Dickinson, North Dakota Could Have Had Permanent Growth If….

August 19, 2017Uncategorizedguide to Dickinson North Dakota, home prices in Dickinson North Dakota, housing in Dickinson North Dakota, Information on Dickinson North Dakota, Living in Dickinson, North Dakota, Moving to Dickinson, North Dakota, relocating to Dickinson North Dakota, would you move to Dickinson North Dakotaname withheld

In this blog post, I am going to try to explain one of the mistakes that has been made in Dickinson that has prevented permanent growth. No, I am not going to write about local people in Dickinson being unfriendly, uncooperative, not helpful, and hostile for the 100th time, I am going to write about something that I have not covered yet.

I will illustrate what I am trying to explain using a real life example of a woman named “Trudy” who moved to Dickinson with her husband approximately two years ago. Trudy and her husband are in their late forties, and they moved to Dickinson because of her husband’s job. They had moved to different towns more than several times during their marriage because of her husband’s job.

Initially, when they moved to Dickinson two years ago, they rented an apartment. They wanted to look for and try to find the right house for them. With the sale of their previous home and their financial situation, they could have afforded to buy the most expensive home listed for sale in Dickinson if they wanted to. But they were really only looking for a nice looking, comfortable, modest home that was the right size for them.

Trudy and her husband did not like paying the very high apartment rent that was the result of the oil boom that began in 2007 in western North Dakota. The rent for a two-bedroom apartment in Dickinson was typically $2,000 to $3,000 per month. Most people recognized that if you are going to pay $24,000 to $36,000 per year in rent, you would be much better off financially by using that amount of money to purchase a home.

Trudy liked Dickinson, and she liked the people in Dickinson. She was looking forward to buying a house and making a home here with her husband. She was looking forward to getting out of their apartment, this was only supposed to be a temporary arrangement.

Trudy looked, and looked for a house in Dickinson. She looked at every on-line listing, she looked at all the printed real estate guides, she went to real estate offices, she drove around Dickinson looking at homes “For Sale By Owner” and to look for any house for sale that she wasn’t already aware of.

Trudy looked for a house in Dickinson for 1-1/2 years. Though from time to time she found a house that would have been O.K. for her and her husband, everything was overpriced. It was as if the home owners and the real estate agents did not think that anyone else was aware that the oil boom was over, and that the oil field was not going to pick up any time soon, and possibly not for a long time. It also appeared that the home owners and the real estate agents believed that there were people “with a lot of money”, that would just go ahead and buy a house for $250,000 to $450,000 without even thinking about it.

Most people that are capable of purchasing a home for $250,000 to $450,000 are financially shrewd people, who are not in the habit of losing money. These people don’t willingly over-pay for anything. But in Dickinson, there seemed to be this wide-spread belief that there were vast numbers of home buyers that didn’t know how much homes were worth, and that the thought never entered their mind, “What could I expect to re-sell this home for in the future?”

Dickinson began to lose its charm for Trudy and her husband. The people didn’t turn out to be that friendly or very helpful after all. They could not find a reasonably priced home, and living in their apartment was unpleasant. There was not a lot to do in Dickinson. Eventually, both Trudy and her husband agreed that they would be happier and better off if they just moved to a different state.

I used this story up above to illustrate that both the excessive gouging on housing during the oil boom, and the current and continuing over-pricing on houses, has made about 90% of the people who came to Dickinson in the past ten years make up their minds that they would never stay in Dickinson. I am not saying that 10% of the people decided to stay, I am saying that 90% of the people made up their minds that they would never stay.

Of the 10% of the people who came to Dickinson in the past ten years who didn’t make up their minds that they would never stay, many or most of this 10% had to leave anyway because they lost their job, or they could not find a reasonably priced house. Trudy and her husband would be in this 10%.

In other words, Dickinson drives almost everyone who comes here away. The population of Dickinson is going to continue to decrease every year, for years to come.

Businesses Closing In Dickinson, North Dakota

August 17, 2017Uncategorizedguide to Dickinson North Dakota, Living in Dickinson, North Dakota, Moving to Dickinson, North Dakota, relocating to Dickinson North Dakota, what is Dickinson North Dakota Like, working in Dickinson North Dakota, would you move to Dickinson North Dakotaname withheld

I want for everyone, local people, people from out of state, and people who are considering moving to Dickinson, North Dakota, to know what is going on here. The oil boom is over in North Dakota, it was over by the end of 2014. Since then, everything has become less busy with each passing month in Dickinson, North Dakota.

During the morning work rush hours in Dickinson, 6:00 a.m. to 8:30 a.m., traffic is not heavy. From 9:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m., and 1:30 p.m. to 5:00 p.m., traffic is very light. After 8:00 p.m. in Dickinson, the streets are almost empty. After 8:00 p.m., there are only three to six people in each of the downtown bars on a week night. After 8:00 p.m., it is the same thing in each of the grocery stores, only about three to six customers.

Outside of town in the industrial areas, there are many commercial buildings and warehouses that have become vacant. In town, there are many commercial and retail spaces that have become vacant.

The Sears store has sold most of its inventory, there is hardly anything left in the store, and they are permanently closing in just a few days. The Family Fare grocery store on highway 22 is closing in just a few days, much of their inventory is already gone.

In downtown Dickinson, there are two family owned businesses that were very rude to me, and several other people that I have spoken to. I spent about $500 at one business, and about $1,000 at the other business, yet the owners were shitty with me when I came to their stores to buy more equipment. I enjoy driving by their stores now at various times throughout the day, and I see that they have zero customers.

I am not going to list every tenant from every retail, commercial, and industrial building in Dickinson that has left, because it would take too long and it would be difficult to include every one. In general, in buildings where there are five or more tenants, it has gone from one vacancy, to two, then three, and so on as the months have passed in Dickinson. What I want for people to understand, is that more and more business will continue to close in Dickinson.

I have had a couple of discussions recently with two men who are my age, late forties, who have lived and worked all over the United States, who came to Dickinson right when the oil boom began in 2007. They lived and worked through the housing shortage, and the worker shortage in Dickinson. One of these men is an electrician who has had his hours reduced more and more, as other workers are let go. One of these men is a roustabout foreman who has had his wage rate reduced by $7 per hour, as other workers are let go. Both of these men admit to there being a scarcity of jobs right now, and every indication that things will get much worse in employment.

All three of us, do not like it when uninformed people in the area say things like, “Things are starting to pick up again.”, “The drill rig count is up.”, “Its starting to turn around now.”, and “People are going back to work now.” These statements are absolutely not true, although the drill rig count may go up from time to time. It is not helping anyone to give them false information, it is actually harming many people.

There are many people who have reduced work, have lost their jobs, or have been unable to get a job, who should do everything they can to plan on leaving North Dakota. They need to look into what things are like in Minneapolis, Denver, Salt Lake City, Phoenix, what kind of job can they get there, where can they live, and how are they going to get there.

It is about to get cold again in North Dakota, and there will be a winter work slow down. It is wrong, and it is harmful to mislead people who have lost their job or who have not been able to get a job, into believing that if they wait here, the oil field is getting ready to pick up again, it’s not.

It would actually be better for everyone in Dickinson to know and to say, “The oil field is not going to pick up any time soon. More people will probably lose their jobs. It’s time for people to start thinking about where else they could live, and where else they might go to earn a living. It is not going to be good to encourage people to stay in Dickinson, there will end up being many unemployed people in Dickinson if some of these people don’t try to go someplace else.”

Drug Addiction And Homeless Women In Dickinson, North Dakota

August 15, 2017Uncategorizedguide to Dickinson North Dakota, homeless women in Dickinson North Dakota, Living in Dickinson, North Dakota, Moving to Dickinson, North Dakota, relocating to Dickinson North Dakota, what is Dickinson North Dakota Like, women in Dickinson North Dakota, women's shelter in Dickinson North Dakotaname withheld

In yesterday’s blog post, I wrote about meeting a drug addicted, homeless girl in Dickinson, North Dakota. I offered to give her a ride to go get something to eat, and she accepted. On the way to Wendy’s I asked her if she wanted me to take her to a women’s shelter. She didn’t want to go to a women’s shelter. I believed that it was a combination of outstanding warrants, and still wanting to use drugs, that made her not want to go to the women’s shelter.

This young lady was very pretty. She wasn’t able to stay mentally focused, or keep her mind and thoughts on track. I believed that she was possibly currently high, and that drugs probably were to blame for her mental disorientation. After she was done eating, I dropped her off right back where I picked her up, just across the street from the low rent apartment building where I live. She was going to go back to her hiding spot somewhere outdooors to spend the night, so I gave her my black hooded sweatshirt and $10.

The following day, which is today, I had to go do some self-employed construction work that I had scheduled for Tuesday morning. The work went more quickly than I expected, for once. I was almost half way through with my work by 11:00 a.m. when it began to rain too hard for me to continue. I packed up my equipment and I went back to my apartment.

Last night, this morning when I was getting ready for work, when I was driving to work, and when I was working, I was thinking about that homeless girl. I was glad that it started raining, that I could go home, and that I could look up and call the womens’ shelters. I looked through my guide to Dickinson, North Dakota booklet, and I could only find the domestic abuse shelter listing.

