Things to Think About if You're Considering SD (Sioux Falls, Brookings: school, college)

[Jammie]

Oh wow, that is scary but I don't doubt that it's true. If they're not here yet, they will be.

[DannyBanany]

Originally Posted by DeadwoodJ

This is kind of scary to think this might start happening here.....And they mention Sioux Falls as one of the towns.....

Mexican drug violence spills over into the US - Yahoo! News

That is pretty scary. A couple buddy's of mine had saved up to go to Cancun over Spring Break but now their parents won't let them because of all the violence and kidnappings. I can't imagine Sioux Falls having a large drug cartel or anywhere in South Dakota for that matter, but it'd be the perfect place because no one would expect it.

I think most of the drugs in Rapid City and Spearfish come up from Denver, SLC, and the PacNW.That's why if you drive through SD with Oregon, Washington, or BC plates you are very prone to getting "randomly" pulled over by Highway Patrol.

[ghghx]

I just want to say that I think this might be one of the most interesting threads on this entire website! And I'm impressed it hasn't disintergrated into a fight. I can think of several places I've lived where the virtual shotguns would have been out by now.

So, let me throw out a question in the spirit of the original post: What changes -- positive or not-so-positive -- do you predict will occur in SD in the next 5-10 years? And do you think the state is prepared to handle those changes?

[DannyBanany]

Originally Posted by ghghx

So, let me throw out a question in the spirit of the original post: What changes -- positive or not-so-positive -- do you predict will occur in SD in the next 5-10 years? And do you think the state is prepared to handle those changes?

I see a lot of urban flight from SD's smaller towns. They just can't hack it anymore. The days of small non-corporate faming/ranching are over and there just isn't any opportunity in these smaller towns anymore. I think people from smaller towns will be going to Sioux Falls and Rapid City for work and people from Sioux Falls and Rapid City will be going to larger cities like Denver and Minneapolis to focus on careers.

I see Sioux Falls becoming a major finance and telecommunications city for the midwest (much like Omaha is for insurance) and I see Rapid City becoming a major research center with much credit to the new science lab at Homestake Mine. Luckily, Rapid City has a fantastic college to attract industry and new prospective scientists/engineers. I see a lot of retirees from California and Colorado discovering the Black Hills too---it's been happening for decades already. Rapid City's hospital system also covers a vast area of terrain so I see the medical centers growing too. We already have some of the best neurological treatment centers in the midwest.

I also hope that the Heartland Expressway, Ports to the Plains, and TrEx highways go ahead as planned so that more opportunity can come to the Black Hills regaion more easily. Hopefully if this recession wears down some more shopping, entertainment, and restaurants will move in too!

[Chris19]

Danny, you have some very good points and I agree with you on the part with Sioux Falls. Although I would add that Sioux Falls will grow into a medical research center for the region along with technology jobs. Green jobs and green energy will help the state and provide a new industry and additional opporuntities for the people in the state, although there will be consolidation in our farms and rural areas.

If and when the ethanol industry grows in importance and with the development of cellulosic ethanol, Sioux Falls and communities in South Dakota (especially along the I-29 corridor and James River Valley) will stand to benefit with additional jobs and income.

I forsee people moving to the Black Hills, I-29 Corridor (Union County/Sioux Falls metro/Brookings/Watertown), and other cities such as Mitchell, Aberdeen, Yankton, and Pierre-Ft. Pierre but a decline in most other areas. Huron is iffy and has been having a tough decade or so.

I have read in the KELO website that there is a bill in the Legislature that would require counties to consolidate. I support county consolidation due to more efficeincies and better use of tax resources. The link to the article is News, Weather and Sports for Sioux Falls, South Dakota, Minnesota and Iowa.

[Jammie]

GH, that's a very good question. As always, Danny and Chris are a hard act to follow.

My crystal ball tells me that we'll be in for a bit more of a slump, but will come out of this much better then most parts of the country and it'll be quite short-lived.

IF we're cautious and keep electing the right officials in our state, there's no reason that everything that was previously said can't happen. One of the huge deterrents for our state is our winter weather and there are even several recent articles that show the Midwest isn't as popular as many areas because of our winters. But I'm learning that more and more people are opting to put up with it because of our fairly good economy and our lack of traffic and our low crime rates, etc. That will probably continue.

