DAKOTA COUNTRY
NOTEBOOK
Observations of life on the northern plains
T
Embracing Wilderness
The vast emptiness of western North Dakota swallows the little dramas of humanity like airplane peanuts .
-- Clay Jenkinson by Bill Mitzel
here are always ongoing surveys that question the best places to live in America . They ’ re all based on “ quality of life .”
For one person , quality of life may mean having a pizza shop next door . For another , it could mean being able to walk a block without getting mugged .
The top 10 “ best places to live ”, as noted recently by U . S . News & World Report , are all large cites , or at least fairly large . The Dakotas didn ’ t make the list . At the top in the recent survey was Naples , FL . Some years ago , places like New York City and Los Angeles were usually at or near the top . Imagine .
San Francisco , which used to be a model American city , is literally overrun with garbage , among other issues . According to a recent news segment on CBS , some 5,000 tons of trash are collected each day in San Francisco , most of it from city streets .
The good life
These cities all lack one commodity -- solitude . They ’ re crowded . Rarely in these surveys will we find people expressing a desire to live where outdoor activities are abundant . They want a house with a view of a lake or a mountain , but they never go there anyway .
Page 86 , Dakota Country , September 2024 www . dakotacountrymagazine . com