Author Archives: meagle

Excellent parking, bad location, leaves Moorhead Center Mall out of public’s conscience

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Commentary and photographs by M. Eagle

MSUM Journalism

A great place to park

Outside the Moorhead Center Mall

   The best thing about the Moorhead Center Mall located at 510 Center Ave. Moorhead, Minn., is the parking. I know this because I spent an entire evening at the Moorhead Center Mall visiting the shops and talking to people. Many people said the reason they shop at the mall was because of good parking. I thought no sales tax on clothes would be at the top of the list but no one I talked to mentioned it. My parking experience was excellent. To see the Moorhead Center Mall’s website click here.

Mall impressions

   The first thing I noticed about the Moorhead Center Mall was all the open space available for sale or lease. Overall I got the feeling that the mall as a whole wasn’t doing well. That’s not to say that some of the shops weren’t doing well because many of them had a lot of customers, Furniture for Less was packed.  

   The Moorhead Center Mall has many of the same stores that the West Acres Mall in Fargo has and a few are even corporations like GNC, Herberger’s and Maurices. Which made me wonder why this mall isn’t more in the public’s social conscience.

    One reason has to be its location. West Acres is next to Interstate-94, whereas the Moorhead Center Mall is by the Red River almost tucked away. While it’s close to downtown Fargo it’s a pain to navigate to, but once you get there you’re rewarded with great parking.

    Another reason I don’t think the mall is doing as well as it could is because city hall is located in the mall. For me it doesn’t make sense to have the center of local government in a shopping mall. The world was a different place 38 years ago and maybe back then it was a good idea, but I think the mall would be better served with a distinction between a place for government and a place for pleasure.

City hall is located inside the Moorhead Center Mall

   Finally, I think the mall would attract more people if they changed their motto. The Moorhead Center Mall’s motto is, ‘Another great place to shop.’ To me this motto concedes that there are other great places to shop but that this mall is willing to wait in line as people’s second or third choice for shopping. It’s not The choice but Another.

   The motto should be more assertive. Here’s a thought, how about, ‘A great place to shop,’ or attach a rocket to the motto with some rollerskates, light the fuse Wile E. Coyote style and change it to (cue the trumpets), ‘The place to shop.’ To see Wile E. Coyote in action click here.

Why should you shop here?

   I asked Scott Puffe, second-generation owner of Puffe’s Fine Jewelry, why people should shop at the Moorhead Center Mall and he said, “Many of the businesses in the mall are locally owned. They’re not big corporations. The money you spend at the mall supports the community.”  Puffe also said, “The mall has easy access in and out and that it’s  located in a friendly location.

   Catherine Smith a worker at GNC said, “Shop here because it’s close to downtown, there’s good parking and everyone that works here is friendly and willing to help.”

Another welcoming view outside the Moorhead Center Mall

Urban renewal?

   According to the Moorhead Center Mall’s website, the mall opened in 1973, as part of an urban renewal project. The goal of the project was to rebuild the business district into a ‘major shopping center’ while at the same time giving Moorhead a ‘revitalized downtown.’ So have the projects goals been achieved 38 years later? Pern Canton, President of American State Bank, said it best in 1973, quoted from the mall’s website, “Two years from now you will not know downtown Moorhead…” Canton couldn’t have known how prophetic his words would be.

   Being an outsider looking in, I would say 38 years after opening people still don’t know downtown Moorhead. I’m not even sure where downtown Moorhead begins. Where are the artists and the culture that exist just over the river in downtown Fargo? Downtown Moorhead and the Moorhead Center Mall need more of an identity. I was cognizant Moorhead had a mall but I had never been to it.

   The only reason I ended up at the Moorhead Center Mall was because the Hjemkomst Center was closed. And thank my stars for that because apparenly everyone from the Fargo-Moorhead area already knows everything there is to know about the Hjemkomst Center. I found this out the hard way after spending five hours at the Hjemkomst Center and writing a 12th-grade level piece on it. To see the Hjemkomst Center’s website click here. 

Final verdict

   As far as malls go, the Moorhead Center Mall leaves much to be desired. Personally I will probably not go back anytime soon. The atmosphere was bland and the walkways were too narrow, think high school. There’s a template malls follow. That’s why when you go into a mall you’ve never been to it feels like every other mall. The Moorhead Center Mall doesn’t have that feeling. This mall has no ego and Donald Trump said it best, “You show me someone without an ego and I’ll show you a loser.” 

   For a place that could use some positive publicity the Moorhead Center Mall was less than inviting. When I tried to photograph some of the stores I was directed outside by one of the owners for fear of breaching his high-tech security. That’s why my photographs are all of the exterior. I also had a hard time getting store workers to go on record to say anything about the mall, positive or negative. I guess when you’re used to mediocrity you’re content to wallow in it.

