Moorhead

turned out.We have a veryhealthyhousing market,yet it’s still a veryaffordable one; themedian home value inMoorhead is $177,000.” “These are homes that will never be built again,”Mahli explains.“These investments are significant enough so that a lot of this affordable,pre-war housingwill last another 50 to 100 years.It’s a great way to preserve our older,affordable housing stock.” “We also have a strong partnershipwith our local chapter of Habitat for Humanity,” Bode says.“Wework to donate or transfer at least one property lot a year to that organi- zation.And,oftentimes,these are blighted properties that the cityclears tomake space for newfamilies that ultimatelyadd to the city’s taxbase.” In one recent case,however,Moorhead found itself in the position of not building, but actuallydeconstructing homes.That happened as a result of the record-breaking floods that submerged parts of Moorhead and Fargo in 2009,2010,and 2011,when the Red River significantlyoverran its banks. “After that time,the CityCouncil and the State of Minnesota invested a tremendous amount of resources in acquiring themost vulnerable homes and building flood in- frastructure that would help us keep our community in business when river flooding happens-as it inevitablydoes,”Bode re- MOORHEAD, MINNESOTA counts.“Where those 200-plus homes were located, has nowbeenmade into greenspace.Themost vulner- able homes are gone andwewere left with land that could also be a communityamenity.Wewent through a significant planning study in 2014,and since that time,we’ve received over $2million in parks and trails grants to improve that area along the river.So,we’re turning that disaster into an asset andwe think it’s important to the long-termhealth of the community.” That sense of creative resiliency–turning floodzone property into a nature-based communityasset–also happened to dovetail well withwhat the city’s resi- dents said theypreferred in terms of amenities.“Sixor seven years ago,the citydid a big communityoutreach onwhat theywanted,”recounts CityManager,Christina Volkers.“Our median age here is 29 years old.That’s a young community.Theywant trails,theywant walk- ability,and theywant bike lanes.So,we spent a lot of effort on creating that infrastructure.Andwe’ve done a great job; we received significant federal and state moneyand put a lot of effort into trails and parks.Our next wave is downtown development.Andwe feel like that’s taking off,now.” Graffeo elaborates on some ongoing projects de- signed to re-imagineMoorhead’s downtown.“The city