New Year Wish List

The season is upon us and Old Man Winter is joining in for memory’s sake. While in some ways we all know how difficult it is to explain just why it is we choose to live up here, many of us on the other hand simply cannot imagine being anyplace else.
That said, and this being the season, HPR has compiled its wish list for the holidays coming up and to make the new year even better. We, of course, create this list not only out of self-interest, but for the greater good, which includes you.

::On top of our Wish List is an amnesty program for all outstanding parking tickets owed the City of Fargo. Anyone who has tickets on their dresser drawer worth $15 - $20 apiece can under this gracious amnesty program simply write, “I Love Fargo” across the top and mail them into City Hall. That way everyone starts 2010 with a clean slate and shoppers can come back downtown for awhile, at least until more tickets accrue.

::Albeit seemingly related, our second wish on HPR’s holiday wish list would be for a plain and simple moratorium on issuing parking tickets downtown for the month of January, an otherwise dismal month here, as we all know. On top of that, we’d ask that city-owned parking lots provide FREE parking in January all day every day, and we’ll all see a bustling January like we’ve not seen since before the days of West Acres. Truly.

::OK, we’ll stop after this. Third on our wish list would be for Fargo’s revenues from parking tickets and parking lots be dedicated to funding future parking ramps downtown, rather than simply lining city general fund coffers with such income.

::Being situated smack dab in the middle of the fifth highest drunk capital of the U.S., we suggest when in Rome… So, our proposal, which is not new to this editorial space, is to allow public consumption of alcohol downtown Fargo only if in a proper container on a person with a proper wrist band confirming age and that the beverage was purchased from a licensed vendor. The key to success would be that no public drunkenness would be tolerated. So, to drink, you’d have to stay sober. Isn’t that novel? Plus it would be fun, especially on top the granting of the next item on our wish list.

::Buskers everywhere downtown Fargo on warm nights spring, summer and fall. No fee. No pre-registration and permission required. Just good talent. We could be the New Orleans of the North. FarOLA or something like that. Still, the live music and performances downtown would enliven things immensely. And with the crowds gathered, a few people with drinks in hand will not be very noticeable or problematic, we predict.

::The Riverfront as a gift to the people. Fargo-Moorhead needs to visualize a redeveloped riverfront corridor from Prairie St. John’s and the old Moorhead power plant on the south all the way north past the Fargo Foundry and the Hjemkmost almost to the 2nd Avenue bridge. We redevelop the corridor to become the cultural mecca of both communities, much like a beach would be developed along the ocean, or a lake. It could truly transform both downtowns into a destination for tourists and travelers.

::Public bathrooms (called pissers in Amsterdam) would be nice somewhere downtown. Businesses whose front doors get peed and puked on would support public facilities for sure.

::Public telephones. Can you hear us now?

::A common wish we hear from our old friend Fred Hagen is that he and other seniors wish for more benches to rest along Broadway, and for more shade, especially on hot summer days. We add Fred’s request to our wish list.

::In a similar vein, we would love to see downtown Fargo open up across the boards (the one day without parking tickets) on Sundays. Holy Sabbath, we’d proclaim.

::Public transit that runs until bar closing, so as to help reduce DUIs.
::Free public transit that runs until bar closing, so we do not miss how important that point is.  Way better to pay proactively for a safer community than to have to do it after the fact and especially putting our otherwise fine citizens behind bars (pun intended).

::Lastly, we wish for Doug Burgum to be (North) Dakota’s next governor.

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Comments

1

8 months, 1 week ago Supplekosher said

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2

8 months ago Lukas Brandon said

Great ideas, I especially love the idea of buskers bringing vibrancy to our downtown.

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