For most NDSU students, parking is the least of their worries, with over 10 different student parking lots spread across campus making all areas of campus easily accessible to those in possession of cars. This is however not the case for many students who are part of in the Department of Art and Design and the School of Design, Architecture and Art who attend classes in Renaissance Hall located in downtown Fargo. In the past these students had access to a paid parking lot directly across from Renaissance Hall, making it convenient to pay for parking either on the till or on a mobile device and walk across to class. This however changed quickly over the summer with construction taking place in the sole parking lot for these commuting students. This construction closes the closest and most easily accessible parking solution for many students in the art department. 

When asked, the general population of NDSU art students are quite displeased with the state of parking at this time. One art student in particular speaks out on the specific inconveniences associated with this closure and how it is affecting the student population. “By Renaissance Hall there used to be this big flat parking lot right next to Renaissance and it was lovely because you could just show up to school, park, pay the fare either on your phone or up at the till and then just go to school. You could just pay for all day parking and not have to worry about parking on the street and rotating your car and it was great,” said Sam Kain, an art student attending classes downtown. Kain goes on to explain how in his opinion and many other student’s opinions, the positives of the new development replacing this parking lot do not outweigh the repercussions of the major loss of this lot. 

The City of Fargo’s closure of this parking lot and parts of North Pacific Avenue is all a part of a bigger plan released by Fargo in a document titled “Downtown in Focus; A Blueprint for Fargo’s Core” and includes details of construction planned to take place across downtown. Within this blueprint, the dedicated category “Park Smart” advertises a call for more visitor friendly parking downtown to be integrated into the design, this on the other hand, inadvertently is the source of NDSU student’s complaints. “They have almost all of NP Avenue blocked, which is the street that Renaissance is on and this whole summer they had that strip of Eighth Street that runs into NP and turns into Robert’s Alley was blocked until this first week of school, so teachers couldn’t even get into the personal teacher parking lot until the first week of school,” says Kain, adding that the issue is not only affecting students but faculty as well. 

Parking long distances away is not only inconvenient and irksome for NDSU commuters, it also poses a problem with the upkeep and wellbeing of academic projects done in class. “It’s fine in the summer when the weather is nice, but once the snow comes, it’s going to be difficult moving things around because a lot of people have large works and delicate things that they’re transporting, both the art and architecture students,” Kain shares his concern for what the upcoming season change will look like. 

While the City of Fargo is displaying all positive changes to come on the roster, the question begs to be answered by NDSU art and architecture students, are these changes truly positive?