I called the domestic abuse shelter, and they did in fact admit homeless women. I explained that the homeless girl that I met did not want me to take her to the women’s shelter partly because of outstanding warrants, and her current drug addiction. The women’s shelter said that they don’t turn women in to law enforcement, but they would have to asses any woman who came to the shelter to see what kind of help she needed.

I went looking for the homeless girl that I met, and I thought that it would be miraculous if I found her. After about twenty minutes of driving around my neighborhood, I couldn’t find her. I thought that she was probably in someone’s apartment or house getting high. I gave up looking for the time being, maybe I would see her walking around in the evening.

I was hungry and I had been thinking about getting a club sandwich at the Paragon diner, so that is where I headed. As I was driving west on Villard, I saw some person sitting down on the curb behind a bank building. I made a right turn into the parking lot and it was her. I said that I was going to the Paragon to eat, did she want to come, and she did.

She was tired, tired looking, and probably not high at the moment. She said that she slept outside last night, and that it had been cold. I told her about the women’s shelter, and they said that they wouldn’t turn her over to the police or anything. She said that she had been given the women’s shelter address a couple of hours ago.

After we were done eating, she didn’t want to go to the women’s shelter, she wanted to go to her probation officer, then she didn’t want to go her probation officer. There was quite a delay and drive around, because she kept changing her mind. She was scared to go to both her probation officer, and the women’s shelter.

Finally, near the women’s shelter, I had to call them because the directions she had been given were unclear, or she was trying to not find it. When I drove up outside, she wouldn’t go in. I was trying to coax her and negotiate with her to just meet these people, but she wouldn’t go in. I was trying to reason with her that she didn’t want to sleep outside again in the cold and the rain, but she wouldn’t go in. Finally, I said to her that now that she knows where it is, she can go there if she needed to. Then I dropped her off at her probation officer downtown.

I called the women who I had now spoken to twice at the women’s shelter, and I explained that she was too scared to go in. They said they knew, they saw us parked outside. I said that maybe she will come back tonight when she gets cold. I gave what information I had about her, so that they would know who she was, and let her in.

What I didn’t write about yesterday in much detail was who this person was. I am not going to blab too much about the details of her life, but I did ask questions to try to get a picture of who she was, to get many pieces of a puzzle. What I learned about her yesterday, and what I learned about her today, I tried to make sense of it, to put it all together.

Like most attractive women, she was being a little difficult. On the way to go get something to eat when she was hungry and hadn’t eaten anything, she was better behaved. After she was done eating, she acted like a typical attractive woman. She would say, “What? What’s up? Why are you smiling?” I would answer, “I like you, you’re pretty.” She would say, “There are all kinds of pretty women, thousands of them. You are going to have to find some other reason to like me, that’s not a good reason. I have all kinds of other reasons for people to like me. You guys are all the same, I’m pretty.”

I said, “O.K., I admire you because you told me that you won the state championship in high school tennis. I practiced tennis every day for years in Florida, and I never made it very far in even the district preliminary tournaments. I am envious of you, I am jealous of you, that is something to be proud of , I would be proud of that, I would brag about that.”

Anyway, knowing her first name, and that she won the high school tennis championship in the state where she came from, I was able to look her up on the internet, and I saw her picture in the newspaper, it was her. This was quite an accomplishment. She must have been super athletic and super coordinated.

She had a mom, dad, sister, family, childhood, played sports, and she was good in sports. I think that she might have said once to me very quickly that she played sports in college. This is really a terrible thing that the course of life events has taken this beautiful young lady away from her family, friends, people who care about her, to where she is broke, unemployable, drug addicted, and homeless in Dickinson, North Dakota.

Picking Up A Drug Addict Homeless Girl In Dickinson, North Dakota

In a very recent previous blog post I wrote about how I recently moved into a low rent apartment in Dickinson, North Dakota. Among the things that I described, I wrote about the drug activity in the apartment building where I live. I didn’t describe everything, I left some things out.

About one week ago, very early on a Sunday morning, I saw a red haired young lady between about 16 years old to 24 years old walking down the sidewalk in the neighborhood where I now live, carrying one piece of luggage. It looked to me like she had just been kicked out of wherever she had been living. I was riding my bicycle, and I wanted to ask her “What’s going on?”, but I saw that there were two police cars parked where she had just come from. I could guess what was going on, she had probably just been forcibly removed from where she had been living.

I really don’t need to become involved with a mentally ill, drug addicted young lady, who someone else could not handle. I don’t need to be stabbed in my sleep, have my wallet stolen, and my vehicle stolen. This is about the second or third time recently that I have seen young women get kicked out onto the street in my neighborhood, with nothing except a small piece of luggage.

This evening, as I was working on something out at my vehicle, I noticed a person with a backpack walking down the street. When they were on the sidewalk across the street from me, they asked me if I was from Idaho, what part of Idaho, and if I was going back to Idaho. The person was kind of hard to understand. It was a fairly young person, and a female. This person was kind of mixed up, and I could tell that things were not right with this person.

I was getting ready to go to the grocery store, but I decided to ask this person if they wanted a ride. I asked the person, and they said O.K. This person got in my vehicle. She was anywhere from 17 to 28 years old, I couldn’t really tell. She was about 5′-9″, and 100 lbs. I could tell from the smell of this person, that she was homeless. It was not the smell of body odor, but the smell of garbage.

I told her that I was just going to go to McDonalds or Wendy’s, did she want anything. She said that she didn’t have any money. She was trying to be polite and apologetic. I said that that was O.K. As I was driving north and chatting with her, I asked her if she was homeless and she said that she was. I explained to her that there were several women’s shelters in Dickinson, that after she ate, I could telephone a shelter if she wanted me to. She asked me what the shelters were like, and I told her that I thought they were pretty nice.

She was very, very pretty, even though I was guessing that she hadn’t bathed or changed clothes in a week. That is saying something about having natural beauty, sleeping in a dumpster and still being very good looking. It had been raining pretty hard the last couple of days, and I think that she smelled like garbage because she had been sleeping in a dumpster.

Mentally, she was very messed up. I didn’t know if she was currently high, if drugs had ruined her mind, or if she had always been mentally messed up from birth. I started to believe that most of her mental problems were drug related because she seemed to be street smart and have street survival instincts. I began to think that she was at least 20 years old, but probably not older than 26.

She did not want to be taken to a women’s shelter. I think this was because she had outstanding warrants, and she wanted to continue to use drugs. I offered to take her to a young lady that I know who went through everything she was going through, homelessness and drug addiction, who completed rehab and was O.K. now, but she didn’t want me to take her there either.

We went through the drive thru at Wendys and we each got something to eat. I talked to her some more and offered her a couple more suggestions. She just wanted to continue to sleep in the bushes she said.

I dropped her off right back where we started from, and I gave her $10 and my black hooded sweatshirt. Two drug user/drug dealer guys who recently got kicked out of their apartment in the building where I live were parked right behind me. This homeless young lady got out of my vehicle, and she started trying to talk to them, I figured that she would, I suppose to try to get drugs. They didn’t want to have anything to do with her, at the moment.

I don’t think that this young lady will ever be O.K. Any involvement that I have with her will or could lead to me getting charged with possession of drugs/drug paraphernalia from her being in my vehicle, or theft of my wallet, money, credit cards, checks, laptops, firearms, equipment, vehicles, or me getting stabbed, or me getting HIV, hepatitis, or some other disease. However, you must remember, there is a shortage of women in Dickinson, and a scarcity of attractive women.

Decoding Stupid Phrases And Other Bullshit

August 14, 2017Uncategorizedexpressions used by employers, expressions used by human resources, expressions used by real estate agents, Living in Dickinson, North Dakota, Moving to Dickinson, North Dakota, relocating to Dickinson North Dakotaname withheld

The older I got, the more places that I lived, and the more of life that I experienced, the more that I saw through Stupid Phrases And Other Bullshit. I will share some of these:

Fast Paced Environment – You mostly see this in job advertisements, and during in-person meetings with employers. What this means is that they are disorganized, chaotic, messed up, and have incompetent people.

Work environments that are truly “fast paced”, like McDonalds at lunch time, don’t waste their time trying to tell each prospective employee that they are “fast paced”. In time, each new employee learns their specific job, and later a few other jobs, and every employee just does their job, and the end result is that McDonalds is usually is pretty quick.

Other types of companies, like office workers in construction companies, that have to mention that they are “fast paced”, there is something wrong going on. There should not be non-stop complaints and problems with customers, suppliers, sub-contractors, field supervisors, foremen, and workers. If there is constant bombardment with problems and angry people, there is one or more persons that are not properly doing their job.

Multi-tasking – Probably my least favorite expression, you often see this in job advertisements, and hear this during in-person meetings with employers. What this means is that they are disorganized, chaotic, messed up, and have incompetent people.

If someone asked me, “How are you at multi-tasking?” I would say, “I don’t. I pay attention to what I am doing, when I am doing it. And I try to do things right the first time.”

