I'm an entrepreneur who has lived in Washington, Texas, Ireland, and North Dakota. My favorite place has incredible community support for small businesses.
Jaymes O’Pheron is an entrepreneur who has lived all over the world.
He and his wife moved from Washington state to Fargo, North Dakota, in 2021.
O’Pheron said the Midwest locale is his favorite because of its strong community.
This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Jaymes O’Pheron, a 34-year-old entrepreneur who moved from Aberdeen, Washington, to Fargo, North Dakota, in 2021.
The Fargo-Moorhead area, home to about 261,000people, has seen a significant population uptick in recent years and is expected to reach almost 340,000 people by 2045, a 35% growth rate, according to the Fargo-Moorhead Economic Development Corp.
My family is a bit odd. I’m the oldest of eight and grew up in a very sheltered, religiously-minded family. I spent most of my childhood in Washington state, outside Vancouver and across the river from Portland. When I was 17, my dad got a job in Texas, so we moved South.
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After that, we deliberately decided as a family to leave America. We picked Ireland because, at the time, it was the last English-speaking nation that did not allow abortion. We wanted to support that.
I absolutely loved Ireland. The weather, the people, the history, the language, the food, the music, the pace of life, the cities, the way it’s designed — it’s very communal.
After four years in Ireland, though, some personal issues led me to move back to Washington in 2012. I met my wife in Aberdeen, and we got married in 2018.
But we knew we weren’t going to stick around Washington forever. We had been experiencing some health issues that we eventually traced back to mold allergies. We realized we were biologically incompatible with mold and how damp and moldy the Northwest is. We couldn’t live there.
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We wanted to find a permanent home, so we started researching potential places to move in 2019.
We tried to be intentional about where we ended up. We narrowed it down to a few places with favorable economic and regulatory aspects and a positive culture.
Then, we visited Fargo, and we knew this was the place. We officially moved in May 2021.
O’Pheron said he loves Fargo’s small-town heart and big-city energy.
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Fargo is very friendly to startups
I’m a serial entrepreneur. I can’t stop starting things, both nonprofit and for-profit. Right now, I’m primarily focusing on my nonprofit, which is focused on empowering people to be change-makers in their communities.
I’m also a freelance coach for career performance, communication, networking, and burnout prevention.
The community support here in Fargo is incredible. That was hugely important as I was trying to build up my coaching business. I needed a larger metro center to network, but I also needed a regulatory environment conducive to small business startups.
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Fargo is a great place for small business startups, a huge part of which is due to the community. The people recognize that we need to support one another. Being an entrepreneur is emotionally difficult and risky. Having people around you cheering you on and having your back is incredibly valuable.
That community support is unique from all the other places I’ve lived. You can walk out onto the street and make friends with anyone.
We are definitely putting down roots here. We want our great-grandchildren to live here, so we started looking for a place to buy.
We found a beautiful home. I’m on the HOA board. There are a lot of benefits and assistance in North Dakota for people who are first-time home buyers.
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In Washington, I was living in a studio apartment. We paid about the same rate here in Fargo for our two-bedroom apartment, which was twice the square footage, just outside downtown.
It’s one of the best places in the country as far as the ratio between low cost of living and high-paying jobs goes. The quality of living is high. There are a lot of job opportunities here.
Fargo’s winters are notoriously harsh.
Daniel Barry/Getty Images
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Fargo is my favorite place I’ve lived
I just love Fargo. It’s my favorite of all the places I’ve lived because I have all my favorite people here. I have better friends here than I’ve had in my entire life. My favorite part is the community.
When we first drove to Fargo, it felt like we were driving home. There’s something about the scale of the city that is very approachable. It is a downtown area with robust activity, but it also has that small-town feel. It feels very safe and welcoming.
We had new friends from church help us move into an apartment immediately. We had met the pastor when we first got to Fargo, and he put out a call to the parish, and they all showed up to help us.
Because it’s a college town, there’s a lot of youthful energy and idealism. It’s also on the border of Minnesota, a blue state. So, Fargo is a true purple city. There’s a lot of diversity of thought and opinions. People actually have conversations, which is cool.
