TV's SDSU/NDSU fan take

[NoVaJack]

TV had a very interesting take on the difference between SDSU and NDSU fans in his online chat:

It's the same difference between Fargo and Sioux Falls. People in Fargo think the city is better than it actually is, while the people in Sioux Falls believe their home isn't as good as it actually is. Don't ask me to explain why it works that way, but trust me that it does

and

I'm just saying that lots of people in Fargo perceive Fargo to be a really, really great place. In reality, it ain't bad, but it's not really, really great.
Meanwhile, people in South Dakota sell themselves as just being from little old South Dakota. We're not that great. When, in reality, Sioux Falls is a pretty nice town and the state as a whole has some good qualities.

[filbert]

Re: TV's SDSU/NDSU fan take

I'd say TV's take is a fair cop . . .

Things, people, and institutions in SD are generally of better quality than most SD people think they are . . . SD has a serious "grass is greener on the other side" syndrome . . .

[JackJD]

Re: TV's SDSU/NDSU fan take

Good posts.

[NoVaJack]

Re: TV's SDSU/NDSU fan take

I'd say TV's take is a fair cop . . .

Things, people, and institutions in SD are generally of better quality than most SD people think they are . . . SD has a serious "grass is greener on the other side" syndrome . . .

You don't really get the magnitude of this until you live elsewhere.

[JackJD]

Re: TV's SDSU/NDSU fan take

You don't really get the magnitude of this until you live elsewhere.

So, the grass is greener there, NoVaJack? I can't see the grass here right now (although a lot of melting took place today).

[rabidrabbit]

Re: TV's SDSU/NDSU fan take

So, the grass is greener there, NoVaJack? I can't see the grass here right now (although a lot of melting took place today).

Yes, but has a tough time surviving all the road/parking lots (I-95/Beltway) that passes for progress in the DC area. Know that Sioux Falls has a LOT of advantages on DC area (man, I hope I can career away from there. Already served 15 years there)

SF, Brookings, and South Dakota in general has advantages over many of the places I've lived (all in the south since 87). Chose a profession that isn't condusive to staying in SD, but alway value the memories and pleasures of growing up in Brookings, and attending SDSU. Value my return trips.

TV's take is REALLY on target about SF.

[Nidaros]

Re: TV's SDSU/NDSU fan take

I am with those who lived outside of SD for a period of time and their take on the SD image. We are way too modest and I suppose it kind of goes back to the Dakota Boom and the immigrants that arrived. From many countries, they were often very poor and humble people who just kept on being that way. I doubt any one would disagree biological factors are inherited and pass on to the next generation, but culture factors? The current SD image seems to argue in favor of that culture factors and images are passed on. In my student days, I had an elective course call social pyschology which spent a great deal of time explaining how culture factors are passed on. Thats nearly 50 years ago and where this course is now in terms of the current offering, I don't know. It was believable information then and I suspect subsequent research as refined that theory even more.

I have spent time in both Fargo and Sioux Falls, and the thing they have in common is they are near rivers, but the direction the river flows seems to have less affect than Sioux Falls than it does Fargo. That Red River is not that much wider than the Sioux, but it flows North and not south. Floods as best I recall have never had much impact on Sioux Falls, and I getting past my boundy of knowledge, but I suspect all the dams on the Missouri have helped controlled the spring thaws to the point that the flow of Sioux is rather stationery and never a problem. Fargo on the other had becuse of the continential divide gets no benefit from the dam control, because the Red flows North and is a big problem. Every day in January that is close to 32 degrees and not snowing minimizes this spring's flood.

As far as Fargo people, they too are products of the Dakota Boom, and the ones I met are not egotistic. Some hardly know they play football at NDSU. It depends who in Fargo you talk to. The older ones who have no ties to NDSU are absolutely not different from those in SD. In general though, Fargo is fighting that same battle for improved images of themselves. The progressive leaders seem to be trying to find ways to put Fargo on the map just as they are in Sioux Falls. I would have no problems living in either city. Living in a smaller town away from Sioux Falls is okay and trying to get back on 229 off of 26TH st can be a hassel at certain times of the day. Seems like I have had less problems with traffic in Fargo, and maybe because they lack the SF rolling hills and and your line of vision is much better.

[CCdeville]

Re: TV's SDSU/NDSU fan take

The biggest diff is the 30,000 or so college students in fargo area that make it so different, its not even comparable. then you take into account half of those students are twin cities kids and you really change the dynamic up there. not to mention 5000+ lakes within 50 miles which is probably more than the whole state of south dakota. If you drive I94 to Minneapolis on any given day, its dominated with north dakota license plates.

