Booming mall shifted action west
July 30, 2012 at 7:10 pm in Grand Forks Herald
When West Acres opened in August 1972, it tilted the economic center of Fargo and Moorhead from the traditional downtown city centers to a then-remote stretch of Interstate 29 that wasn’t even within the Fargo city limits. Continue Reading
“When West Acres opened in August 1972, it tilted the economic center of Fargo and Moorhead from the traditional downtown city centers to a then-remote stretch of Interstate 29 that wasn’t even within the Fargo city limits.”
And the city center died shortly after. This is not a new story. What never ceases to amaze me is how people act like this change is unprecedented or unexpected. It happens in every single city.
Since this change is so common: why have we not figured out how to mitigate the destruction of the downtown neighborhoods?
That is an honest question. I do not know the answer. Since it happens everywhere, every time a new mall or WalMart or some other economic engine is built; why have we as a society not figured out what to do with what is left behind?
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What it all boils down to is convenience and a reason to go downtown. I can get pretty much everything I need in the West Acres area. And there is parking.
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Many cities try to replace the lost retail with retail & that is nuts. How about spending your urban renewal money to attract light manufacturing &/or office space?
Parking will always be a problem for an area designed 120 years ago for horses & maybe a trickle of cars.
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I was living down there shortly after it was built….Out in the country surrounded by fields……..Have to go a ways now to find any fields.
As to your other point. Both GF and Fargo tried to compete with the malls. GF went bat crap crazy by putting a roof over a block, and Fargo just made it so you could walk back and forth without traffic……Neither really worked because of the lack of parking, but the Fargo experiment was far less costly.
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Downtowns happened because before roads/railroads there were only steamboats. When interstates replaced rivers the traffic was there & not by the river. When a critical mass of retail activity on the internet river happens the traffic will no longer be on the freeways leading to malls. The malls will soon be obsolete & as the socialist inventor of malls, Victor Gruen, said in the article “malls were a bad idea”. The internet’s “virtual mall” will destroy community even further.
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Minus the hyperbole, there are many people who agree with you. Look at the growth of Amazon. The only time you catch me at the mall is if I need to try it on.
That said, I miss old bookstores with couches that encouraged you to stay & read. When I retire & have unlimited income to lose, I want to take the Urban Stampede & open it up with such a place either above or next door.
Bohemian freaks & young punks with too many tats & piercings discussing life & annoying the establishment. Society needs more of that
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It kind of went from a store like Woolworths with a built in cafe and soda counter being the place you’d meet friend and neighbors when shopping (Or hanging as teens) to K-mart and the beginning of a small version mall, to a full mall, and now everything is so scattered that other than maybe running into someone by chance at Wally World…..I don’t really think there’s any particular gathering places in most larger towns or cities where you’ll most likely run into people you know anymore.
I really miss the good old days when everything was down town…Especially around Christmas….The town was much smaller and you always met people you knew going from store to store…..And there’s nothing like the real Santa’s standing outside in the snow with the big culdron and shaking his bell. That’s why us old guys are suckers for those nostelgic Christmas Cards……There’s a bit of truth in them….And a million mile contrast to Christmas shopping in the malls……I too have done all my Christmas shopping on line for many years now just to avoid the circus atmospher. I don’t remember ever feeling that circus atmosphere other that maybe crazy days when everything was down town…
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Ferguson’s Used books on 32nd has couches.
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Anyone aware of studies on the parking meter–or cities’ failure to eliminate it–helped kill downtowns?
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