There's a saying that goes, well, you can't have everything.
And while I think we use that a lot just as, as an excuse, it's true that you might
not love everything about where you live.
So today I got out my legal pad, I've got my pro and my con.
We're going to talk about five pros and five cons about living in rapid city
Hey Everybody I'm Tristan Emond with mindful living Realty, a realtor right
here in rapid city, South Dakota.
Welcome to my YouTube channel.
Watch out everything about moving to rapid city and a wonderful things,
but rapid city and the black hills.
You sure.
To stick around to the end of the video.
Cause I've got special guests, Emilia and Charlotte helping me out.
They're really cute.
And now let's get to the pros versus the cons con number one long winters.
That's right.
I'm starting with the cons.
Let you know, I'm not messing around right here.
So if you watch my weather in rapid city video, which is around here somewhere,
you will have heard me say, yeah, we have winter, but it's not terrible.
We get snow.
And then it melts.
And then we get snow again in the melts, all of which are true statements.
But I also said, when do we get the most snow.
During the year on average March.
That's right.
When everybody else, my friends and the other parts of the country,
they're talking about spring and they're talking about planting things.
We're still shoveling snow from the driveway, but by March I'm
ready to go outside without a coat?
I'm ready to start seeing some grass and some dandelions and start seeing
the leaves come back on the trees.
However, this is snow in March, a lot more spring light.
So we out and enjoy it.
We will send down Hills.
We have snowball fights.
We built snowmen and have snowman contests one year even built a
chair and sat in the chair and took pictures with me and my Florida.
T-shirt Florida sweatshirts, sorry.
And a glass of ice tea.
There will be snippets of spring, but snow, winter, it just ain't done yet.
Pro number one.
The black Hills.
A few years ago, I did a Facebook post and I asked, okay, rapid cityians what
do you love most about where we live?
Easy.
Number one, answer our black Hills playground.
It's been especially amazing during this 20, 20 year.
When you know, there isn't much anywhere else to go.
We climbed up peaks and saw the other side.
We camped out a lake Angostura we've hung out on our boat.
Most of the summer, we went rock climbing with friend and we were
going sailing in the Moonlight.
And that was just a few things we did this summer.
And the black Hills has all these scenic drives to go up, to check
out my video of Vanocker Canyon.
During the fall, I was on my way to Deadwood for one of their many events.
Speaking of events and small towns, Deadwood has all sorts of things going on.
So does Spearfish Sturgis Hill, city, even hot springs, have some
amazing events that are fun to go to.
And when it does snow go find you some snowshoes, go winter, hiking.
The views and the winter, there are amazing.
Maybe you can go ice climbing.
I don't know why you would, but you could do that too.
There's snowmobiling go snow skiing and Snowboarding or you can light a
torch and set a wooden beetle on fire con number two, hail hail seems to be
our areas national disaster of choice.
Maybe I have a few tornadoes.
Of course, we don't get any hurricanes.
Occasionally we have some very wet years, but yes, to strong winds and
thunderstorms bringing big chunks of ice this year 2020, we've had four
significant hailstorms that caused significant damage to homes and cars.
Now, while this isn't catastrophic, it certainly is a pain calling the
insurance companies, calling the contractors, making sure that your
property gets fixed and taken care of.
You certainly go on and make sure you have good insurance.
with a low deductible, because you're going to use it.
Now this isn't all bad.
At some point, your Roof will probably need to be replaced and chances are
insurance will replace it way before you'll have to do to the Hail in our area.
Pro number two, sunshine.
I love the, see the sun and we get an average of 260 days a year that
are either partial or full sun.
It makes the winter so much less dreary.
When you see the sunshine shining off the snow.
Watching the sunset at Pactola is one of the most wonderful things
you can do in the black Hills.
I've talked with other family and friends who live in areas where winter is cloudy
and always gloomy, or it's raining a lot.
Not for me.
I love to see the sun.
I love that it's out quite a bit of the year here in rapid city.
The sun just makes every day just feel so much more positive, happier, and
of course, brighter con number three.
Construction all my goodness.
As soon as there's a little bit of a lapse in the snow in March, all of
a sudden here come, the orange cones and the blinking lights all over town.
Now you would think that they would stag around some, so people could travel from
one side of the town or the other, right.
Nope.
Almost this entire year, they've been working on Omaha street, which
is our main East West connector sometimes in different places.
Then we're working on fifth street up by the hospital, which is
our main North South connection.
And then they've been working on main street by the post office.
They've been working down sheridan Lake road.
So trying to get from one side of town to the other.
Is ridiculous.
You know, there's that meme of Julia Roberts thinking and she's
together, mass symbols all around her.
That really should be a meme that says rapid Citians, trying to get from one side
of town to the other, without running it to road construction road construction.
Sure.
