Guest Column by Pete Talbot

The Tales of a “Bozoulian”: Where Bozeman and Missoula Meet

By Pete Talbot, 3-09-06

Red lights don't mean much in Bozeman. Locals and transplants alike won't abide long waits at intersections. Heck, ease of getting around the valley is one of the reasons they live here. So they run those red lights more than anywhere else I've seen in Montana.

That's my first observation, coming here from Missoula. I split my time between the two cities. Don't get me wrong, Missoula has its share of boneheaded drivers. The other day on Reserve St. (Missoula's version of 19th St.) I heard someone lean on the horn when the light turned green and the car in front didn't get off the line fast enough. This sort of behavior was unheard of a decade ago.

Traffic congestion is just one of the growing pains that both cities are feeling. How we deal with this growth will dictate what our cities will look like in the not-to-distant future.

A lot of cities in Montana wish they had our problems: a booming housing market, jobs (albeit not the highest paying), nice downtowns and abundant recreational opportunities. They might even put up with the accompanying sprawl, traffic and rising property taxes for a piece of the action.

But there are bigger issues here that I like to call carrying capacity -- things like loss of water quality and air quality and wildlife habitat. We get our drinking water from the same aquifers that our septic tanks drain into. Our new subdivisions are covered with Kentucky bluegrass, asphalt and mercury-vapor lights. In the place of bison and grizzlies, we have white-tailed deer nibbling on our rose bushes and black bears knocking over our garbage cans. Just how much growth can we sustain and still maintain our quality of life, and the diversity of the people that live in our fair cities?

Let's face it, Bozeman and Missoula are the hippest towns in Montana, and we prosper and suffer because of it. (Livingston, Whitefish and Big Fork are pretty darn hip but I don't consider them cities…yet. Helena has some nice things going on but it still rolls up the sidewalks at 10 p.m., unless the legislature is in session.)

Back to Missoula and Bozeman, though -- even if we're archrivals in some things, we have a lot more in common than most cities in the New West. First, we're Montanans. Our roots are in the Old West: cowboys and ranchers, farmers and loggers. But things change. Now it's health care, real estate, recreation and retail.

So how are we going to deal with these changes? Will we have car-dependent suburban sprawl leapfrogging across our valleys? Will we continue to acquire open space? Can we solve affordability problems or will we just become cities for the wealthy, with the service workers commuting in from their manufactured homes in the next county?

Tough questions but one way to start is to take a hard look at what other cities in the West are doing about growth. Let's see what's worked and what hasn't in cities like Portland, Ore., Boulder, Colo., Phoenix and Sante Fe. These New West cities have had to deal with rapid growth, with varying degrees of success.

First, though, maybe we should look at our own two cities -- put our civic biases aside (except for Bobcat/Grizzly games) -- and find out what works to keep our cities livable and affordable. Bozeman's done some smart things and some not-so-smart things about growth. So has Missoula. Let's share our experiences. We have a lot to learn from each other.

In the meantime, please remember, the yellow caution light means slow down, not speed up.

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