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The one thing we were anticipating having to adjust to was the weather. We made sure we did all the preparation. We changed our car battery and got the right kinds of tires.
We had a really hard winter our first year there. But it was fun. I shoveled snow from our patio into the bathtub and took an ice bath. The cold weather actually leads to the quality of the community here. People help one another because we’re all in it together.
Fargo is growing quickly. One of the issues we’re dealing with is where to put all the people. We don’t want to create sky-high prices or spread out too far so people can’t commute. The city is trying to strike that balance of small-town heart and big-town body that we love so much.
As a burnout coach, I know that the silver bullet is community. We need to be able to connect with people around us authentically. Loneliness is killing us. So, it’s a luxury to have people here at Fargo whom I can rely on.
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I think others who value community should look at Fargo. It’s an amazing place to be.
Hillsboro, Washington County set aside a combined $400,000 to help communities impacted by immigration arrests.
Oregon’s most diverse county declared a state of emergency this week because of increased immigration enforcement that has cloaked much of the community in fear over the past few weeks.
The declaration allows the county to tap into $200,000 in contingency funds it can give to community organizations helping residents impacted by the ongoing enforcement surge. It was unanimously approved by the county Board of Commissioners on Tuesday.
Community members attend a meeting at the Washington County public services building in Hillsboro, Ore., on Oct. 28, 2025. Community members made their case for the commission to declare a state of emergency over a recent increase in immigration enforcement in the area.
Holly Bartholomew / OPB
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The move follows at least 135 reported arrests by immigration enforcement in the county in October, according to the Portland Immigration Rights Coalition. This number accounts for nearly half the 329 arrests made throughout the state in October.
While the county has not yet decided which community organizations will receive emergency funds, SOAR Immigration Legal Services requested a portion of the money.
SOAR legal assistant Celeste Mora-Morales was one of a number of public commenters at Tuesday’s meeting.
“We are receiving over 100 calls every day,” she said. “There’s broken glass all over Hillsboro.”
Her comments alluded to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers regularly breaking car windows to make arrests.
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County Administrator Tanya Ange said staff would follow up with the board next week with plans on how to spend the $200,000 unlocked by the emergency declaration.
The state of emergency lasts until the end of the calendar year. It coincides with a second state of emergency declared by the commission Tuesday over a loss of access to the Supplemental Nutrition Access Program. That declaration will redirect $250,000 to the Oregon Food Bank.
Fear of the ongoing immigration arrests, which have swept up multiple people lawfully living in the US, has kept many Washington County residents from leaving their homes, meaning they have to miss work, school or doctor’s appointments.
“Fear has become a daily companion for far too many in our community,” Hillsboro United Methodist Pastor Rhett Ansley said at a Tuesday meeting of the Hillsboro City Council.
At its meeting, the Hillsboro City Council heard more than three hours of public testimony about the devastating impacts the recent enforcement actions.
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The council allocated its own $200,000 for a “low-barrier” grant program that would benefit affected residents and will continue discussing the matter at a meeting Nov. 18.
Washington County Commissioner Jason Snider compared immigration officials’ apparently intentional infliction of fear and distress in the community to acts of terror. However, he also noted the limits of the county’s authority in the face of federal law.
“We have an obligation to follow federal law,” Snider said. “I want to make sure the expectations of the community are aligned with what we are actually considering,” meaning the county was not directing the sheriff’s office to step in during ICE action, as some community members had asked.
Commissioner Nafisa Fai said she felt the declaration did not go far enough to protect Washington County residents. She said the county should consider additional measures like suspending rental evictions or utility shutoffs as families deal with the detainment of their primary income earners or fear leaving home to work.
“There are other tools in our toolbox that we can (use to) help residents,” she said. “The situation the community faces demands aggressive action to safeguard our residents.”
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Commission Chair Kathryn Harrington expressed support for all local, state and federal officials lawfully performing their duties.
“That includes supporting lawful immigration,” she said.