An employer hearing this response might think about this, “Paying attention to what you are doing when you are doing it, and trying to do things right the first time?” An employer might say, “I wish we had more people like you.” Or an employer might not like it. If an employer did not like it, and thinks that constant bombardment with complaints and problems is normal, you don’t want to work there.

Competent, intelligent people, who are knowledgeable in their job are able to think ahead, foresee problems, head problems off, make contingencies, properly delegate work, and give others the ability to solve their own problems. You should not set things up to where you have to “micro-manage” or act as a human funnel.

We Have Integrity – If an employer is trying to tell you that “they have integrity”, they probably don’t. Mother Teresa, Nelson Mandela, Ghandi, Abraham Lincoln, and Jesus didn’t go around trying to tell people that they had integrity.

If an employer is trying to tell you that they have integrity, go look them up personally on NDcourts.gov, Google, or call the Department of Labor to ask if there are any complaints against them.

Starter Home – Probably my second least favorite expression, used by real estate agents in written property listings, and during in-person meetings with real estate agents. What this means is, the real estate agent who wrote this or said this personally believes that this is not a very nice house.

If a house is small, unattractive, or in a not very nice neighborhood, a real estate agent might have called it a “starter home”. The real estate agent really should have not used this expression. This home may have been suitable and desirable for an individual or family who will always have a low income, or might have faced a financial setback, financial catastrophe, medical problem, or disability. Calling a house a “starter home” is just about outright saying that no one would willingly want to live in this house for very long.

Gourmet Kitchen – Ridiculous expression used by real estate agents in written property listings, and during in-person meetings with real estate agents.

If you can’t cook, your kitchen will not be a gourmet kitchen, no matter what type of refrigerator, oven, sink, and counter tops you have. Likewise, if you are a good cook, you may be a gourmet cook even if you don’t have a very nice refrigerator, oven, sink, and counter tops.

I think that if this is the route the real estate agents are going to take, they might as well use the term “gourmet closet” or “gourmet bathroom”, imagining that a gourmet cook might use this closet and this bathroom.

Bed And Breakfast Anyone? – Ridiculous expression used by real estate agents in written property listings.

This makes me want to be a real estate agent, just so that I could write stupid shit in the property listings. O.K., this expression originates from the the real estate agent’s personal belief that this particular home is charming and quaint enough that it would be suitable for use as a Bed and Breakfast Lodge. Or, that making this statement will make a prospective buyer look at living in this home as being like living in a Bed and Breakfast Lodge. Or, the real estate agent is losing their mind, which is sometimes the case.

I know that I have thought of this at least several times before, what I would write if I were making the property listings for houses. I thought of some good ones, that I can’t remember now. I will either come back to this post and add them, or write a new blog post with them.

Living In A Low Rent Apartment In Dickinson, North Dakota

August 12, 2017Uncategorizedapartments in Dickinson North Dakota, guide to Dickinson North Dakota, Living in Dickinson, North Dakota, Moving to Dickinson, North Dakota, relocating to Dickinson North Dakota, what is Dickinson North Dakota Likename withheld

This winter in Dickinson was kind of unpleasant for me. My work was not busy in Dickinson, and I was not making very much money. I would have liked to have tried to make the best of it, to read, write blog posts, watch movies, go to the West River Community Center, and socialize with people.

The person who owned the house where I had been living for the past three years in Dickinson was having his own problems. No job, shortage of money, poor physical health, no friends, depression, and mental problems. With no job, he would get up late, not get dressed, and sit in the living room all day. With not very much money, no friends, and no place to go, he would start drinking in the afternoon, which made his physical and mental health even worse.

In the past I had been a caregiver for disabled and terminally ill adults for two years. My current living situation was much more unpleasant and far more depressing than the two years that I spent doing this for a living, because now I couldn’t go home and get away from it and have some peace and quiet. Nor could I invite anyone over to the house.

When I got hired to work at a second job in June, I told my room mate that I had to be at work at 4:00 a.m. in the morning. My room mate stayed out in the living all night ranting and talking to himself, like a crazy person, making it hard for me to get any sleep. When I was getting ready for work at about 3:00 a.m., he was still ranting and talking to himself, muttering comments that were directed at me.

With the two jobs that I now had, I could demonstrate to a landlord or property manager that I had enough income to rent an apartment. I wanted the least expensive apartment that I could get. I did not know if I would stay in Dickinson, and I did not know how my new job was going to work out, so I did not want to get on a lease for an expensive apartment.

The property manager that I met did me a favor, and they rented to me a very nice two-bedroom apartment in an older building for not very much money. When I had been living at the house north of Dickinson, I had had two extra trucks, and two equipment trailers, which was what had been preventing me from renting an apartment. Things got so bad at the house, that I finally accepted that I was going to have to rent a separate location to keep my extra trucks and trailers, and move into an apartment.

I hadn’t lived in an apartment for fifteen years. I had sworn that I would never ever live in an apartment again. But here I was, not only was I back in an apartment, I was in a low rent apartment. The common hallways had a very strong odor of ethnic cooking, from India Indians, Africans, Hispanics, and Asians. The odor was not present in the apartment, thank God.

The residents who were immigrants from Africa were fairly friendly and polite. The India Indians and the Asians I hardly ever see. The Hispanics are somewhat noisy in the parking lot, and on the way to and from their apartments.

The American blacks have the irritating and annoying habit of playing ghetto music too loud in their vehicles when they are coming, going, and parked in the parking lot. The white trash are aggravating in that they honk their car horns in the parking lot at any time of the day or night, and screech their tires when they come and leave.

There is a lot of drug activity. There are about three apartments where they are dealing drugs. You can smell marijuana smoke all day throughout the building. There are all different kinds of poor people that are coming and going throughout the day, who are not residents of the building. Some apartments typically have five guests every night. Some guests are in a stoned stupor. Some guests go crazy and start yelling.

The police have been to this building at least twice this week. The young lady that the police took away today, I have been hearing her yelling for the past several days. When the police came to get her, she began beating her head against the wall, and then beating her head against the police car in attempt to injure herself. She was yelling at the police that she was going to get them fired. Inside the back of the police car, she was kicking the partition behind the police officers’ heads as hard as she could trying to break it.

I am surprised that I have not gotten into any trouble yet here where I live. There is a lot of trouble going around here. People arguing in the parking lot over parking spaces. Boyfriend-girlfriend squabbles. Room mate arguments. People slamming doors, playing the television too loud, video games too loud, stereos too loud. People complaining to their neighbors about the noise. Drug fiends on the premises throughout the night.

I kind of don’t even care. There is just one thing that I am worried about, and I don’t want to write what it is, because then someone will do it. I have had plenty of time to think about it, and none of the things that I described above are the property owner’s or the property manager’s fault. This is just what poor people do and how they behave. They can’t evict 70% of the tenants.

There are about twenty other apartment buildings just like this one in Dickinson. In these twenty apartment buildings, I would estimate that only about 10% to 15% of the residents are from Dickinson. I believe that these poor people mostly come from Idaho, Washington, Michigan, Minneapolis, Rapid City, and Sioux City.

There are very, very few job openings in Dickinson right now. I believe 100% that I made a very good decision in renting the least expensive apartment that I could find. I am making very little money right now, and I only have a small chance of getting a well paying job anywhere in North Dakota now. Even if I began making $5,000 per month or more for quite a while, I would still probably stay in this apartment because of the uncertainty of what is going to happen in North Dakota.

When It Costs $600 To Poop

August 11, 2017UncategorizedLiving in Dickinson, North Dakota, Moving to Dickinson, North Dakota, pooping in Dickinson North Dakota, relocating to Dickinson North Dakota, working in Dickinson North Dakotaname withheld

I have been told, and I have realized myself, that my blog website becomes difficult to read when I have one negative blog post after another, back to back to back. So I will tell when it costs $600 to poop.

When I became a superintendent for a construction company when I was about 29 years old, we were building communication sites in very remote areas like swamps and forests. When it rained, even dual rear tire, four wheel drive trucks would get stuck on the way to the job site. Many of the sites were too remote and hard to get to, to have a portable toilet company bring one out. All of the workers were red-necks and hunters, so we all went to the bathroom in the woods without complaining.

When I came to work in the oil field in Dickinson in 2011, going to the bathroom in the bushes was not a problem for me. I had worked in construction for many years, and I knew that you can’t take a crew truck with all of its tools and safety equipment away from a job site to drive 1/2 hour to a bathroom, and 1/2 hour back. What if somebody needs a tool? What if somebody gets hurt and it is a medical emergency and they need to be taken to the hospital?

I was having a discussion with my co-worker/supervisor about one month ago, and he said, “Now that is something that I didn’t know until I got to North Dakota. I didn’t know, and I got into a lot of trouble for it.” This is the story that he told:

It was my very first day of work, I mean my very first day on the job, literally. I was driving this vacuum truck, and I had this kid with me. We had to drive like one hour from New Town to get to this location that we were supposed to be at. Not long after we arrived at this location, the kid said, “I need to use the bathroom, do you know where there is a bathroom?” I said that I didn’t know, but that I kind of needed to use the bathroom too.

