Do you wear a mask?  I do sometimes but not as consistently as I should.  As of late it appears that few do.  I attended an opening celebration at the Lights on 32^nd Avenue today and didn’t see a single person wearing one.  I had a disturbing conversation with a person bragging about the 400 plus people at Bar Down last weekend and commenting about the upcoming concerts and how social distance won’t be worried about (meaning if you are concerned you shouldn’t attend).  Now, I’m not an alarmist and don’t live in fear of Covid-19.  That said, the state and city need to show more leadership on this topic before things take a turn for the worse (like what we are seeing in many other states).   

Our state’s guidance has been somewhat vague but officially says something to the effect that large gatherings should only be done where appropriate social distance can be maintained.  So, why has the city of West Fargo remained silent while allowing these concerts to be scheduled (at a city owned facility) when we simultaneously continue to cancel cruise night and other city run events.  Why is one safe and the other isn’t?  How is social distance maintained at Hairball (it’s not)? 

What I do fear is the unintended consequences that these types of events (3,000 people at a concert) might have.  With a positive testing rate in North Dakota averaging a little over 1% you would assume 30+ attendees at a concert might be spreading Covid.  How many people will they infect when they are yelling, singing, dancing, and having fun?  What if they go to multiple concerts?  What is the impact on our residents, our economy, and our schools.  A concert series at an awesome new facility isn’t worth the risk to my parents (or yours); it’s not worth the risk of an uptick causing restaurants and bars to be closed again; it’s not worth the risk of our schools not functioning normally (or as normal as possible) this fall. PLEASE lets not do anything to screwup the school year!

I believe our state and city has achieved a balance over the last month of opening up with some appropriate limitations and precautions.  That said, we need to realize that 2020 isn’t going to return to normal!  Pushing forward with a number of large concerts creates exceptional and unnecessary risk in our community.  I’ll be bringing this up at our next city commission meeting.  I believe we should strive to hold smaller events to engage our residents but I believe we should cancel large city events where social distance can’t be maintained (concerts, cruise nights, street fair, and West Fest).  I really look forward to 2021 and an eventual return to normalcy!