And that is during rush hour. No jockeying for position on gridlocked freeways, no rude gestures or stress-filled commutes. Forget something at home? You've got time to go back and get it. Want to eat lunch at home? No problem. In fact, with the national average commute being 25 minutes, you'll gain 40 minutes of time in your day. It may take you a while to shake your old driving habits and attitudes, but you'll find it a welcome change.

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Grand Forks is still the kind of community where people leave the doors unlocked and the car running while they stop off on an errand. While we're certainly not immune to crime, only 16 cities in the country have a lower violent crime rate than we do, and we rank 13th lowest of 118 cities our size. There is real sense of community here, where everyone watches out for everyone else, and where honesty is the rule rather than the exception.

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We value education as students, teachers, and community, and it shows. Our teachers and schools consistently rank at or near the top rankings for school performance and quality. In fact, Expansion Magazine ranked the public schools in Grand Forks 14 out of 362 metro areas in the nation in 2006. Only nine states as a whole score higher than North Dakota for 4th and 8th grade national performance assessments in math and science. Our students are bright and motivated; the average IQ score for students in North Dakota (from the SAT and ACT tests) is 102, higher than all but Massachusettes, Oregon, & Wisconsin (103) and New Hampshire (104), and 81% of our students are college bound. We also have the lowest high school drop-out rate in the nation, and twenty-eight percent of Grand Forks residents have a four-year or a graduate degree, compared to 24% nationally. You'll learn from and with some of the best and brightest at UND.

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Natives of Grand Forks don't know how unusual it is to find a place that has such a strong work ethic, sense of responsibility, and genuine desire to help others. Those who've lived elsewhere truly appreciate the friendliness they find in the people here. This is manifested in so many ways and so uniformly that it has simply become "the way things are." If you need directions, they're as close as the person standing next to you. If a store doesn't have what you're looking for in stock, chances are they will suggest another (competing) store and offer to call over to see if it is in stock to save you a trip. People genuinely want to do what they can to help out in Grand Forks, which is why there is still such a strong sense of community here.

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UND is a highly innovative research-driven university. Last year, UND brought in $300 million in research funding, which is more than our entire expenditures as an institution for the year before, and the trend is continuing. The new research and commercialization hub being created by the combined resources of the School of Aerospace Sciences, the 20,000 square foot Ina Mae Rude Entrepenuer Center, the Center for Innovation, the Skalicky Tech Incubator, and the Energy and Environmental Research Center already has UND positioned as the leader in the Red River Valley Research Corridor, and with new initiatives on the horizon like the Biocontainment Lab and the Center for Brain-Based Research, UND will join the ranks of the top research universities in the country.

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The Alerus Center is the largest sports, convention and entertainment facility of its kind in the upper Midwest. It boasts adjustable concert seating for anywhere from 5,000 to 22,000 people. This state-of-the-art facility has more than 145,000 square feet available for banquets, meetings, and exhibits with a variety of powerful sound system and presentation hook-ups. Already part of the national entertainment circuit with recent events like the IFMA Freestyle Motorcross, Motley Crue, Trace Adkins, the complex will soon be expanded to include a 192-room hotel, indoor water park, video arcade and three restaurants, wellness center, day spa and a theater complex.

But the Alerus Center is just one part of the entertainment scene in Grand Forks. There will soon be 36 movie screens in town, and the Chester Fritz Auditorium regularly hosts nationally known acts like Jerry Seinfeld, CATS, and the Saint Petersburg Ballet. Grand Forks is also home to the Ralph Engelstad Arena, which is a $100+ million sports and entertainment facility described by many as the "finest in the world." The 400,000 square foot arena has granite floors, leather and cherry wood seating, 48 luxury suites and two enormous club rooms featuring the longest freestanding bars in the state, a 10,000 sq. ft. weight room and underwater treadmill, fourteen locker rooms, and the extra Olympic Sheet of Ice. The REA has hosted the 2005 IIHF World Junior Hockey Championship, Tim McGraw, Kenny Chesney, Stars on Ice, Dennis Miller, the Minnesota Wild, Andy Roddick vs. Andre Agassi, and the NCAA Division II Elite 8 Basketball tournament.

The REA and Alerus Center are also host to the UND sports teams. Always a perennial contender, th football team won the NCAA Division title in 2002, and the women's basketball team won the Division II title in 1997. Of course, UND is best known for it's hockey team, which has been the Division I National Champion four different times, and is always at the top of its division. Many of the NHL teams recruit heavily from UND, and if you are a hockey fan, there is a good chance you've seen our alumni play.