When the prospect of an emergency declaration related to the recent ICE activity was previously broached, Harrington was not on board with the idea, saying it was important to safeguard money the county receives from the federal government. Earlier this year, the commission altered the county’s diversity, equity and inclusion policies to avoid running afoul of the Trump administration.
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The Southwest Washington mayor won a third term Tuesday and voters appeared to be passing Proposition 5.
Incumbent Vancouver Mayor Anne McEnerny-Ogle enjoys a performance while talking with attendees at her election night party at the Fire Union Hall in Vancouver, Wash., on Nov. 4, 2025.
Eli Imadali / OPB
Anne McEnerny-Ogle won a third term as mayor of Vancouver on Tuesday night, beating her opponent Justin Forsman by a wide margin.
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“Our work obviously isn’t done,” McEnerny-Ogle said to a crowd of supporters at the Vancouver Local 452 Fire Hall after early election results came in.
“We’ll build that I-5 bridge, we’ll build the Heights, we’ll continue working with our homeless,” she said, calling out a number of local livability issues before telling the crowd to be sure to take home extra baked potatoes.
McEnerny-Ogle has long been a face in Vancouver politics. After a 30-year career as a public school teacher, she was elected as a city councilor in 2014. She became the first woman to serve as mayor of Vancouver in 2018. Now 72 years old, her term as mayor will last through 2029.
Priorities for her next term will include development of a mixed-use neighborhood in Central Vancouver known as the Heights District, helping expand police staffing with levies like Proposition 5, which also appeared to be passing on Tuesday night, and starting construction on the Interstate Bridge Replacement, a slow-moving megaproject that has been further delayed by the federal government shutdown.
“I’m the strongest advocate for the bridge because it’s right in our living room for the city of Vancouver,” she said.
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Her last eight years as mayor were defined by a period of tremendous change in Washington state’s second fastest growing city. That growth has led to problems, like a persistent housing shortage and growing homelessness.
McEnerny-Ogle served as mayor throughout the Covid-19 pandemic. “Every day I came to work,” she said.
As mayor, she is often found holding together fractious coalitions in Southwest Washington. She’s heavily involved with Oregon and Washington state officials, the board of the local transit agency, C-TRAN, and the two states’ congressional delegations on matters related to the I-5 bridge.
At the local level, McEnerny-Ogle contributes to the relationship between Vancouver and Clark County’s smaller cities’ response to a regional homelessness crisis.
Her opponent, Justin Forsman, earned nearly 30% of the vote as of 9 p.m. Tuesday.
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Forsman runs a small telecom business in Vancouver. His defeat in the mayoral race adds to a series of failed bids for Vancouver City Council and the Washington state Legislature. In campaign statements, Forsman said he is an advocate against the herbicide glyphosate, 5G cellular towers and water fluoridation. His platform included a range of conservative interests, such as rejecting sanctuary city policies, enhanced 2nd Amendment protections, and what he described as medical freedom.
Voters approve Proposition 5
Voters in Vancouver appeared to be approving Proposition 5, based on early results in Tuesday’s general election. It will fund approximately 13 new officers in the Vancouver Police Department. The tax levy’s passage would mark a small step forward in the city’s effort to shore up police staffing levels.
Proposition 5 will increase taxes by $0.15 per $1,000 of assessed value on property in Vancouver. That translates to an increase of about $75 annually on a $500,000 home, according to the city.
The 13 new officers funded by the levy amount to fewer new hires than in past funding proposals. A similar 2024 levy aimed to hire 80 new police officers and 36 non-officer positions. That levy’s failure led to the scaled-back request this year.
Vancouver ranks low when it comes to officers per capita compared to other Washington cities of comparable size. Vancouver had 11.4 officers per 10,000 people, according to 2024 FBI data. Other cities with populations of 90,000 or more include Tacoma, with 15.31 officers, and Everett, with 17.79 officers per 10,000 people.
