Back to the Future

However cold and miserable it is here in the hinterland—and however distant from the warm climes of Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, where HPR’s two owners gathered with friends over the holiday break—there is something to the old adage to make hay while the sun is shining.

Translated, that means we can find opportunity in our travels—gems to bring home. Ideas to transplant in our own fertile minds back home.

More than a few times we have contemplated that North Dakotans ought to “invest” in “idea-seekers” to go out and about in the world and bring back good ideas. It would be money and time well spent.

In that light, we’ve compiled a list of suggestions to be brought into the mix as we continually re-invent North Dakota and Downtown Fargo, in particular. Bear in mind, what we visualize is a visably opened mindset and a broadly expanded sense of socially acceptable fun, especially on weekends and in spring, summer and fall.

For starters, the airport in Fargo needs a huge statue of Carl Ben Eielson. Larger than life. Bronze. We were inspired by such amenities in the Denver Airport. Certainly, travelers through our own airport
would fine such local aviator history fascinating and inspiring.

And, it’s high time we claimed him for our own so Alaskans know Eielson’s real roots. Similarly, we were intrigued by the substantial artistic tribute to Native American history and culture in Denver’s aipport. Large images, beautiful music: something we could easily do in North Dakota airports.

Inside the Puerto Vallarta airport, we found further inspiration that could be creatively applied to public places here at home. “Buy Art, Create a Leader.” Passersby enjoy prominently displayed art in airports worldwide (http://www.artfaf.org), and when purchasing such art, they support the artists, families and children of the world, while also gaining an extraoradinary artistic addition to their own lives via the art itself.

With but a few tweaks, nips and tucks, we could do a project like that across all of North Dakota, and certainly in a city like Fargo.

Besides the warm weather and multitudes of people, some ideas can be selectively applied to life back home. For example, pretend for a moment that we simply applied some of the social attitudes and practices from select other places to our own Downtown Fargo and only in summer months. Here are some of the changes we’d immediately implement:

* Open for business on Sundays. (Take Tuesdays off, a good idea; or Mondays.)  With Downtown Fargo’s revitalization, we need to be open for business on Sundays. It has the potential of being one of the busiest days of the week, we would expect.

* Allow live music and street entertainment to go until 2 a.m. on evenings and weekends in Downtown Fargo in nice weather seasons. That should also include food and arts vendors, live performers, and regional-product driven booths.

* Allow legal-age citizens to consume alcohol in restricted central walking zones of Downtown Fargo on weekend evenings, for starters. Such drinks would be in suitable drinking containers such as large cups with covers and straws, no bottles or cans visible to the naked eye. Of course, public drunkenness would not be tolerated, nor would underage drinking.

* Public bathrooms. Need we say more?

* Mass Transit Downtown Fargo, especially, and to the universities and West Acres. We have a massive need for enhanced mass transit options in our community, and we should build it upon green principles.  We need busses running in concert with nightlife and we would be wise investing in such needs immediately. A shuttle Downtown Fargo is one element, running until bar closing. Other strategic routes are secondary, though still high on the priority list. Safety and affordability would be designed into the planning and implementation.

* Public parking. Build the big ramps now, before they are even more costly, for goodness sakes.

* Open Minds, and other good ideas. We provide this wish list as food for thought, and sincerely, we believe if implemented across the boards, we’d have revolutionized life in Downtown Fargo in wonderfully positive ways.

But it requires open minds and out-of-the-box thinking. We wonder what ideas any of you have? Send them to .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) and we’ll post them online, and we’ll follow up with them in this space down the road. OK? Let’s have fun visualizing our future.