fightingsioux4life

Yeah baby, it's Hammer Time again!

Hey, you beat me to it! This would be a major upgrade in quality of coverage! Man, things just keep getting better and better for UND sports!

I think I renamed them the Politburo and the Secretary-General during the early years of the fight against the NCAA. But I like your version as well.

I would never want the growth rates of the oil patch (it's impossible to find and afford housing, the roads are jammed with big, heavy trucks that destroy the roads) or of Fargo-Moorhead, Sioux Falls, Omaha, ect. What I get sick and tired of are the obviously flawed census estimates showing that Grand Forks is somehow losing people left and right, while all these new homes and apartments are being built. This gives the world the impression that nobody wants to live here anymore. That can impact what businesses choose to locate here, what type of transportation funding we can get, ect. My only point was (and still is) is that businesses and developers are not going to spend millions of dollars to build in an area that is declining in population and/or quality of life. They obviously have done their marketing research and that research tells them there is a market here that hasn't been served. Most people in Grand Forks (or anywhere else in North Dakota) don't want to live in the urban sprawl that Fargo-Moorhead-West Fargo-Dilworth-Horace-Harwood-Casselton has become. The problem is the arrogant attitude of some Fargoans, which rubs the rest of the state the wrong way; this rubbing our noses in the population gains of the Cass-Clay County MSA. The headline in the Fargo Forum in 2010 after the Census numbers came in was "Boom goes the Metro". It might as well have said "Boom goes the Ego". Fargo tries so hard to be “just like Minneapolis” (I think I should just call it Minneapolis, Jr. from now on) when they should just count their blessings and do their best to manage their growth so that it doesn’t poison the quality of life that North Dakotans value so much. This also will make it harder to get downstream residents to support the F-M Diversion Project, which I support and which is needed.

Yeah, but they will NEVER leave their beloved MVFC. They talk like it's the SEC of FCS conferences.

If this happens, it would really tick off the Bison faithful. Their precious Summit League/MVFC arrangement would not look so great anymore.

It didn't, I generally take things with a grain of salt. It just would have helped if you had put a smiley face after it.

I call them as I see them.

Everyone that is left without a viable conference home should just go and join the squeaky-clean, academics first-second-and-third Pioneer League.

Somebody is moving into those apartment buildings and townhomes. Otherwise, they wouldn't be building them. Me and my wife just purchased a townhome on the south side and we were fortunate to snatch it up before someone else did. Houses are being sold almost as soon as they get listed. Bottom line: Grand Forks has recovered from the 1997 flood and is moving forward. Not as fast as The Center of the Known Universe (Fargo-Moorhead-West Fargo-Dilworth and whichever other towns they want to add to it), but it is moving forward.

Yeah, I didn't agree with him on that. But I liked a lot of the things he said in the campaign about growing and moving Grand Forks forward. That, and the snotty editorial Mike Jacobs wrote in the Heraldo bashing Grandstrand and endorsing Brown.

This is why I voted for Tyrone Grandstrand in the mayoral race in June. He seemed to grasp the concern that while Grand Forks is doing well, there are things that could be improved. Nothing against Michael Brown, but I hope his eventual successor is a younger, more energetic mayor that takes tnt's approach toward economic and infrastructure development.

But I don't think this is an example of that. Grand Forks is primarily growing on the SOUTH END and that doesn't figure to change much. They are not going to give up a prime location on 32nd Avenue South and leave that area to Super Target, Super One Foods and Columbia Mall. I suppose they could close the southend Wal-Mart and use that space to expand Sam's Club (which is also very, very busy). That would also be a big plus for Grand Forks.

The current Wal-Mart in Grand Forks is NOT a "smaller, older" store. It's a Wal-Mart Supercenter that was extensively renovated and expanded about five or six years ago. It also is located on the biggest, busiest corridor in Grand Forks. I really don't think they are going to close it down anytime soon. You are probably thinking about Target building a Super Target and then vacating the space and leaving it alone for several years. That was an upgrade from a regular Target to a Super Target (with a grocery store and a Starbucks). This is Wal-Mart building another SuperCenter in Grand Forks because of increased demand. I have said it before; Grand Forks IS growing.

The last weekend of August (when UND students come back), I do not set foot in any store in town. It's just too crazy.

The development you are talking about is huge (involving both commercial and residential projects) and will take a long time and a lot of work by both public and private sectors. The proposed Interstate Interchange at 47th Avenue South involves getting Federal approval, so you really can't totally blame the city for that. Any city would have a tough time getting all those pieces in place. Having said that, I agree with you that Grand Forks foot-drags way too much on stuff like this. I remember back in 2000 when I was finishing up my Graduate Degree, there was an article in the Dakota Student about the intersection of 42nd Street and University Avenue, which at the time was a four-way stop. Post-flood, it had become increasingly busy and there was talk as to why they didn't put in stoplights. Someone was quoted in the article as saying something to the effect of "We can't do it because it's not part of the original traffic plan". But a couple of years later, they put in the stoplights. I imagine they got criticized big-time for that response and so they changed their tune. You can bet that the 47th Avenue South interchange will get a bunch of backlash from people that live in the area, complaining about increased traffic and the dangers of crossing the street. That is why we don't have a bridge over the Red River south of downtown. The NIMBY (Not In My Backyard) principal is the "Prime Directive" of Grand Forks. All it takes is one person showing up at a Council Meeting, screaming and (literally) crying that a south-end bridge will result in one of their kids getting run over to permanently kill the idea. Our local government officials (the City Council and the Mayor) for years have not had the backbone to stand up to special interests and the NIMBY crowd that comes up in any planning and zoning issue in any community. If the NIMBY crowd torpedoes the Wal-Mart project, I will be very, very upset.

If you take a drive into south Grand Forks, there are townhomes, apartments and single-family homes going up all the time. They are constantly building and extending streets and putting in infrastructure for new residential areas. Whether "the experts" choose to believe it or not, Grand Forks is growing. That is amazing considering the devestation of the 1997 flood just 15 years ago. Scheels is building a bigger store in the former Target space in Columbia Mall within the next two years. And a Winnipeg-based manufacturing company, ODRA, which makes street sweepers, is expanding to Grand Forks. Add in the increased Canadian traffic and you have a bright outlook for the future of Grand Forks.

It looks like Wal-Mart is planning to build another Supercenter on the north end of Grand Forks at the corner of Gateway Drive and N 58th Street: http://www.wdaz.com/event/article/id/14700/ This is a great location to draw in Canadian shoppers and should give the north end a much-needed econcomic boost. I am surprised that Wal-Mart would invest in a "dying" community like Grand Forks (if you believe those bogus census estimates, that is).

I wonder if the ND Legislature will scream and howl bloody murder because UND is "growing state government beyond sustainable levels".

I think the playoff game against UC-Davis might have been louder.

That was one of the worst Sioux-Bison games in my lifetime. Both teams had terrible seasons.

I was in Brookings for that game. He was hurt when he ran in the game-winning touchdown in the 4th quarter. I remember driving home afterwards in the autumn rain thinking that all hope of salvaging that season was gone. And I was right.

Good addition to my list. After the Potato Bowl beatdown at the hands of Central Washington, it was obvious that it was going to be a long season.