South Dakota State's New Stadium

OldHare · Fri Sep 25, 2015 11:03 am

The Badlands are a bit remote and there are not many jobs out there unless you want to look for cattle. Brookings is close enough to Minnesota that you could commute to South Dakota and still pay state taxes in Minnesota if you prefer. South Dakota still has not flirted with any deficit budget problems at the state level. The biggest concern is paying the heat bill in the winter, but this can be addressed somewhat easily since the unemployment level is quite low and a job can be obtained in most cases. It still can be a bit lonely with only 850,000 residents in the state and Brookings is about the 6th largest city at a population of 23,000. Hopefully some Leatherneck grads might venture west to stake out a spot for their future in the upper plains. It could always be worse....you could end up in North Dakota!

Fri Sep 25, 2015 12:41 pm

I didn't really mean to say that most people would be able to live out there, just more that you'd be close enough to take a weekend trip to go see them or something...3-day camping trip or whatever.

I don't think I'd have a problem living on the eastern side of South Dakota. Honestly, I don't think Macomb, specifically, is that much different than Brookings. The university and town are just a little bit bigger than Macomb, but not much (a few thousand people for each). The nearest decent-sized city is only about an hour away (Sioux Falls) which is closer than any similarly-sized city to Macomb (Peoria, Springfield, Moline) and Minneapolis is about as far away from Brookings as Chicago is from Macomb. South Dakota is a bit too far away from family for me personally, but I don't think it'd be a bad place to live.

OldHare · Fri Sep 25, 2015 2:03 pm

ST; Most people that live a couple of states away and further would have a difficult time telling you where South Dakota is located. Many of those people would also think running water is one of our recent luxuries. We also have some difficult winter weather at times. You are also correct in that tourism is an important cog of the economy which includes fishing and hunting in addition to the scenery and history of western SD. Agriculture is not as exciting, but it is a big part of the revenue. Eastern SD is fortunate to have many large and small companies enjoying the business climate and generally a willing workforce. It is always entertaining to hear others perceptions of the area.

Fri Sep 25, 2015 3:11 pm

OldHare wrote:ST; Most people that live a couple of states away and further would have a difficult time telling you where South Dakota is located. Many of those people would also think running water is one of our recent luxuries. We also have some difficult winter weather at times. You are also correct in that tourism is an important cog of the economy which includes fishing and hunting in addition to the scenery and history of western SD. Agriculture is not as exciting, but it is a big part of the revenue. Eastern SD is fortunate to have many large and small companies enjoying the business climate and generally a willing workforce. It is always entertaining to hear others perceptions of the area.

Yea, you're right on that. You get out to the coasts and you'd run into people that don't even realize North and South Dakota are two separate states (or that they're even states at all). Those are the same types of people that think that Iowa = Idaho ("Iowa...that's where the potatoes come from, right?") and that Illinois = Chicago. Personally, my perception of Eastern SD is that it's probably not that much different than Western IL. SD has a bit more cattle, IL has a bit more corn, and SD is a bit colder, but otherwise...pretty similar.

Something I'd be interested is the difference in perception between being a "big fish in a small pond" vs "small fish in a big pond" in terms of how the residents view living there and how they are treated by the state government. I'd have to imagine that, despite the fact that the populations are the same, the "feel" of living in the 4th largest city in the state (Brookings in SD) is going to be much different than living in the ~105th largest city in the state (East Peoria in IL for example).

I'd love to get out to that area of the country sometime. There's only 8 states I haven't visited; ND and MT are two of them, with my visit to SD being very brief, in the southeastern corner of the state and not really having a chance to stop and see much of anything.

OldHare · Fri Sep 25, 2015 4:32 pm

I would guess that most people outside of Sioux Falls and Rapid City(half of the population) would think of SD as a place for people to be independent and a strong sense of community. State government is trying harder to leave people alone rather than legislate more control as the normal basis of action.. The state legislature only meets for about 2 months. The Rapid City area has a strong presence in the tourism which most people think of when SD comes to mind with the Black Hills and Deadwood area. They have done a good job of growing that industry. Sioux Falls is doing a pretty good job of growing a diverse business community and growing the events that draw people to visit the town such as the Summit tourney, DII basketball tourneys, concerts, shopping etc. There is more diversity in Sioux Falls than the rest of the state as the growth continues. The SF population has jumped about 35% since 2000(not including adjoining communities). The unemployment rate is still around 3.3%. I do not think big fish/little fish in the pond is a mindset as much as independent fish in the community pond.

Western_101 · Fri Sep 25, 2015 5:16 pm

East Peoria is part of the Peoria MSA which is roughly 380,000 and third largest metro area in Illinois. I don't think living in East Peoria would feel like 105 on the population list.

Quad Cities is comparable to Peoria Metro too, however, half the population is in Iowa. Metro East is the 2nd largest MSA in Illinois.

Fri Sep 25, 2015 5:18 pm

RedNeck wrote:East Peoria is part of the Peoria MSA which is roughly 380,000 and third largest metro area in Illinois. I don't think living in East Peoria would feel like 105 on the population list.

Quad Cities is comparable to Peoria Metro too, however, half the population is in Iowa. Metro East is the 2nd largest MSA in Illinois.

Yea, but I couldn't find any city of roughly the same population that wasn't a suburb of somewhere. I guess you could just go with Macomb, it's a few thousand people less and is #127 on the list.

wiu712 · Fri Sep 25, 2015 6:08 pm

ST_Lawson wrote:I couldn't find any city of roughly the same population that wasn't a suburb of somewhere.

How about Jacksonville ??? It's population is 19,466.

Macomb without the Western students would be comparable to Monmouth (9,444).

Fri Sep 25, 2015 6:52 pm

wiu712 wrote:
ST_Lawson wrote:I couldn't find any city of roughly the same population that wasn't a suburb of somewhere.
How about Jacksonville ??? It's population is 19,466.

Macomb without the Western students would be comparable to Monmouth (9,444).

That'd work. Does Brookings count students in their total population as well or is that just a weird Macomb thing?

OldHare · Fri Sep 25, 2015 7:14 pm

ST_Lawson wrote:
wiu712 wrote:
ST_Lawson wrote:I couldn't find any city of roughly the same population that wasn't a suburb of somewhere.
How about Jacksonville ??? It's population is 19,466.

Macomb without the Western students would be comparable to Monmouth (9,444).
That'd work. Does Brookings count students in their total population as well or is that just a weird Macomb thing?

Some of the students are included as residents. I am not certain about the dorm residency.