McFeely: Commissioner Piepkorn has resigned – InForum

FARGO –

The Fargo City Commissioner is, pardon the expression, crap in downtown Fargo.

and radio silence from North Dakota’s once-respected governor, Doug Burgum, whose vast business holdings include much of the territory Dave Piepkorn offended.

This seems odd, since Fargo is North Dakota’s largest and most important city, and the governor played a significant role in transforming its downtown into the chic and vibrant place it remains.

Doug, like many others, is deeply committed to seeing downtown Fargo continue to succeed and attract people from across the metro, state, region and even the country. However, you don’t have time for one of your staffers to write an article (from both the governor’s and businessman’s perspective) saying that Piepkorn is wrong, that while the city’s core is working on some complex homelessness issues, this is not a solution to homelessness. “garbage dump” and not dangerous?

Perhaps attending Nazi rallies at Madison Square Garden in support of Donald Trump is too time consuming.

Someone other than Mayor Tim Mahoney needs to stand up to Piepkorn’s ridiculous words:

so I guess I’ll have to do the heavy lifting again.

Resign, Dave.

Your loud, rude, destructive words at the commission meeting earlier this week, supported by your equally unintelligent partner in alleged Trumpism Michelle Turnberg, caused embarrassment.

Calling the city you represent a “trash hole” (again, Trumpian) and saying you’re afraid to go downtown is disqualifying.

It’s one thing for a slimy crook like Kevin O’Leary to descend on one of our local towns.

but for an elected official who spent 14 years on a commission overseeing his own city, it’s inexcusable.

Your words sound like the guy at the end of a bar in small town Minnesota complaining about Minneapolis. Lame, ignorant, useless.

So go on a hike. Go join this guy.

If the best you can do after being around the table for so long is to attack your own city, then you’re just taking up space.

(By the way, Dave, you’re 6’7″ and probably weigh 250 pounds. You’re a former North Dakota State football player. And you’re afraid of the poor homeless people who are malnourished and often unhealthy because they sleep on concrete or under a bridge? So soft like your boy Trump.)

I work downtown every day, Dave. Downtown Fargo is by no means a dump.

It remains a vibrant regional attraction with fabulous restaurants, bars, shops, offices and housing. I have been fortunate to visit many medium and small cities in the United States. Trust me, downtown Fargo remains a gem.

I’ve also lived here long enough to remember downtown in the 1980s and early 90s. Empty buildings, flophouses, seedy bars, a porn shop. This was not good, and there was little reason for hope.

Compare those days to today and it’s not that close. Downtown Fargo is a success story.

Is the city center different from what it was five years ago? Without a doubt.

There are noticeably more homeless people, and it’s more of a social problem than Fargo’s. It’s everywhere. Not only here. This is the problem. This should be the focus.

Your job as commissioner is to solve this problem at the local level as best you can, not attack the people at the bottom rung while alleviating the need in downtown Fargo.

But bullies will bully, whether their targets are immigrants or the homeless. Always those who cannot fight back. Sound familiar again?

If the city you claim to represent is that bad, Dave, then leave. You were ineffective. You’re not doing your job. You are part of the problem.

If the best solution you have is to take out the trash in your own home, then it’s time to make room for someone else. Honestly, that’s one thing. Being a performative asshole is different.

Don’t let the door hit you on your way out of City Hall.

Mike McFeely is a columnist for The Forum of Fargo-Moorhead. He began working for The Forum in the 1980s while a journalism student at the University of Minnesota at Moorhead. He has been with The Forum full-time since 1990, except for a six-year hiatus when he hosted a local radio talk show.