We got back in the truck, and we started driving, looking for a bathroom. We ended up driving almost all the way back to New Town, we drove for like 45 minutes. When we got back to the site, there was this supervisor yelling, screaming, and hollering at us. He was yelling, “Where the hell were you! You were supposed to be here two hours ago!” I explained to him that we both had to use the bathroom. What!!!!

The owner of the company called me and he said, “Look, that shit you took just cost me $600. The truck and the two of you were being billed at $400 per hour. You were gone for 1-1/2 hours to go use the bathroom. Do not ever do that again. Go shit behind a tank or something next time.”

I said, I’m not going to go shit behind a tank where some oil company man is going to come along and step in it. The owner of the company then said, “O.K., the next time you have to use the bathroom, you call me, and I will tell you where the nearest portable toilet is.”

I couldn’t believe that story, and that the owner of the company was having to call his employees and come to an agreement and understanding with them, that you can’t have two workers and a vacuum truck pull off the job for 1-1/2 hours because somebody has to poop.

Second Criticism Of Local Companies In Dickinson, Nepotism

August 9, 2017UncategorizedLiving in Dickinson, North Dakota, Moving to Dickinson, North Dakota, nepotism in Dickinson North Dakota, relocating to Dickinson North Dakota, what is Dickinson North Dakota Like, working in Dickinson North Dakotaname withheld

In my previous blog post I explained that when I first came to Dickinson, North Dakota in 2011 to work in the oil field, one of the problems that I saw in company management, was the failure to properly delegate work. Existing companies could not keep up with the demand for work partly because owners and managers could not see or understand that they needed to delegate work to competent people in order to be able to handle the increased demand for work. The second big problem that I saw was nepotism, the hiring of relatives and friends.

I will try to get right to the point, whenever I have worked at a company where the owners or managers hire relatives and friends, everyone else suffers and pays for it. Ultimately, it costs the company tremendously, if it doesn’t cause the ruin of the company altogether, which I have seen happen, in Dickinson.

First, is it a good idea to hire someone for a position at a company, if you know that they would not ever be hired for a similar position at any other company, or that you would never hire them if they were not a relative or friend? How could this ever be a good idea, to hire someone that you know is not capable of doing the job?

I experienced this at one of my first jobs out of college. The owner of the company that I was working for, hired his much less capable brother to manage the estimating department. In compiling estimates, it is most important to not leave anything out, and to total the costs as completely and accurately as possible. The owner’s brother would waste everyone’s time with daily memos on the new required font type for weekly reports, who was required to use green marker pen, red marker pen, blue marker pen in making comments, who was in trouble for not using the most recent new required font type, etcetera. After a while of causing problems and causing work to have to be repeatedly re-done in the estimating department, the owner’s brother was put in charge of the sales representatives instead. He drove the sales reps up the wall, causing some of them to quit. Eventually the owner’s brother irritated the owner himself so bad, that he had to let him go, but not before he had irritated and upset everyone at the company, causing more than several people to quit.

The hiring of relatives and friends of the owners and managers has occurred at every company that I have worked for in Dickinson. The third company that I worked for in Dickinson, this caused the failure of the company. When I first started working for this company in May of 2013, the company had a lot of intelligent, competent, skilled technicians and workers. The main company that we performed work for, liked all of the technicians and workers because of their intelligence, ability, and work performance. But then, the owners of the company hired one young lady who was a niece, and one young lady as a favor to a friend.

Neither of these two young ladies had any construction experience whatsoever. Not even hammering a nail or digging a hole with a shovel. Some of the technicians and workers who had been working in construction for ten years or more resented this. Several of the best technicians left soon after these two young ladies were hired. They resented that they were being paid within a few dollars of what they were making, that they weren’t any help, that they would have to show them how to do every single thing, and that they were not interested in construction, only the opportunity to get paid a lot of money by being present on the job.

The company owners’ response to several lead technicians quitting within a few weeks, was to move their niece right up to driving the service truck and taking the lead. The company that we did the work for did not like this, nor the did the end users. It was obvious to everyone that the twenty year old niece had never done any kind of construction whatsoever, and that this was not an acceptable replacement.

At this same time, the second young lady that was hired, she came to work with the crotch of her jeans missing, a hole about the size of a dinner plate. I figured she was going to try to have some kind of sexual harassment claim if anyone said anything to her. The company that we did the work for, several of their employees complained to the owners of my company about this. What is wrong with her, and do not ever have her come to work for us like this again. The work that had already been awarded to the company I was working for was completed, and they never got any more work awarded to them, ever.

The most recent company that I worked for in Dickinson, the effects of hiring relatives and friends was very noticeable. There were people in management positions that probably never would have been placed in a management position at any other company. There were people that were hired, that would not have been hired most other places. There were people working there, that would have been let go a long time ago anywhere else.

The net overall effect of all these relatives and friends working there was very bad. There were areas of responsibility that no one was taking responsibility for, or even paying attention to. There were people not showing up for work, without any preparations having been made to cover their absence. No one was very concerned about anything, because they were not in fear of losing their jobs.

This most recent company that I worked for in Dickinson, I have seen the very beginning signs of bankruptcy, and I think that this will become common knowledge within about one year. The failure of this company might not have occurred if the owner would have hired experienced managers with degrees in business administration, accounting, economics, finance, or construction management, instead of relatives and friends with little experience and no business education.

Criticism Of Local Companies In Dickinson, Failure To Properly Delegate

August 9, 2017UncategorizedLiving in Dickinson, North Dakota, Moving to Dickinson, North Dakota, oil field service companies in Dickinson North Dakota, relocating to Dickinson North Dakota, what is Dickinson North Dakota Like, working in Dickinson North Dakota, working in the oil field in North Dakotaname withheld

Ever since I first came to Dickinson, North Dakota in 2011 to work in the oil field, I noticed that the local Dickinson companies had a strange and different way of doing things. I will start out by giving the following brief example.

During my first month of working for an oil field service company in Dickinson, the manager of the company would come out to the job site to operate a crane. During the rigging, lifting, positioning, and connecting of very heavy steel, the manager would routinely answer his telephone and talk on the telephone while operating the crane. This should have never, ever happened.

When I was about 27 years old working for a tunneling company, it was explained to me that I could not talk to the tunneling machine operator while he was working. This was explained to me by the crane operator, who was in charge. The crane operator explained other operator positions where the operator could not talk while working, sometimes mandated by law, such as the elevator operator in mining, because of the loss of life that could occur if the operator was distracted.

This oil field service company that I was working for in Dickinson, had one of the highest injury rates. And, while I was working there, this manager did have an “at-fault” operator error while operating the crane that caused a significant injury. Then my co-workers discussed aloud, “Maybe we should hire a crane operator, to just operate the crane.”

Although the manager of this oil field service company was knowledgeable, hardworking, honest, and fair, he wasn’t “managing” very well. Prior to the oil boom that began in 2007 in North Dakota, this oil field service company had much less work, and fewer employees. Prior to the oil boom, this company did not have enough calls for work, to require this manager to stay in the office all day. To maintain profitability, this manager also performed work in the oil field.

Now in 2011, this manager needed to stay in the office all day, and deal with the customer calls that came in. No more going out into the oil field and working. There was a wait list or backlog of work, where work requests that were called in, could not be gotten to for six to eight weeks. This company needed to expand, but it didn’t.

One of the reasons why this oil field service company did not expand was because the company owners and the manager did not see or understand how to delegate work properly. The manager could no longer receive from the workers every request they had for a tire, wrench, hydraulic hose, grease fitting, leaf spring, lifting strap, bolt, belt, etcetera; go look up every one of these parts in a catalog; place the order for every one of these parts; receive telephone calls from the work crews explaining and describing their problems; think about, solve, and explain problem solutions to the work crews; and receive telephone call work requests from every customer describing their problems and what they want done. This was too much work for one person to do, and too much work for one person to do well and handle completely.

The manager needed to have someone serve as “field superintendent”, “project manager” or “operations manager”. The easiest way to do this in the case of this oil field service company, would have been to appoint one of the most knowledgeable and competent workers that they already had working there. Out of several possible candidates, the decision might have come down to how easily that particular person could be replaced on their work crew.

The “field superintendent” could then take over the responsibility of assigning work orders to the work crews, making sure that they had proper instructions, material, and equipment, and receiving all the telephone calls about problems from the work crews. The manager then could have handled all calls from customers requesting work, discussions with the company owners, purchasing additional or new equipment, hiring, counseling, and firing workers.

This particular oil field service company never expanded, and its wait list and backlog of work increased. The oil companies like Continental, Marathon, Occidental, and Whiting needed to have their work done more quickly than this. Other existing oil field service companies had similar problems to the ones that I just described above.

In Dickinson, out of nowhere and overnight, the two oil field service companies Titan Oil Field Service and SM Fencing & Energy Services were formed by owners in their twenties, and they quickly grew to where they each had over fifty employees and millions of dollars in equipment. The reason for their creation and their rapid growth was that the existing oil field service companies in Dickinson could not keep up with the demand for work.

