u/costigan95

Just heard a bunch of booms that sort of sounded like fireworks, but I have no idea what they would be for. Sweet Pea doesn’t have any scheduled fire works and that also seems like a really dumb thing to do when the air quality is so bad and we are under a red flag warning.

Update: Nowhere did I suggest there was anything mysterious about the noises; just referencing a common meme here. I thought it was fireworks but didn’t think anyone would be dumb enough to proceed with a fireworks show under the conditions. Thanks for your answers, my dear fellow Bozemanites.

Christopher Nolan is a genuinely talented director. However, his work receives disproportionate levels of praise and attention.

Nolan is skilled at making films epic in scale and ambition, but they are also emotionally vapid and poorly written, which often is passed on to the actors and results in underwhelming performances (though some have overcome this).

He also doesn’t trust his audience. He uses exposition to a degree that few directors of his pedigree do, and that exposition is often poorly executed. Despite his skill with and heavy use of visuals, he constantly “tells” the audience what is happening, and does so with the level of prose from a middle school English class.

Lastly, his films insist upon themselves. His use of time jumps and pseudo-profound monologues are just facades in his work. The time jumps obscure some of the shortcomings of his writing, and the monologues try to add depth where there is none.

Update: several people have commented “you clearly haven’t seen ______.” I’ve seen every Nolan movie except for Folllowing, which was his first film. In fact, I’ve seen most of his films several times. I just saw The Odyssey, which prompted this post.

I don’t dislike Nolan nor do I think he’s a bad director. I just think he’s supremely overrated, and people who glaze his films ignore their shortcomings.

What’s the best place to get work done on a Toyota or Lexus in town? I have an older model that just needs a comprehensive check on basic items.

I’m generally skeptical of dealerships because they charge crazy rates and oversell, but also want a reliable professional who knows the Make well.

Appreciate any thoughts!

Has anyone tried it yet?

I’ve seen many comments over the past few months claiming that people no longer smile, wave, or exchange nice gestures while out and about around town. This hasn’t been my experience, so I decided to test it the last few days.

On Sunday, I went to grab some coffee downtown and decided to say good morning or smile to everyone I walked by.

10 out of 11 happily reciprocated. Three said good morning first.

I went out for a run yesterday and decided to wave, give a big smile, or say hi to everyone I passed head on. My run took me to a few parts of town, including a trail, residential areas, and downtown.

Of the 23 people I counted, 17 gave big smiles, waved or said hello back; 3 gave a small smirk or nod; and 3 did not reciprocate. For the duds, they were interestingly all college aged.

Someone also mentioned people not chatting in the grocery store line anymore. Every one of my grocery visits this week resulted in a small conversation while going through the line. I even got some family gossip from a cashier I’d never met before. All I did was ask him how his day was going and if he had plans for the 4th.

For anyone struggling to connect or feeling like others don’t want to in Bozeman, I encourage you to put out the energy you want to receive, because it is likely to be returned and will hopefully have a network effect in the long term. Also, remember that some of these issues are societal, and not specific to Bozeman. People are increasingly lonely in the US, so try not to blame the mere fact that Bozeman is growing on any real or perceived changes in how people act.

Hope you all have a nice week.

Incredibly tragic. I believe Bozeman PD has increased traffic patrols recently after the last bicyclist death, so I’m curious to see what solutions are out forward to prevent these recurrent tragedies.

WC just won the award for best bakery in the country at this year’s James Beard Foundation Awards! First James Beard Foundation award ever given to a Montana bakery, restaurant, bar, or chef (I think…)!

Proud that our little local institution got some recognition. Well deserved!

Update: Glad the discussion is mostly positive, but for the contrarians out there, just take the W for our town and state…

This is a long post, but it is the only forum I have. Hopefully you can find something valuable here, and I welcome responses.

I’ve been noticing more and more comments lately that have sparked debates about the impact of transplants, tourists, and growth in Bozeman. None of this is new, and it’s obviously been a particularly acute topic in the past 5-6 years.

