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You know fitting into a new town has a lot to do with the attitude you have going in. If you want to move somewhere and start changing things then don't be suprised if you do not feel very welcome. You may want to ask yourself why you chose to move there in the first place. If you want someplace to be like where you used to live then why leave?
Montana is a beautiful state. Don't change a thing. There are enough homes for sale to pick from, no need to build it up. We actually considered a move there but with ailing family members we thought best to stay put for now. I was disappointed but family is a priority.
Some things an average working person can do to get things back on track:
1. vote (although the higher the level of office, the less impact your vote will have...BUT that means the lower the level of office, the greater the impact your vote will have!)
2. use your money wisely...go to a local restaurant instead of McD's, a smaller drugstore instead of a chain, a local store instead of a Walmarts
3. don't talk on the cell phone while driving and drive 5 miles UNDER the speed limit...
4. grow a garden and be with family for entertainment, instead of competition shopping
5. Be happy and relaxed, and when others see this, they will ask how you attained that peace, and maybe they will do the same
BE the change you want to see
Quote:
Originally Posted by Reziac
I really don't know. In L.A. County, the only way to have any influence is to put the biggest bri^H^H^H campaign contribution into the County Supervisors' war chests. The upshot is that big developers and moneyed special interests do whatever the hell they want, while everyone else is SOL. My own state senator is horrified by some of the crap that goes on (he's one of the very few in CA state gov't who is actively fighting AB1634 (http://www.petpac.net/BillQandA/ - broken link), which is a hideous negation of our Constitutional rights), but he's a lone voice in the wilderness, and there's not enough money in his district to influence anything.
We've entered an era of unprecedented greed, precipitated by unprecedented profits (seems like the more money someone makes, the more money they feel the NEED to make). The last time something like this happened was during the rise of the big industrialists in the late 1800s, but even tho they mercilessly exploited anything in reach, most of them built something that ultimately had long-term benefits to more than just themselves, by spawning industries that employed millions for decades (indeed, until the unions made them unprofitable). By contrast, the new McRanch culture has short-term benefits to the initial seller and the construction companies, but that's where the benefit ends. And meanwhile, it damages and eventually destroys the culture and economy for existing residents -- but no one with the power to stop the process (read: money) cares about that.
If you look at the stock market, the same thing is happening there. Founding partners have pretty much aged out, so companies are now run by managers with business degrees but no experience at actually building a business. So formerly-excellent companies are gutted to ensure that the costs are reduced yet again so the almighty bottom line will look "improved" to shareholders for the next quarter or two (a direct effect of being legally obligated to shareholders first and foremost). If that means they fire all their employees, outsource everything, and import shoddy goods instead of making their own products, oh well, it made Wall Street happy for another quarter, and that's all the new school of management cares about! (And if the company goes under next year because all the customers have left in disgust -- oh well! by then the new crop of MBAs will have collected their golden parachutes and moved on to gut another company.) Used to be that stability and a steady dividend was right and good. Now, the only thing that counts is how much "growth" and "cost savings" you can demonstrate.
I really don't know what to do about it -- we can try all we like to save our way of life and all that happens is we find ourselves without the resources to do anything, sometimes not even the resources to continue living in the modest manner to which we're accustomed. It's really quite depressing.
Some things an average working person can do to get things back on track:
1. vote (although the higher the level of office, the less impact your vote will have...BUT that means the lower the level of office, the greater the impact your vote will have!)
2. use your money wisely...go to a local restaurant instead of McD's, a smaller drugstore instead of a chain, a local store instead of a Walmarts
3. don't talk on the cell phone while driving and drive 5 miles UNDER the speed limit...
4. grow a garden and be with family for entertainment, instead of competition shopping
5. Be happy and relaxed, and when others see this, they will ask how you attained that peace, and maybe they will do the same
BE the change you want to see
Pretty much what I do....
