Arbor Park

[forksandspoons]

16 hours ago, SIOUXFAN97 said:

 the other pocket parks are junk...

They have a committee (yes, a committee) working on making better use of the existing open spaces downtown. I think improving those other pocket parks is high on their list. Along with some other spaces such as town square and the area to the north of the Toasted Frog. 

[forksandspoons]

I lived downtown and could reach Lincoln Park and Riverside Park in just a few minutes via the Greenway... cross the river and there's a CAMPGROUND. There's plenty of green space. 

[GeauxSioux]

Since I have not lived in Grand Forks for about 25 years, I had to pull up Google Maps/Street to get an idea of where all of this was.  i don't know the names of all these little pocket parks, but I now know where Arbor Park is.  If Google Street is any indication on the popularity of the park, I would say it is dead.  There is no one in it.  Granted I don't know what time the picture was taken, but the coffee shop at the corner seemed to have some business and the park next to the coffee shop (where Benners, the greatest hobby shop in history used to be) had people sitting in it. 

So we are talking about a downtown park that, from the sounds of it, is under utilized, being turned into a mixed use development project; while there is acres of park by the river two blocks away.  I think most cities would love to have something similar to the Greenway.  Pocket parks are nice, but you need development, as well.

[geaux_sioux]

23 minutes ago, GeauxSioux said:

Since I have not lived in Grand Forks for about 25 years, I had to pull up Google Maps/Street to get an idea of where all of this was.  i don't know the names of all these little pocket parks, but I now know where Arbor Park is.  If Google Street is any indication on the popularity of the park, I would say it is dead.  There is no one in it.  Granted I don't know what time the picture was taken, but the coffee shop at the corner seemed to have some business and the park next to the coffee shop (where Benners, the greatest hobby shop in history used to be) had people sitting in it. 

So we are talking about a downtown park that, from the sounds of it, is under utilized, being turned into a mixed use development project; while there is acres of park by the river two blocks away.  I think most cities would love to have something similar to the Greenway.  Pocket parks are nice, but you need development, as well.

It's a beautiful park and a nice thing to walk through. People have been misled to believe that the entire park is going up in smoke. The reality of it is some of the park and all of the art will remain. It's a win win. The park will have more foot traffic after the construction of the building than ever before.

[GeauxSioux]

6 minutes ago, geaux_sioux said:

It's a beautiful park and a nice thing to walk through. People have been misled to believe that the entire park is going up in smoke. The reality of it is some of the park and all of the art will remain. It's a win win. The park will have more foot traffic after the construction of the building than ever before.

i didn't know that.  I am going to GF later this summer.  I will have to check it out.

[The Sicatoka]

23 hours ago, Siouxperfan7 said:

I think more people have been to a UND Womens hockey game in the last year than have been to Arbor Park.   (Too soon?) 

[MrEdway]

On 6/14/2017 at 0:36 PM, GForks said:

I guess in that case my skin in the game is that I live in Grand Forks and want what I feel is best for my town.

Yep, there's a reason Fargo has doubled it's population in the last 40 years and left Grand Forks in the dust.

[Teeder11]

10 minutes ago, MrEdway said:

Yep, there's a reason Fargo has doubled it's population in the last 40 years and left Grand Forks in the dust.

Yeah, sitting on the intersection of two major Interstate systems and railway hubs to and from the Twin Cities and Chicago, hasn't hurt Fargo one bit. Good on them. I will take Grand Forks, though, any day and twice on Sunday.

[SIOUXFAN97]

7 hours ago, jdub27 said:

Based on what?

lack of imagination...which is the reason why SOME people like arbor park...they actually thought outside the box a little and did a great job with it...the one by urban s...boring...the one by the old sanders...is that a loon or a nuclear missle...boring.

[geaux_sioux]

15 hours ago, Teeder11 said:

Yeah, sitting on the intersection of two major Interstate systems and railway hubs to and from the Twin Cities and Chicago, hasn't hurt Fargo one bit. Good on them. I will take Grand Forks, though, any day and twice on Sunday.

That's true but Grand Forks is not anywhere near as business friendly as Fargo is and that has held us back for a long long time. We don't need to be as big as Fargo, I don't want that, but being more business friendly would be an improvement.

[Teeder11]

16 minutes ago, geaux_sioux said:

That's true but Grand Forks is not anywhere near as business friendly as Fargo is and that has held us back for a long long time. We don't need to be as a if as Fargo, I don't want that, but being more business friendly would be an improvement.

Totally agree on the business friendly front of things. 

[gfhockey]

The gobc endorses no to grow 

[geaux_sioux]

28 minutes ago, gfhockey said:

The gobc endorses no to grow 

The actual gobc has been holding gf back for years. 

[jdub27]

15 hours ago, SIOUXFAN97 said:

lack of imagination...which is the reason why SOME people like arbor park...they actually thought outside the box a little and did a great job with it...the one by urban s...boring...the one by the old sanders...is that a loon or a nuclear missle...boring.

