why are some people so mad? (moving, eat, radio)

[Mattie Jo]

I am sorry to hear that. I don't live in Montana. Too cold for me. But I hate to see what is beautiful and natural ruined. I once lived in California in a small town of 5,000. They have built homes all over the country side. It isn't Paso Robles to me anymore. I moved to Oklahoma, and I love it here, but I don't want people to move in and ruin it either. They are building new homes but not as fast as they did in Paso Robles.

Does it seem to you that those that are selling the land are selling it to people that come in and make tract homes, etc? Why are these Montanans not just selling to other Montanans? Greed?

No wonder your feel your only recourse is to tell people to go home. Other than that the only thing stopping growth in Montana is the weather. You would think that some type of law could be made that would stick?

[jimj]

What has caused an uproar for years is that there's no balance in protecting what's natural. We have out of state enviro groups whos stated mission is to completely lock up the land, stop all access and any kind of reasonable management of the forests and lands. Then you have the out of state developers who want to build anywhere they can. Things have changed lately though, it's not so much the out of state builders as it is the locals now. They see how much money has been made and are diving in head first to get some. Is it greed? No, I don't think so (for the most part) I think they realize that they can actually get a big pot of money now selling off or subdividing themselves instead of busting their butts farming for the next 50 years.
Telling people to go home has not and will not work for the reasons that make this country what it is. I do think that we need to start taxing people differently here though. I don't think the full time residents should have to pay the same property taxes as the part time or second,third home owners. These people get to use the same services as the full time residents but don't really pay for them since the only money they spend here is on a short term basis.
CA is the perfect example of rampant government, having lived there for 35 years I've seen it morph into a monster. What's needed here is compromise but I don't see that happening anytime soon.
P.S. we have a grandma that lives in Lawton OK...

[LeaveMeBe]

thats whats happening to my area..and the sad part is my husband works for those very people building the homes but we have to make a living...so what do we do..we hate to see land turned into one home after another. We have been looking for over 4 years now to find land and it's either way to high or not worth having. I'd just like to have about 20 acres in the middle of nowhere. enough for my horses..my garden..and my family ..lol thats not too much to ask for is it lol..and maybe a couple chickens..i do miss having chickens..

[Mattie Jo]

JimJ, I agree that it isn't good to tell people to go home, but I can understand why it has come to that.

Back in the 60s it was Zero Population Growth. Gosh, what happened to that idea? It would be the best idea to keep populations down, which is causing this problem. California is so crowded that people are leaving, and I don't blame them.

We rented a farm house on 160 acres in Creston, Ca. Now it is tract homes. And that wasn't long ago. Where we own now was once a farm, and we have almost all that is left. 1/2 acre. Across the street are these mansions. Why? We don't need mansions. At least they have a long wooden fence and don't face me. I am sure they look down on my little farm house as much as I do their mansions. LOL.

I agree that full time residents should not have to pay the same property taxes. I don't like how nice areas end up with rich people and then the lower classes can't afford to live there anymore. I saw a lot of that in CA.

[JoeJoeMan]

jessaka wrote:

Back in the 60s it was Zero Population Growth. Gosh, what happened to that idea? It would be the best idea to keep populations down, which is causing this problem. California is so crowded that people are leaving, and I don't blame them.

Now it's GLOBAL WARMING -

Actually we did acheive Zero Population Growth, but then we allow millions to flood into the country. dah ? why did they do that ? It's not hard to guess why....simple answer - money & greed by some.

Just imagine how nice places like Calif would still be, and people wouldn't be flocking out of there to other places, this whole "growth" thing wouldn't even be and issue today.