I always vote, and always for the fiscal conservatives, who generally wind up conserving everything else, too. (If you ever see George Runner from Lancaster CA running for national office, consider voting for the guy -- he's about as good as you'll find in a small-gov't, leave us the hell alone, don't waste our tax money, preserve our rights kind of guy, who would probably never have aspired above the State Assembly if the new term limits law hadn't forced local voters to kick him upstairs to the State Senate. We then voted in his wife into the State Assembly! I don't agree with him totally, but so far he's overall one of the best I've seen.)
I'm seldom in a rush to get anywhere... where I'm going ain't gonna get up and run off! If you want to drive faster, yonder is the freeway.
I don't even own a cell phone. (Well, I have some hardware, but no account.)
I eat at Crazy Otto's (local greasy spoon), not Denny's.
But we few lone voices crying in the wilderness avail nothing against the tide of speed and greed. And my preservationist actions don't stop the developer next door -- he can plunk $30k into the county commissioner's re-election war chest, and can promise the county NN-millions in increased property tax revenues for each housing tract; I can only promise one vote, for or against. Guess which of us gets their way??
But we few lone voices crying in the wilderness avail nothing against the tide of speed and greed. And my preservationist actions don't stop the developer next door -- he can plunk $30k into the county commissioner's re-election war chest, and can promise the county NN-millions in increased property tax revenues for each housing tract; I can only promise one vote, for or against. Guess which of us gets their way??
I moved to the Bitterroot Valley over a year ago from California. I would call myself the humble, keep to myself type, that respects those who have been here long before me. I am a registered voter, and consider myself a responsible gun owner, and I advocate hunting rights, and people's private properties, and fishing areas. What I mean is, I believe in keeping off of people's lands rather than invading them without permission. I also moved here with the intent that I didn't want to change a thing about this area, since I loved it as I had remembered it.
I've also lived in the midwest, Alaska, and the dakotas.
When I first visited Missoula, it was in 1997. It certainly didn't have a starbucks! Or some of what has been built on South Reserve. I was quite surprised, and, quite saddened to see all of those changes when I came up here again.
The area is rapidly changing. And as a former Californian, I can see that Missoula is turning into another mini Berkeley. Now, I have nothing against anyone at all and how they live their lives, but does Missoula need people who look as if they haven't had a bath in a year or two, sitting on street corners, banging their drums? Does it need fancy coffee houses and over priced sandwich and wraps shops that I really cannot afford?
Whatever Missoula had or was so many years ago, is disappearing and replaced by a mix of wannabe hippies, and corporate chains. Someone please tell me why we have a hooters? It's not a place me or my family would care to frequent. lol I guess I'm a little old fashioned. I just find it distasteful.
I find it sad that locals can't buy a home, thanks to the real estate/big corporate buyers who play the flipping game.
My husband and I won't be living in Montana for the rest of our lives. More than likely once he graduates we will be leaving. I'm not sure I can be happy here, because it's so changed. I don't want all of the corporate stuff around me, or the hectic gridlock traffic. If I wanted this, I could have stayed in Ca.
When I first moved here last year, I met so many friendly people... but it seems lately this past summer, all I run into are rude, pushy, crabby people. The, "get outta my way" types. Please don't get me started on the rude parents I keep encountering at the Mc donald's play place. Maybe I just don't fit in. And then it struck me.... those people have alot of the Californian attitude one encounters there often. And I'm so not like that. Not even when I lived in Ca.
That was kind of the whole thing we wanted to get away from to begin with.
The drivers on the road scare me half to death sometimes. On the way to my doctor appointment, someone made it a point to ride our tail gate pushing 80, couldn't pass us, we had to hit our breaks and he had to swerve to the shoulder to avoid crashing into us. Then he catches up to us, honks his horn and flips us off.
Yeah, this is definitely not what I expected to find up here.
The drivers on the road scare me half to death sometimes. On the way to my doctor appointment, someone made it a point to ride our tail gate pushing 80, couldn't pass us, we had to hit our breaks and he had to swerve to the shoulder to avoid crashing into us. Then he catches up to us, honks his horn and flips us off.
Yeah, this is definitely not what I expected to find up here.
I think a lot of the transplants are so addicted (even if unwillingly) to the hectic pace of California life, that they are unable to adapt to a slower-paced, lower-key lifestyle like the old Montana. And they become stressed when trying to cope with the difference -- and then they take it out on others, as you saw.
