The Montanan's problem with outsiders moving in.. (Missoula, Columbia Falls: luxury, taxes)
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I've basically lived in every section of the US and have also visited the other places I haven't seen. No place is perfect and no place has everything a person may need or want. Montana is an incredible place to live...depending upon which town you choose. Personally I only like Bigfork and visiting Glacier - the rest of the state is pretty much lacking. It's also a great state to do business and not too expensive to live compared to many other states, though the job market is terrible right now. The upside is that MT stays pretty consistent with it's economy, the downside is that when it does get hit, it takes a very long time to recover.
I'm originally from California but lived many other places before coming to MT and I've never had any problems with the "locals". To be honest, it's the outsiders that keep this state going - without the tourism my favorite town of Bigfork would shrivel up. So long as someone coming in respects the area then there isn't a problem. Have "outsiders" raised housing prices? Of course, but that's inevitable anywhere and you either find a way to deal with it and stop complaining or find another place to live.
Again, the northwestern part of MT is absolutely beautiful, but I don't see how any person who has not actually lived in MT for any length of time, can make any type of judgment. Personally I think the entire middle portion of the US is worthless - but hey, to each their own.
without the tourism my favorite town of Bigfork would shrivel up.
Rather an indictment of the local economy... if you rely on tourism for that, you're dependent on other people from far away having disposable income. Not a solid bet.
"The difference is, people in CA have flung up their hands and given up, and as a result the swarms continue to arrive and consume like locusts, and everything that used to be worth having has been paved over or restricted. Conversely, Montana is still in a position to halt the infestation before it totally ruins the MT way of life."
Oh so truly stated. I was once a native of the REAL N.Cal but it too became a tourist trap and a last resort for the almost rich when the moratorium on Tahoe came to be. Then there went leaving the kids, keys and shopping in the car to locking everything you own, being very careful to what was said in fear of "offending" or reprisal. Then also came the employment for those who were working under "El Heffy" and jobs lost to our young who had summer employment at one time. Then came drugs, theft, increase in welfare. To NOW there is nothing in the town but welfare recipients and closed businesses. Oh but the rich still have their golf courses and big homes. Humm, class system? Also it was stated many years ago, forgot by whom, that Mexico was taken by the US and now they in turn would get back their land one way or another by populating it back into control? That was said 30 years ago!! Hummm? Calif, AZ, TX, N Mexico, oh gee...I love MT, ID and Wyoming...they are the true United States based on the original Constitution. Our rights are trying to be taken away, be we still can keep them!!
I've basically lived in every section of the US and have also visited the other places I haven't seen. No place is perfect and no place has everything a person may need or want. Montana is an incredible place to live...depending upon which town you choose. Personally I only like Bigfork and visiting Glacier - the rest of the state is pretty much lacking. .... To be honest, it's the outsiders that keep this state going - without the tourism my favorite town of Bigfork would shrivel up. So long as someone coming in respects the area then there isn't a problem. Have "outsiders" raised housing prices? Of course, but that's inevitable anywhere and you either find a way to deal with it and stop complaining or find another place to live.
Again, the northwestern part of MT is absolutely beautiful, but I don't see how any person who has not actually lived in MT for any length of time, can make any type of judgment. Personally I think the entire middle portion of the US is worthless - but hey, to each their own.
"- the rest of the state is pretty much lacking"?!? My goodness how narrow-sighted and plastic this thought is. There is so much more to Montana than the little slice of pudd'n you live in and yet, because they don't cater to the high income Californian, you look down your nose at us. I'm sorry, but this is exactly the type of person we want to export out of Montana post-haste.
"The entire middle portion of the US is worthless". Obviously you are a fine quality person and buy your food at the grocery store and care little for the needs of farmers. The vast majority of food oils, corn, wheat, barley, dairy, meat and fish all come from that "middle portion of the US". I realize that Californians get all their food from the grocery store but the sad part is that all the grocery stores get the majority of their food from the middle portion of the US. Maybe you stock up on that Chinese salmon they sell at Target so you don't need to worry about the Gulf oil spill.
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Last edited by ElkHunter; 06-08-2010 at 11:30 AM..
Reason: Insulting and baiting. Be nice.
Personally I think the entire middle portion of the US is worthless - but hey, to each their own.
So, I gather you don't eat meat or grain products, and never wear cotton or wool?? Me, I like my meat and bread and beer, and my wool hat and my cotton jeans.
