A Submission from a Member of the Public
A Modern Crit
By: Nathanial Orr, September 22, 2008
I’ve never enjoyed being a naysayer. However, when I am continually being told that Great Falls is a wonderful place to live, and I’m experiencing something different, I am often driven to the point of frustration. I am writing this critique with no intention of offending those around me, because I have met some absolutely wonderful and genuine people during my time here. Instead, I would like to focus on some objective realities about Great Falls with the aim of beginning a dialogue.
I am a young professional who moved to Great Falls two years ago to begin my career as an architect. I was enticed by the prospect of living in a beautiful state (and it certainly is!) where I could enjoy practicing my profession while enjoying the many outdoor recreational opportunities that Montana has to offer. However,as I began to settle into Great Falls, a number of my first impressions were disappointing. The roads in terrible condition bounce our vehicles past the abundance of rundown businesses and cheap casinos. The deteriorating roads culminate at an anti-climatic threshold of boarded up, vacant buildings that form the city center, or downtown area. During my two-year sojourn here, I have continually walked past those same “for lease” signs that hang in the dusty windows of what could be the prime business real estate district of Central Avenue. In the past six months, additional others have hung their signs that only remind us of the past.
It appears that the city’s plan for economic development contradicts embracing the positives Great Falls offers. Instead of initiating a plan for renovating those beautiful historic buildings along Central Avenue into thriving businesses that would rejuvenate the life and energy in the downtown area, it appears that developers have been directing people away from the very place that once made them proud. Why haven’t the Starbucks, Bed Bath and Beyond, Barnes & Nobel, and countless others been installed into these sleeping beauties? Wouldn’t this have capitalized on the established history of the city, saved construction costs, and increase foot traffic into the area, enabling and building potential for existing and prospective businesses? The lack of good restaurants and a mainstream music scene leaves few options for evening destinations for those not interested in visiting smoke-filled casinos or gas station hangouts. I believe this environment plays a huge factor in why the city lacks a key demographic of young professionals, who would prefer and naturally gravitate to places that offer good options, clean settings, and a relaxing atmosphere.
Restaurants like the Breaks and Machinery Row are good examples of businesses that have the right idea. If more developers would embrace the same notion as these establishments, I believe downtown Great Falls would become more successful.
The illusion that the cost of living is more affordable in Great Falls when compared with other cities is quickly counterbalanced by the lack of healthy competition that corporations such as car dealerships, airlines, contractors, health insurance companies, and many others have from “gouging” their customers and compelling them to buy elsewhere, further thwarting the local economy. For example, I ordered my personal vehicle from Monroeville, PA, and had it shipped to Great Falls. Even when I included the sales tax and the cost of shipping my vehicle to Great Falls, it was still $3200 less than the local dealership was asking for the same vehicle. I then had to pay nearly $500 to register my vehicle and repeat this the following year…brilliant! Perhaps the state should use our expensive registration fees for improving the same roads that “rattle” our vehicles to pieces.
The price of flying in and out of Great Falls takes a serious toll on the frequent traveler and discourages potential visitors from coming to the city. Although real estate is far more reasonable compared with other cities, the price to lease an apartment, usually the first move for a young professional, is often the same rate
as other cities. The result can be a net loss for an individual whose employers have offered a lower wage scale to parallel the “lower cost of living” in Great Falls.
Montana is a beautiful state! Why hasn’t Great Falls embraced the same beauty? When one looks around, it is rather clear that the city is 10-15 years behind others. One only has to turn on a local television channel or read a billboard to see obsolete marketing techniques and lack of forward thinking. One can only conclude that Great Falls has either been infected by a severe case of an inferiority complex, or plagued by the lack of outside experience and travel by its residents to other more adaptable cities in our country where there is
progressive thinking. It is similar to when a citizen of the US proudly proclaims that our country is the best place to live in the world when they have never left the country to experience what other cultures have to offer. How can one ever make a fair judgment?
The generational differences are real! Whether or not one agrees with the dilemma is entirely up to them. In my opinion, Great Falls has untapped resources and wonderful potential as a place to live. However, until the city decides to improve its economic development, aesthetic quality, the willingness to embrace progressive ideas, and create more options for its citizens, Great Falls will continue to drive away young professionals and future generations for its rejuvenation. Waiting another 10-15 years to adapt to the current demands of our society will only lead to its demise as a thriving business community.
Gee, I get the impression that he doesn’t LIKE it here. Maybe he should try Billings, Bozeman, Missoula, or Kalispell. He’ll find all the “forward thinking” he needs. Edward Abbey said it best, “Growth for the sake of growth is the ideology of cancer”. I meet many, many people daily who like good ol’ GF just the way it is thank you very much. Methinks this “young professional” maybe should’a studied a leetle more history than architecture. One needs a sense of history to appreciate old Montana. And that this poor fellow ain’t got. Sad, so sad.
I don’t judge Nathanial quite as harshly, Larry. I do understand what he’s saying – and agree with him to an extent. If I had arrived in Great Falls about 15 or so years ago, I might have had the same reaction to our wonderful community.