Maybe we need halfway houses for transplants, where they can learn to live without their addiction to that hectic lifestyle. Once they've calmed down, then we can turn them loose on society.
I moved to the Bitterroot Valley over a year ago from California. I would call myself the humble, keep to myself type, that respects those who have been here long before me. I am a registered voter, and consider myself a responsible gun owner, and I advocate hunting rights, and people's private properties, and fishing areas. What I mean is, I believe in keeping off of people's lands rather than invading them without permission. I also moved here with the intent that I didn't want to change a thing about this area, since I loved it as I had remembered it.
I've also lived in the midwest, Alaska, and the dakotas.
When I first visited Missoula, it was in 1997. It certainly didn't have a starbucks! Or some of what has been built on South Reserve. I was quite surprised, and, quite saddened to see all of those changes when I came up here again.
The area is rapidly changing. And as a former Californian, I can see that Missoula is turning into another mini Berkeley. Now, I have nothing against anyone at all and how they live their lives, but does Missoula need people who look as if they haven't had a bath in a year or two, sitting on street corners, banging their drums? Does it need fancy coffee houses and over priced sandwich and wraps shops that I really cannot afford?
Whatever Missoula had or was so many years ago, is disappearing and replaced by a mix of wannabe hippies, and corporate chains. Someone please tell me why we have a hooters? It's not a place me or my family would care to frequent. lol I guess I'm a little old fashioned. I just find it distasteful.
I find it sad that locals can't buy a home, thanks to the real estate/big corporate buyers who play the flipping game.
My husband and I won't be living in Montana for the rest of our lives. More than likely once he graduates we will be leaving. I'm not sure I can be happy here, because it's so changed. I don't want all of the corporate stuff around me, or the hectic gridlock traffic. If I wanted this, I could have stayed in Ca.
When I first moved here last year, I met so many friendly people... but it seems lately this past summer, all I run into are rude, pushy, crabby people. The, "get outta my way" types. Please don't get me started on the rude parents I keep encountering at the Mc donald's play place. Maybe I just don't fit in. And then it struck me.... those people have alot of the Californian attitude one encounters there often. And I'm so not like that. Not even when I lived in Ca.
That was kind of the whole thing we wanted to get away from to begin with.
The drivers on the road scare me half to death sometimes. On the way to my doctor appointment, someone made it a point to ride our tail gate pushing 80, couldn't pass us, we had to hit our breaks and he had to swerve to the shoulder to avoid crashing into us. Then he catches up to us, honks his horn and flips us off.
Yeah, this is definitely not what I expected to find up here.
Exactly what we've been seeing for the past year or so off and on here.
Looking at felon spy and then googling the names that popped up a friend of mine at work found 32 felons convicted of Gang crimes in California all living now in Belgrade, MT. Also 40 rape, molestation, sodomy and incest convictions, where 16 were convicted in CA, 8 in WA, 4 in OR, 3 from GA, 4 from FL and 5 from MT.
I think a lot of the transplants are so addicted (even if unwillingly) to the hectic pace of California life, that they are unable to adapt to a slower-paced, lower-key lifestyle like the old Montana. And they become stressed when trying to cope with the difference -- and then they take it out on others, as you saw.
Maybe we need halfway houses for transplants, where they can learn to live without their addiction to that hectic lifestyle. Once they've calmed down, then we can turn them loose on society.
Looking at felon spy and then googling the names that popped up a friend of mine at work found 32 felons convicted of Gang crimes in California all living now in Belgrade, MT. Also 40 rape, molestation, sodomy and incest convictions, where 16 were convicted in CA, 8 in WA, 4 in OR, 3 from GA, 4 from FL and 5 from MT.
Remember that "sodomy" usually means nothing more than "ordinary gay sex". It's no longer a crime in most states.
Anyone up in arms about "molestation" needs to read about the McMartin Preschool case, a good example of how out of hand accusations can get, and how easy it can be to get a conviction based on faulty evidence:
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interesting
