STUFF & THINGS 8

By Richard Early

DOWNTOWN FARGO

For the first time, I realized recently how much downtown has changed. I think this realization is not because I haven’t been paying attention, but because it is only recently the change has sunk in.

Thinking back to 1993 when I opened Paradox, our building and our block were very different. I used to get my hair cut by a guy who rented from the Gardner. He had the lower corner spot on 1^st Avenue. I was in getting a chop and discussing my ideas of opening a store. Up until that point, I had traveled around the area taking my private collection to conventions and had found an interest in that. My barber mentioned that there was a spot next to him in the building that rented for, I’m not kidding, $100 a month. It was terrible of course, but I thought it was the greatest thing ever. It was an 11x11 room in the basement with no access. I jumped all over that business.

In the spot we currently have, there was a gal who ran a second hand clothing store. For years after she was gone and we moved in, people kept coming in looking for her. Next to us in the building was an investment company. Across the alley was an antique store. The Lark Theatre was closed and had yet to become the Cinema Grill. Straus clothing was still on Broadway and 1^st avenue. Down the street was Northern School Supply. And my all-time favorite Chinese restaurant Phil Wong’s was thriving.

Not one thing I just listed off is still around. Except me, of course. Paradox has taken over the old investment company. The barber sold his business to a gal who since moved outt and that spot has been empty except for a few years when a second hand dealer was in there. The antique store moved to Broadway and became the Antique Mall and their space has become many things. The basement part is the Red Raven and the upstairs has seen many businesses come and go. Northern School Supply was bought up by NDSU and became the architecture campus. Phil Wong’s shut down and has been numerous different restaurants, finally stabilizing with the Drunken Noodle. And most of you probably never heard of Straus clothing.

And of course, the granddaddy of them all. The Lark theatre became the Cinema Grill became the Church of Water became demolished and is now the newest NDSU downtown building. A 5 story complex, the upper floors student housing, the main floor new businesses as yet to be announced. Talk about change.

Downtown Fargo has gone through many cycles. About 30 years ago now, there was a big renovation project. Just like the 2000s. At that time, however, things eventually lapsed back to nothingness. Primarily a home for banks and such businesses. Lunch time restaurants and of course the Fargo Theatre, Sammy’s Pizza, the Old Broadway and a few other staples. Traffic was intermittent.

When I opened, there was actually a lot of college aged people who lived in downtown. As time went by, this seemed to shift out to the West Acres area and I saw less and less foot traffic. Being destination, I didn’t really sense an effect. But it’s become a stark contrast to today’s downtown.

Then in the early to mid 2000s, this movement to revitalize downtown began in earnest. Moving in NDSU and offering tax breaks through a Renaissance Zone were the two big incentives. Well, it’s worked like crazy. I admit to a great degree of skepticism. I firmly believe that using tax incentives and other devices to drive development is a redirection of productive resources to an unproductive use. It’s simple. If downtown was good for business, it would have shown that on it’s own without the incentives. Does West Acres need revitalization? Does 13^th Avenue? Well, not now, but just wait five years until they all start crying about the business they are losing to downtown. Essentially, what’s happened in downtown Fargo is what’s happened when big cities build sports facilities. The argument is that the investment brings wealth. But the studies show that this is not true. It moves wealth, it shuffles business, but it doesn’t profit. Think about it. If I gave you a million dollars to deck out your house, it would be an awfully nice house. But I’d be out a million dollars I could have decked out my house with.

Anyway, there’s an old economic principle I always liked. It says that you can’t see what doesn’t exist, you can only see what does. So here we are. What exists? A downtown that has an unprecedented amount of people roaming around, living here, and working here. It’s crazy. If you haven’t checked it out, walk up and down Broadway and you’ll see. I just realized I never even mentioned the big Hotel Donaldson project, the Silver Moon restaurant, or the expansion of the Fargo Theatre.

What’s next? Who knows? I do note that so far I haven’t seen any businesses lined up for the main floor of this new building across the street. I actually know that they have approached existing businesses in the area about moving in and have been turned down due to cost. I am primarily curious to see what happens when the political will to develop some other part of town or rebuild the Fargodome or something along those lines means the end of the incentives downtown. It may be that things are set for a long run but eventually the area will begin to degrade. It might be 20 years. It might be 100. I don’t know. But I’m willing to bet it will happen.

What’s stayed the same? Paradox, sort of. I wouldn’t say we’re the same by any stretch. Much like the area around me, my store has gone through revitalization after dry period to revitialization. It’s a cycle. Hey, when we opened, we sold movie cards and Marvel super hero trading cards. When we opened, there was no such thing as Magic: the Gathering. The comic boom of the 1990s was still happening. We had no game room. We sold back issue comics. There was barely a concept of a trade paperback. There was no internet, not like today. There were no cell phones, not like today. I didn’t even have a computer when I opened. Actually, I didn’t even have a cash register, but that’s another story. I taped cool back issues to the wall for display and used a card table for a new comic rack. I didn’t carry board games or Dungeons and Dragons or miniatures or dice or Warhammer or sell pop and candy. Boy, when you read over that list, you really wonder what my plan was back then. You wonder how we got here.

I’ll tell you this. It didn’t happen through tax incentives and grants. I opened with no money and have never really had any. The only real financial investments have come from me, either in the form of working for free or investing my life’s savings – both cash and collectible. It’s happened here because of you guys, because of customers. You kept Paradox alive and have allowed me to grow it. That, in my opinion, is the only true, sustainable way for business to succeed. That’s why I’m dubious about the ultimate long term success of downtown Fargo (and tangentially the national bail outs that have been taking place, but I’m not going to go political in this blog. Ever.)

NEXT, PLEASE

Hey, if you’ve been in Fargo a long time and you’ve seen the changes, feel free to comment.

What’s on tap for me this week? In store, we’re starting to work hard to get ready for all the big stuff happening this fall. We just had a store meeting to plan out our plans. My free time is going to be season four of Enterprise, season two of Mad Men, and I’m really looking forward to next Friday night –the first preseason football game for the Purple!