First of all, I have to admit that the city of Fargo had finally done the right thing by fixing up these old historical buildings.  They owe it all to Gov. Doug Burgum before he became Governor.

I would say that Burgum is the Donald Trump of North Dakota.  The similarities are: They both were not career politicians.  They both are businessmen.  They both worked at restoring buildings.

I have to admit these old historical buildings that were finally restored looks very impressive.

Doug Burgum isn’t the only one responsible for restoring old historical buildings.  North Dakota State University also gets some credit as well.

Years ago, any old buildings were either torn down or burned.

I remember going to Indianapolis back in 2001 for a Work & Witness trip in the inner city.  Now Indianapolis has some old historical building that were fixed up very nice.  A group of us stayed in an old historical building turned into a hotel.  It was very beautiful.  Even downtown, Indianapolis had some very nice historical buildings.

Now back to Fargo, ND.  Some of these historical building looks very nice.  Hodo; which was a dive when I was a kid, now looks very impressive.  NDSU had fixed up 3 buildings downtown and made them into classrooms.  One was the old Northern School Supply building, now it’s a school for architecture.  The old insurance/investment building is now a school for business.  There is an old warehouse that was being renovated.  Prairie Roots Co-op was an old historical building on University and NP.  That building is very much needed and looks impressive.  Even the old horse barn was renovated instead of torn down.  Sure, it was made into a bar though.

Even though fixing up these old historical buildings looks very nice, it came with a costly price tag for anyone living, working and spending downtown.  The everyday people cannot afford to live downtown.  I mean, if I could, I would love to live in one of those lofts that is downtown; but I can’t.

There is also new buildings going up as well.  These buildings is taking away parking spaces that is very much needed downtown.

Before West Acres was built, Broadway was hopping.  Once it was built, downtown Fargo, became the inner city and falling apart.  There was nothing to attract people.  Businesses went south and west.

Now, thanks to Doug Burgum, Broadway is a happening place.  You just can’t find a parking space.

Years ago there was a lot of bars on NP Ave.  Those bars were dives.

There is still a lot of bars downtown Fargo; but they are becoming more higher class.

Fargo is in middle of building another tall multipurpose building on Broadway.  It’s also going to be a plaza; where people can ice skate outside during the winter and sit outside during the summer.  This will be one of the tallest building in Fargo. It will be in front of the Radisson and Prairie Public Television.

Prairie Public doesn’t approve of this building because it will block their satellite.  Who can blame them?

Why do we need that building?

I can think of better things for Fargo to spend their money on instead.

If the city planners is trying to improve downtown to attract people, they should think about parking spaces instead.  With all these buildings , where are people to park?

Shouldn’t they think about not only parking spaces, but building a diversion to protect the city from another major flood like in the Spring of ’97?

Shouldn’t they think about the homeless problems that is rapidly growing?

To the 1% crowd, the homeless problems is an eyesore.  They don’t want to look at it or even think about it.  If they had their ways, they would moved them outside the city limits and bus them in for work and back home again; so they wouldn’t have to look at them.  The 1% don’t even likes trailer courts.

The 1% group wants Fargo to be like bigger city, like New York City and Chicago.  They feels that it will attracts better class of people.

Don’t they realize it will also attracts more crimes as well?

You can keep Chicago!  I’ve been through it on the way to Indianapolis; and believe I didn’t much care for it.  It scared me!

Sure, I would love to see New York City, just to say I’ve seen it; but that is as far  as I go with that.

The city of Seattle had gotten way too big.  The train depot is right downtown.  To get there, the traffic is very unbearable.  My cousins only goes to Seattle when they have to.  Otherwise, they go out of their ways to avoid it.

Even though North Dakota is a red state, the city of Fargo is slowly become a blue city.  People in Fargo is more likely to vote Democrats than the whole state of North Dakota.

This also makes me thinks when they built the new Metro-dome down in Minneapolis.  They really didn’t need it.  The Minnesota Vikings doesn’t deserve it.  Every time they comes to a bowl, they choke.  Why should the Minnesota’s taxpayers pays for a losing team’s new stadium?

Anymore, then Fargo needing  this Block 9 multi-purpose building.

My step-dad always taught us, if you don’t need something, you don’t need to buy it.  If you don’t have the money for something, you either don’t buy it or you save up for it.  He never had a credit card the 87 years of his life.

When I go shopping, stores must really hate me.  I usually try to stick to my list and only buy what I need.  I don’t diddle-daddle around.  I go into the store to get what I want and get the hell out.

Businesses would rather have someone in the store who they can manipulate to overspend than someone  like me, who only goes in to get what they want and get the hell out.

I could go on,  but you will have to wait until next week for part 2.  In part 2, I will be mentioning the Keystone pipeline.

So you tell me this, does Fargo really needs the  Block 9 Plaza?  Isn’t there a better ways to spend the taxpayers money?  How about helping the people?  How about creating parking spaces downtown; so that the people will have a place to park while downtown?