Students from the NDSU “Parks and Open Space Studio” had a chance to meet with community leaders and the public to talk about their ideas to incorporate the Red River into the downtown region of Fargo. The development would take place on 12 acres of riverside land near city hall… Fargo Mayor Tim Mahoney…
“…It’s an area of the river we’ve talked about, like the greenway in Grand Forks or the Forks area in Winnipeg. But all the (NDSU) students had a different look at it trying to find ways to engage people in the river front and do things in that area. And I think City Hall here… it amplifies that… going down to the river… it will engage people to come down from the downtown area and go over there.”
Mahoney says looking at developments in other river-front communities you can find ways to keep the river back and you can find ways to work with the river as an asset. He says the green-space designs are a good example of how to do both…
“…and when we have the dry spells in between the floods it’s nice to have that area utilized. And people tend to forget we have dry spells for a while and it will be a great opportunity for us to be down on the river and doing the variety of things that we might want to do. I think we often times forget about that space because it’s the other side of the wall… but I think we have a great opportunity to make other things happen.”
Mahoney says there was an array of good ideas presented by the students. He says instead of choosing one single design, he would like to see various elements from the presentations incorporated into the green-space.