One person's perspective
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7/1/2023
A few people make a living in Billings, most people only make an existents. As for the crime rate, it depends on your point of view. If you compare Billings crime rate to its own history, it is high and increasing. If you compare Billings to big metropolitan areas (,unfair comparison,) that have multiples of the national crime rate, Billings looks rather tame. However, the crime rate is on the rise. What I think is going on is outsiders who have been desensitized to crime, are moving in and committing crime, encouraging crime, and/or falsely accursing the locals of crime.
It is important for the sake of everyone's peace, that outsiders divorce the mind set of their previous location and assimilate into the Montana mind set. We Montanans prefer civil discourse when differences of opinion collide. This discourse takes place out of court with no need of lawyers. Just mind your manners and speak respectfully with each other to come to a win/win arrangement is what is needed.
About the weather. Everything said is true, sub-below zero in the winter and triple digit highs in the summer. However, the humidity plays a big role. In the winter it will be dry, dry, dry. It will be so dry your hands and exposed skin will crack open if you don't use moisturizing ointment. In the Summer it will be muggy, muggy, muggy. It is so humid you can just about feel the weight of the atmosphere. Then their is the wind. We don't get too many twisters, but we do get tornado force winds called microbursts from time to time. They hit with the force of a EF2 tornado. Just to be clear, it doesn't happen every year. We also get severe thunderstorms called supercells that drop quarter sized hail on average, but every now and then you hear of baseball and softball sized hail in the surrounding areas. Blizzard season is from early February to late April. This is the time of the year that blizzards are most likely to occur. Not every year will have blizzards, but you still need to be prepared for them. As for plowing the streets in winter, the main traffic corridors are given most of the love. Minor neighborhood streets are forgotten about.
About the amenities. They are for people who like the out doors or small town charm. If you are not into ether, you will be dead board.
The social atmosphere is like any suburb in California, with out actually being a suburb of a city. Billings is the city... .>.> ...Technically.
The fossil fuel industry that built Billings is being systematically torn down by Government. Without these giant shoes being filled, I do believe Billings GDP will begin to contract, followed by the population. However, I think Billings is a good place to build warehouses, both traditional and virtual. It is about equal distance between Seattle, Minneapolis, and Denver. It is on I-94 with I-90 Junction just out of town to the east. Access to a rail yard and a international Air Port.
The hospitals are two of the best in the state. Nothing more to say about that.
M. | Glendive, MT