You have to realize that alot of people could give a hoot less about an open field or scenic valley or a simple time and life, to them it's all about 'stuff' - dig up the field, put the new mall in, grease the political hands, buy-it, own-it, re-zone it, and bring on the crowds, highways and kaos, and count the profit, buy the over-size truck, 4 wheels, stuff face at best resturants, get a McMansion, get a garage full of whime junk - and there you have it live in america - the american dream for some - the american nightmare for others.
The sad part is that Montana use to be the place where none of that stuff went on. 'use to be' - Montana has now gone from the "Last Best Place" to the "First Worst" - 0 to 60 in two seconds, western montana is like an out of control party for developers, and other modern day 'slash and burn' types - the almight dollar now rules the land, out-a-stater, in-stater, and locals alike there is enough blame to go around.
It's alot harder to see a beautiful place get trashed then an ugly or already trashed one, and that is what is really sad, watching it happen. What's another strip mall in New Jersey......nothing, what's another strip mall in Montana - another eye sore, another pasture gone, another chip out of a way of life that is fast disappearing. I might add that with all the foo-foo talk about these days with reguards to 'culture' we don't even give a second thought to destroying our own way of life and culture here in western montana.
We as a nation will live to regret it - funny because we already do regret having acted and done such things in the past - but we continue to repeat it, and we passify ourselves with - "it's good for the economy", "it's job", "you can't stop it", "we'll control it", "some growth is good" ......you just keep telling youself that.....as sure as the day is long, future generations while be looking back and saying - "why did they clearcut all those forest", "why did they allow all mine waste" and "Why did they tear up all that beautiful land to put in stripmalls and housing developemnt" - And you all know it's true but no one can or will stop it ! If it ever does stop it will only be through the grace of the almighty, in the form of a nice depression, and won't that be such a relief. When the hammers stop hammering and the dump trucks stop dumping it will be such a welcome, refreshing and deafening silence. For me it can't come a day to soon.

[Mattie Jo]

There are a lot of homes in CA and Las Vegas where construction has stopped. People have walked away from finishing the homes, and this is recently. Prices of homes have fallen. My husband was in construction in San Diego, and he saw this coming. I am so glad that he is no longer in new construction. I always hated having to live in cites in order to fiind work, and I always felt that new construction was bad in many ways. At least he always worked in the cities that loved new businesses coming in as it meant more shopping for them.

I imagine in ten years I will wish that we had not moved to this small town in Oklahoma because it won't be a small town.

[JoeJoeMan]

Jessaka, I'm just curious - when all the building did stop there in Calif how did it affect the economy, was there a noticable amount of people out of work ?

For the last several years we have been told by the media, wallstreet, and politicians alike that the housing/realestate market was really helping keep the economy alive, creating jobs, etc, but now that it is faltering they are telling us that it won't really have that much of an affect. Of course anyone would be an idiot to beleive anything 'they' say anyway, but I was just curious of your thoughts seeing as how you saw it happen first hand.

[Mattie Jo]

We lived in CA during the mid 90s when construction came to a stop in all of CA. My husband couldn't find work. Developers and construction workers that lost their jobs moved out of State. We moved to Mississippi where my husband built casinos. Those that stayed in CA during this time had a hard time of it, getting work where they could. For course this affected supplies and Realtors. I don't recall if the rest of the economy suffered that much.

While I loved that my husband could build a home, plumb, etc. I always hated new construction because it ruined a town. I hated seeing casinos going up along the Mississippi, as well as seeing land being taken away. It was better when we lived in San Diego because it was already overbuilt, and his job then was mostly building Medical Research Centers. But I hated San Diego area. Yet were were able to move to a small town north of there just to walk it turn from a farm community to one of track homes and a golf course.

My husband just said that it didn't affect much more than what I said.

[Arleigh-20]

A moratorium against growth?

The native Indians tried a moratorium, but lost their land to a bunch of
land grabbing, gold mining, immigrants. Maybe Montana could put up a Berlin
wall up with guard towers and require a Montana passport to enter. Isn't there an
amendment to this effect in OUR constitution?
The fact that global warming is making Montana more habitable, that we
multiply like rabbits, and Montana, as undesirable as it is, is open for further invasion,
because it still has some elbow room. This State is not immune to what the rest of the US has gone through.In my home state, my fishing holes were ruined, I came here
to find some better fishing holes, these are mostly ruined, Now I am moving were there is no fishing holes.So be it.

[truckingbronco]

That's why I only fish with dynamite