Your Town: Pros and Cons (Sioux Falls, Rapid City: for sale, real estate, apartment complexes)

[DannyBanany]

It seems like our forum gets more and more people asking about what certain towns are like and the pros and cons of living here. Maybe if we list them, it would help them get to know our towns a little better.

Rapid City:
Population: 70,000
Metro: 130,000
Elevation: 3,500 feet

Pros:
*great climate with plentiful sunshine
*snowtorms melt within a couple days
*large city with everything you need
*beautiful city with mountains as a backdrop
*close to the Black Hills and any recreation you can imagine (skiing, waterskiing, boating, fishing, rockclimbing, hiking)
*massive selection of restaurants and nightlife to enjoy
*more shopping is moving into the area with the new Rushmore Crossing mall
*Rapid Ride provides excellent public transportation for those without cars
*great schools in most any part of town
*large YMCA for after school programs and fitness
*large aquatics center
*large hockey rink at Roosevelt Park
*brand new pro hockey rink at Rushmore Plaza
*Civic Center that can hold 3 major events at one time plus Broadway shows; Civic Center is the largest in the Dakotas
*great parks system along Rapid Creek and Canyon Lake
*best golfing in South Dakota
*traffic is a rarety and you can get from one end of town to the other in 10 minutes
*cheap city compared to national average

Cons:
*real estate is outrageously priced by South Dakota standards
*long distance to any major city (Denver is 4-5 hours away)
*jobs are difficult to find here unless they're generated by tourism
*currently, shopping here is weak compared to cities of comparable size
*weather changes dramatically and quickly, you never know how to dress
*too many retirees not enough workers
*has a large "ghetto" area on the Northside
*when traffic occurs it seems like no one knows how to drive
*slow drivers in the fast lane!
*limited selection of grocers (just Safeway and FTC anymore)
*needs a second Wal*Mart, Target, or shopping center on the Southside

[a_movingtarget]

Brookings:

Straight facts:
Population: 18,500
Elevation: 1,621 ft
Median Age: 24 (yes, that's right)

Pros:

Home of South Dakota State University
Entertainment is not too hard to find
Youthful, educated population
Clean
Not hard to find a job
Good to its artists (art of all kinds)
Awesome downtown scene (when the construction is done)
Lots of trees and green spaces
Not too big
Close to Sioux Falls (4 hrs from MPLS & Omaha)
McCrory Gardens
I live here
If you want to know more, just come visit!

Cons:

The weather in the winter (MHO)
Students on the roads
Housing prices are way jacked up for the area (thanks SDSU)
Neverending construction on the main roads
ONE SINGLE liquor store owned by the city
Lack of good shopping in town
And probably some other things that don't jump to mind right now!

[a_movingtarget]

OOH, I almost forgot:

Jim's Tap and George's Pizza (in that order).

[SDHomesteader]

Buffalo
Population (as of 2000 census) 380 people, Gone Down considerably since then and courthouse estimates it at less than 300 now.
Elevation-2881 feet (never realized we were that high)
Median Ages as of 2000 census
25.5% under the age of 18,
5.0% from 18 to 24,
22.6% from 25 to 44,
26.3% from 45 to 64,
and 20.5% who were 65 years of age or older

Pro's (from my point of view anyway)

Middle of nowhere
Quiet
Family Values (mostly)
Fishing and Swimming Lake about 3 miles outside of town
Hunting Lands very abundant
No Fast Food of Any type unless you count the pizza counter at Cenex

Cons
No Walmart or any other Major retailer
Everybody Knows what your doing LOL
High Prices in the Local Shops (have 2 Gas Stations, Hardware store, Feed Store, Grocery Store, Post Office, Car Wash, Laundry House, and 2 bars. Thats about it, couple of other shops such as a barber/beauty shop, and a flower/coffee shop.)

Real Estate, Not that much up here, if and when you do find something that might be for sale, could be a bit pricey compared to other smaller towns.

I think thats about it

[debey]

Forestburg, SD
population approx.80, located on hiway34&37...
Pro's
Sanborn Central School
farm/village ''atmosphere''
James River Valley,


Con's
must commute for employment
must commute for all types of shopping
seldom is there available housing, and not much future of housing development

[Chris19]

Lennox, SD
A population of over 2,037 people according to the 2000 census, although it has experienced steady growth since then. It is located four and a half miles west of I-29. Lennox has an elevation of 1338 feet.