Downtown Dickinson Preservation And Revitalization

August 8, 2017UncategorizedDowntown Dickinson Association, guide to Dickinson North Dakota, Living in Dickinson, North Dakota, Moving to Dickinson, North Dakota, relocating to Dickinson North Dakota, what is Dickinson North Dakota Like, women in Dickinson North Dakota, would you move to Dickinson North Dakotaname withheld

In my previous blog post titled “Downtown Dickinson Association Seeking Executive Director” where I offered some proposals for downtown Dickinson, some of my ideas were better than others. I should not be a nuisance to the Downtown Dickinson Association. I should be helpful and supportive because what they are doing will make Dickinson a better place to live.

If you didn’t think very much about it, and jumped to conclusions, you might think that the Downtown Dickinson Association seeks to gain attention for downtown Dickinson in order to bring customers to businesses and tenants to the property owners. Yes, it does do that, this is part of the plan. A healthy and attractive downtown benefits all of Dickinson in many ways, not just the downtown business owners and property owners.

In most cities and towns that have grown, shopping centers and shopping malls were built beyond the old sections of town. With one massive multi-acre parking lot, people would park their car, enter the shopping center or mall, and walk from store to store. Later, without people really noticing, Wal-Mart and Target began to replace the shopping centers and the malls, because people could buy everything very cheaply inside just one store.

The shopping centers, shopping malls, and Wal-Mart are very formatted and controlled according to what corporations want. There are no shade tress, benches, or tables outside, because they do not want their parking lots to be comfortable, attractive, and appealing. They want there to be nothing in their parking lots to distract, delay, entertain, or amuse their customers, such as a shady spot or comfortable spot where customers going in, might meet and talk to their friends coming out.

Inside the shopping centers, malls, and Wal-Mart, there are aisles and lanes for shoppers, that are not really conducive to stopping, standing still, or sitting. There are designated food courts, that are minimal, and not very comfortable. The shopping environment is very controlled with bright lighting, generic music, neutral decor, standardized layout, uniformed employees, and store rules.

Shopping centers, malls, and Wal-Mart have their purpose, which is to get in, buy as much as you can, and get out, quickly. I don’t enjoy going to shopping malls or Wal-Mart, because they have the barren no-mans land parking lots, and inside they are somewhat bland, generic, dull, uninteresting, crowded, and full of stressed out people who are in a hurry.

As cities and towns grow and expand, there are more and more chain or franchise restaurants that are owned by corporations, shopping centers that are owned by corporations, and apartment communities that are owned by corporations. All these corporation owned restaurants, shopping centers, and apartment communities look the same, and are built the same. To minimize costs, for ease of construction, for ease of maintenance, standardized accounting and management, lease-ability and re-sale ability, everything is built the same.

A relief from the monotony and drudgery of everything looking the same and being the same, the barren parking lots of the shopping centers and Wal-Mart, are the old downtown historic areas. Where every house and yard is different from the one next to it in a thousand different ways, every building is different, and every city block is different. A variety of different businesses, professionals, and services. Wealthy homes, middle class homes, lower middle class homes, all mixed together. Old people, middle aged people, families, and children all mixed together.

In downtown Dickinson, the residential neighborhoods surround the schools, churches, municipal buildings, and gradually give way to the businesses in the center of town. Traffic is not bad downtown, and it is very pleasant to walk or bicycle in the old historic section of town. It is an oasis of green with many kinds of large tall trees, hedges, shrubs, flowers, and lawns. Home to many birds, squirrels, and cats.

In the afternoon the downtown bars and restaurants open. Most of them have seating and tables outside on the broad sidewalks. There are many attractive women who work downtown, you can go and look at them, and leave them money.

In the Spring, Summer, and Fall there are outdoor events and concerts in downtown Dickinson. There are a few locations that have enough space inside to host events and live music in the Winter.

Downtown Dickinson is the most social area of Dickinson due to the blending of residential, municipal, business, bars, restaurants, events, and concerts. All kinds of people, every type of person comes downtown. It is the Downtown Dickinson Association that is not just promoting the businesses and the property downtown, but it is also preserving the character and social aspect of downtown Dickinson.

Downtown Dickinson Association Seeking Executive Director

August 5, 2017Uncategorizedguide to Dickinson North Dakota, Living in Dickinson, North Dakota, Moving to Dickinson, North Dakota, relocating to Dickinson North Dakota, what is Dickinson North Dakota Likename withheld

The Downtown Dickinson Association is seeking an Executive Director. The application deadline is August 15.

I don’t know if I should apply or not? If this goes like most things in Dickinson, they would try to not hire me, because they actually already have someone else in mind.

If I were Executive Director of the Downtown Dickinson Association, here are things that I might do:

In cities like Key West, they have tours of the city. A trolley or carriage-like vehicle with no sides, towed a second trolley/carriage trailer with passengers. The host, who was not necessarily the driver, had a microphone attached to a loud speaker, and he/she would describe the local history, the name and significance of each important building, and who lived there, and who did what, etcetera, as the pre-planned drive loop proceeded.

In Dickinson, the tour could begin at the downtown Dickinson plaza in front of the Court House. The drive route would cover and include most places of interest in Dickinson. The Court House, the old Woolworths building and how important this used to be, the Elks building, the Odd Fellows Lodge building, the Masonic Lodge building, the Post Office building, the Library (Carnegie) building, Bernie’s Esquire Club (Supper Club), Dickinson State University, Paragon Bowling Alley, Train Depot, the Haunted Old St. Joseph’s Hospital, the Haunted New St. Alexius Hospital, homes and businesses of local celebrities. And, maybe even a tour inside one of the downtown underground radiation fall out shelters.

Most people don’t know the importance and significance of the buildings in downtown Dickinson. Just taking the Woolworths building that is across the street from the Post Office as an example, there are local people in Dickinson in their late forties and older that can describe that Woolworths used to be a really big deal and the focal point for downtown. People from Belfield, New England, New Hradec, Richardton, Gladstone would plan on making a trip to Dickinson that would last half a day, and the centerpiece of it was shopping and eating at Woolworths.

From my memory, I remember someone describing to me that Bernie’s Esquire Club that is now a bar, used to be called something like the Supper Club in the 1950s and 1960s. There was a restaurant downstairs, and people used to get very, very, dressed up to go to this.

As some of you know, and others do not know, there are at least five currently still existing radiation fall out shelters beneath downtown Dickinson. The one that I have been in, is below the old Dickinson Press building. The others I believe are located beneath the Sax Motors building, the Rock Bar, and the Green Drug store on Villard.

I don’t know if the tour host should point out, mention, or explain about Radar Base Hill. At one time, Radar Base Hill was occupied by several hundred, if not more, military personnel. It was not a weather station like they used to tell the Dickinson residents, but an intercept and tracking radar station in defense of the ICBMs in North Dakota.

If the open sided carriage/trolley vehicle and trailer are not considered to be enjoyable between September through April, a regular shuttle bus could be used instead.

2. Cages for people downtown.

It often happens, that someone who has something wrong with them, consumes alcohol downtown, and then they go on a drunken tirade. The Dickinson Police eventually get called to deal with it, but not before everyone has been irritated, upset, and accosted. There should be cages downtown.

Off the top of my head, the dirt parking lot behind the Elks building might be a good place for two cages. The downtown bars could get the menace people in the cages at night, the Dickinson Police could come and pick them up later, or Kristi could let them out in the morning. I am sure she would want to let them out because they would probably be yelling by 9:00 a.m. when she got to work.

Another good place for two cages would be the field between the Ukrainian Culture Institute and the Paragon Bowling Alley. The people in the cages could probably still order food from the Paragon up until 2:00 a.m. Monday through Thursday, and 24 hours on the weekends.

3. Downtown Dickinson Cat Association.

I will write about this in a future blog post, but I can tell you now that I will recommend Kevin Holten for a leadership position in this.

4. Indoor Concerts At Masonic Lodge Building ballroom.

I will write about this in a future blog post.

82,000 Views And 54,000 Visitors

I feel a sense of accomplishment with my blog website because of the number of people that I have been able to inform about Dickinson, North Dakota. When people anywhere in the world perform a Google search for “living in Dickinson”, “moving to Dickinson”, “relocating to Dickinson”, “people in Dickinson”, “guide to Dickinson”, “what is Dickinson like”, “would you move to Dickinson”, “economy in Dickinson”, “women in Dickinson”, “police in Dickinson”, “entertainment in Dickinson”, “chamber of commerce in Dickinson”, “Catholic Church in Dickinson”, “corruption in Dickinson”, my blog website comes up near the top of the first page of search results.

I get to tell everyone in the world what Dickinson, North Dakota is like, what went on here, and what is happening now. I have such a sense of purpose, direction, and conviction in doing this. I feel that there is so much I have to repay Dickinson for, almost every step that I have ever taken in Dickinson, I have been mistreated or cheated, like nowhere else I have ever been.

The people in Dickinson are hostile, hateful, unfriendly, uncooperative, angry, greedy, mean, and treacherous. I have written before that if someone wanted to know what living in Dickinson, North Dakota is like, they should watch the movies “Deliverance”, “The Grapes Of Wrath”, and “Planet Of The Apes”. Though these three movies have cruelty in them, they don’t have nearly the level of hate.

