Brookings - Redneck town? (Sioux Falls, Rapid City: real estate, sublease, apartment complexes)
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I'm contemplating a move to Brookings to go to SDSU for grad school and was hoping you could help with a few questions. I've heard a few people refer to Brookings as a "redneck town" and was wondering if anyone else had that impression. Also, I've heard that Brookings tends to be a bit colder and get the worse of the weather in the winter. What is the landscape of the area like? Cornfields? Rolling plains? Any information that you think would be helpful for me I'd really appreciate. I'm coming from Texas, but am originally from Minnesota, so I've got a little bit of something to compare it to. Thanks so much for the help!
I have heard Brookings called a lot of things, but "Redneck Town" is not one. I'm trying to figure out why somebody would say that and I am drawing a blank. Could it be because the college is the main Agricultural College for the area? I don't know.
We have a couple regular members that live in that area, maybe they can shed some light on it.
The topography was probably rolling plains at one time, now it is mostly corn & soybeans. The winters can be a little rough there as compared to other places. The wind, low temps, and snow sort of gang up on the human race. For a reference, Fargo is worse. I too, have never heard of Brookings being referred to as a "redneck town".
I am originally from Brookings, lived there for a large portion of grade school through high school and just a couple years beyond, and still have family there so I go back once in a while. It is really not a redneck town at all- due to having the university it is actually a bit more of a clean, tidy, well organized town with with just a tad bit of a high brow element. The other element it has is blue collar, as the town has tons of manufacturing types of jobs, but those are not the redneck types of blue collar people, just sort of the down to earth types of folks, if that makes sense. Add to that a seemingly huge number of college kids, since the university population is about half of the size of the town's population.
It's clean for the most part, really has no redneck elements to it at all.
And the landscape is very flat around Brookings, surrounded by corn fields. It is one of the coldest spots in South Dakota in the winter, if you look at the weather forecasts for Sioux Falls at any given time in the winter you can knock 5-10 degrees off of those temperatures most of the time to see what Brookings would be like.
The only reason people call it redneck is because it's in South Dakota. Whenever I tell people that, they assume I'm from like a little house on the prairie. In all honesty, Brookings is probably one of the nicer towns in the state.
Now onto the weather. The weather in Brookings is going to be almost exactly like the weather in the Twin Cities. Brookings just gets a little less rain and snow, but the temperatures are about the same
It's not a redneck town. It does have a LARGE number of mobile home parks. The worst ones are pretty much hidden out of sight, but rednecks? No... this is not redneck country... for that look at this map of dialects... you generally have to get down into Central Missouri to hit "Redneck" country, or south of Kansas City. By definition "redneck" areas are areas that supported the confederacy during the civil war.
The city council and management is fairly progressive, I give them credit for that. They are trying to attract more commercial business and encourage growth in the city.
Yes, Brookings is one of the coldest cities in the state, along with Watertown, because of it's somewhat higher elevation and location in the "couteau des prairies" .. cold air streams down from canada aggressively and warm air has a harder time climbing the elevation to get here... the result... it can often be 5-15 degrees warmer in Sioux Falls on any given day, especially in the spring and fall. It also causes snow to accumulate and stay whereas it might be snow free in sioux falls, which admittedly is prettier than seeing brown everywhere but definitely gets tiring after seeing it for 4 months. Some may not notice the difference, but I'm a weather nut and pay attention to these things. If you like to ice fish, it's the perfect place to move. Lakes almost always freeze over solid every year for a good couple months.
I prefer Watertown and Marshall myself, but there's nothing terribly wrong with Brookings outside of it not having enough commercial stores (like a Kohls or whatever) .. gotta drive to Watertown or Sioux Falls for shopping largely at this point. It's also flat and swampy around here. The Big Sioux west of town due to the lack of elevation change has relegated a large portion of the land between Brookings and Volga as "floodplain" territory or 100 year flood status.
If you have a job that can take you to any part of the country, I'd just plain avoid eastern South Dakota honestly. There are better choices. Rapid City or Spearfish for example. Kansas City area or Minneapolis. If you have a job here, you'll be fine. It's not so bad. Keep in mind housing prices tend to be 15k higher give or take than neighboring communities, at least on the low end, due to a housing shortage that was present especially during the 2000's. If you move to Arlington, White, or Bruce and commute, the real estate prices really take a dive downward. People don't want to commute more than 5-10 miles and it shows by the home prices.
Thanks so much for the feedback, I really appreciate it! I really hope I didn't offend anyone asking about the whole redneck moniker. I was surprised when I heard it said as well and am glad you were able to quickly dispel that whole notion. From everything I've seen and heard, it seems like a place I'm really going to enjoy, except for the harsh winters, but you can't have it all! I'll be pursuing my master's in counseling, so I'll be licensed to practice throughout the state. Just out of curiosity, does anyone have any recommendation as far as Brookings apartments?
Thanks so much for the feedback, I really appreciate it! I really hope I didn't offend anyone asking about the whole redneck moniker. I was surprised when I heard it said as well and am glad you were able to quickly dispel that whole notion. From everything I've seen and heard, it seems like a place I'm really going to enjoy, except for the harsh winters, but you can't have it all! I'll be pursuing my master's in counseling, so I'll be licensed to practice throughout the state. Just out of curiosity, does anyone have any recommendation as far as Brookings apartments?
No specific apartment recommendations, guys like stockwiz know the town better. If you're attending this fall, my only recommendation is to hurry up and get one. This is a college town and things can get picked over quickly.
I've never associated any part of SD, ND, Nebraska, or other states in that area of the country as being redneck. To me, the lower part of the Midwest seems to be more redneck.
Apartment vacancy rates are higher than in the middle 2000's when they were often down around zero percent where you literally could find nothing to rent except during the summer months when students graduated and left.
The vacancy rate is still low, around 5%, lower than a typical city. A lot of apartment construction went on the last few years to help with this housing supply problem. I don't have specific recommendations.. there are a lot of apartment complexes to choose from... here are a couple sites of the bigger ones..
You can also use craigslist as I see a number of people trying to get out of leases, or sublease, or just advertise apartments using craigslist.
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If you like to ice fish, it's the perfect place to move. Lakes almost always freeze over solid every year for a good couple months. 
