A sad story of a nice town ruined
-
8/14/2008
Bozeman has some very nice people living there, although the locals are very few and far between as hardly any Montanan can afford to live there anymore. There are too many people who are trust fund babies (all the Audis and Cadillac Escalades on the streets) who don't work and just drive around all day and clog up the streets in the most poorly planned city I have ever lived in. They call it Bozangeles because it is overrun by rich people (mostly from California but not all) who have turned it into a little LA. Just about every chain store and restaraunt is in town and it has little unique character now. It has overrun most of the once beautiful Gallatin Valley to where all vestiges of middle class people are moving further and further away. While Montana State University is a wonderful university(one of the nation's best in engineering and architecture), my experiences there after leaving the dorms were not so pleasant. The businesses are in denial of students being there and will barely wait on them and most will not hire them. Landlords are the worst I have ever seen, they will not do anything to improve or maintain their properties but will expect the already poor students to pay for everything. By the way, these same landlords will buy or manage properties in the "middle class" cookie cutter neighborhoods with no yards and will let them go to pot. I saw a neighborhood do this in a three year period. This web site says Bozeman has a population of about 35,000 but I think it is easily 50,000+ now. To get an idea of how much this area has grown, it was probably only about 20,000 (if that) in the 1990 census, when it was a nice little town. If you plan on coming here to MSU, plan on staying on campus (there are alternatives to the dorms that are nice), otherwise give this town a pass. Unless you have access to a small fortune or are a brilliant entrepaneur, you will almost certainly not make it.
Todd | Gillette, WY