Fargo's been a punchline for some for so long it's hard to think what lessons We, The Metropolis of the Prairie, could take from its humble example. A few years ago, that might have been so - but on a recent trip I was amazed to see a downtown more vital than it's been since I was a tot. On a weekday night there were people downtown. Ten years ago you could walk down the street at high noon waving a scimitar, and you'd never nick a soul; now there were people on the streets, the coffeeshops, the bars. Young people, too. I saw one fellow slathered with ink, wearing dreadlocks, looking serious, and I wanted to say: dude, you're in Fargo. But he wasn't alone. Most of the people downtown looked like they belonged in Uptown. In Fargo. What happened?

The economy's good up here. Housing is plentiful and affordable. Downtown has enough small shops, which we are hereby required by law to call "funky." It has something else: a human scale and a sense of history. Yes, smartarse, Fargo has history. The names of the people who built the downtown are still on the cornices; most of the old downtown is intact, except for a small district leveled by urban renewal - now one ofthe emptiest, least-trafficked part of downtown - and the 5 Spot Bar block, consumed by fire and never rebuilt. New condos:

Why does this area seem so attractive, and some of the new condo districts, like Washington Avenue by Seven Corners, seem so uninhabited? Part of it might be good old-fashioned angle parking, which narrows the street and slows down the traffic. Part of it is the size of things - large monolithic developments deaden the street. And there's the sense of place: you can't make this up. It has to arise over the decades, a compilation of buildings designed to work with their neighbors while asserting their own individuality.

Everyone tries to make it up, though - there's a new Microsoft office building whose facade is designed to look like several different faux-historic buildings. Standing alone, brand new, in a paved over soybean field, it looks ridiculous. Downtown, it would have fit right in.

They tried a Nicollet Mall-style redesign in the 70s; it failed. They gutted two department stores and turned them into downtown malls: they failed. (One of them is doing well again, because of the general rise in downtown fortunes.) No, the lessons are simple: scale, preservation, careful new construction, cheap rent, and affordable amenities. But we knew that. Except for the period when we listened to the raze-and-pave boys, we always knew that.