Browning (Billings, Missoula, Great Falls: crime, mortgage, homes)

[SWCMale]

Or, you could also put an application in for the Glacier Park, if it dosn't work out in Browning, you'll know pretty quick I would imagine....

Pray God you don't get hurt...

I once moved out of state, didn't visit first, was back home in a month. Cost more doing that than if I would of visited.

[AQHA]

well I have not been to Browning but after reading this thread I want to!!! Why has everybody been there but me?! This place sounds like hell. Im going to get in the truck and drive up there this spring and see if its as bad as you guys say. I really am. I better not let my wife read this thing, she wont dare get out of the truck.

[northmtgal]

I am saddened to hear how people are talking about Browning. I have lived and worked in Browning for almost 20 years and I love it. At one point I moved to a town near Billings and missed Browning so much that I moved back. Yes, the weather can be horrendous (100+ mph winds, temp. below -20 or above 100...but only maybe once a year.) You also need to adapt to living in a high poverty area, and all that goes with that (crime, drugs, alcoholism, trash, etc.) However, the people in Browning are wonderful, and the area around Browning is beautiful. We don't have many businesses or much "entertainment," but if you love to ski, snowmobile, hike, ride horses, etc. then Browning would be a perfect fit.

[MHT]

I too am saddened to hear some of the comments about Browning. Yes, it is economically depressed, cold in the winter, and windy but the people there are great. I have never been afraid to get gas by myself there. I have never been in a fight there. I made great friends when I worked there and have kept in touch with them for many years. I go back a couple of times a year to visit and hope to move back to the area in the future.

[NYMTman]

To be fair, pretty much the entire state is poor and economically depressed, including Missoula and Bozeman, when compared to the Northeast or coastal California. So it's all relative, really.

[MontanaGuy]

To be fair, pretty much the entire state is poor and economically depressed, including Missoula and Bozeman, when compared to the Northeast or coastal California. So it's all relative, really.

I think you're right about that but this brings up the argument that we've seen on so many different threads. Growth tends to bring prosperity, jobs and a better economy but it also brings all of the associated problems. A great many people on this forum tend to be opposed to growth and want to keep things the same. I've always felt that little growth is going to result in stagnation and a lower standard of living. That's a pretty accurate description of conditions in Montana today. There's a few counties in Montana that actually are as poor as some of the areas in Mississippi according to census data. Montana as a state does a very poor job of bringing in new industry and jobs. South Dakota has done a much better job and it is more prosperous. Unfortunately, Montana, Wyoming and North Dakota are in the worst economic condition of all the western states.

[JoeJoeMan]

Montanaguy wrote:

Growth tends to bring prosperity, jobs and a better economy but it also brings all of the associated problems. A great many people on this forum tend to be opposed to growth and want to keep things the same. I've always felt that little growth is going to result in stagnation and a lower standard of living.

Sorry Montanaguy, but I couldn't disagree more. I actually use to think the same way, as a child, I thought as a child.............
But if that's the way you think, why not just start cutting down all the trees in montana and shipping them to china or japan, I'm sure they love the wood. And it would sure create more jobs and boost the economy around here. Well the reason we don't is obvious, you just don't start trashing the land and place where you live to make a buck. And 'growth' is the same way, we are, and make no mistake about it, trashing our beloved Montana to make a buck these days.
Actually montanaguy, why don't you just sell your house, property and all your belongs, afterall that would make a buck to for you, then you'd have lots of money, if money is what one is after. Because then you have money but then you'd have nothing else.
Besides, let's be frank here, simple, blunt and to the prove a point, housing, realestate and life was much more affordable here in Montana years ago before this 'growth' economy took hold. One didn't need much of a salary to make a living and buy a place even some acreage, do I have to remind you what it takes now to get a place and afford to live here, it's no wonder that montana is becoming more and more a playground for the rich or the 'house-rich' Californian.
Growth - our economy is now based on eating up what we use to love about our own state, physically and mentally, and in the process the real money is being made by a few, and the rest of us have been brainwashed and convinced that we are really all better off......it's an illusion.
If it's so good, why is it such a mess around here now, how come towns and governments can't keep up with all the problems it's creating, how come you feel like you are taking your life in your hands everytime you drive 93 now, how come your fishing hole has 6 boats in it now, and that little piece of montana lakefront property really is a "montana dream", because for what it will cost you, a dream is about as close as you'll ever come to it, and who cares if your ma and pa store was put out of business by Wally-Mart, it's good for the economy, we can move lots of new people in to work there, and we can build more and more stacks of those chicken coop houses for them to live in, and then when they have kids and can't afford to live on those cheap salaries we can put them on welfare and raise taxes, just like they do in the big cities...............and on and on and on........yea growth is wonderfull, so have at it mr montanaguy, get whatever you can get while you can get it.......the rest of us, well we're all just backward and stupid, living in the past, lamenting the simple life, perhaps it's our education or perhaps the lack of it, but we'll wakeup someday and we'll all have the likes of you to thank for our new found and wonderfull prosperity... someday..yea someday, they always promise that don't they ? Someday it's all gonna' be better, it's all for the better...........but it never seems to work out that way does it, does it ?

[MontanaGuy]

Growth - our economy is now based on eating up what we use to love about our own state, physically and mentally, and in the process the real money is being made by a few, and the rest of us have been brainwashed and convinced that we are really all better off......it's an illusion.

JJM, I think you're looking at growth in the most negative sense of the word. You don't have to destroy your land, heritage and culture to be prosperous. Young people in many parts of Montana have no future, no prospects of employment and nothing is improving so when they get out of high school they pack up and move to someplace like Denver or Minneapolis where they can actually work for a living. My concept of growth is not the wholesale destruction of the state, it's about finding the right kind of industries and businesses that can make Montana prosper again. I don't feel good seeing my home state becoming the Mississippi of the west but that's what's happening. I talked about how South Dakota is doing a better job and I'm referring to companies like Dell Computers who were drawn to that state because it's supportive of business. That doesn't hurt South Dakota, it helps it. Like it or not we live in a free enterprise society and it takes planning and initiative to make it work. Unfortunately, Montana is doing a very poor job of it and it has a weak economy as a result. I know your heart is in the right place and you mean well but it would be wise to consider other options than zero growth, that just doesn't work in the twenty first century.

[MontanaGuy]

Just an update to my previous post. I meant to say Gateway Computers, not Dell. For some reason it doesn't want to let me edit my message today.

[JoeJoeMan]

Montanaguy wrote:

it's about finding the right kind of industries and businesses that can make Montana prosper again. I don't feel good seeing my home state becoming the Mississippi of the west but that's what's happening. I talked about how South Dakota is doing a better job and I'm referring to companies like Dell Computers who were drawn to that state because it's supportive of business. That doesn't hurt South Dakota, it helps it. Like it or not we live in a free enterprise society and it takes planning and initiative to make it work. Unfortunately, Montana is doing a very poor job of it and it has a weak economy as a result. I know your heart is in the right place and you mean well but it would be wise to consider other options than zero growth, that just doesn't work in the twenty first century.

I think you are living in a fantasy...if you beleive that......I've been hearing that same sad argument for the last 30 years, from folks like you, economist, business leaders and politicians local and state alike..........there's only one problem............I HAVEN"T SEEN ANY OF IT YET, all I see is the same stuff we all see, big box stores and sparwl, sprawl, spraw, that's their real idea of growth, that story about "we want to attract good companies with good pay", (with very few excepts) is a FANTASY, ISN"T THAT OBVIOUS !
Give it up already I wasn't born yesterday ! And I don't think alot of people reading this were either.