I have held back for two years from saying this, but what I have felt truly describes the level of hate that these German Catholics here have for people, is what I have seen in watching documentaries on Auschwitz, Buchenwald, and Dachau concentration camps. First, there is this unshakeable belief here in Dickinson in each individual that they are better than other human beings. Second, the individuals in Dickinson proceed to act on this belief by treating others with hatred, hostility, unfairness, usury, and treachery. Third, the individuals in Dickinson will deny to the end that they have done anything wrong. Fourth, they have no remorse or shame in what they have done.

I can’t apply for a job, work at a job, open a bank account, purchase equipment, get a tire repaired, shop at a grocery store, ride my bicycle, without experiencing hatred, hostility, anger, unfriendliness, and treachery from local people. Living in Dickinson is like being in prison, you learn to expect the worst things from people, and this is what you deal with every day.

Homeless Shelter In Dickinson, North Dakota

August 3, 2017Uncategorizedbeing homeless can happen to anyone, Living in Dickinson, North Dakota, Moving to Dickinson, North Dakota, relocating to Dickinson North Dakota, what is Dickinson North Dakota Likename withheld

There is no homeless shelter in Dickinson, North Dakota. There should have been one built within a couple of years of the most recent oil boom that began in 2007. Now that the oil boom is over, and many people will lose their jobs and their homes, this is another reason why Dickinson needs a homeless shelter.

No matter who you think you are, you really do not know what is going to happen to you. You may think that you have thought of everything to ensure that you will always be O.K., but I can assure you that you will not always be O.K. You are mistaken if you think that it is only other people whose lives fall apart.

The people who do not want a homeless shelter in Dickinson, foremost do not see this as something that they personally will ever need. Secondly, they see homeless people as being nothing like them. These first two attitudes and beliefs need to be addressed, because they are not true.

Most personal bankruptcies in the United States are due to catastrophic illness or injury. Most of these people never saw this coming. Some had health insurance, but the medical costs greatly exceeded what the health insurance would pay. Yes, part of the equity in a home is protected in bankruptcy. But after bankruptcy related to a catastrophic illness or injury, how likely is it that the person will be able to return to full time employment doing the same work? Bankruptcy proceedings are meant to uncover all assets that a person owns, to determine their ability to pay their debts. It is unlikely that anyone who goes through bankruptcy will have hidden money that will allow them to not have to work.

Experiencing a catastrophic illness or injury, can and does lead to people losing their homes and becoming homeless. You could argue that a person could or would go on Social Security Disability, but not if they were determined to be recovered.

Another example that I will give comes from a news article that I read this past week titled, “Honey, you’ve been scammed.” A woman of about 60 years of age heard about a mortgage refinance opportunity which she applied for and was enrolled in. The new mortgage company was fraudulent, and it never took over or applied any of her payments to the existing mortgage. The woman’s home was foreclosed on that she had been living in for the past thirty years, and she was evicted from her home. The fraudulent mortgage company was found to have done this to thousands of other people, the perpetrators were arrested, but it is not expected that any of the victims will ever recover any money.

The 60 year old woman that was the victim of the mortgage fraud, was a single mother that had to work hard and be smart with her money in order to buy her own home thirty years ago. She was not stupid, anyone can become the victim of a fraudulent mortgage company. Any mortgage, finance, or investment company can steal funds, which clients may never be able to recover.

I am trying to explain that many of the things that cause people to become homeless can also happen to you. You might think that you can rely on friends and family, but in a town like Dickinson, everyone might experience financial difficulty at the same time.

A homeless shelter is sometimes necessary for people who aren’t bad people, or poor people, or people who made bad decisions, but people who experienced some type of catastrophe that could have happened to any of us.

Don’t think that I am trying to make my argument about the need for a homeless shelter by using the rare example of good innocent people. I am trying to make you understand that the life events that cause people to become homeless can happen to anyone. I hope that you will finally see that anyone, including yourself could possibly become homeless.

Honest, hard working people, who have done nothing wrong, sometimes live in an area where there is economic decline. They may be positive an optimistic about finding work where they live, and wait too long. When they finally do decide to travel to a different state to find work, they may be driving a vehicle that is not very nice, and have very little money. They may not be able to pay for a motel. This describes many of the people that came from out of state to work in Dickinson.

I don’t see anything wrong, and I do see everything right about having a big warehouse where these people could sleep, eat, and take a shower. What harm would this cause the people in Dickinson? I have heard people comment that Dickinson doesn’t want to become a magnet for vagrants by having a homeless shelter. I don’t think that it is right for people to be treated badly supposedly because we don’t want a bunch of vagrants to come here. If Dickinson became known as a friendly hospitable place, all kinds of people, not just vagrants might want to live here.

I Didn’t Realize That No One Knew, Or Everyone Forgot About What Happened In Dickinson, North Dakota

August 2, 2017Uncategorizedeconomy in Dickinson North Dakota, justice in Dickinson North Dakota, Living in Dickinson, North Dakota, Moving to Dickinson, North Dakota, people in Dickinson getting what they deserve, relocating to Dickinson North Dakota, what happened in Dickinson North Dakota, what is Dickinson North Dakota Likename withheld

I have been writing about the hatred, hostility, unfriendliness, lack of cooperation, and usurious gouging that the local people in Dickinson treated the out of state workers with, but I didn’t realize that many people don’t know what I am talking about, or they have forgotten. I must now re-tell what happened.

Having made one preliminary trip to Williston in May of 2011, where I had to sleep in my truck, I purchased a 1975-78 truck bed camper for $500, for my return to North Dakota. When I arrived in Dickinson in mid-May of 2011, I slept in my truck bed camper in the Wal-Mart parking lot and in the Tiger Truck Stop parking lot for a few days.

Within a few days I was able to get a job with an oil field service company. I was told that I could stay in my camper on the company property, but arrangements were being made to find a house trailer for me and two other new hires to live in, we would each have to pay some of the cost in rent. Soon, my local Dickinson co-workers complained and protested so much about the company trying to find a house trailer for us new hires to live in, that the company withdrew the offer. My other out of state co-worker was stuck sleeping in a small Chevy Astro van that he had borrowed from a relative.

In the evening after work, I would go to the Tiger Truck Stop to use the internet. Soon, I began talking to the “regular customers” that I would see every evening. It turned out, that most of these regular customers were sleeping in their vehicles at the truck stop. Some people didn’t even have vehicles, they were sleeping on the ground way at the back of the parking lot.

When motorists on interstate I-94 would take the Tiger Truck Stop exit ramp, they would see campers and tents at the back of the truck stop parking lot. This attracted other out of state workers to park there, and it caused local Dickinson residents to try to put an end to this. The Tiger Truck Stop received many complaints about people staying in their parking lot. Some local Dickinson residents went so far as to make formal complaints with the City of Dickinson. The City then informed the Tiger Truck Stop that they were not licensed as a “camp ground” and could not allow people to stay there over night. The Tiger Truck Stop staff had to inform people every night that they could not stay there in a trailer or camp there.

The Tiger Truck Stop had not seen the harm in allowing people who didn’t know where to go and what to do, the chance to park and find out if they could get a job and a if they could find a place to live. There was no homeless shelter in Dickinson. The local Dickinson residents who complained, did so out of maliciousness because this was a completely industrial area, and these people weren’t hurting anything.

Other places that the out of state workers slept at night in their vehicles, on the ground, or in the bushes were: Wal-Mart parking lot, Patterson Lake, T-Rex Mall parking lot, under bridges over the Heart River, the deep wooded ditch behind Kentucky Fried Chicken, vacant lot behind the Grand Dakota Lodge, DSU Agricultural Research Center woods, Dickinson Trap & Skeet Club woods, Enchanted Highway metal sculptures, I-94 rest areas, storage units, industrial areas, and construction sites.

I estimate that on any night, there were 300 to 400 homeless workers in Dickinson. About 90% of them were currently employed. For most of these homeless workers, the cost of a motel room in Dickinson per week, was more money than they would take home in a week. The least expensive old one bedroom apartments in Dickinson were $1,500 per month, with $1,500 deposit, if you could even find one that was available. Most out of state workers came to North Dakota because they were having financial difficulty where they came from, they didn’t have $3,000 to get into an apartment.

I called all of the RV Parks in Dickinson, none of them would allow trailers or motor homes that were older than ten years old. Lot rents were about $700 per month, plus utilities. Many out of state workers thought that they were going to be O.K. with their older motor home, truck bed camper, or trailer that they brought with them, but instead they found that the trailer parks would not allow them, and that the local Dickinson residents hated them.

The local Dickinson residents had this scheme, that they were going to fleece the out of state workers in every way possible, to the greatest extent possible. The local people in Dickinson did not want there to be enough housing. The local people wanted there to be a scarcity of housing, so that housing prices would double, triple, and quadruple, which they did. When the City of Dickinson and Stark County had to review permit applications for “Man Camps” which would have helped to alleviate the housing shortage, the local Dickinson residents protested so strongly, that they were not allowed.

The local Dickinson residents then proceeded to rent tents or camper spaces in their backyards for $700 per month, until the City of Dickinson later had to pass an ordinance against this.