Great Falls is not for everyone. It has unique charms, but not every person is taken by them.
And I’m OK with that.
But he has given me a few points to ponder…
Forward thinking? Go to Seattle.
My husband and I moved to Great Falls to escape the trappings of progressiveness, and forward thinking.
Being from Redmond Washington, we’ve found that Great Falls appears to be the quaint big little city that our friends here said it was. We like it, and we’re staying, regardless of the lease signs and casino’s.
[...] Orr, a semi-recent transplant to Great Falls, offers some civil criticism of our fair community in a guest entry over at Electric City Weblog. He starts off with: I’ve never enjoyed being a [...]
Nathanial,
While I certainly don’t subscribe to Larry’s “love it or leave it and shaddup while you’re here” manner of neighborly discourse, I would point out that Montana has a long history of people moving here to get away from it all –and then trying to bring it with them. Every once in a while we’ll read a letter in the paper or hear a speaker at a public meeting letting us know this or that was done much better in whatever city they couldn’t stand living in anymore. I’m not accusing you of doing that, necessarily, but some might read that into your letter.
Our fine city is full of flaws, a couple of them quite serious. We need to discuss them. But (mixed metaphor alert!) a laundry list of complaints will more often than not lead to a circling of the wagons. And it’s never a good idea to assume those who disagree with you do so out of ignorance and a lack of sophistication.
I definitely see where he’s coming from, to be honest. I see a lot of the same problems in Great Falls that he does. But there’s a positive side to this post — we also see the untapped potential that Great Falls has. Good location, great surroundings, nice people, etc.
No offense, Lindsey, but the thought of living in a place because it has no forward thinking does not appeal to me at all. If a town has no forward thinking, it will eventually die — that’s just how it is. Forward thinking is what has made our country what it is today.
There are places that have balanced this struggle of keeping the identity of the town yet still moving forward. The other towns mentioned have done just that in my opinion (which is why we bought land near one of them).
The cliches of “progressive” and “forward thinking” don’t mean anything as they define nothing. I tend to agree with Larry. Redeveloping the downtown area is an opportunity!!!!!! All it takes is visionary people, money, and lots of BS&T. But that has always been the history of the West. Make of it what you will…or not. Nathanial, it’s your choice.
We’ve got forward thinking in GF and city government has poured every last cent into their vision…. It’s just that their forward is misdirected towards hell by selfish interests and backwards thinking.
If only as much energy and money was spent on managed development/redevelopment vis-à-vis Highwood, many of the perceived ills would resolve in short time. Now we are broke, crumbling and without leadership.
A mini Detroit.
– Forward thinking is what has made our country what it is today. — exactly my point Rob.
Some of our most highly educated guesses can go so disastrously wrong, as Wall Street has shown us most recently.
There are alot of pretty smart people out there doing some pretty stupid things.
Building a house or two, paving an old road or throwing up a big box doesn’t have anything to do with forward thinking. In the worlds of prophets, visionaries, sooth sayers, and crystal balls, sprawl doesn’t count. Sprawl is messy, and rarely lasts.
Someone recently pointed out that one should look at Montana from more of a historical perspective. And you know? They are right.
Montana and it’s towns won’t grow unless they’ve got something tangible to exploit. I don’t see Montana exploiting too much of anything in the near, or distant future.
We came to Montana because it was quiet, and a little behind the times. In my opinion, not one city in this state is guilty of forward thinking, and still, that’s fine with us. We like that about Montana.
Lindsey,
I guess we define forward thinking a little differently. Or perhaps another poster is right — that the forward thinking here is just misguided.
I would define Bozeman and Missoula as forward thinking. It’s ok that you do not. But that just tells me we have different definitions.
I do not define forward thinking as sprawl, necessarily. In fact, what the original poster said is not sprawl at all. Revitalizing downtown is not sprawl. How fantastic would it be to have a thriving downtown with stores, dining, coffee shops, nightlife, etc. What we have now isn’t BAD — my wife and I go to downtown often. However, it’s a little depressing — feels like a ghost town sometimes.
Why aren’t we using our river area for a river district of sorts? We KIND of have one going with the restaurants down near Broadwater Bay. We have a beautiful river running through our town but don’t develop it.
The casino situation here is absolutely ridiculous. I realize that it’s not JUST a Great Falls thing but holy cow. Drive through Bozeman and you don’t see tons of casinos lining the streets. Every time we have family come visit, they make fun of Great Falls because of these monstrosities. They always say something like, “Montana is beautiful and Great Falls is a neat little town but what the heck is up with the casinos?”
Just some thoughts.
Thoughtful growth is good for a community.
It’s best to just taking it easy, and giving a little bit of thought to what it is you are trying to accomplish.
It’s not just the downtown. There are other areas that are in need of some of what you guys are refering to as forward thinking.
We can have all of the visionaries on the planet right here in Great Falls, but they won’t amount to a hill of beans without money, or even, better still, incentive.
