Bozeman: is it really that bad anymore?

[Ought Six]

Bozeman, Montana: How to Ruin a Perfectly Good Mountain Town

Twenty years ago, I lived in a town named Bozeman, Montana. Sadly, it no longer exists. R.I.P. Bozeman

www.crazycanyonjournal.com

I haven’t spent much time in Bozeman since before it became what it is today. I avoid that place like the plague anymore, even the portion of the interstate passing through there has a different feel than the rest of the state.

Bozeman residents or people who spend a lot of time there, is it as bad as everyone says? What changes have you seen overtime?

 

[Speeddmn]

Also try to avoid it if needed. Living in Helena makes that easy but at times we do have to go to either Bozeangles or Missoula. Usually try to make a plan to get in and out!

 

[Flatbrimmer]

More rude self entitled people that expect you to hold the door but won’t do you the same courtesy. Drivers think where they are going is more important than where you are going. Businesses cater to the retired and wealthy, and wonder why nobody wants to work and everyone wants to spend. When I started renting it was $400 a month for a 2 bedroom. Now I’m paying 1800 for a 3 bedroom. My coworker is paying 2200 for a similar apartment. Development is eating away at every last piece of farmland, and the newcomers are utilizing every last piece of public land that would typically hold game, to walk their dogs and film for commercials and shoot their microwaves. Nobody waves in the county roads anymore, hunters want to beat you to a spot rather share information and work together. Stringers full of fish rolling down the riverbank and heads of elk cut off left to rot. All things I never saw much of 10-15 years ago.

 

[TOGIE]

i wonder when these articles are gonna start being written about Laramie.

 

[D_Walt]

Sounds like a terrible place…unless you already live somewhere worse - like 95% of the country’s population does.

 

[Beignet]

The article touches on the airport. Even more than the number of new direct commercial fights I’ve noticed the many multiples of private jets coming from high dollar places on BZN’s FAA arrival board. Seems like one of many indicators of the Jackson-ification of the area.

I need to finally read my copy of Billionaire Wilderness so I can draw a more informed comparison between the two places.

Important question, are there still dive bars left in town? Or is it all new shiny stuff?

 

[Flatbrimmer]

Important question, are there still dive bars left in town? Or is it all new shiny stuff?

They’re hardly open and when they are it’s weird hours. The people working them either been there since the beginning or less than a month.. haha this little fried pork chop place I love has gone under 5 owners since Ive lived here.. still the same food though, thankfully.

 

[Slim P]

It's a very expensive, "nice" mountain town. It's basically Boulder. If that's good or bad depends on what you're into. It's not to my taste (and I can't afford it), but if you make big money, appreciate the finer things, and like living in a community of similar people, I'm sure it's great. If you like dirtbags and weirdos and want it to be like it was in 1990, you're going to be sorely disappointed.

Edit: just took a quick look at the article and disagree with the author. The problem is not "growth", the problem is housing. People are what make a community, and if you want to keep it weird and interesting, weird and interesting people need to be able to live there.

 

[Hem]

It's a very expensive, "nice" mountain town. It's basically Boulder. If that's good or bad depends on what you're into. It's not to my taste (and I can't afford it), but if you make big money, appreciate the finer things, and like living in a community of similar people, I'm sure it's great. If you like dirtbags and weirdos and want it to be like it was in 1990, you're going to be sorely disappointed.

Can you elaborate your idea of a weirdo?
My memories of that time period don't recall a disturbing element. Populace made up mostly of ranching/agriculture/ working class/ University people with a really cool sub culture of hunting fanatics and outdoor people.

 

[Elktrack]

Important question, are there still dive bars left in town? Or is it all new shiny stuff?

Dive bars??
That’s a whole conversation there.
Dive bars used to be places filled with cigarette smoke, a jukebox and a shitty pool table. Places that you had to take a shower when you got home to get the smell off of you. Dollar bills stapled to the ceiling and some old posters and booze sings on the wall and pull tabs. A funky deer head or jackalope on the wall. A Place you could walk in with grease on your hands or smelling like form oil or deer blood under your fingernails and no one looked down their nose. Maybe a dog or two running around. The good ones had some kinda fried food if you were lucky.

Everything now is shiny. Gotta take a shower and get dressed up before you grab a beer now.

Not trying to hijack thread.
Dive bars are rare now.
Oughta start an Ode to the dive bar thread. Haha

 

[thefacilitator]

Sounds like a terrible place…unless you already live somewhere worse - like 95% of the country’s population does.

Ya I mean I don't doubt Bozeman is worse than it was 20 years ago (could be said for everywhere in the USA) but having said that there is a lot worse places you could end up in this country than MT.

The article title could be 20 years ago I lived in a place called The United States, sadly it no longer exists...