In the evenings after work in Dickinson, I met many normal workers from out of state who had a home, a wife, and children back where they came from. I would pass the time with them in the evening, while they waited until it was dark enough and late enough to go back to a construction site to sleep, industrial area, or parking lot, wherever they had to hide at night. All of the homeless out of state workers had to hide at night, because the local Dickinson residents didn’t like the “oil field trash” getting away with not paying them $700 per month to sleep in their backyard, or $1,500 per month for their garage apartment.

The local people in Dickinson absolutely did not want there to be a homeless shelter because this would have meant more people getting away with not paying them.

In my previous blog post I wrote that soon it will be unnecessary for me to write about and criticize Dickinson for what it has done. There is going to be an economic collapse in Dickinson, where all of the gouging and scheming local residents will get their just rewards for what they have done. The local Dickinson residents mistreated the out of state workers who came here after facing an economic collapse where they came from. Now the Dickinson residents can experience the exact same thing, losing their jobs, not being able to pay their bills, losing their possessions and their homes, having to go to a different state where they have never been and don’t know anyone, with not enough money to pay for a place to stay.

Will I Ever Be Done Criticizing Dickinson, North Dakota?

August 2, 2017Uncategorizedeconomy in Dickinson North Dakota, guide to Dickinson North Dakota, Living in Dickinson, North Dakota, Moving to Dickinson, North Dakota, relocating to Dickinson North Dakota, the future of Dickinson North Dakota, what is Dickinson North Dakota Like, what is going to happen in Dickinson North Dakota, would you move to Dickinson North Dakotaname withheld

Will I ever be done criticizing Dickinson, North Dakota? Yes, I see an end to this. I think that I see how everything is going to unfold, play out, and finish up in Dickinson. I never could have planned and orchestrated life making such a complete, perfect, and just full circle.

I had a home and everything that I ever wanted in Idaho. But the economy in Idaho kept getting worse and worse. If I didn’t do something, I would go broke, and lose everything that I had. I heard about the oil boom in North Dakota, so that is where I went in May of 2011.

I had never been to North Dakota, and I didn’t know anyone in North Dakota. When I got to North Dakota, I slept in my vehicle. There was no affordable place to stay. Even though I had a degree in engineering and had worked in many types of construction as an engineer, estimator, inspector, superintendent, and project manager, the North Dakota employers treated me as if I didn’t know anything, though they relied on me to do work at a much higher level than they treated me.

It has been difficult and unpleasant living in Dickinson. I have written about it. The lack of affordable housing, there being nothing to do, the shortage of women, the scarcity of attractive women, the hostility, hatred, unfriendliness, and lack of cooperation from the local people. But I will be able to quit writing about all of this soon.

There is an economic collapse that is going to happen in Dickinson, that is just now beginning. Every unkind thing that the people in Dickinson did, is going to come back on them. What they derided the out of state workers for, they will now experience fully for themselves.

In Dickinson, local people will begin to lose their jobs. Local people “who didn’t do anything wrong and don’t deserve this” will not be able to pay for their vehicles, their homes, and their necessities. The local people in Dickinson made fun of and mistreated the out of state workers who came here after losing everything, now the local people will have a chance to experience losing everything themselves.

I won’t have to write about it. The local people in Dickinson will live every day in uncertainty, with anxiety, fear, and worry. It will be difficult to pay bills, and then they won’t be able to pay bills at all. For the able-bodied, it will come to the point where they pack what they can into a vehicle and head for some place like Denver, Oklahoma City, or Salt Lake City, without enough money or barely enough money to make it there. Not knowing anyone where they are going, with no money, and no place to stay. When they are sleeping in their cars in the below freezing weather, maybe they will remember how the local people in Dickinson treated the out of state workers who came to Dickinson.

The majority of the absolutely broke local people won’t leave Dickinson because that’s just the way they are, unable and unwilling to change, adapt, or adjust. They won’t understand and refuse to understand no matter how many times the Sheriff deputy explains that they are being evicted and have to leave their home. The local people who have been evicted from their homes will be packed shoulder to shoulder in the basements of the Catholic Churches.

One of the final, final pieces of justice for the local Dickinson people who are packed shoulder to shoulder in the basements of the Catholic Churches, with one toilet, will be that the local people in Dickinson refused to build a homeless shelter. Millions and millions of dollars have been paid to Catholic Church in Dickinson through tithes, offerings, and bequests but no one wanted to build a homeless shelter. In the end, the homeless people who will suffer the most in wretched filth, stench, and squalor will be the local people.

Second Example Of Older Houses In Downtown Dickinson

August 1, 2017Uncategorizedarchitecture in Dickinson North Dakota, guide to Dickinson North Dakota, houses in Dickinson North Dakota, Living in Dickinson, North Dakota, Moving to Dickinson, North Dakota, old homes in Dickinson North Dakota, relocating to Dickinson North Dakota, what is Dickinson North Dakota Likename withheld

This is my second example of an older home in downtown Dickinson, North Dakota. This particular home is located approximately one block south of the Courthouse.

I believe that this home was built between 1910 to 1935. This is another example of Colonial a.k.a. Georgian architecture. You will see houses almost identical to this one in the old downtown neighborhoods in Daytona, Savannah, Pueblo, Flagstaff, Idaho Falls, or Uvalde, Texas, anywhere that I have been.

One of the reasons why houses almost identical to this one appear in every town, is because this may have been one of the house plans available from Sears Roebuck & Co. From approximately 1908 through 1940, you could order house plans and complete house kits from Sears Roebuck & Co. Perform a Google search, type in “Sears Roebuck & Co. Kit Homes”, and near the top of the first page of search results the websites “The Arts &Crafts Society” and “www.searsarchives.com/homes” have archives of all these house designs and plans.

This house was probably built before there were televisions in people’s homes. Any time of day, people would sit out on the porch. In the morning to read the paper, in the afternoon to take a break, in the evening to socialize, and at night to cool off when the house was still hot inside. This house appears to have an upstairs porch too. At night, the homeowner could lay on an outside lounge on the upstairs porch, and stare up at the stars, and if he was Mormon, could wonder what planet he would become god of.

The People In Dickinson Don’t Know What They Are Going To Experience

July 31, 2017Uncategorizedguide to Dickinson North Dakota, Living in Dickinson, North Dakota, Moving to Dickinson, North Dakota, relocating to Dickinson North Dakota, what is Dickinson North Dakota Like, what is going to happen to Dickinson North Dakota, would you move to Dickinson North Dakotaname withheld

Since moving to downtown Dickinson a couple of months ago, I have been able to ride my bicycle more than when I was living outside of town north of Dickinson. Now, it is easy for me to ride my bicycle to the Post Office, grocery store, hardware store, and restaurants.

While zigzagging my way through the old downtown neighborhoods in Dickinson on my bicycle, I had a chance to pay more attention to the houses than when I was driving. I was sorry that I hadn’t noticed before how many interesting old houses there are in downtown Dickinson.

I wanted to take photographs of some of the old homes in downtown Dickinson. I thought that it would be easier and safer for me to do this on a bicycle ride, rather than driving one of my vehicles. I was aware that it would probably upset a homeowner if they saw someone taking a photograph of their home, and that no amount of explaining would make it O.K. with them. I tried to think of the best time for me to photograph without upsetting anyone, but there really was no best time.

On this past Sunday afternoon when I went on a bicycle ride in order to take photographs, I found that the inhabitants of the old downtown neighborhoods in Dickinson didn’t even like me riding through their neighborhoods. They were watching me with suspicion even before I came to a stop and took out my camera. From the way that they were behaving, I sensed that photographing someone’s home half a block away from them would have caused some of these residents to go berserk. I had to pass by many nice homes without being able to photograph them.

I tried to look at it from their point of view. There have been a lot of thefts from garages and vehicles in downtown Dickinson. The thefts are probably committed by scraggly meth addicts on foot and on bicycles. I can understand this, I have felt the same way about passersby in the places that I have lived.

There was really nothing that I could say or do to not make these homeowners uncomfortable. They would have been just as suspicious or even more suspicious if they saw me come to a stop in front of their house in a vehicle, take photographs, and then drive off. I understand that they are concerned about their house, their possessions, and what is going on.

Later on Sunday, I went on another bike ride for exercise and for something to do. This time I rode through the blue collar worker, lower middle class neighborhoods just beyond the oldest downtown neighborhoods. The residents of these blue collar neighborhoods acted suspicious of me too, and as if they didn’t like me riding through their neighborhoods. It seemed like these blue collar workers were probably just as concerned about their new expensive vehicles, as they were about their homes and other belongings.

In the old downtown neighborhoods, and in the blue collar neighborhoods, I got the impression that the homeowners are proud of what they have, protective of what they have, and fearful of losing any of what they have. So much so, that even a person riding by on a bicycle is a threat to them.

I believe that these homeowners don’t know what is going to happen in Dickinson. From my reading and learning about what happened in Dickinson during the oil boom of the 1950s, and the oil boom of the late 1970s, these two previous oil booms each lasted about eight years, and after they were over, there were massive job losses, jobs were scarce, jobs were low wage, housing prices dropped by 60%, and people walked away from their houses because they owed so much more than their houses were worth.

