Nice place to visit, but...
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3/14/2018
I lived in Rapid for a little over a year, but my extended family was from Sturgis. If it weren't for the rally, I'd rather live in Sturgis. Spearfish is also a great option. Rapid though is sketchy. Overall, it's a cute town, but there's more crime than appears on the service. According to national crime statistics, it's more dangerous than Sioux Falls, which is 3 times its size. It's also heavily based on the tourist industry. Meaning there's a considerable influx of people in the summer, which is both good and bad, and it empties out in winter. So in the summer, there's a lot to do between touristy places and the beautiful hills, but there's also wall to wall people and traffic. In winter, there's snow and cold and most tourist spots are closed, but the roads are empty and those tourist spots that are still open have no lines. Good jobs are scarce and even those don't pay as well as other states. Affordable housing is lacking and the homeless population is high. Rapid City Regional owns pretty much everything medical and the local paper airs their problems on a frequent basis. Research the Rapid City Journal for those issues. I will always visit the Hills because of the beauty and my own personal nostalgia, but I can't live there. The average person can't earn enough to buy a nice home, and although I agree with other reviewers that the downtown area is pretty neat (and the parks and bike path), it's not safe after dusk, and sometimes not even during the day depending on where you are. My recommendation: Visit Rapid and the hills for a long weekend. Stay at the Alex Johnson or other area hotels, drive the Needles highway and visit all the tourist sites (there are too many to name), eat downtown at one of the many great restaurants, and then leave. Few places are more fun to visit than the Black Hills, but there are a lot of places better to live.
Kate | ,