 

[Sytes]

10 years from now, the majority will maintain it's a great place to live, considering their original residence: California, New York, Florida, Washington, etc...

Basically, the main towns, now overrun cities, are the new Montana norm and politics evolve to conform.

 

[Slim P]

Can you elaborate your idea of a weirdo?
My memories of that time period don't recall a disturbing element. Populace made up mostly of ranching/agriculture/ working class/ University people with a really cool sub culture of hunting fanatics and outdoor people.

Probably a semantic argument. I mean it in the best possible way - people who are living outside of a straight-laced, 9 to 5: cowboys, ski bums, climbers, seasonal workers, things like that. I wasn't in Bozeman in the 90s so can't speak to the scene at the time, but at this point I mean anyone who isn't making 6 figures in tech or real estate.

 

[mtmuley]

Dive bars??
That’s a whole conversation there.
Dive bars used to be places filled with cigarette smoke, a jukebox and a shitty pool table. Places that you had to take a shower when you got home to get the smell off of you. Dollar bills stapled to the ceiling and some old posters and booze sings on the wall and pull tabs. A funky deer head or jackalope on the wall. A Place you could walk in with grease on your hands or smelling like form oil or deer blood under your fingernails and no one looked down their nose. Maybe a dog or two running around. The good ones had some kinda fried food if you were lucky.

Everything now is shiny. Gotta take a shower and get dressed up before you grab a beer now.

Not trying to hijack thread.
Dive bars are rare now.
Oughta start an Ode to the dive bar thread. Haha

I remember. And kind if miss it. mtmuley

 

[woods89]

Man, the Midwest looks better and better all the time. I think I'll just stay put...

 

[Big Sky Guy]

We moved to Bozeman in 2015 from Ohio. We rented a 2 (some could consider it 3 if you counted the attic/upstairs) bedroom cabin for $850/month. Pretty rustic/not nice but was perfect for us. I thought this was expensive coming from Ohio. We wanted to own our own home, but even with both of us working spending $300-$400k on a house was more than what we could afford but was the price of what we wanted around Bozeman. Even back then Bozeman had an odd feel to it, a community of people with no connection if that makes any sense.

Expanded our search radius to include Livingston and eventually Townsend. We bought our home in Townsend in 2016.

Fast forward to where we are today and as the author writes and the comment above housing is simply astronomical. I think there is going to be some interesting issues arise in the next decade with regards to “essential” workers he mentions (firefighters, emt’s, teachers, even nurses). It’s one thing to not be able to go to your favorite restaurant because they can’t get staff, a little different when your house is on fire or you have a heart attack and emergency personnel are unavailable. Maybe it will work itself out, I don’t know.

I was disappointed in what Bozeman was in 2015-2016 and the cost of housing pushed us to move. Our respite in Townsend seems to have only lasted 3 or 4 years. We were one of 4 houses on our 2 mile road and there is a subdivision just south of Toston that had 20 acre parcels for $60k when we bought and only one of those had a house on it. We joked with our friends and family that we were just getting ahead of the Bozeman wave. Never thought I would see it happen so fast though lol. All the lots on our road have sold, and that subdivision is full of maybe a dozen or so houses. North of Townsend on the flats is worse.

I don’t think this is just Bozeman. Even my hometown in Ohio housing prices have basically doubled.

Everyone wants to move to Montana but once here everyone wants to be the last one.

My neighbor told me the greatest separation of wealth in my generation (millennial) and younger is going to be who bought a house before 2020. Hope he’s wrong.

 

[Nameless Range]

I am currently in Orlando, Florida. Compared to this overpopulated hell scape,Bozeman is heaven.

Compared to Bozeman 30 years ago, Bozeman today is an uppity shit show.

Compared to a lot of other towns in Montana, it is a zoo to be avoided.

TLDR but longer:

Bozeman, and also big sky, moonlight basin, and the Yellowstone club areas to the south west of it, are probably the least Montana-ish places that exist within the state’s boundaries. But the most uppity and pretentious chunks of Montana are still a hell of a lot better than the majority of the United States of America.

 

[Sytes]

Missoula's Mo Club, Reds, Old Post... I sure hope they remain as they've been. I'd imagine the same is said for other town converting mega cities in MT. The Ox (Oxford), etc.

 

[Beignet]

Missoula's Mo Club, Reds, Old Post... I sure hope they remain as they've been. I'd imagine the same is said for other town converting mega cities in MT. The Ox (Oxford), etc.

Old Post done changed, sadly.

Rest of your list remains more or less the same though.

 

[The Hedgehog]

Bozeman’s that good. Which is why people are flocking here. It’s certainly changed over the years. For better or worse, mostly worse.