What's Wrong With Great Falls? (Billings, Missoula: job transfer, buying, good schools)

[dakota79]

As someone who has had to look at several Montana cities for a job transfer, I have been wondering what is the story behind Great Falls. I have been to Billings and Missoula, but not there.

Is there a reason this seems to be the only "large" city in the state that is not growing? The population is stagnant or gradually decreasing. Is something wrong with Great Falls?

Some posts I have read make it sound like a safe place with pretty good schools and reasonable prices. I know it gets kinda windy, but it is certainly not the worst weather in the state.

I know some have said that there aren't enough high paying jobs, but then people say that about every city in Montana.

Did something happen 10 or 20 years ago that determined Billings and Missoula would be the cities that would grow and Great Falls would not?

Do you think things can get better for Great Falls? Maybe it will get to the point where Great Falls will be the only place in Montana that poeple can afford with the way housing costs seem to be climbing in other parts.

As an outsider, I was just curious and looking for some insight.

[Reziac]

Well, as I said in some other post... growth bad; stable good. Growth means people getting pushed out and prices going up. Stable means same folks, same jobs, same prices all the time. What's not to like??

Yeah, you won't get rich without "growth". But when things are stable, you won't get poor if you didn't start that way, like happens when people get shoved aside by growth.

Anyway, that's my take on it. Myself, having lived in both stable and high-growth areas -- I'll take stable any day.

[MimzyMusic]

Great Falls is a military/industrial town traditionally, and it suffered from the decline of Malmstrom Air Force Base and the decline of industry. It has a Rust Belt feel uncommon in that area of the United States, I guess you can also point its decline to the decline of the Great Plains in general.

[grizzfan]

Great Falls suffers from the similarity that has caused Butte, (once our largest city), to fail. The end of mining, smelters and industry. The military component of Great Falls, Malstrom AFB, will be largely gone in a decade as we consumate our death-wish and remove our nuclear deterent missile by missile. Putin is a force growing and we disband that which keeps him and his Soviet ancestors at bay. Pray for us.

[shell618]

After living in Helena for 20 years, and Kalispell for 4, Bozeman for 4, and growing up in, and coming back to, Great Falls two years ago, my take on the growth, or more like, lack of growth of Great Falls lies in the hands of the City/County board. It seems that any business that wants to come to Great Falls has to jump through many hoops, then is likely voted down in the name of preserving the integrity of the "mom and pop" stores and restaurants. Have these same board members driven downtown lately and counted all the empty storefronts?
Helena had the same mindset in their commission until just a few years ago when the voters made sweeping changes. Now Helena is growing, new businesses, a new mall in the works, chain restaurants that had been denied previous are open for business, and doing VERY well.
The voters of Great Falls need to vote in people who enjoy and work for change and expansion. Without them, the city will become stagnant and die.
Great Falls is a beautiful place with plenty of arts and entertainment. Diversity of cutures is brought here from the Air Force base. The people are friendly and quick to lend a helping hand to those in need. The Missouri river gives the oppurtunity of water recreation to our doorstep. There is room to grow in every direction. Politics is the only thing holding the city back.
Michele

[Reziac]

Originally Posted by shell618

After living in Helena for 20 years, and Kalispell for 4, Bozeman for 4, and growing up in, and coming back to, Great Falls two years ago, my take on the growth, or more like, lack of growth of Great Falls lies in the hands of the City/County board. It seems that any business that wants to come to Great Falls has to jump through many hoops, then is likely voted down in the name of preserving the integrity of the "mom and pop" stores and restaurants. Have these same board members driven downtown lately and counted all the empty storefronts?
Helena had the same mindset in their commission until just a few years ago when the voters made sweeping changes. Now Helena is growing, new businesses, a new mall in the works, chain restaurants that had been denied previous are open for business, and doing VERY well.

And what is happening to Helena's local character, what with the new mall, the new chain restaurants, the drive to become just like every other Californicated city in the west?? how many of the local businesses are no longer with us because of it, or have been forced to move into a mall just to get foot traffic?

If you know anything about the mall economy, you'll know why this WILL eventually kill that local stores -- they just can't pay what malls charge per square foot, which as it happens is about 10x what it costs for a storefront in an old downtown building, and if they raise prices enough to stay afloat, they can't compete with the bulk buying power of the chains. Either way, the local businesses are on their way to the financial morgue and the city is on its way to being yet another Yuppieville, indistinguishable from every other west-coast Yuppieville, where all the locals work for chain stores (and help send money out of the state -- or do you think those chains' owners spend their profits in Montana??), but none of them own their own business anymore.

No thanks, I'll take Great Falls' approach.