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Anyone who has actually been to the oil boomtowns in ND would realize that the local governments are way behind trying to create the infrastructure, emergency services, schools, housing, etc to support the boom. I have heard estimates that the boom could be twice as big in areas like Williston and Watford City if the infrastructure would be there to support it. This would just drain already struggling communities trying to cope with the huge population influx, truck traffic, spikes in crime, etc.
Indeed, and it's nice to see another fellow Nodak around here. Hell you don't even have to be really near it to see the changes.
Interstate travel is much busier, the surrounding communities have a housing/apartment shortage (in Bismarck it is hard to find an apartment, although rates have not risen), the boom towns have an almost impossible situation for those who are not home owners, where you can't afford rent or find an apartment because of the out-of-staters working the oil fields that came in making much larger salaries. It's almost as if to say that if you aren't a part of that boom industry, you can piss off. Local universities and colleges have an influx of new settlers who take a couple of courses in order to satisfy student housing requirements, yet fall asleep in class and purposefully say to Professors that they don't give a damn about the class. A guy I know closed his own liquor establishment and moved to another town because neighboring stores were being bought out like mad, creating a situation that he said was a "rat race." Essentially, you have a boom that has uprooted the North Dakota way of life and has pulled the rug out of folks that have been in the area for decades, causing them to relocate.
The weird thing about the crime stuff is that North Dakotans can be somewhat prejudiced against the new settlers, because there's so many of them. Indeed, the interstates and highways are littered with piss-filled soda bottles and other garbage, and with more folks comes more crime, especially in desperate times for housing. Yet, there was a case where people assumed it was outsiders that were the cause of a murder (murders are not especially common in this state), but we discovered they were a couple of local guys instead.
So while free-market conservatives can look at North Dakota with pride, social conservatives and traditionalists have cause for concern.
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