[filbert]

Re: TV's SDSU/NDSU fan take

The biggest diff is the 30,000 or so college students in fargo area that make it so different, its not even comparable. then you take into account half of those students are twin cities kids and you really change the dynamic up there. not to mention 5000+ lakes within 50 miles which is probably more than the whole state of south dakota. If you drive I94 to Minneapolis on any given day, its dominated with north dakota license plates.

Hmm, an interesting point buried somewhere in there . . .

Fargo is imported. Sioux Falls is home-grown . . .

I've always had the thought that Sioux Falls is a smallish city pretending to be Minneapolis (and quite aware that it isn't), and MSP is a huge city pretending to be Sioux Falls (and not always aware that it isn't). . .

[RowdyRabbit]

Re: TV's SDSU/NDSU fan take

I grew up around Brookings. After tech school in Watertown, I moved to the Twin Cities area.

In 2 years, I found myself back in Brookings.

The grass, in my eyes, was more green? greener? in Brookings.



Oh, and taxes were less. Way less.

[NoVaJack]

Re: TV's SDSU/NDSU fan take

The biggest diff is the 30,000 or so college students in fargo area that make it so different, its not even comparable. then you take into account half of those students are twin cities kids and you really change the dynamic up there. not to mention 5000+ lakes within 50 miles which is probably more than the whole state of south dakota. If you drive I94 to Minneapolis on any given day, its dominated with north dakota license plates.

This is precisely the difference, IMHO, between the two cities.
Fargo is an extended suburb of Minneapolis, a straight shot on the Interestate. Sioux Falls has no straight line to Mpls. and St. Paul, and therefore is more of its own city with its own identity and its own opportunities for critical mass, not nearly as tethered to Twin Cities. It;s why a relatively small city has a symphony and world-class health facilities.

Some good posts on this topic. Worthy of further discussion, I think..... my point in raising it is having lived half a life in and half a life out of the state, but still retaining a strong connection, I think South Dakotans too often defer to a kind of big-world-out-there syndrome when THE big world, to a large degree, is right around them, especially since the Internet and the global village has knocked down any final information barriers. All the problems of energy creation, overcrowding, food, etc., that are ahead for this planet are on a revolutionary front right now in SoDak.

[NoVaJack]

Re: TV's SDSU/NDSU fan take

So, the grass is greener there, NoVaJack? I can't see the grass here right now (although a lot of melting took place today).

No, I meant precisely the opposite. That the grass is as green as you make it but that the grass is greener SYNDROME is more enhanced in SoDak than in almost any place I've been.
And that it need not be.
But yeah, on a biological front, now that you mention it my grass is green here in NoVa. It's one of the many things to like about the climate. However, same scorches like a billion pieces of kindling on any 90-90 day in August on the Potomac, which are worse than any 25 below day, trust me.

[Nidaros]

Re: TV's SDSU/NDSU fan take

The biggest diff is the 30,000 or so college students in fargo area that make it so different, its not even comparable. then you take into account half of those students are twin cities kids and you really change the dynamic up there. not to mention 5000+ lakes within 50 miles which is probably more than the whole state of south dakota. If you drive I94 to Minneapolis on any given day, its dominated with north dakota license plates.

Wow, you are an expert on demographics. I guess I should have consulted you personally before I made my post. Its odd that your point view is from a partying college kid, so we have to consider that factor too. What does kids from the Twin Cites have to do with anything? Yes I notice a lot of North Dakota plates between marker 400 and 1 in North Dakota. Beside most people in South Dakota would not drive north 185 miles to Fargo in order to go to the twin cities. Seems like it would be a little smarter take a different route even if you live in Brookings. Even going to Watertown and taking US 212 would work a little better. So going I-94 from FM means what?

[tjbison]

Re: TV's SDSU/NDSU fan take

Wow, you are an expert on demographics. I guess I should have consulted you personally before I made my post. Its odd that your point view is from a partying college kid, so we have to consider that factor too. What does kids from the Twin Cites have to do with anything? Yes I notice a lot of North Dakota plates between marker 400 and 1 in North Dakota. Beside most people in South Dakota would not drive north 185 miles to Fargo in order to go to the twin cities. Seems like it would be a little smarter take a different route even if you live in Brookings. Even going to Watertown and taking US 212 would work a little better. So going I-94 from FM means what?

with some of the routes my GPS takes me on this isn't out of the question

but yeah seriously what would you expect to see on I-94??? Both Cities have the good the bad and the ugly, just be glad we don't live in the SE I was in Tennessee in Dec. and there are pretty much ZERO jobs on the market, same in LA, KY, AL, MS.

[zooropa]

Re: TV's SDSU/NDSU fan take

Over 5,000 lakes within 50 miles?

Gee. That doesn't leave much for the rest of Minnesota, does it?