Come October I'll will have lived in my house on 10th Street North in Fargo for 15 years. Right now I'm smack in the middle of the section undergoing complete reconstruction.

I've been paying very close attention to the recent special assessment furor. Until the rollback of the 50/50 split, I was looking at an estimated $16,450 on my property between the reconstruction and recently added street lights.

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The street lights were a welcome upgrade, and I felt like $1,800 would be manageable, but my jaw dropped to the floor when I saw the estimate for the road construction. The icing on that cake was finding out that they'd be moving a sidewalk over a few feet as well, and it would mean cutting down three of the last four giant elm trees on our block. That part still makes me feel sick to my stomach.

With the rollback to a 70/30 split, I estimate my bill will be closer to $10,000. I'm still trying to figure out what benefits I get from living on this incredibly busy arterial road that are worth that price tag.

Is it the relentless road noise? The sirens from every emergency vehicle that needs to get somewhere quickly? The fact that 10th Street North is also a highly trafficked corridor for intoxicated college students, and that means dealing with the vandalism and trespassing some of them bring? Or maybe it's the unsettling feeling of my bed literally swaying with every large commercial vehicle that drives by my house?

Fifteen years ago, my realtor tried to talk me out of this house. Why? Location, location, location. But it was the one that spoke to me. Its awkward, 100-year-old charm was irresistible for a chronic DIY-er like myself. I figured I'd get used to the noise, although I might have felt differently if I'd tried to sleep in it first. Or if I'd known in 15 years I'd be paying 10 percent of its value to redo the road it sits on.

Why haven't I left already? Because I still love my awkward house and want to give it the updates it deserves. Because I've been lucky enough to have really good neighbors, especially in recent years.

But now I and my neighbors are being told to stoically shoulder the financial burden and annoyances of having a residence on an arterial roadway. This isn't us paying for an alley that only those on our block use. This is to pay for a street that everyone uses when going to the north side of Fargo.

Seriously, folks, we can do better than this. Our current system just kicks people when they've already accepted a lower standing. I applaud the homeowners on Broadway that refused to swallow what the city tried to sell them. And I truly hope the city commission's talk about finding a better way to pay for major projects like this is more than just talk to jazz up an election. Because some of us really don't know how we're going to shoulder this latest "benefit."

Johnson lives in Fargo.