Arbor Park is some plants, sidewalks and a couple tables with some art thrown in, the only actual grass is a small hill that isn't usable for anything. That's hardly tough to replicate. Loon Park on 3rd is a little smaller than Arbor Park but pretty much the same thing. Add in the grassy hill and a few more pieces of art, and people won't know the difference (especially considering most have never done anything other than use them as a shortcut between the parking ramp and 3rd St.). The one on Kittson actually has grass you can go onto and is closer to what most consider a "park" than either of the other two. 

Even one of the artists who had a piece commissioned and still displayed in Arbor Park is on record as being in favor of development. Seems that he understands the developers will still keep parts of the park "alive" while also bringing more people to downtown.

[Shawn-O]

10 hours ago, geaux_sioux said:

That's true but Grand Forks is not anywhere near as business friendly as Fargo is and that has held us back for a long long time. We don't need to be as big as Fargo, I don't want that, but being more business friendly would be an improvement.

Absolutely.  And if this doesn't happen, Minot will be #3 within a decade.   

[InHeavenThereIsNoBeer]

I feel like I didn't have much of an opinion on Arbor Park when a petitioner asked me to sign during a UND football tailgate. I didn't sign so I could gather more facts and both sides of the issue. However, I have not once since heard a good argument that makes me question that we shouldn't continue to invest in our downtown area. It seems like the vote yes to save Arbor Park has put a decent amount of resources into their campaign so what is their argument for it? Or is the ole 'stand up to the man & big business and don't let them ruin our environment' shtick?

[Siouxperfan7]

27 minutes ago, InHeavenThereIsNoBeer said:

I feel like I didn't have much of an opinion on Arbor Park when a petitioner asked me to sign during a UND football tailgate. I didn't sign so I could gather more facts and both sides of the issue. However, I have not once since heard a good argument that makes me question that we shouldn't continue to invest in our downtown area. It seems like the vote yes to save Arbor Park has put a decent amount of resources into their campaign so what is their argument for it? Or is the ole 'stand up to the man & big business and don't let them ruin our environment' shtick?

The only arguments I have heard to save Arbor Park are "We need more green space downtown" and "it's an homage to the Flood of 97.". Sorry, those are dumb reasons to not develop the area.  You want "green space" and a monumnet to the Flood of 97, walk 2 blocks east and you can see both!!  

[geaux_sioux]

Do we want to boost our downtown and make it the place to be like Fargo has in the last decade? Yes. Do we want our downtown to be entirely concrete like Fargo? Hell no. This project has the balance of both sides. What would really help is to move some of UND downtown like NDSU did in Fargo. That is the reason Fargo's downtown is white hot right now.

[Teeder11]

7 minutes ago, geaux_sioux said:

Do we want to boost our downtown and make it the place to be like Fargo has in the last decade? Yes. Do we want our downtown to be entirely concrete like Fargo? Hell no. This project has the balance of both sides. What would really help is to move some of UND downtown like NDSU did in Fargo. That is the reason Fargo's downtown is white hot right now.

You mean like this recent assessment:

http://www.startribune.com/fargo-beyond-the-ya-you-betcha/425794763/

[SWSiouxMN]

Anybody have an inkling on which way this is going to go?

[Sioux>Bison]

On 6/16/2017 at 8:56 AM, Shawn-O said:

Absolutely.  And if this doesn't happen, Minot will be #3 within a decade.   

Ha Minot is worse than Grand Forks. I don't see any industries trying to make Minot home. Housing is overpriced and the downtown is a slum. Grand Forks has to completely fall apart before it becomes Minot.

parks downtown are not needed if they are simply a park. The whole greenway is a park and that's enough. Grand forks needs a nice hotel and small convention center downtown. It would be an easy choice in where to stay if that was the case. 

[siouxforcefans]

I finally saw Arbor Park on Saturday when I was downtown.  I had passed it by many times, never realizing that was it.  While I'm pro-development in this case, I was surprised by how much nicer it looked than the other parks I passed.  Too bad no one was using it.

[geaux_sioux]

19 minutes ago, siouxforcefans said:

I finally saw Arbor Park on Saturday when I was downtown.  I had passed it by many times, never realizing that was it.  While I'm pro-development in this case, I was surprised by how much nicer it looked than the other parks I passed.  Too bad no one was using it.

As I've said before its a fantastic park. I think other spots downtown can get to that level and we can add this new development. This is a huge tipping point for the future of grand forks. Do we want to push forward into the future or stagnate?

[siouxfan68]

What makes the Arbor Park lot more attractive for development than the empty lot a half a block down on the corner? 

[jdub27]

26 minutes ago, geaux_sioux said:

As I've said before its a fantastic park. I think other spots downtown can get to that level and we can add this new development. This is a huge tipping point for the future of grand forks. Do we want to push forward into the future or stagnate?

There is absolutely nothing about that park that can't be duplicated somewhere else with pretty minimal work.

 

Quote

What makes the Arbor Park lot more attractive for development than the empty lot a half a block down on the corner? 

Off the top of my head, the big one is that the city doesn't own the lot on the corner. Also, it can't be connected to the parking ramp via skyway.