Although supportive of redeveloping vacant space, she has expressed concern about noise from stadium events impacting small-business owners and wants Minnesota United to make a stronger commitment toward partnering with local labor and vendors.

“Overall, I’m excited about anything that beautifies the neighborhood and involves pollution remediation — I think that’s important, especially as a commissioner of the St. Paul Port Authority,” Morgan said. “I am extremely concerned about noise. I feel that they didn’t think about that as much as they did downtown, when they thought about the light rail. There’s a lot of noise every time the train goes past. At Elsa’s House of Sleep, you can hear the train and you have to talk a little bit louder. At Concordia College, I can hear every time a game goes on. It’s not too disruptive, but I can hear it.

“Parking is slightly an issue, especially for businesses along University Avenue. The city owns a parcel on University between Pascal and Albert. What happens if that space gets developed? Where are the customers going to park? You know the ‘mega businesses’ have ample parking, like Target and Walmart. But across the street, the small businesses have been a great staple in the community. They hire people from the community.

“… I think the process could have been more inclusive and involved community partners and small-business owners. … Are we going to say that a certain percentage of the jobs should be from the neighborhood? I haven’t heard any of that, and I think that’s what we should be hearing.”

SKEPTICAL OF SOCCER’S PROMISES

Phyllis Trisko, 69, moved into the Midway neighborhood with her late husband in 1998 and raised three children there. His grandparents purchased the house — which sits a few blocks north of Minnehaha Avenue, almost a straight shot to the future stadium — shortly after it was built in 1912, and the couple painstakingly restored it. Trisko looks forward to improvements at the Midway Shopping Center, but she remains skeptical of the soccer stadium.

“I have no qualms about (the redevelopment of) the Midway Shopping Center,” Trisko said. “… I’ve been panhandled at the Midway Shopping Center. If I have to go, I go early in the morning because I don’t know if I’ll leave with my purse or not.

“The Twins, the Saints, the Vikings, all these stadiums — and somehow or another, the taxpayers end up footing the bill, or a good portion of it. The ticket prices and concessions always seem to be going up and the average family doesn’t have that kind of income. It’s not an affluent neighborhood.

“I’m not a sports fan. Once, we took our grandkids (to see the Twins at the old Metrodome). They were so bored. All they wanted to do was hang out by the concession stand. When the North Stars (hockey team) were here, I actually fell asleep. Like I said, I’m not a sports fan.

“I actually don’t know that soccer is such a big deal. … There’s different nationalities that are here, and they probably would be more open to that. I don’t know. … It’s all well and good if it can make some money. Is that going to be a stadium in a parking lot that will just sit there? … It could be just a different kind of eyesore.”

STADIUM WILL ATTRACT PEOPLE TO AREA

Raised on a farm in southern Minnesota, Gene Goddard has lived on Minnehaha Avenue in the Midway neighborhood for 25 years. A former youth baseball and volleyball coach, Goddard, 51, is the director of business investment for Greater MSP, an economic-development organization based in downtown St. Paul.

He sits on the city’s Snelling-Midway Community Advisory Committee, which is offering community input on redevelopment of the 35-acre site that includes the future Minnesota United stadium and the adjoining Midway Shopping Center. His son, who is in high school, played soccer for Joy of the People and the St. Paul Blackhawks.

“I think (the soccer stadium) will be an asset to the community,” Goddard said. “The Midway neighborhood has struggled for years to bring in new jobs. This will help to revitalize the area. Absolutely.

“You always have to look at what attracts people … to come live, work and play. Having a facility will help bring more people to our region, just like the Guthrie and the Ordway excite people that are interested in the events that are held there. We need to attract more people.

“I think there’s a lot of people who have a hard time embracing change, and how the change will impact them or their neighborhood.

“I’m OK with people parking in front of my house, because that means there’s more eyes and more people walking around making the neighborhood more vibrant. … Isn’t that what we all want? Look at what Groundswell (coffee shop) has done to that neighborhood.

“I think the design will be very interesting. It’s exciting. (Minnesota United team owner) Dr. McGuire, he was looking for something that will help showcase the region. The outside will be reflective of the Mississippi River, and the ability to change the color using LED lighting will allow the stadium to change with the seasons.

“It think this process has been really open. … I’m very impressed with how the communication has been handled. I can’t wait to see the first shovels in the ground.”