We can survive without pretty mountains and white-collar jobs. We don't do so well without food and the folks who work with their hands to produce it.
I love Montana. I went to school in Montana. I'm from California and would move to Montana in a heart-beat....but for one big thing, too damn many Yuppies and other mutants from California live there now. They ruined CA and now they export that "ruin" with their demented politics...spreading it were ever they go...
I went to get an education in MT mostly to get away from CA's craziness and was saddened beyond belief to see how it's changed from when I was there 20 some odd years ago....to now...and I'm glad I decided to move to another "non-Khali-phorn-icated" state...which shall remain nameless because I don't want it getting "discovered" by Californians....(many of which aren't even from CA themselves)
Nope....it's a sad day for Montana, one of the poorest states in the Union to have BoBo's from Marin County or LA, dripping with dollars move there and fence off the land....and go strolling down the street in their mink coats...walking their lamas....You couldn't PAY me to live in Western Montana...
Happy Cells, you hit the nail on the head. Hubby and I found out within 2 weeks of moving here how it's almost Cali-forn-i-cated !!! Yikes!! Granola take over. We're heading to AK
Happy Cells, you hit the nail on the head. Hubby and I found out within 2 weeks of moving here how it's almost Cali-forn-i-cated !!! Yikes!! Granola take over. We're heading to AK
Sometimes a person thinks we need a Great Wall along the Continental Divide
I love Montana. I went to school in Montana. I'm from California and would move to Montana in a heart-beat....but for one big thing, too damn many Yuppies and other mutants from California live there now. They ruined CA and now they export that "ruin" with their demented politics...spreading it were ever they go...
I went to get an education in MT mostly to get away from CA's craziness and was saddened beyond belief to see how it's changed from when I was there 20 some odd years ago....to now...and I'm glad I decided to move to another "non-Khali-phorn-icated" state...which shall remain nameless because I don't want it getting "discovered" by Californians....(many of which aren't even from CA themselves)
Nope....it's a sad day for Montana, one of the poorest states in the Union to have BoBo's from Marin County or LA, dripping with dollars move there and fence off the land....and go strolling down the street in their mink coats...walking their lamas....You couldn't PAY me to live in Western Montana...
this is silly; montana is a hugh state so "outsiders" haven't ruined it but they have zeroed in on bozeman and kalispell so i agree that they have significantly impacted those areas. but there's still A lot of montana left. billings, helena, are two areas very much worth looking at. so this thread is not reflecting how the vast majority of montana is like. and i'm not worried about the areas outside of where the yuppies are attracted to; because they won't bother with billings and the rest of montana. i escaped california some years ago and have deliberatly stayed away from californiacated areas. i first went to southern oregon; and yeap there they were passing new laws and trippling property values in less then two years, then, northern idaho; same; then southerwestern wyoming; and they had contaminated that area too. so billings is safe from them. too boring for them.
I moved to Montana about twelve years ago from Oklahoma simply because
I got tired of the prairies and wanted a change of scenery; not because I was running away from anything.
As soon as I got here I was determined to adopt the Montana way of life because I always hated hearing other transplants saying "Well, we did it like this back in (enter state here)." My standard answer for that is "if it was so great back there then why did you leave?" or "the highway goes both directions, you know."
Every American has a right to live in any state he chooses. The problem I've noticed with many transplants is that they tend to be running away from something; e.g. high taxes, restricted lifestyle, poor schools, etc. yet instead of adopting the lifestyle of their new home they try to change it via voting into exactly the place they ran away from.
Because of the lousy job market, Montana isn't necessarily a place you just accidentally wind up in. You came here for a reason. And to any prospective transplants I would only say to please remember why you came here and to try fit in and maintain that special feeling you found when you got here.
Even though I've only been here a relatively short time most people I know and meet think that I'm a native Montanan (for some reason they don't hear my southern accent ) and as a result I feel included... not excluded as an "out-of-stater."
As for the California bashing... well... quite a bit of it is deserved for reasons already mentioned by others in this thread. But I know a lot of former Californians that are wonderful, honest, down-to-earth people. You'd never know they weren't born in Montana because they understand what a special place this is and want to keep it that way.
The advice I would give anyone choosing to find a new home, in any state, would be to learn it, love it, or leave it and never ever say "well, we used to do it this way back in..."
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) and as a result I feel included... not excluded as an "out-of-stater." 