And I totally agree~many of the smaller towns will die out and there'll be more schools consolidating and counties consolidating. It's just much more cost efficient.

[ghghx]

Noooo! Not the California transplants! I'm trying to get AWAY from them!
They took over my home state years ago. Where I am now is like living in The Hive -- nearly all Cali ex-pats. At least twice a day I want to scream, "I lived there ten years, it's wasn't paradise, and if you loved it so well, why didn't you STAY there?" I dunno...just seems better to appreciate it for what it is than to constantly complain about how it's not like where you came from.

I'm married to a Cali native , btw, but I don't want away from that particular one and he definitely doesn't want to go back there.

I'm sort of leaning toward Sioux Falls because of the (apparent) flexibility and wider public transportation, but I have to admit Danny's photos and fandom for RC are very seductive.

[lazlaz]

Originally Posted by IceNomad

Hello, everybody - I've been a lurker on these forums for awhile now, but I've been reading the South Dakota forum with great interest. There seem to be a lot of people who want to move to the state, and while I think that SD has some wonderful aspects, some of the posts on this forum can paint an unrealistic picture of what it's really like.

I was born in at Sioux Valley Hospital (now Sanford) in the '80s and I have lived in Yankton, Montrose, Brookings, and Sioux Falls. I graduated from Roosevelt High School in 2005, and until I was 20 years old, South Dakota was the only state in which I had ever lived. I'm putting this out here just in case anybody decides to question my SD credentials!

But there are some serious downsides to the state - while I loved South Dakota, I now live elsewhere for a couple of reasons. First of all, based on my personal observations and the paths pursued by my RHS classmates, the state is hemhorraging its young people. Why would I ever stay in South Dakota to go to USD or SDSU when I can go to a vastly superior school like the University of Minnesota for the exact same price due to reciprocity? Out of the college-bound seniors in my class, the vast majority of those who were accepted to UofM or other out-of-state schools left SD and didn't consider the state universities. Two kids ended up going to Harvard, and they did not get a single piece of mail from any state university except the School of Mines (which is an excellent place to go if you want to be an engineer). Not exactly a concerted effort to keep the best and the brightest in state, I would say.

Secondly, while SD public schools are pretty good in the cities, the smaller towns don't get their fair share of the resources, in my opinion. Books are outdated, funding is lacking, and in smaller areas, school districts have had to consolidate or adopt 4-day weeks to save money. A great deal of our public education system is funded by revenues from gambling, and whatever your moral views are on video lottery, etc., I think it's an incredibly poor and unsustainable way to fund education.

Another thing that you should know is that wages in South Dakota are terrible. I can't remember what the name of the study was, but our average wages are some of the lowest in the nation. Some people may counter with the fact that our cost of living is lower than average - and it can be. However, I don't think the lower cost of living really makes up for the low average wages. That's another reason that young people are leaving - there's no incentive to work certain jobs in SD when the money in the neighboring states is better for the same work!

If you're not from the Upper Midwest, you will probably find our winters to be quite brutal. I actually like the cold, and I wear T-shirts down to the 30s and sweatshirts until it gets to 15 degrees. But temperatures can and do get below zero during the winter, and if you are not used to snow and bitter cold, you will be in for a rude awakening. My suggestion to you is to punish yourself by trying to adapt to the cold - eventually you'll stop complaining about it, and eventually you'll get used to it.

I don't buy the fact that we have "nicer" people than the rest of the country. I would definitely consider us less neurotic than New Yorkers (no offense to New Yorkers, of course), but there are plenty of rude people in South Dakota. I'm going to be brutally honest here: too many people talk up small towns like they're some kind of utopia. Nothing could be further from the truth. While they are very pretty, they can be inconvenient, and if you're a private person, you'll hate living in a small town. When I lived in one, I couldn't stand the fact that everybody knew everybody else - to be honest, I didn't care if the neighbor lady two blocks down the street wanted to make small talk with me. I would much rather say a polite "hello" and leave it at that. Your mileage may vary. Personally, I think too much familiarity breeds gossip and a stifling atmosphere.

