Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Dan, Thanks..........But nobody provides more info, including weather extras than you. We are lucky, to have our own weather person!! And, couldn't rep you either...lol
The before mentioned is not a big deal. I'm just trying to get a feel of what type of college town it is compared to the northeast and mountain west. I'm not a drinker and I know the great folks of ND love their beer.
Well, glad to oblige. Beer is at least legal. Be sure and inform us of your comparisons.
It's legal, but from what I gather ND has a bit of a DUI problem. I also heard Minny is more "liberal" but taxes are higher. I know there's a "head shop" in East Grand Forks. I'm actually a rather conservative, straight edge person, despite being pro-marijuana.
I am also pretty health conscience. The park system and flat roads would seem to make GF a biking/jogging friendly place to live.
I was extremely impressed overall with GF when i visited. The town was very clean and very fresh. I have to believe the flood of 1997 resulted in a complete revamp of the town. The only "lesser" area I found was directly north of downtown. The Columbia Ave. shopping district seemed to provide everything one would want.
Here's some questions...
Grocery/Food costs?
Car regristration/insurance/gas costs?
Apartments seem a little pricey? But, not too bad. Correct observation?
How much does the town empty out during summer break at UND?
Is GF a good place for a single(guy), young professional in their late 20's?
Does EVERYONE go to church?
What type of reputation does UND's grad school have? My research suggests pretty good.
What's the threat of severe weather in the summer? tornado's, large hail, etc..The winters don't scare me.
It's legal, but from what I gather ND has a bit of a DUI problem. I also heard Minny is more "liberal" but taxes are higher. I know there's a "head shop" in East Grand Forks. I'm actually a rather conservative, straight edge person, despite being pro-marijuana.
I am also pretty health conscience. The park system and flat roads would seem to make GF a biking/jogging friendly place to live.
I was extremely impressed overall with GF when i visited. The town was very clean and very fresh. I have to believe the flood of 1997 resulted in a complete revamp of the town. The only "lesser" area I found was directly north of downtown. The Columbia Ave. shopping district seemed to provide everything one would want.
Here's some questions...
Grocery/Food costs?
Car regristration/insurance/gas costs?
Apartments seem a little pricey? But, not too bad. Correct observation?
How much does the town empty out during summer break at UND?
Is GF a good place for a single(guy), young professional in their late 20's?
Does EVERYONE go to church?
What type of reputation does UND's grad school have? My research suggests pretty good.
What's the threat of severe weather in the summer? tornado's, large hail, etc..The winters don't scare me.
I can answer some questions....
I moved here in 1998...the year after the flood....and yes the center part of town along the river was heavily damaged and the result is an expanded greenway along the Red River. Once you got past Washington Street the flood impacts were limited to flooded basements, etc. Lately GF has seen a restaurant boom, with Olive Garden opening last week, Noodles & Co coming, Thai food place in EGF, along with a Fuji Japanese Steakhouse, and some others. A lot of this is due to strong Canadian traffic (shoppers) but also due to the fact that the GF economy continues to grow....though at a far less pace than our western ND neighbors. No oil in the red river valley.
To some of your questions....
Grocery/food costs....I think they are higher than the southern states mainly due to transport costs and our area being farther away from distribution centers. We have a SuperWalmart, SuperTarget (target with grocery), and our local food chain is Hugos and we have one Super One foods.
I live in Minnesota since 2003, so dont recall what the ND car license fees are. But they are quite low in comparison to Minnesota. Insurance for good drivers is very reasonable. We have State Farm and with muli-line discounts, no accidents for our 07 Odyssey it runs about 300 per 6 months....07 Yukon about 350 per 6 months. Gas costs here in GF run about 5-10 cents higher than Fargo....now it is 3.24/gal
Apartments have been built like crazy in the last 5 yrs....so selection is good. Prices a bit higher than Fargo, but as you said not terribly bad. You can get some good deals...but the ones with underground parking can be a bit pricey.
Well, you can tell when UND is not in session, as traffic around the campus is way less, but otherwise dont really tell that much difference outside of campus area. So, yes it is noticeable, but GF doesnt become a ghost town IMO.
I would say GF is a good place for a young male professional male. There is/was a grand forks young professional group that does/did group activities. There is also an active Jaycees group, which I used to be a member of. Jaycess are for 25-39 yr olds, who do civic projects, and who organize and run the Potato Bowl parade in September, part of UND football homecoming.
UND hockey is still king around here...but it is hoped that with UND joining the Big Sky conference next season Basketball and football can regain some of their popularity back. The Fighting Sioux nickname has been a source of many battles back and forth, but officially it is no more as of the first of the year.
No, not everyone goes to church. Church activities are still quite popular, Lutheran and Catholic dominate, but not nearly so as in the southern states where I grew up (Kentucky).
UND has a good reputation school-wise....so you are correct
As for weather, I am a meteorologist at the local Natl Wx Service, and yes we can have severe weather in the summer period...peak period mid June to mid August. There can be the occasional hail/wind storm in the area...though it has been several years since anything of significance has hit Grand Forks. Our severe weather season is quite short, but can be active. Tornadoes can occur, but since they are isolated events anyhow, nothing to be worried out, and generally not the frequency of the main Tornado belt from Central Kansas to north central Texas.
Thanks for the response Dan! The information you provide on this board is extremely informative.
The town I live in now is about 13 miles north of Scranton PA. I would consider it semi rural. This area is being overrun by fracking like Western, ND. Everywhere you look its Texas and Oklahoma lisence plates. There's no jobs for local residents but these folks are cleaning up. In fact, the Scranton/Wilkes Barre area has one of the highest unemployment rates in the Northeast USA. This area is also a haven for criminals trying to get away from NYC and Philly.
