When I moved here in 1952, the population of Fargo was about 38,000, one public high school, one public library, the Fargo City Commission had just FIVE count 'em 5 city commissioners including the Mayor.
Now there are 135,000 souls in Fargo, 4 public high schools and maybe some other one, 3 public libraries, 13th Ave. is a major street. And the Fargo City Commission has (wait). LOL
Fargo is also 50 square miles, jumping 1.5 square miles recently. Larger geographically than San Francisco.
This is probably about right. For my law journal in school I wrote about agriculture mediation so did some digging into rural North Dakota.
My folks grew up in Fessenden and Harvey. They graduated with like 30 and 75 respectively. Those towns now are consolidated (i think, at least for sports).
80's farming collapse absolutely devastated these rural communities. With all of the consolidation, these towns lost a ton of business due to lack of customers. Small town people basically have to go to whatever closest city for basic amenities nowadays. Small town North Dakota is dead or dying and it really is a shame.
College of Business Alumnus
Most small towns were in trouble before the 80s. My dad grew up in Oriska and had 5 in his graduating class. Grandma used to sell eggs to the grocery store and all I can remember as a kid in the 1970s is there was maybe a small hardware store and a bar. They did have a grain elevator and that's also gone because it's probably cheaper to use semis to drive longer distances than it is to load up the old Chevy dump truck to haul grain.
It's OK to not be OK.
Nailed it. I might add, the small towns also do not have the easy access to things like clinics and ERs either. Given the lack of simple things like grocery stores, many people eat unhealthy things at convenience stores. It's a reason life expected is 2 years less than urban areas
If we concentrated on the really important stuff in life, there'd be a shortage of fishing poles"
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You don't give out trophies for losing. Trophies for sucking. That's a communist idea. You don't get a trophy for losing. You get a piece of pizza and you shut up. Trophies for losing? What the hell happened to us?
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If we concentrated on the really important stuff in life, there'd be a shortage of fishing poles"
When you play football, you gotta like the taste of blood, And 50 percent of the time, it's your blood.
You don't give out trophies for losing. Trophies for sucking. That's a communist idea. You don't get a trophy for losing. You get a piece of pizza and you shut up. Trophies for losing? What the hell happened to us?
"The best way to get the right answer on the internet is not to ask a question; it's to post the wrong answer."