MOORHEAD – When the League of Women Voters held a recent meeting at the Moorhead Center Mall here, some of the group’s members from Fargo told Mayor Del Rae Williams that they’d never been to the mall before.

That reminded her, she said, that better connections between the two cities’ downtowns could help the mall grow.

So it might seem natural that she and other city leaders would leap at the opportunity presented by a shuttle bus providing exactly that connection with costs paid by the city of Fargo.

They’re not because the traffic appears to be the wrong kind of traffic for the mall.

Williams said it will mostly be commuters arriving early in the morning long before the mall opens and they aren’t likely to come in after work either when they’re rushing home to families. The mall, in the meantime, might lose parking spots that customers who start arriving around noon could use, she said.

City Council member Mari Dailey, whose ward includes the mall, cited the same concerns. “It just appears like they want a park and ride.”

Council member Nancy Otto, who represents the same ward, said she would welcome more Fargoans into downtown Moorhead since so many Moorhead residents enjoy Fargo’s hospitality.

Williams said it could work out if the buses stopped in a mall parking lot that’s not used much, and maybe the buses could have more stops in Moorhead.

“I’m excited about it. In general I love the premise,” she said. “I think it could be expanded.”

A better connection

The shuttle bus idea is a response to the loss of 450 parking spaces east of Fargo City Hall when construction of the new City Hall building and downtown floodwalls begin this year.

The bus would do a 15 minute loop from the Plains Art Museum in downtown Fargo, to Moorhead Center Mall, with five other stops including Fargo City Hall. Hours of service would be 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday through Friday and 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday.

Fargo is asking Moorhead for the use of 100 to 200 parking spaces out of the 1,107 spaces the mall has, according to Otto.

Though city staff from both cities, including mall Manager Melissa Rademacher, has been discussing the idea, the city of Fargo hasn’t yet asked for permission from the Moorhead City Council. The Fargo City Commission at its meeting last week directed staff to do so soon.

Dailey said she wish Fargo had taken that step before developing a full-fledged plan.

The mayor said she first heard about the concept of a shuttle bus connecting the two downtowns from Fargo City Commissioner Mike Williams months ago before she took office.

They talked again recently, she said. “We could see where it could be, and want council to buy into idea that we work on it a little bit and not make a rash decision Monday night.”

When the council meets tonight, she said she will propose a committee to study the matter in more detail.

A slight seen by some

But the concerns about the shuttle bus using up parking at the mall may not really be with the mall itself.

“The mall is very much in favor of it because it gives an opportunity to increase brand awareness and hopefully drive people into the mall,” Rademacher the mall manager said late last month.

Dailey said she was surprised to hear from so many constituents about it because she rarely hears from them about anything. “This one for some reason kind of rubbed them one way or the other. I think the people in Moorhead feel that it was kind of a condescending act on the part of Fargo.”

It was the same line of thought at the recent Forum cartoon in which bus riders wondered when Moorhead became “East Fargo,” she said.

The constituents did not include mall tenants, she said.

Otto said she hasn’t heard much from constituents about the matter. The council should heed the advice of the mall manager and tenants, she said, and she hopes to hear from them Monday.

Quid pro quo

Mayor Williams said she herself wouldn’t mind the shuttle bus if it benefitted Fargo and not Moorhead, as long as it doesn’t harm Moorhead, but she and Dailey could see how the bus could be expanded to benefit Moorhead as well.

Dailey suggested later hours so Fargo residents can frequent Moorhead’s restaurants and bars.

Williams suggested stops at the grocery store and hardware store, which downtown Fargo lacks.

“Early in the game, I said, ‘The devil is in the details,’” she said. “That really is the truth,”

Readers can reach Forum reporter Tu-Uyen Tran at (701) 241-5417

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