Why Fargo?
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What did you miss out on?
I grew up in Kentucky, went to school in nebraska, worked in st. louis for a summer, lived in Redmond for a few years, and now live here.
My wife and I love fargo. We were thinking we'd move to the Twin Cities within a year of moving here but after the year was up we had no interest in ever living in MSP.. visiting it as often as we do you really get the sharp contrast of all of its shittyness... traffic, high cost of living (for almost no payoff vs a real city like manhattan).... socially i'm not thrilled with it either.
A nice thing about fargo's "lack of culture" : we're not in the middle of a race/culture war being fought out in the media. (i.e. no Somali Cab driver fiasco here)
Fargo is great because you can afford to live within walking distance of downtown, and there's "enough" to do for how often we go there, and the walk and the atmosphere is safe. It's rare to find a downtown area that is worth going to, safe enough to go to, and cheap enough to live in/near, but fargo has it. Granted, I'm married and don't drink, so my expectations of a "developed" downtown area are different than lots of peoples, but we're at Nicole's almost every week.
An interesting thing.. when i lived in redmond, there were way more people with much nicer cars... and more race tracks near by... and the salary / cost of living strucutre was higher.. but i was also busier and wasted more time getting places. Since living here I've been to the track way more than when i lived out there... even though here there are fewer track events and they are further away. (we've got BIR @ 3 hrs and MAM at 5hrs.. vs seattle where you've got PR in <1 and PIR in ~3).
There's certainly some truth in the suggestion that many people in ND never leave ND for any amount of time, but some of us have lived elsewhere and still like Fargo.
In my opinion, the biggest disadvantages of fargo are:
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depressed wage and COL structure meaning fewer real dollars for non-COL adjusted goods (like cars. Professionals in big cities have nice cars because their COL is a commensurate percentage of their inflated salary, ,but the real dollar value of the 8% (or whatever) disposable income they have is higher than in a place like Fargo.. yet cars cost the same real-dollar amount everywhere)
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a side effect of the above - real estate is a poorer investment here than in some other places.. we had like a 25% return on our house in redmond after living there for 18moz..
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I moved from Fort Ripley to the Twin Cities a couple of years ago. Ever since, it has seemed to me like the political climate of MN is getting worse and worse. Don't know whether it's because I moved back to the cities and I just see stupidity around me that much more often, or if it is truly because the government in MN is getting a little out of control. With the trampling of personal property rights, MN's goal of becoming the highest taxed state in the union, and the banning of everything in sight, Minnesota is becoming less and less appealing of a place to live.
My fiancee and I have had a couple of serious discussions about possibly moving to either North or South Dakota. Seems the Dakotas don't have the hyperventilating, granola-munching, batshit-insane ultra-liberal/communist lobbyists telling the state government what not to allow it's citizens to do next.
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MisterCMK;162716 wrote:
Come to FargoYes, but then I would start posting on Fargostreet more frequently.
Could Fargostreet handle MY postwhoring? I think not.
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If you walk down the street of NYC, you hear 20 different languages, see 15 different races...
You walk down the street in Fargo and you see 20 different shades of blonde, and people that attend 15 different churches.
Oh, you say what about the mexicans, kurds, and somli's up in fargo... Its like they don't even count becuase they never assimilated in to culture like you'd find other places (and yes I know, in other cities not all minorities have either, but quite a few more then in Fargo).
You may find the occasional persian or indian doctor, and who knows there might be an asian person who works on the microsoft campus.
How many of you are considered a minority that are speaking now? Just wondering, oh and yeah, i'm not jus being a bitchy asain about it, my parents are white, I'm adopted I'm not pulling any race card or anything, just commenting
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[QUOTE=
You may find the occasional persian or indian doctor, and who knows there might be an asian person who works on the microsoft campus.How many of you are considered a minority that are speaking now? Just wondering.[/QUOTE]
Nice jim asians and computers.
i am not a minority either. but i know what ur talking about
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Jim;162731 wrote:
I worked at taco bell so I sympathize with the beet workers.I have alot of respect for the hispanic community. They are some of the hardest working motherfuckers you'll ever meet, they pay in cash (don't know/care where it came from) and hardly ever bicker about price.
Now back on topic.
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Jim;162726 wrote:
If you walk down the street of NYC, you hear 20 different languages, see 15 different races...You walk down the street in Fargo and you see 20 different shades of blonde, and people that attend 15 different churches.
Ok, but i don't see why this is an intrinsic problem or shortcoming of Fargo. I might respond by saying "in NYC it is illegal to sell transfats".
Oh, you say what about the mexicans, kurds, and somli's up in fargo... Its like they don't even count becuase they never assimilated in to culture like you'd find other places (and yes I know, in other cities not all minorities have either, but quite a few more then in Fargo).
Actually, isn't that exactly the problem in Minneapolis? The non-integration? Dumping a ton of refugees somewhere and not expecting them to integrate culturally is a problem whereever it happens.. and the degree to which it is a problem seems more pronounced in Minneapolis than it does here.
You may find the occasional persian or indian doctor, and who knows there might be an asian person who works on the microsoft campus.
Well, just on my team we have
- pakistan
- new zealand
- china (x3)
- burma (can't remember)
- there's more that i cant think of right now..
Infact, i don't even know where everybody is from and it's unremarkable enough that i have trouble remember who is/isn't some sort of non-caucasian.
All that said - you haven't explained why a lack of cultural diversity makes a place lame to grow up in. You do realize that before America, "cultural diversity" was pretty much non-existant? Why do you think bozos here still argue about if they're Swedish or Norweigan?
Japan is one of the most monocultural societies there is, and I'm sure growing up in Japan certainly has its good points!
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I lived in Minneapolis for a school year, and I saw it's true colors. It wasn't a bad place to live, and I would actually consider it one of the better places to live in the country because of its culture, etc. It's a pretty well renowned metro area. The key is finding a nice neighborhood and the right people. One of the reasons I came back is because of my friends/family.
I still ponder moving away, but really like the way Fargo is going right now. I believe it is building nicely on what used to be a great city. This area turned to trash in the 90s and is pretty much on the upswing again. Hell, even Moorhead is experiencing growth now. Now, there isn't a TON of culture(arts, etc), but it is getting A LOT better with every year. The downtown area is starting to be popular again. The design of the city itself is flawed. The older city planners have done a terrible job, especially by building the interstates far from downtown. For a large city to thrive, it needs a major thorough way to the downtown area.
After being on the job search for tech style jobs, etc, you will realize that we are REALLY underpaid up here. It's a tough thing to do anything about right now though. We get the big companies here because we are so cheap to hire, so we can't all of a sudden change our ways or the city will stop growing. Eventually, the city will attract companies(or have them established here already), just for the city and not the labor rates.
Overall, I like Fargo for the most part, and probably won't be moving anytime soon. I feel it will only get better, especially after my grandparents generation is gone so the city can actually change. I guess I will see what the next 5-10 years brings Fargo.
On a side note, I really like sushi. And other ethnic foods with actual flavor(basically anything non-American :)).
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