Be skeptical of many of the generalizations you hear about character. The phrase "small town values" sounds nice, but in my experience, it's a total joke. Many of the small town kids I grew up with did meth and were more sexually promiscuous than ANY of the kids I knew in Sioux Falls. The city kids were saints by comparison - fewer binge drinkers, fewer drug abusers, and fewer fights. I know that many South Dakotans are going to violently disagree with me on this one, but I'm trying to get you to take an impartial look at the place. Rose-colored views of small towns don't help the prospective immigrant, and alcohol abuse IS a serious problem in many of our towns, despite the fact that some people refuse to admit it.

As for traffic, it's nonexistent. That's something you'll love. On the other hand, drivers in eastern South Dakota are not very good, despite what you may see in those national surveys. To put it bluntly, the vast majority of Sioux Falls drivers are idiots (and when I was a resident, you could have probably put me in that category, too). It's bad on the interstates around Sioux Falls - a lot of drivers won't be courteous enough to get into the passing lane to let you onto the interstate, and as a result you will be forced to either gun it or halt at the yield sign and wait until it's clear. If you go out West, it's much, much better. If someone in an oncoming vehicle waves at you out West, it's a greeting, not an impolite gesture! Wave back and be friendly.

Taxes are low in South Dakota, which can be both good and bad. Nobody likes to pay taxes, including me, but our lack of a state income tax has caused some problems for the budget. The state government is too dependent on gambling and tourism revenues, and in this economic downturn, I seriously question whether or not this model is sustainable. If this recession lasts a long time, tourism revenues will be down and the non-addicted gamblers will stop going to casinos. That could be a problem.

Religion. This is a dangerous subject, so I won't say much about it. I was raised a Lutheran, as many South Dakotans are. One of the nice things about ELCA Lutherans is that they don't try to shove religion down your throat. They are moderate, deeply faithful, and respectful of other denominations and even other faiths. My church pastor routinely held dialogues with Jewish and Muslim residents of the city, and there was no "hellfire and brimstone" vitriol at all. Of course, other Christian denominations exist in SD, too, and they are not frowned upon, at least not in my experience. Sioux Falls even has a growing presence of atheists and agnostics, a development which I wholeheartedly welcome, even as a man of faith - I don't like religious hatred.

Our state is not "recession proof" - this is a load of BS that my brother seems to think is true. Just because the recession takes longer to reach SD does not mean, in any way, that times are good in the state. Hutchinson Technology just laid off its entire workforce. Raven Industries laid off several workers, including my former neighbor. Full-time jobs are becoming scarce, and the wages from part-time gigs are awful, but better than nothing. Do not come here and expect to land a job - there are no guarantees.

If you're older, or if you're married, South Dakota isn't a bad place to settle down for awhile. If you're young, I would advise you to stay away unless you're easily amused. Besides bars and outdoor activities, there's not a lot to do in SD. While some minor league sports teams like the Skyforce are good, there are no professional teams. Restaurants are mostly national chains or small local venues - there are a couple of ethnic places, but not many. Pheasant hunting is always good - if you do it, though, please respect both nature and our state law. Killing more birds than you are allotted is restricted by Game & Fish for a reason.

There is virtually no crime in South Dakota. You can leave your door unlocked and your car running. In the winter, the only thing they'd probably do is clean it off for you . Agriculture and Native American culture are both important parts of our state culture, so take a little effort to learn a bit about both subjects.

I hope that this post was useful to somebody - while I have some strong opinions, I believe they are reasonable. I personally wanted to get out of the state after 20 years to pursue opportunities that I could not have had in SD. There are some wonderful things about South Dakota, but I did want to point out that there are always some downsides. To be honest, I may be back someday when I get older. I think that South Dakota right now is better if you want to settle down - I grew up here, but I do not think that a young person should move to the state unless they have carefully considered what such a move would entail. There are more exciting places to see when you are in your 20s.

Hopefully I have laid out some of the positives and negatives of South Dakota. It's a beautiful state with many natural wonders, and if you don't decide to live here, you should at least visit once in your lifetime.

STANDING OVATION well said and so true.

[DannyBanany]

Originally Posted by lazlaz

STANDING OVATION well said and so true.

New Rule: You have to live in South Dakota to have an opinion on this.

[Jammie]

Originally Posted by lazlaz

STANDING OVATION well said and so true.

Here ya go~

http://www.city-data.com/forum/arizona/