Those Who Live In Glass Houses…

You just knew someone would respond to Portland State urbanista Ethan Seltzer’s comments about Fargo (“Who Took Our Jobs,” WW, Oct. 14, 2009), didn’t you?

The New York Times probably isn’t going to open a sister publication in Fargo either, but here’s what it had to say in its Oct. 18, 2009, edition about Fargo’s North Dakota State University:

“[In the last 10 years] student enrollment has risen to more than 14,000 from 9,600, and a second campus was opened in the downtown section of Fargo, not far from the main campus. The number of doctoral programs has expanded to 44, from 18, and annual research spending has more than doubled, to $115.5 million.”

So while Portland—and the rest of the state—waits...and waits...and waits...for the “creative class” or “City Hall” or the “power structure” or Ted/Sam/John/Bill to actually do something about “…getting the entire state working,” Fargo, and the rest of North Dakota, seems to have actually done something. And has an enviable unemployment rate to show for it.

Maybe we could ask some of their urbanistas to come to Portland to ’splain it. Ours probably couldn’t afford to go there, with the bad economy and all.

James Marshall
Waldport

Corrections:

Aaron Mesh’s inadvisable attempt to reply to Jonathan Morrow’s letter to the editor last week incorrectly stated the name of the university in Morgantown, W.V. It is West Virginia University.

The location of Clarendon-Portsmouth K-8 School was misidentified in last week’s cover story, “Left Out.” The school is in North Portland. WW regrets the errors.