On September 18 Time’s Money Magazine published a list of the 100 best places to live, and Dickinson, North Dakota ranked 6th.  Oh my God!  You probably couldn’t find twenty people in Dickinson that would even put Dickinson in the top 50 places to live.  You probably couldn’t find twenty people in the state of North Dakota that would put Dickinson in the top 50 places to live.

In some ways Dickinson is one of the worst places in the United States to live:

1. The ratio of men to women in Dickinson is about 3:1.  There is a shortage of women, and a scarcity of attractive women.  Of the many states, cities, and towns that I have lived and worked in for the past 48 years, Dickinson has the most unattractive women of any place that I have ever been.  These statements are common knowledge here in Dickinson.
2. Dickinson is one of the least educated places that I have ever lived.  Higher education is derided, ridiculed, laughed at, and penalized in Dickinson.  In Dickinson, people who did four years in prison are treated better that people who did four years in college.
3. Dickinson is one of the least healthy places that I have ever lived.  It is common for both men and women to be overweight, use tobacco products, and to never engage in healthy exercise.  Only about 10% of the people in Dickinson engage in regular exercise.
4. There is a lack of entertainment, social activities, and things to do in Dickinson.  Yes there is the West River Community Center which is nice.  There are outdoor concerts in downtown Dickinson in the summer which are nice.  But, with the shortage of women, and scarcity of attractive women, most men end up going to bars, and getting a DUI when they go home.  I have never seen more people get DUIs, than I have here in Dickinson, which is mostly because there is nothing to do and it is depressing here.
5. I have never met more depressed, down on their luck, nearly hopeless, suicidal people than I have here in Dickinson.  It is difficult to get a job in Dickinson.  There are not a lot of things to do in Dickinson.  There is a scarcity of women in Dickinson.  All of these things, plus the unfriendliness of people in Dickinson, make many people that I have met become very depressed, hopeless, and suicidal.
6. About 90% of the out of state workers who came to Dickinson for work during the oil boom, couldn’t wait to get out of here.  They said it out loud every day.

I have never seen a news article be more wrong than the Money Magazine article ranking Dickinson as the 6th best place to live in the United States.  Whoever wrote this article should have to come and live in Dickinson for one year.

I don’t know how the data was manipulated in order to somehow make Dickinson the 6th best place to live.  The editor of Money Magazine should interview two oil field workers, two truck drivers, two retail workers, two fast food workers, two black people, two gay people, and two housewives from out of state, and I guarantee that each of these people would say that Dickinson is a difficult and unpleasant place to live.