Years ago, it was thought that the interstate would disrupt the flow of the downtown. As we can see, growth has been happening further and further away from downtown. The interstate, and 10th ave. south both, on their own, have quite effectively sealed the fate of downtown. And now, we have the bypass issue coming to us once again, and it too, will draw the money even further from downtown.
Businesses like things like “new” and “access” and “parking” … they like the wide open spaces, and places like 10th ave south and Marketplace serves it all up on a silver platter. Downtown doesn’t.
Businesses aren’t so much into quaint these days as they are into the money. Quaint is expensive and it effects the bottom line adversely of most businesses.
And again, even towns like Lewiston Idaho, and Spokane Washington offer subsidy, in part, to their downtowns, just to keep them going, because we find all of the real money skirting the edges of the towns as they grow ever larger.
What we are seeing here with the downtown in Great Falls, isn’t really anything new and unusual at all. It happens all over.
The city might do well to touch base with some of downtowns larger residents in this case to determine just what it is they might want. I’m sure that U.S. Bank and D.A. Davidson might have some opinions on the matter. and city could go more for accomodating their interests with regard to them. A playhouse, or a few high end specialty shops for instance, to serve the higher end working downtown might do the trick.
Leave the video stores, casinos and quickstops to their muse on 10th ave south and Marketplace.
Westbank. Full of industrialized entities from the years gone by. I’ll imagine that it was once thought that the westbank was to be the premier industrial section of town. Then we have the North Park area along River Drive … another industrial type of confluence .. and yet again, north on US 87.
Great Falls needs to figure out just exactly where some of this stuff needs to be, in order to more fully realize their potential for growth.
We also see the 200 foot plus right of way going out Central ave west. What happened there? Could it be that there were plans to build out in that direction? It would, afterall, have made sense, because here we have the interstate passing right through there.
I think that our community leaders are a pretty smart bunch of folks, all in all. The trick here is the cooridination of it all. If you’re looking to revitalize downtown, well then you might just as well give it up really, because you see, the money has left that area long ago, and I’m not seeing it coming back anytime soon.
Great Falls has already established the “quaintness” of Central ave, what with all of that confusing lane misalignments and such, so they may as well keep traveling down that road. Functionality is what businesses wants, not oddball sidewalk configurations, misaligned lanes and traffic control shuffled off to the side. Business wants free flow, in and out, ease. Central ave can’t provide that for them.
Lindsey mentioned earlier that there a lot of pretty smart people doing a lot of really stupid things. Central ave through downtown is a classic example of this kind of forward thinking. Reconfiguring that street was one of the biggest blunders city has had the opportunity to participate in recently. The reconfiguration of Central ave did more to stifle new bussiness prospects than it did anything else. Save the fancy, quaint, street configurations for the new riverfront businesses on the westbank, and reserve the free flow of traffic for the downtown.
I too like Great Falls. I’m confident, that when all is said and done, this city will shine brighter and last longer than any of the others in this state. It’s good that we move slowly and thoughtfully.
ok ,Larry E go ahead and let me have it. I just have to say that being from g.f since 1974 , I have seen that those who move here to get away from it all,tend to buy it all and keep us away from enjoying what we use to have as kids.Since every body is talking about this south arterial,why dont we create a north arterial as well,that way we can be trapped here with our meth,our casinos,and yes the title loans, and yes we need a couple more banks.I think great falls is great,i just wish it could be a place focused on families,and what is good for us as a whole ,not the few who are only motivated by greed
Dave,
What was the previous configuration of Central? Do you mean it wasn’t always the winding street it is today? We haven only been here a few years and know no different.
Big box business would not really be interested in downtown, you’re right. The downtown in Bozeman is great — art shops, watch stores, trinkets, some outdoors stores, restaurants. They seem to be able to pull it off. Is that impossible here? I’m not patronizing; I’m just asking what you think. They do have the state college there but still, it can’t be impossible to do that here, can it?
I can tell you exactly what’s going to happen with the bypass (of which I am a fan). You are going to see a lot of business pop up around it. It’s the same thing that happened with Colorado Springs when they put in Powers Blvd. Take a look at a map and you can see which way the Springs grew.
Appreciate Mr. Orr’s comments. Good responses too.
Mr. Orr’s observations touch on issues that go back much further than two years, IMO. Look at census data for Great Falls since 1960. The town has not grown in 50 years. So, sprucing up the downtown or fixing the roads are nice… but the problem lies deeper than that. Namely, there is a big chunk of folks in Great Falls who are completely happy with no growth. They like it as is or they don’t care if the town grows. If they felt otherwise, I don’t think they’d put up with it for 50 years. I don’t see how the pro-growth folks come out ahead, because Great Falls is getting older, demographically, and most older folks do not have the same interests as the 20 – 30 year old crowd. Solutions… the city, airport, county and base leadership all need to get on the same page on what kind of economic development Great Falls can attract. Stop the infighting. That economic idea/solution needs to be sold to the community, not rammed down our throats (SME power plant).