SCHMID: LOOKING BACK FROM THE LEFT COAST - FEBRUARY 9, 2015
THE ENVIED 1 PERCENT Are you ready to join the “top 1 percent” of income earners in ND? Here were the admission standards in 2012: You needed an income over $500,000 to join a group with an average income of about $1,500,000. The threshold was a little over $400,000 in Minnesota and South Dakota, both are above the national average. Income equality is greater in ND than most states. The bottom 99 percent in ND saw their income grow 21 percent from 2009 to 2012. Minnesota and SD 99 percenters had single digit growth during that period.
POVERTY RATES ND’s 12 percent poverty rate in 2013 was well below the national rate of 16 percent. Cass and Grand Forks counties had poverty rates above the state average, but dropped below the state average after adjustment for university students. Counties with a large proportion of Indians had the highest poverty rates -- Sioux County on the Standing Rock Reservation was the highest at 37 percent. Sargent County in the southeastern part of the state had the lowest rate at 6.5 percent.
THE PARTY IS ENDING “But the era of ‘yes’ is over in North Dakota for the foreseeable future. That's going to test the mettle of our current crop of leaders.” -- Blogmaster Rob Port suggesting that the impact of lower oil prices in the state will be more severe than commonly understood. It may not be all bad, Port said “plateauing revenue growth may be a chance to get back to basics,” that is, he believes the Oil Boom resulted in a loss of budget discipline.
WAIT AND SEE At this time, oil firms in ND do not appear to be slashing their staffs. A Reuters article indicates most firms are attempting to maintain their workforces, despite a 50 percent drop in oil prices. The companies will largely maintain current production, but reduce or eliminate capital budgets for new wells. Occidental announced it will shut down and remove its drilling rigs in Dunn County (north of Dickinson).
ANOTHER PARTY IS OVER UND President Robert Kelley and Grand Forks Mayor Mike Brown joined hands to cancel UND’s Springfest, an alcohol drenched celebration of the end of the spring semester. Kelley observed, “We've gotten to the point where it's hard to stretch your imagination to find its redeeming value.”
A DESTINATION IN AND OF ITSELF The developer of a $500 million, 219-acre mixed-use real estate project on the north edge of Williston said, "That intersection is, for northwestern North Dakota, the intersection of ‘Main and Main’ (U.S. Highways 2 and 85). That's where you want to be." Gensler, a large San Francisco architectural firm, has designed the project in a regional character and local style described as “Dakota Modern.”
WILLISTON CROSSING will draw customers halfway to current offerings in Dickinson, Minot and Billings. The developer says, "To us, Williston is in an absolutely unique situation in the United States. You have a population of, let's call it 40,000 people, give or take, who are 125 miles from the nearest proper shopping center. Where else can that be?" A county official says the project should be on the county commissioners’ agenda in April. The developer hopes to begin work in spring.
TRAFFIC FATALITIES reached epidemic proportions in McKenzie County. The Oil Patch county on the Montana border just south of Williston had 18 percent of ND traffic fatalities in 2014. In response, the county is having a “safety standdown” for truck and bus drivers as well as the driving public. Five traffic condition simulators will be part of presentations at the Watford City Civic Center on Feb. 24.
SIOUX FALLS COMPLAINS that sex traffickers heading to the ND Oil Patch from Minnesota are using Sioux Falls as an in-between stop. About two-thirds of the prostitution arrests there in the last two years fit this general description. The FBI doesn’t see any sign of slowing activity.
“FARGO, NORTH OF NORMAL” -- That’s the new tagline for the F-M metro area -- the result of an extensive rebranding effort. Does it excite you? In case it escapes you, the new brand is aimed at capitalizing on the “growing awareness of Fargo as a culturally happening place.”
FORGET IT A city neighborhood looks much better when power lines are buried. But from an engineer’s perspective, that’s about where it stops. Overhead lines cost less to install, they last longer and are easier to inspect. Lines are buried more for aesthetics than function. Xcel Energy has around 900 miles of overhead lines in Fargo -- it would cost nearly $500 million to bury them -- over a half million a mile. That’s greater than the cost of either new overhead or underground lines. For the moment, expect old overhead lines to be buried only in selected neighborhoods.
NOT THE EASTER BUNNY At first glance, the picture in the Forum appears to show an open field with furry white balls on brown winter grass, a closer looks indicates the balls have long ears. WDAY Fargo says the picture is about a winter invasion of jackrabbits, hundreds, in South Fargo. They leave a huge mess and destroy plantings. Fargo police shrug, they are unable to do anything about wild animals. A homeowner, who has from 40 to 50 rabbits in her yard, says the situation has gone from cute to menacing.
LITTLE JAPANESE GIFTS If you remember this, it will date you. During WWII the Japanese floated balloons over the U.S. mainland -- most were found on the West Coast. Some were incendiary, but others carried harmless messages. Balloons of this type were found in Warsaw (north of Grand Forks) and Ashley (near the central SD border), and, in 1945, one came down near Oslo, Minnesota (near Warsaw) containing an 8-by-10 piece of leather imprinted with flags and Japanese characters.
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