Pros:
15 miles from Sioux Falls (good for work opportunties and for additional shopping and services)
Reasonable rent and housing prices.
Good school system.
Overall, a clean and friendly community.
New industry coming in, stregthening the local economy.
Good HS basketball team. Go Orioles.
A nice tree-lined Main Street.
A park, pool, and city park.
Light traffic.
Pizza Ranch and Casey's-Both have good pizza.
City is becoming more progressive regarding economic development and growth in the past decade.
A recently rebuilt Klondike road from I-29 to SD 17 (two miles north) that just opened today.
Several good churches: a Lutheran church, two Presbyterian churches, a Reformed church, and a Catholic church.

Cons:
Roads in town need repair, too many potholes and bumps.
High property taxes, lot of it is paying for recent school bond issues.
Water problems in houses that have full basements, especially with older homes (some basements in older houses are iffy due to water problems).
Needs a hardware store-one burned down two years ago and never rebuilt.
Limited on eating choices: a sub place (Subway), steakhouse, and fast food place (McDonald's, Dairy Queen, or Taco John's) would be nice.
Can use a good sized development with starter homes for young families that can bring young family and people to town and increase the town's tax base. Most of its newer homes are little higher priced.
One or two new apartment complexes would be nice.
Lack a fitness center/community rec center for locals to work out (May be attractive to young families).
Can use more industry and tax base to lessen the property tax burden on the homeowners.

Lennox has potential and I see it growing more in the next five to ten years when Tea and Harrisburg become too Sioux Falls-like and people want more of a small town atmosphere.

[littleraerae]

CUSTER
Population: The sign says 1800 but there are way more people living around the vicinity..

Pros:
-Nice summer weather
-Lots of activities and festivals in the summer
-New, nice shops
-Lots of outdoor activities
-Generally friendly people
-Tourist season!! (don't blame them, they help our economy)
-Tons of job opportunities in the summer

Cons:
-Cold winters
-Boring winters
-Hardly any jobs in the winter

[Jammie]

Mitchell

Population was just under 15,000 for many years and I'm anxious to see the next official census. It's now estimated at over 17,000. No metro, but many farmers and people in nearby smaller towns shop here.

Pros~

Ditto on nice summer weather.

We have the world's only Corn Palace and contrary to the belief of some, it isn't a building made of corn. We still have the yearly Corn Palace Festival and have entertainment throughout the year.

Three grade schools, one middle school, one high school, one vocational school and a college. The educational system seems to be a good one.

Churches~we have pretty much any mainstream house of Worship.

Sports~if you like sports, Mitchell is the place to be. They have won countless championships in many areas, but basketball is very popular here.

Music~we have an awesome marching band and the show choir is so enjoyable to see. The music department also fares well in out of state competitions which is a good gauge to measure it by.

Mitchell Lake~we have our own lake on the north end of town. It could use improvement, but it's a good source of recreation.

Like Debey~we are also in the James River Valley. The River runs on the east side of town.

Employment~Similar to the rest of the state, there is employment here for anyone who wants to work. We share in having the lowest unemployment rate in the nation and we can be thankful for the progressive thinking of many people.

Prehistoric Indian Village~pretty awesome seeing all the artifacts and going for digs.

Museums~we have the Middle Border Museum and until just recently had the Doll House Museum which had some of the rarest dolls in the world.

We had the privilege of having a balloon museum and now in it's place we have the Pepsi-Cola Theatre of Arts.

We have one movie theatre and also one of the few Drive-in theatres left in the country.

Just recently, we have built a beautiful aquatic center. It has some neat slides and a spray park with it. It's in Hitchcock Park where there are playing fields for baseball, a tennis court, and a beautiful area with flowers and a gazebo. Many weddings are held there.

Mitchell is the county seat of Davison County.

Cabelas~it seems to be a very popular store.

Friendly and welcoming and clean and well-kept.

Location~like several So. Dak. towns, we're along I-90.

Cons~

Winter is cold and snowy and barren and boring and depressing.

See sentence above and repeat.

Good topic, Danny.