Welcome to ​​​​​​​The Near West Close to campus, it feels just like a college town. Heads up on the game day, with its proximity to Camp Randall Badger Football Stadium, the streets awash with red and white fans and tuba-playing badgers. Charmed neighborhoods such as Monroe Street, Westmorland, Radio Park, Midvale Heights, Park Crest, and Hill Farms each have their own sense of character. Look for historic homes by famed architects, and everything from brick and clapboard to Mid-century modern appeal. It’s all wedged between Lakes Mendota and Wingra. Urban green space is a big and lovely thing in Madison. The University of Wisconsin Arboretum wraps around half of Lake Wingra and spans 1200+ acres of historic restored and diverse ecosystem collections the oldest in the world, in fact. Across the shore are Madison’s Vilas Zoo, Vilas Park Beach, and Wingra Park + boathouses. The more centrally located neighborhoods, former homes of professors and UW types, transition west into neighborhoods developed through the eras.