The winters here a cold and grey, lots of 30 degree snow showery days from early December to mid March. We don't get th extreme cold like GF but we do get more snow. Snow around here is based on elevation. I might get a foot where I live yet the valley cities of Scranton/WB will receive 4 inches. Scranton averages a meager 72 sunny days a year. It's a dreary place for 6 months of the year, nice for three (May, Sept and Oct) and hot and miserably humid in June, July and August. This region, oldly enough, does get hit by tornados.
There's a lot of ethnic pride around here. In many ways it's similar to eastern North Dakota. During the summer church bizaars and ethnic picnics are everywhere. Working, drinking beer, lots of beer, watching sports and going to church is the weekly agenda for a lot of people here. The area is rather conservative but there is a bit of a laid back New England mountain "vibe" to keep things loose. Our proximity to cosmopolitan NYC and Philly also help to keep things moving. At the end of the day, PA is a famous blue law state for reason. Beer sales are still regulated on Sundays and all liquor stores are state run.
Thanks for the response Dan! The information you provide on this board is extremely informative.
The town I live in now is about 13 miles north of Scranton PA. I would consider it semi rural. This area is being overrun by fracking like Western, ND. Everywhere you look its Texas and Oklahoma lisence plates. There's no jobs for local residents but these folks are cleaning up. In fact, the Scranton/Wilkes Barre area has one of the highest unemployment rates in the Northeast USA. This area is also a haven for criminals trying to get away from NYC and Philly.
The winters here a cold and grey, lots of 30 degree snow showery days from early December to mid March. We don't get th extreme cold like GF but we do get more snow. Snow around here is based on elevation. I might get a foot where I live yet the valley cities of Scranton/WB will receive 4 inches. Scranton averages a meager 72 sunny days a year. It's a dreary place for 6 months of the year, nice for three (May, Sept and Oct) and hot and miserably humid in June, July and August. This region, oldly enough, does get hit by tornados.
There's a lot of ethnic pride around here. In many ways it's similar to eastern North Dakota. During the summer church bizaars and ethnic picnics are everywhere. Working, drinking beer, lots of beer, watching sports and going to church is the weekly agenda for a lot of people here. The area is rather conservative but there is a bit of a laid back New England mountain "vibe" to keep things loose. Our proximity to cosmopolitan NYC and Philly also help to keep things moving. At the end of the day, PA is a famous blue law state for reason. Beer sales are still regulated on Sundays and all liquor stores are state run.
Hi there
I worked for a brief time at Accu-Weather in State College PA (early 90s)....and my best friend is from Pottsville PA so somewhat familiar with that area. One of our former NWS Grand Forks forecasters has been at NWS Binghamton NY for quite a while. Or winters overall are drier than out in the eastern U.S. and sunnier...though we can have our cloudy stretches especially in eastern ND. Of course colder....though this year has been an exception....we have way more below zero days than Scranton would. Summers can be humid and warm here too for periods....but thankfully only for brief periods.....but the odd 90-95 degree day still occurs. Wind here is much more of a factor that in northeastern PA due to the flat terrain with south-southeast or north-northwest dominating in GF area.
I would highly recommend Bozemant, MT. I am currently a transfer college student living in Grand Forks and attending UND and I have never in my life lived in such a boring city. I'm transferring out of here for next semester, but it's terrible. The weather is awful and most days so cold you can't even go outside, nobody does anything, and living here will drive you crazy. Just trying to help!
Wow! I had no idea NDs MJ laws were so tough! I don't really smoke pot often, but I was around ppl who did back in NC. I smoked once in a bluemoon at a party or something, but I definitely won't anymore! Everyone here seemed alittle straight-laced but now I know why.
Having said that, theres one fact I know for sure. That is, "drugs are everywhere". Back in NC, marijuana isn't that big a deal if its less than an oz. But, other drugs are, yet in my hometown drugs like cocaine, heroine, LSD, ecstasy....are all widely used even though its a felony for pocession. However, you DO NOT want to get involved w/ that crowd in my hometown or GF. Drugs are dangerous, but its the people involved w/ them that are even worse. Unlike most drugs, weed isn't that bad, but I would imagine the ppl who you get it from in Grand Forks are probably real scum. Just like cocaine back east (which is a felony like MJ is here) the only ppl willing to sell the stuff are hardened criminals. Weed is probably handled by alot of sumbag, hardened criminals in GF, so I would stay the Hell away from weed or any other illegal drug in North Dakota. Its a scummy business and it ain't worth it!
My advice? If you really love weed and you like the West, move to Colorado. You can get an MJ perscription for a headache over there. If you really like ND and GF but refuse to give up ol' Mary Jane you can always go visit Canada. They have pretty Liberal MJ laws (just use weed there, DO NOT bring it back). Or, you could always just give up weed. I've done it a bunch and it ain't that great. Go get drunk, or have sex or even eat a chocalate cake (Mmm!) and you've just had more fun than weed the legal way w/out the trouble!
The weather is awful and most days so cold you can't even go outside, nobody does anything, and living here will drive you crazy. Just trying to help!
Don't worry, if this thing gushes billions for years on end the party will get started. Look at Saudia Arabia, they were all Koran beating cow herders too before they got the Benjamin's to roll in.
I think it will be good though, middle America needs to realize the whole white church and cornfield thing is just political ad copy.
Last edited by Jonathanphilosophy; 03-05-2012 at 05:50 PM..
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
