Fargo

More from facebook. Patrick has gone to Fargo for a couple of days, and some people on facebook were making jokes about going to Fargo. Who would want to? So I wrote this:

Patrick called from Fargo last night. He said the drive up was good. Wonderful light and wonderful fall colors. He will go to his meeting today, then check out a new coffee shop. I made him promise to go to Zanbroz, a store that has two locations, one in Fargo and one in Sioux Falls. I've been to the Sioux Falls store many times, but never to the one in Fargo. It's hard to describe what they are like. The Sioux Falls store bills itself online as a variety store and a book store. Whoever is buying for them has good and interesting taste. And the Fargo store may still have its soda fountain counter.

I think it's possible to get Chippers in Fargo, though they are made in Grand Forks, if I remember correctly. Chippers are potato chips dipped in chocolate, and they are good. There are, in fact, reasons to go to Fargo. Best of all, maybe, is the chance to visit fossil Lake Agassiz.

Patrick went up to attend a meeting of the interfaith organization that runs the local homelss shelter and works on homeless issues. He likes the people a lot and says they are doing excellent work, and he likes Fargo.

Fargo's on Jim Hill's High Line, a major rail line that runs from St. Paul to the West Coast. This means that homeless people riding the trains end there; and there are local homeless people. There is a serious lack of housing in North Dakota right now, due to the oil boom, which has brought people into the state who have more money for rent than many local people. So the construction and oil workers get the housing at very high rents; and the local people are homeless. It's the market in action.

The oil money helps the North Dakota economy, and oil and construction workers get needed jobs. But there is still the problem of people without homes.