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Grand Forks has four distinct seasons, which means we have opportunities for every sport and recreation activity you can imagine. In the winter, you can take advantage of our 3 cross-country ski trailheads with 8 to 10 miles of trails, our ten outdoor and three indoor ice-skating rinks, the curling rink that hosted the 2004 National Championship, 300 miles of snowmobile trails, and many opportunities for ice-fishing and snow-shoeing.

During the rest of the year, enjoy golf at one of our five public courses. The Arnold Palmer links-style King's Walk golf course is a championship caliber golfing experience. There are several other golf courses, including the newly redesigned 3000 yard 9-hole public course, and the 18-hole Valley Golf Course and 9-hole River Bend courses in East Grand Forks, all of which follow the Red River. UND has it's own 9 hole Ray Richards Golf Course just south of campus for a quick round between classes.

If biking is your passion, you'll appreciate the 19 miles of bike trails (also used for roller-blading, walking, and running) and the new 100 mile paved Grand Forks Rural Bicycle Loop beginning and ending in Grand Forks. We also have 8 outdoor tennis courts, two swimming pools, and more than 20 baseball and softball fields for those so inclined. There is enough to keep you active and fit year round in Grand Forks.

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Many people are surprised to find how many retail and dining opportunities there are in Grand Forks area. This is partly due to our neighbor across the river, East Grand Forks which together with Grand Forks comprises what we call the Grand Cities; we really have the resources of two small cities. We are also a major vacation destination for Winnipeg, Canada, which is just two hours north, so the market for shopping and dining is larger than our population might otherwise allow. The result of this is that there are 2,000 businesses in Grand Forks, both large and small, including JR Simplot, Ecolab, Young Manufacturing, Altru Health Systems and the University of North Dakota, as well as numerous banking and financial services concerns. The largest employer of the 30-business Industrial Park, Amazon.com, employs approximately 450 individuals within the community and region.

The Columbia Mall has a Sears, Marshall Fields, JC Penney, GAP, Waldenbooks, and dozens of other stores. Grand Forks is also home to well-known stores such as Best Buy, Office Max, Super Target, Bed Bath & Beyond, Lowes, Wal-Mart, Sam's Club, K-Mart, Cabela's & Scheels sporting goods stores, and Pier 1.

There are also plenty of restaurants in the Grand Cities, including of course at least one of every major fast food chain, three Starbuck's, a Caribou Coffee, and a Culver's frozen custard. Other well-known restaraunts include Applebees, Green Mill, Grizzly's Steakhouse, GF Goodribs, Perkins, Ponderosa, and The Village Inn. We also have a host of local favorites, including the Blue Moose, and Whitey's, both of which are part of the new restaraunt row on the Red River. Dozens of others run the gamut from the university student hangout Red Pepper, to the critically acclaimed gourmet dining at Sanders 1907.

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One of the least exepected attractions of Grand Forks lies in its geography. Like its Big Sky neighbor, Montana, the horizon in North Dakota stretches in an unbroken 360 degree panorama. This creates a sense of space and connection to the land not found in many other places in the country. It also makes a perfect backdrop for nature's unique lightshows in North Dakota. From spectacular sunsets, to the northern lights of the aurora borealis, to the unique "Sun Dogs," which appear during the day like a cross between rainbows and northern lights. And with the near zero light pollution, we have some of the best star-gazing opportunities you'll find anywhere, which is why we're building an observatory just west of town. Nobody who comes to North Dakota expects to fall in love with the landscape, but it happens just the same.

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10.

Yes, really; the weather. For many people, weather is the first thing they wonder about when they hear of Grand Forks. Yes, our winters are something to write home about, but so are our summers. Our average high during winter ranges from 15 to 34 from November to March, with the really cold months being late December to late February. But we know how to dress for it up here, and you'd be surprised at how comfortable you can be even in those temperatures.

And our summers are rarely more than 80 degrees, with our summer highs (from May to September) between 70 and 80 with a light breeze, and our summer nights between 44 and 60, making for perfect sleeping weather and no need for air conditioning.

Fall and spring round out our four distinct seasons in Grand Forks, with gorgeous color in the fall for crisp days that call out for football, a dramatic awakening of color in the spring. These seasons make for year-round sports and activities, including golf, intramural sports, hiking and camping, fishing, hunting, snowmobiling, biking, running, picnicing, cross country and downhill skiing, and curling. Read on to see what Grand Forks and UND have to offer!

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