In bold, black letters, ads ran up and down the pages of the Herald 25 years ago:
"One month free rent." "Free television." "Video recorder." "Microwave oven."
The ads were dangled by Grand Forks area landlords struggling to outbid each other to entice renters.
"There is an awful lot of competition now," said City Planner Bob Bushfield. "It is a consumer's market out there."
Renters, indeed, were gaining high ground in the rental market. A spate of building had resulted in an oversupply of rental units, while low mortgage interest rates and home buyer assistance programs enabled many former renters to become homeowners.
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"The incentives for renters won't reduce the vacancy rates," said Dave Beach of Northern Realty Management, a Grand Forks rental management firm.
"Instead," he said, "renters will leave one building for another offering a better deal."
In the previous four years, at least 72 multi-type dwellings holding almost 1,100 units had been developed in Grand Forks, according to the city engineering department.
Apartment owners said there were enough apartments to meet the needs for years to come. Bushfield said the city typically needed 225 to 250 new units a year to maintain a vacancy rate of 5 to 6 percent.
Also in June 1987, the USA Today Buscapade with Al Neuharth, chairman and founder of the national newspaper, visited North Dakota.
Gov. George Sinner boasted in the national newspaper of North Dakota's low crime rate, high literacy rate and good health care.
Angie Dickinson, who moved away as a young girl, said she remembered North Dakota as totally flat, USA Today reported. There were more short quotes about trustworthiness of North Dakota people and the harsh winters.
Neuharth dwelled on Teddy Roosevelt having spent time in the western part of the state and the story of Sitting Bull.
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A Herald reporter contended that Mr. Neuharth described the states of North and South Dakota as fierce rivals, when in reality, wrote the reporter, "they pay little attention to each other."
Other news in the Herald 25 years ago:
** Oil interest was picking up in North Dakota, according to Herald reporter Lance Nixon. Al Golden of Bismarck, president of Rocky Mountain Oil and Gas Association, said the increased interest in oil and gas leases was centered in Williams, Divide and McKenzie counties.
** Louis Murray, 72, announced he was retiring. He had served as mayor of East Grand Forks 16 years. He had been a state legislator and a railroad man. He was a Democrat and had been mayor for 16 years. The bridge over the Red Lake River in East Grand Forks bears his name.
** Mike Polovitz, 60, who later became mayor of Grand Forks, was first to put in his bid for the office. He had served five years on the City Council and had served on the Grand Forks School Board. He had retired in 1986 from his work as a professor of music at UND.