Edited by Kristin Kirtz MSUM journalism major

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Doing It Downtown: An Outsiders Perspective

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Commentary by M. Eagle

MSUM Journalism

Photos and Captions by Amita Manandhar

Living life small

I live in a town of 300 people. From where I live it takes about an hour and some change to get to downtown Fargo-Moorhead. I’m not familiar with the feel, culture or any of the businesses that populate downtown. Rural life differs from city life in that everything in country living is a little more difficult. In the winter months when it’s cold in downtown Fargo-Moorhead it’s always colder in my small town, flurries in the city equal near white-out conditions where I live.

We don’t have a grocery store, no movie rentals and no fast food if you crave those amenities it’s a 15-minute trip to Fergus Falls, Minn., or as we refer to it ‘town’. We have one diner but in the winter months it closes down because the owners migrate South. What we do have and the most popular businesses by far in order are the liquor store, the V.F.W and a bar. See a pattern?

So why would anyone want to live here? The rewards for the inconveniences of living in the backwoods of Minn., are the beauty rich summers that typify the lakes country.

All revved up and ready to go

Before I went to do research for this piece I asked for recommendations of where I should visit. I had my whole itinerary planned. I was going to get some gelato, visit Leena K’s and check out some of the boutiques.

I quickly realized I had picked the worst possible day of the week to take in downtown. Not only were there a few close calls with cars in ditches on the interstate because of slick roads but it was cold, and it was Sunday.

It became apparent that my Sunday afternoon of ‘doing it downtown’ was going to consist of one of two things or a combination of the two, a bar and/or a grille. After window shopping one of the businesses recommended to me and thinking it looked like a place where a school teacher would by their clothes I wasn’t entirely disappointed.

The first place I stopped at was the Sidestreet Grille and Pub located at 301 Third Ave. N. The atmosphere was pleasant and the staff was laid back. The bar had 27 beers on tap and over 60 different types bottled. I can only speak for Sunday afternoon but the Sidestreet had a quaint cozy small town feel, minus a few customers with tattoo sleeves and huge gauged ear lobes. I downed a beer and hit the road. To visit the Sidestreet Grille and Pub’s website click here.

Visitors stand outside the Sidestreet Grille and pub for a brief smoke break.

Next I grabbed some food at the sushi restaurant Wasabi at 623 NP Ave. Their presentation of the rolls was artistic and the quality was worth the money. If you’ve never tried unagi (eel) it is some of the most sweet and tender meat you’ll ever taste. The the High Plains Reader rated Wasabi as the best sushi in the Fargo-Moorhead area but I prefer Yuki Hana located at 1450 25th St. S. To visit Wasabi’s webpage click here.

Wasabi Sushi and Asian Grille located in downtown Fargo offers variety of sushi and Asian food.

My third stop was the Bismarck Tavern at 522 Broadway N. Being an ex-blue collar guy I can appreciate places like this and it definitely isn’t right for everyone. It was a little grimey, the bathrooms were dirty and the customers that were there kept to themselves. No frills and good drink prices. I would describe it as a drinking man’s dive. One thing the Bismarck Tavern has in full is character, like an attractive person with a messed up smile. To read reviews about the Bismarck Tavern as well as see a map click here.

The Bismark Tavern located in downtown Fargo.

Finally I went to the Hotel Donaldson with plans of taking in the lounge. I had been told that a lot of artist types hang out there but when I got there it was closed. 

A visitor entering the Hotel Donaldson also known as the HoDo.

When I left across the street I noticed a women’s clinic with big black closed-circuit-television-cameras outside. Then right next to the clinic wedged between that and another business was a little closet of a bar and grille called JL Beers located at 518 1st Ave.

The size alone stuffed in between two buildings made me want to go inside and see how a business like that operates and I’m glad I did. The occupancy sign next to the door said 49 and the seating was like an old fashioned diner up at a long counter. Joe, the bartender/waiter, had a gravelly voice and a good sense of humor with just the right touch of attitude. He did a sort of 20 questions type inquiry to make sure that he paired me with the perfect beer from tap according to my tastes and he did a good job.

JL Beers offers a variety of food and drinks.

Even though I had already eaten I ended up sampling a JL burger from the menu, which was priced reasonable and consisted of two cheeseburger patties and loads of fried onions on a bun. Good humor, good atmosphere, and good burgers. Out of everyplace I visited I could see myself being a regular at JL Beers. To visit J.L Beers’ web site click here.

A witty slogan on the t-shirt of JL Beers employee Jason Cossette.

Final thoughts

I wish I had known that on Sunday’s downtown shutters up but I had a good time with what was available. Overall this experience was positive and I learned some things about downtown. I think a lot of doing it downtown is what you make of it.

Edited by Kristin Kirtz MSUM journalism major

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