Aided by citizen input and the help of a Denver-based consulting team, the city of West Fargo for the past year has worked to create and refine a plan that will help guide the restoration of the city's aging downtown.
Most residents of North Dakota's fifth-largest city say they would like their leaders to make Sheyenne Street a more pedestrian-friendly walking district, with distinct local shops and a "Main Street" feel, the role Broadway plays for Fargo to the east.
Significant changes to West Fargo's Main Avenue, on the other hand, seem less likely in the near future, as residents see that corridor as more industrial and less able to be refurbished without a lot of tax money that could be used to relocate existing businesses to a more appropriate setting.
That West Fargo is studying ways to rehab its old business corridors is encouraging. After all, the "City on the Grow" has great potential for a thriving pedestrian district in its older areas given that most of the city's growth is from young families seeking opportunities to build a good life close to home.
As West Fargo boomed to its south and west, the old downtown took a back seat to more urgent infrastructure matters on the city's fringes. But people in West Fargo are now demanding more from their city than just big-box stores and sprawling housing developments. They seek an identity that goes beyond the independent school system and small-town feel. Really, they're no longer content being Fargo's bedroom community to the west - and they have the population and buying power to make it happen.
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But as West Fargo re-imagines its older areas, residents and city leaders should insist that one thing be built into the plan: a city square.
All great, identifiable cities have a central gathering place - a green, as some might call it.
It's where Veterans Day ceremonies are held, parades start or end, candidates and protesters stand on their soapboxes, residents gather to light a Christmas tree, a place where people gather in times of peace and conflict.
The town square is central to the American way of life; it connotes community and separates "somewhere" from "everywhere."
Fargo has the lawn in front of the Civic Center, or the US Bank Plaza on Broadway and Second Avenue North, or out in front of the Federal Building.
Moorhead doesn't have one great community gathering place, either, but the addition of the Veterans Memorial Bridge between Fargo and Moorhead seems to be the new go-to town square for both cities that abut the Red River.
Those who designed the bridge wisely saw an opportunity in that, and it literally has brought Fargo-Moorhead together through its pedestrian-friendly design.
As West Fargo puts the finishing touches on its downtown renaissance plan this month, it should consider how to incorporate a town square in it.
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It's been said that nothing attracts a crowd like a crowd, and a vibrant town square would attract more people downtown.
Forum editorials represent the opinion of Forum management and the newspaper's Editorial Board.