It'll be better when it's done, but it's always going on.
pro number three, rapid city, city of parks.
I love my rapid city parks.
Quick history lesson back in 1972, there was a flood that took out
a lot of rapid city homes and businesses along rapid Creek.
Since then, these areas were made into green spaces and parks.
You're never too far from a park in rapid city.
The concrete bike path runs all the way through rapid city, nine
miles as follows Rapid Creek.
There are playgrounds and picnic areas, plus benches to sit and daydream.
The trees are big and beautiful.
They look amazing.
The fall, the squirrels are running around, chattering on
next to the sound of the Creek.
Bumbling past there are tennis courts and basketball courts, Frisbee
golf course, and even a horseshoe pit fish in the Creek, or let
your dog run free in the dog park.
So many beautiful places to see and explore con number four, potholes are us.
Now you would think after my last con that the roads would be smooth.
I mean, if we're always working on the roads, there must be just a
bunch of smooth roads around town.
Right.
Yeah, not so much, especially in the residential areas that are bumpy and
there are a Cracked and any repairs is just adding more asphalt into the mix.
Add that on top of the necessary road dips for drainage and bull.
You better not have one of those low riders from back in the day.
Wait, are those still popular, including this or the railroad crossings.
Now the ones downtown they're being worked on pretty
consistently see con number three.
But some of the other ones, ouch.
You better not be rolling over those too fast or you be flying
over them like the General E Lee
like a piece of cake.
Cut that one close there hauss.
pro Number four, downtown, rapid city downtown.
It's just cool.
First.
You've got your local restaurants, great food, popular places.
Then you've got main street square family-friendly events all year long.
And its even got ice skating in the winter time, Thursday nights,
they block off seventh street.
And if you can dance to a band with a beer in your hand.
So even I did that, I love the unique shops, art galleries, and murals.
Plus you can pretend to be an artist to canvas and paint and get
yourself locked in a room for hours.
And one of the escape rooms and Christmas time, it's all lit up and Christmasy.
Watch the parade of lights the weekend after Thanksgiving, then walk down
the street or hopefully it'll snow.
We just kind of coming down lightly to complete the feel and just feel
that holiday season, lots of coffee shops around by to warm up with
your coffee or hot chocolate con number five, it's a bit remote.
We're a bit by ourselves out here.
Let's take a look at this map.
It's about five hours to anywhere.
Sioux falls, Bismarck billings.
It's six hours to Denver.
And because of this, we've got about 150 mile trade radius where all the towns and
communities nearby come to rapid city.
Now this is great for our economy, but our population is such that
we're not first on the list.
for a lot of new stuff.
You know, Lyft, we have, we didn't get that to like 2018.
I always laugh at those Carvana ads, cars in a vending machine.
Yeah.
And you can have around here anytime soon.
Trendier shopping places like whole foods.
Macy's, Nordstrom's nah go to Denver our regional airport.
It's amazing to have right nearby, but it's expensive to fly in or out.
We do have Allegiant airlines, which flies Las Vegas and Arizona
for relatively cheap price.
But of course, anything that you add on top of that is more
money, more money, more money.
However, this also means we really don't have traffic.
I could complain about rush hour traffic through the construction zone on Omaha.
But you're still going to get from one side of the town to
the other in under half an hour.
Yeah, we're remote.
There's fewer people out here.
but the Yards are bigger.
The people are friendlier and we kind of enjoy it that way.
Pro number five, the people of rapid city, you find the people in rapid
city to be mostly friendly and helpful.
They'll smile to you.
As you walk down the street, your neighbors will wave.
As you drive past, everybody's ready to let you be.
You.
You'll start a conversation with other dog owners at the park.
Of course, there's always a few bad apples, but the people in rapid city
are genuine, honest, hardworking people.
They might not be neighborhood parties anymore, but if you respectful
of who they are on their right to live, they'll do the same for you.
The smile and a wave bonus pro number six, freedom.
Now I know this seems to be a weird thing to talk about considering we
live in the United States of America.
With everything that has been happening this year in 2020, we've been honored
to keep our personal responsibilities here in rapid city work has continued.
We keep living our lives.
We've been fortunate to have the black Hills right next
door to escape, to and enjoy.
During this time, generally in South Dakota, we have fewer rules, fewer
regulations, fewer limitations in place.
Yeah.
Yes.
There are still covenants on properties.
No, you can't park 10 vehicles on your property.
Work on them all at once.
Sometimes the city of rapid city kind of likes to feel power hungry by saying
what they would can and can be done certain businesses and areas, but for
the most part it's live and let live.
So now we see that con number five.
It's actually a problem.
The past couple months I've been helping people from all over the
country, get into properties, more space, more yard and more freedom.
Does this sound like something you're interested in?
If so, be sure to download my 13 reasons why you should move to rapid city.
The link is below.
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and remember love where you live