Rapid City’s Momentum And What’s At Stake
From: Meeting with the Mayor Dec. 5, 2025
Rapid City is in a rare moment of momentum. Growth is happening, jobs are expanding, families are choosing to stay, and new opportunities are finally within reach. But as Mayor Salamun said, momentum is fragile. It is hard to build and even harder to keep.
In his recent remarks, he laid out a clear-eyed view of where Rapid City stands today: our strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. One theme stood out above everything else:
If Rapid City wants to thrive, we have to choose growth, and we have to choose it intentionally
Our Strengths
A diversified economy driven by agriculture, tourism, military, tech, and healthcare
New employers and new industries taking root
A growing population that is choosing Rapid City as home
Our Challenges
Rapid City’s largest barrier is not demand. It is supply.
Housing supply. Infrastructure supply. Space for new commerce and new families.
From 2020 to 2024, over 10,000 new residents joined Rapid City. That growth is exciting, but it also strains systems that were built decades ago.
Our Opportunity
A year round visitor economy could fundamentally shift our tax burden away from residents. A sports complex alone brings families nearly every weekend. Pair that with the Destination District, an attraction that operates 12 months a year, and Rapid City gains:
More sales tax revenue
More property tax revenue
Better infrastructure at no cost to current taxpayers
It is simple: more visitors mean more revenue and less pressure on local families.
Our Threat
Losing our momentum.
Standing still while surrounding states invest aggressively in growth tools.
Letting a loud minority throttle long term progress.
Rapid City has a window, a narrow one, to set itself up for the next 50 years. The mayor made it clear:
“The entire state benefits when Rapid City succeeds.”
The mayor is right: The question is whether we seize this moment or let it pass
