You may have seen some news coverage about the idea of calling downtown Moorhead, Uptown. I admit I was a little surprised. When Erik called me for the story, I thought he was calling about the almost 70 neighborhood block parties that were happening that day, which is what I was excited about. A developer had mentioned the name to me, and earlier I made reference to it on my Mayor facebook page, with the question, “What do you think of that name?” Although I was surprised that it was story-worthy, I did agree to have a picture taken, and here is why.

Our downtown/center/midtown/uptown is on the rise, and it seemed like as good as any time to start talking about it. You may know that Rustica (in the former John Alexander/Juanos) is now doing its soft opening and the former Coaches/Trader and Trapper has started major work to open into a billiards/restaurant/bar/sand volleyball entertainment center. You might not know that I can count 5 other eating establishments that haven’t made been made public yet by their owners. Moorhead Center Mall will have pop up stores, some new permanent ones, and vibrancy in activity that we haven’t seen for some time. There is also two groups working on plans for the area; plans that I will hear about within the month. And there are artists with plans for some interesting things in the area. A variety of people are working to help that become reality and I thought it was a good time to give everyone a heads up. It will be fun to watch.