Does Fargo have a worst college-town downtowns? (Grand Forks, West Fargo: fit in, for sale)

[MattDen]

I was just wondering does anyone else here have the same opinion as me as think Fargo has one the lousiest downtowns in America and one of the worst for a college town. Its not the worse in general but for a college town its pretty bad.

I am suprised people are suprised that Fargo according to the census is having population decling do they ever take a walk when I lived there. Walking down 1st avenue I saw lots of empty homes for sale looks like the urban renewal deparment is a joke in Fargo. Its such a depressing walk until your on the other side of the bridge into Moorhead where they have brand masonry units with retail surrounded by a mall with other locally-owned stores in close proximity with two colleges.

Its pretty bad when Moorhead with around 35,000 people has a much better and more retail oriented downtown then Fargo has. Moorhead has a downtown which caters to normal average joe's, while Fargo rolled the dice and tried to turn it into an upscale resort and it looks like people voted with their feet and are going to West Fargo to shop or mainly Interstate 94.

Fargo is like the town with the 6 hour downtown its only vibrant for perhaps 6 hours on Friday and Saturday night with the weather is somewhat decent.

Anyway with the Canadian dollar where it is I think the state should focus on Grand Forks downtown after all they have much more of a sense of community then after, have much more affluent college students coming to town because of their aviation and science programs and a stronger sense of community and have a growing population.

Fargo especially the downtown area despite an isolated project or two which the locals are so proud of is a declining cesspool which is far overshadowed an ambiance by Moorhead which is more of a normal main-street style downtown.

Not only that but MSUM and Concordia University are much more connected to downtown Moorhead then NDSU is connected to Downtown Fargo which is seperated by some run-down neighborhoods.

[thomjoe]

MattDen,

Apparently you haven't been to downtown Fargo for a few years. NDSU has a facility in the old Northern School Supply building.

A daylong celebration on Sept. 17 [2004] marked the dedication of the new NDSU

Downtown. A large crowd of faculty, staff, students, community leaders, alumni and

friends of the university attended the ceremony and took tours of the $10 million facility.

The former Northern School Supply building now houses the university's visual arts department, major

components of the architecture and landscape architecture department and the Tri-College University office.

'Fargo is a place where partnerships bloom. Thanks to the hard work of our many partners, NDSU's

architecture, landscape architecture and visual arts faculty and students now have a state-of-the-art

facility in which to study, create and explore,' said President Joseph A. Chapman, during the dedication ceremony.

'These have long been outstanding programs burdened by the worst of facilities. Now we go

from worst to first.'

Located at 650 NP Ave. in Fargo's downtown, the 75,800-square foot, five-story facility includes studios,

classrooms, a wood shop, digital media room, gallery and sculpture area.

[TravisW]

How long ago did you live in Fargo? There's been a decent amount of development and change in the last 5 years.

[MattDen]

I lived in Fargo until last year, I wasnt impressed by the downtown. They sure hyped it and the locals seem to love it but it is more of a 6 hour downtown meaning vibrant Friday and Saturday nights only and the rest depressing and boring.

For the college town downtown its in and was in pretty bad shape, with little to offer. They have some up-scale places but Fargo overall is a middle-of the road sort of town. Thats where the problem is Fargo tried to put on an act like its some sort of up-scale resort town and it didnt work out so thus a vast, vast majority of go west for entertainment, arts, restaurants etc. I cant really blame them either.

Broadway from 1st to 6th they had a few "up-scale" places I walked past I never went in they seemed very nice inside but other then that it was pretty blighted and the number of pedestrians was very, very low. It was very depressing. Then again trying to emulate a western resort town when its a midwestern college town on a large scale doesnt work a widespread scale more then a few places it seems.

Fargo just seems to want to phony-up their downtown on a mass-scale and it shows with the lack of pedestrians and vibrancy for a college-town except for Friday and Saturday nights and even then considering the number of college students its a rather modest crowd.

Downtown Fargo was is just very depressing. Its a college town and college towns have a different set of standards and Fargo seems not to realize that. I actually much prefered Moorhead's downtown for some reason they seem to have a better plan with nice coffee shops, the mall and regular stores near the two universities.

[johnnyreb]

Originally Posted by MattDen

Its a college town and college towns have a different set of standards and Fargo seems not to realize that.

Could you enlighten us as to what these standards are?

[MattDen]

College towns are just supposed to have very vibrant 16 hour a day/ 7 day a week active downtowns which Fargo sadly lacks.

Fargo/Moorhead has over 25,000 college student it seems Fargo should have a much more vibrant downtown then it had. Alot of it was the density. Fargo had a spread out downtown for a city of its size, not only that but downtown Fargo tried to become the up-scale resort type of town like (Boulder or Vail) with its downtown merchants which seems to attract a certain demographic of higher-end workers but primarily on Friday and Saturday and that is limited to a couple of establishments.

Overall, downtown Fargo with the exception of a few businesses so called redevolopment has been a failure outside of Friday and Saturday nights. Its a boring, depressing, cesspool of a downtown not only that but the neighborhoods to the east (as of late year) had alot of properties with severe blight properties which is probubly because Fargo according to the census is losing is experiencing population decline.

That said, Moorhead on the other side of the river seems to really be (as of last year, it might have changed) be trying to redevolop their downtown they were building high-quaility masonry apartment building with ground-level retail (of mainly reasonably prices establishments) just blocks from the mall with-in blocks of everyday retailers, the library and the museum. Overall, Moorhead's downtown was much better then Fargo despite the fact the city is much smaller. It was also a much denser downtown then Fargo also.

[Earniefan]

Don't worry about Mattden dogging Fargo guys he does nothing but write posts about how horrible Lincoln, NE is in the Nebraska forums. We've all learned to just ignore him.

[johnnyreb]

Originally Posted by Earniefan

Don't worry about Mattden dogging Fargo guys he does nothing but write posts about how horrible Lincoln, NE is in the Nebraska forums. We've all learned to just ignore him.

I think you're right. I did a search of his posts, and apparently he didn't fit into the F/M area very well, and he's a little bitter. Judging from the other places he's posted about, he didn't quite fit in there either - and is bashing them on this forum as well.

Moral of the story: MattDen is a troll.

[TravisW]

I don't think Fargo was shooting for being the next Boulder or Vail, but was shooting for cleaning up the urban blight that was there 10 years ago. In that regard, downtown is doing quite well.

[Jammie]

I'm closing this thread. It does not serve as a source of any kind of info for this site.