OUR OPINION: Congrats to, and some ideas for, Mayor Brown
June 19, 2012 at 5:30 pm in Grand Forks Herald
While few Grand Forks residents really want anything close to Williston, N.D.’s boomtown growth, many would welcome a dedicated effort to more fully tap Canadian tourism and the Oil Patch’s amazing economic potentials. Continue Reading
Maybe somehow making Grand Forks more family friendly would be a start. We seem to be having a crisis with our children here and now, and I think that is where we should be putting more emphisis. I don’t have any answers right now but we have two children dead from drugs, and more calls to emergency rooms, vandalism on the rise, we have a chronic issue with underaged drinking, I think we need to address some of these before we look to just bring in more numbers.
Like or Dislike:
9 
3
The problems you cite are universal (or at least national) and will not be solved by either letting more people in or keeping people out.
The two dead from designer drugs is heartbreaking, and newsworthy, but not that unusual. Kids die in ND from doing drugs every year. This year’s numbers are not really any worse. They are just clumped together.
Teenage drinking and DUI are perennial ND problems. Forget the college kids, we are talking HS. Alcoholism is simply an accepted way of life here.
Unfortunately, education can only go so far to address either of these problems; after that it is hit and miss to what works.
The problems you describe have always been a part of GF life (trust me, these things are what I do for a living). Some make the news, some do not.
Unfortunately, like I said, there is very little that can be done to curb them, especially in a place as forgiving of being “altered” as ND.
We need more affordable housing. What amuses me is that the average person saying no, do not build it, the wrong people will move in are the same ones in all actuality that could not afford to buy a house in GF if they didn’t already have one.
Be honest with yourself. If you bought your house five or ten years ago, would you be able to buy a house in this market?
Everything down south is priced towards professionals (and there are very few professional jobs in GF) and there really aren’t that many houses for sale either in the north or even midtown.
Grand Forks needs affordable housing. Even the apartments are ridiculous.
Do not build and they will not come only works so far. In the end they come anyway. We can either deal with the problem (housing) or its aftermath (crime). Either way we will deal with it.
Like or Dislike:
1 
1
FN, I wasn’t so much implying don’t build, but that if we could improve our role as a family friendly community, then maybe more people would come. Just stating that the priorities could be changed a little. Apparently free enterprise will not build affordable housing. And I certainly don’t buy the idea that ND is just a place where High School kids have always been drinkers, so why try to change, or that kids die from drug overdoses so why try to change.
Like or Dislike:
1 
1
Where did you get the idea that Brown can do anything? He’s a weak mayor. The city council, and particularly one of its members, runs the city. Address your editorial to him.
Like or Dislike:
8 
4
“Grand Forks voters are perfectly happy with Mike Brown as mayor.”
Mistake in logic. The opponent was worse. Doesn’t mean folks are happy with Brown, just means they were more afraid of Grandstrand. They voted for the frying pan rather than the fire.
“Grand Forks must notably boost its housing stock, especially in the middle range. Somehow, the city must figure out how to remove whatever obstacles are preventing construction and to smooth developers’ way. ”
There ARE NO roadblocks in the way of developers adding more housing. The only issue is their willingness to accept the risks that are part of their business. They’re waiting for the Council to make a bad decision and remove the risk with taxpayer-funded subsidies. Another example of Privatized profits, Public losses. I have no doubt that the Council is ready to make that mistake and vote in favor of subsidies already.
How many developers even pay their property taxes on time? Didn’t we have to change our property tax laws to prevent them from dragging it out five years instead of the current two years? Any developer that doesn’t pay property taxes for the current year should LOSE THEIR BUSINESS LICENSE.
We wouldn’t need half the existing assistance programs if local businesses would pay a proper wage. THAT and the condition of streets and roadways are the issues that actually needs attention in this town, and the only issues to be perpetually under-served by the Council.
Like or Dislike:
1 
1