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The city is also planning to hire additional officers with state funding for law enforcement approved during the last legislative session. According to City Manager Lon Pluckhahn, Vancouver is expecting to hire another dozen officers beyond the levy with a share of $100 million allocated for police departments around the state by the legislature and Gov. Bob Ferguson.
Additional officers hired with Proposition 5 funds would be fully trained in early 2027, according to VPD spokesperson Kim Kapp.
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Mick Cronin and the No. 12 UCLA Bruins officially tip off the highly-anticipated 2025-26 season against the Big Sky’s Eastern Washington Eagles.
Backed by UCLA’s star-studded transfer portal addition of Donovan Dent, the Bruins’ ceiling is higher than it’s been in recent season, and yet Westwood still has its fair share of doubters.
The Bruins also have some key returners, like Tyler Bilodeau, Eric Dailey Jr. and Skyy Clark, who are all primed to elevate their games next to Dent.
Mar 20, 2025; Lexington, KY, USA; UCLA Bruins guard Eric Dailey Jr. (3) reacts during the second half against the Utah State Aggies in the first round of the NCAA Tournament at Rupp Arena. Mandatory Credit: Aaron Doster-Imagn Images / Aaron Doster-Imagn Images
With that being said, let’s get into our first UCLA men’s basketball preview of the season.
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UCLA is the start of EWU’s gauntlet non-conference schedule, which includes the Bruins, Washington State, Utah and No . 8 BYU.
The Eagles’ leading scorer from last season, Andrew Cook, returns this season. Cook averaged 15.8 points, 3.5 rebounds and 1.9 assists per game.
Nov 21, 2024; Spokane, Washington, USA; Eastern Washington Eagles guard Andrew Cook (9) controls the ball against the Washington State Cougars in the second half at Spokane Veterans Memorial Arena. Mandatory Credit: James Snook-Imagn Images / James Snook-Imagn Images
This is the second time the Bruins are matching up with Eastern Washington all time. The last matchup came during the 2011-12 season when UCLA beat the Eagles 60-47 in the Los Angeles Sports Arena.
What: UCLA Bruins vs. Eastern Washington Eagles When: Monday, Nov. 3 Time: 7:30 p.m. (PT) Where: Pauley Pavilion (Westwood, California) TV: Big Ten Network Radio: AM 790 (KABC)
1. Donovan Dent, PG
Mar 23, 2025; Cleveland, OH, USA; New Mexico Lobos guard Donovan Dent (2) shoots the ball over Michigan State Spartans guard Jeremy Fears Jr. (1) in the second half during the NCAA Tournament Second Round at Rocket Arena. Mandatory Credit: Rick Osentoski-Imagn Images / Rick Osentoski-Imagn Images
What more is there to say about Dent? The 2024-25 All-American was one of, if not the, most impactful transfers of the offseason, and he is poised to raise Cronin’s offensive ceiling this year.
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The elite playmaking guard showed flashes of his impact in UCLA’s two preseason exhibition games, where, despite struggling from the field, showed the poised scoring and facilitating ability that drew Cronin’s eyes to him.
Against an opponent like Eastern Washington, elite guards like Dent can really flex their guns. Look for Dent to set up his teammates more rather than trying to get his own bucket on Monday.
2. Eric Dailey Jr., Forward
Mar 20, 2025; Lexington, KY, USA; UCLA Bruins guard Eric Dailey Jr. (3) drives to the basket against Utah State Aggies guard Dexter Akanno (7) during the second half in the first round of the NCAA Tournament at Rupp Arena. Mandatory Credit: Jordan Prather-Imagn Images / Jordan Prather-Imagn Images
Dailey is one of UCLA’s most impactful returners, and he’s primed for a big season next to Dent. He averaged 11.4 points and 4.0 rebounds in 33 games last year, showing flashes of his potential as a scorer.
Ahead of this season, Dailey has been named to the 20-person watch list for the Julius Erving Small Forward of the Year award. Dailey’s scoring is integral to UCLA’s success. Last season, the Bruins were 16-2 when he scored at least 10 points in a game.
Dent elevates the players around him. Don’t be surprised if we see a leap year for Dailey.
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