In Dickinson, the retirees and the people who were planning on retiring, to live off a combination of savings, investments, social security, and pensions, these people will be O.K. The non-retired homeowners with mortgages and expensive vehicle payments, they will not be O.K. These people will have a difficult time making their monthly payments because they may lose their job, or their wages will become lower and lower. At the same time they are having difficulty making their monthly payments, they will find that they still owe $140,000 on their house, and it is now worth $100,000.

House payments of $1,100 to $1,600 per month on a house that is worth way less than you owe, truck payments of $900 to $1,100 per month on a truck that is worth less than you owe. And the best job you can get, if you are lucky, take home pay is $2,500 per month. I don’t think that the people in Dickinson know what is going to happen.

Older Houses In Downtown Dickinson, North Dakota

July 30, 2017Uncategorizedguide to Dickinson North Dakota, houses in Dickinson North Dakota, Living in Dickinson, North Dakota, Moving to Dickinson, North Dakota, real estate in Dickinson North Dakota, relocating to Dickinson North Dakota, what is Dickinson North Dakota Likename withheld

In order to display the character of the older section of downtown Dickinson, North Dakota, I am going to show photographs of houses in several blog posts.

The oldest section of downtown Dickinson is approximately twenty blocks wide east to west, and approximately twenty blocks long north to south.

The above photograph shows an older home that is located several blocks north of the courthouse. I would estimate that it was built between 1910 to 1935. It is not the most fancy or ornate of the older downtown homes, but it is very typical in size, style, and appearance. I took the photograph of this particular house, because I believe that this is an example of Colonial a.k.a. Georgian architecture, only done in a very minimal way.

(I had some difficulty in photographing homes in Dickinson. Neighbors across the street and down the block did not like me even coming to a stop, not even having gotten my camera out yet. I had to skip photographing some houses because there were too many people around, taking an interest in what I was doing before I even had a chance to photograph anything. I think that next time, I should probably notify the Dickinson Police ahead of time that I will be taking photos, because I am sure the police were called.)

Thwarted Romance In Dickinson, North Dakota

July 30, 2017UncategorizedLiving in Dickinson, North Dakota, meeting married women in Dickinson North Dakota, meeting women in Dickinson North Dakota, Moving to Dickinson, North Dakota, relocating to Dickinson North Dakota, what is Dickinson North Dakota Like, women in Dickinson North Dakotaname withheld

This past week I was at a bar, restaurant, gathering, or event in Dickinson, where I met more than several women. In order to tell this story, I have to be vague about who, what, when, and where.

The first group of women that were talking to me, were a little bit younger than me, fairly attractive, outgoing, positive, and kind of wild. They were talking to me and playing with me just to be nice and friendly. But, one of these three women came back by herself, and she wanted to talk to me some more. I will call her “Karen”, though that is not her real name.

As Karen started to like me more and more as we were talking, she stood beside me, and was pressing into me, so that I could not help but look down at her bare tan shoulders and breasts. I was noticing that she had no tan lines. Then I noticed that she had a pierced tongue, and she said, “Yes, everything is pierced.”

Karen had told me a lot about herself, and what she and her husband did for a living. I am 48 years old, and I know how married women become bored, and irritated with their husbands for any one of a thousand possible reasons. I didn’t have to ask about that, women are always mad at their husbands for something.

In this particular instance, Karen’s husband not being there with her, was his crime, and reason enough for her to go astray. The only obstacle, was that every single person there, knew that she was married. She was spending so much time up close with me, it was obvious to everyone that she was drunk and horny, but none of her male friends or female friends tried to stop her or come and get her. I thought that she would end up coming home with me, or me with her.

(Reminder, this is Dickinson, North Dakota, where the ratio of men to women is 3:1, and there is a scarcity of attractive women. The Dickinson Police will absolutely not allow prostitution, so if you want to be with an attractive woman, you have to borrow someone else’s wife.)

Karen was not ready to leave yet, it was still early. She wanted to drink more, and she proceeded to do so. All the better for me, I thought.

Then, somebody else’s wife came over to me and started talking to me. I will call her “Laurie”, though that is not her real name. Laurie was even more mad at her husband than Karen was. Laurie was not drunk, just mad. As Laurie started talking with me, she began to like me even more than Karen did.

I was happy to talk to some woman who liked me, who wasn’t drunk. Laurie began to push up against me, and I could not help but notice what nice tan breasts she had. Everyone there knew that Laurie was married, but none of her male friends or female friends tried to stop her, or come and get her.

Then Karen came over, Karen and Laurie knew each other. Karen was much more drunk by then, and Laurie was not completely nice to Karen, kind of trying to get Karen to go away, which she did. Laurie’s husband was supposedly in the immediate vicinity, whereas Karen’s husband was at least sixty miles away.

It would have been better for me to go home with Karen, because Karen’s husband was much farther away, and Karen was drunk. However, Karen soon became so drunk, that having sex with her would have been illegal. If I would not have been talking to Laurie, I could have gotten Karen to leave sooner. It may have been Laurie talking to me for so long, that made Karen decide to go ahead and get too drunk to have sex.

Laurie came back over to talk to me again, complaining to me that her husband was a drunken mess. I saw her husband finally, he was the biggest, tallest, most muscular guy there. I thought to myself, “Jesus Christ you crazy woman, what are you trying to do, get me killed.” Her husband was about four or five inches taller than me, and about fifty pounds heavier than me, and he looked like a bully and a thug. And his wife has been talking to me and rubbing up against me for quite a while.

I had thought for sure that I was going home with an attractive, drunk, horny woman, but now instead it looked like I was going to get beat up. I thought, “Man, I just want to go home now.” It would be O.K. with me if I never saw these people again.

The Lower Middle Class Neighborhoods In Dickinson Are Nicer Than The Upper Middle Class Neighborhoods In Idaho

July 29, 2017Uncategorizedguide to Dickinson North Dakota, Living in Dickinson, North Dakota, Moving to Dickinson, North Dakota, relocating to Dickinson North Dakota, residential neighborhoods in Dickinson North Dakota, what is Dickinson North Dakota Likename withheld

In my previous blog post, I described and explained that the lower middle class neighborhoods in Dickinson, North Dakota are very attractive and well maintained, more so than the upper middle class neighborhoods in Dickinson.

I have lived in Dickinson, North Dakota for approximately five years now. Prior to this, I lived in the Snake River Valley of southeastern Idaho, Rexburg, Rigby, Idaho Falls, Blackfoot, Pocatello for five years. This area of Idaho is predominantly Mormon.

If you know anything about Mormons, you know that they try to be neat, clean, and tidy in everything they do. So it should seem not possible that the lower middle class neighborhoods in Dickinson, North Dakota would be nicer than the middle class and upper middle class neighborhoods in Idaho. But this is the case, and I want to explain why. I want to describe this so that people in Dickinson and everywhere else in the United States can understand what was going on economically.

During the North Dakota oil boom that began in 2007, the housing prices in Dickinson doubled and tripled in just a few years. The Dickinson homeowners suddenly had a great deal of equity in their homes, which could be borrowed against for home repair, renovation, improvement, and additions. In contrast, the home values in Idaho went down.
During the North Dakota oil boom that began in 2007, many or most of the blue collar workers in Dickinson had their pay double, mostly because of regularly working many overtime hours. This extra money was used by Dickinson homeowners to pay for repairs, renovations, improvements, and additions. In contrast, during this same time in Idaho the economy was in a recession, with many people losing their jobs, and there being a scarcity of jobs.
In North Dakota during the oil boom, especially in Dickinson, there were many families living in town who began receiving money dispersements from oil wells on family owned property outside of town. It was very, very common in Dickinson, that a grandparent would receive oil revenue checks every month, and be able to give every adult child, and every grandchild several thousand dollars, or more, each year during the oil boom. Many families in Dickinson put this extra money into home repairs, renovations, improvements, and additions. In contrast, in Idaho during this time many people had their homes foreclosed on for lack of having a job and a means to make their mortgage payments.
In North Dakota during the oil boom, homeowners in Dickinson finished off their homes with additions, sun rooms, decks, fences, new garages, and new driveways. In Idaho during this time, many new homes that were being completed never had decks, driveways, sprinkler systems, or landscaping put in because people did not have the money to pay for these things.

Right now in Dickinson in the lower middle class neighborhoods, it would not be an exaggeration to say that there is a new $50,000 truck in every driveway, because in some driveways there are two of them, and some are $60,000. In Idaho, most doctors, dentists, and lawyers do not own trucks or vehicles as expensive as the new four-door, four wheel drive, lifted, 3/4 ton-1 ton trucks that are prevalent in the lower middle class neighborhoods in Dickinson.

Don’t try to come to Dickinson now! The oil boom is over. There is a scarcity of jobs in Dickinson now, with a strong hiring preference for people who are from Dickinson. You missed it. But if you would have been here, the least expensive old one bedroom apartments rented for $1,500 per month, if you could even find one available. The homes in the lower middle class neighborhoods got up to $250,000 to $400,000, so you would not have been living in one of these homes.