As someone who was born here, has lived here most of my life, and my family originally moved to the Gallatin Valley in 1891, I’ve been reflecting a lot on how people perceive change here. I don’t want to change anyone’s mind about whether the change is good or bad for them personally, but I do hope to challenge the notion that the blame falls on a single group or factor, and that it is bad for the community as a whole.

There is an immense amount of anger over how Bozeman has changed, and depending on who you ask, these changes started in 2020, 2010, 2000, 1990, or earlier. The reality is that Bozeman has been changing for a long time. Whatever version of Bozeman you hold dear in some nostalgic reverie, is likely an example of someone else’s “paradise lost.”

There are very good reasons to be frustrated by change. Rising costs of living, wealth inequality, an evolving character of the community, and changes in a place you care about are always challenging. I want to challenge the folks who are most vocal and angry about these changes, and ask “What are the alternatives?”

Before I make the case for where Bozeman is headed, I want to note that the anger makes complete sense to me. If you grew up here or moved here expecting a different version of Bozeman in perpetuity, and you now can't afford to build a life in the town you hold dear, it can feel like a personal injustice. There are real losses that are difficult to quantify, and they are, occasionally, deeply personal. This is genuinely life-altering for people who had earnest expectations of what a life here might look like, and completely understandable to want it to remain as you knew it or found it. I'm not asking anyone to feel grateful for what growth has taken from them. I grew up here, and I've felt it too. What I am asking is whether the alternative paths would have actually made things better, or whether they would have made people worse off.

As I see it, there are only three real paths for Bozeman, and a fourth one that only exists in a charming, but unrealistic public imagination. None of these are perfect, some are better than others, and each comes with real tradeoffs to the community.

The first is the path we are currently on, which I’d argue is the best one for the reality we find ourselves in. This is a Bozeman that is growing rapidly, and reacting (however imperfectly) to that growth. 

Bozeman’s population has nearly doubled since 2005, rising from around 35,000 to an estimated 60,000 in 2026. This has resulted in rising housing costs, but also efforts to curb it. We are building a lot of new homes, particularly high density apartment buildings. This has resulted in some sprawl, but you can still get across town in short order, and the quantity of available units has helped trend the costs of renting and buying downward since 2020. Prices are still high, but not as high as they could be. Efforts to curb AirBnB’s have also certainly made an impact, even if small. Other costs, like food and other services are trending upward across the country, so it is not unique to Bozeman. More can always be done, however, and I’m supportive of efforts to tax second homes at a higher rate, as well as curbing corporations buying single-family homes.

The current trajectory has also created more career opportunities in Bozeman. There is record enrollment and growth at MSU, bringing new jobs to town and a larger talent pool associated with our town. New careers, particularly ones not focused on solely tourism and hospitality, are being created at a greater pace than ever before. This has allowed more Bozeman residents to build professional careers with new companies, or companies opening offices here. As an example, Billings Clinic has expanded available healthcare options, and new opportunities are available for medical, dental, mental health, and veterinary practices.

The growth has also benefited the trades, with high demand for electrical, mechanical, plumbing, and landscaping services. This is evidenced by how hard it is to get on their schedules…

Food choice has also increased in Bozeman, with many new restaurants, food trucks, and pop ups around town. Regardless of what you think its merit is, having Bozeman overrepresented in the James Beard Awards, when compared to towns of similar size, is a testament to some of the interesting options that have opened over the past 15 years.

Ask anyone who has lived here since before 1990, and they’ll likely tell you that very  few options for healthcare, food, jobs, and a life that didn’t fit a narrow band of criteria was once a reality for many. My siblings and many of my cousins were forced to move (some wanted to and others didn’t) because their career paths made Bozeman an impossible option, but that is changing. I personally know or know of dozens of people who grew up here who chose to move back in the last few years, simply because it had become an option once not available to them.

Despite the growth and changes, we are still able to access unparalleled outdoor recreation opportunities in 15 minutes. We can run, walk, and bike to trailheads. We can still be up at Bridger in 20 minutes (and let’s be honest the lines aren’t that bad). We can be lost in the mountains in no time. Are there more people on popular trailheads? Sure, but that’s because they are popular. We have a hundred other options at our disposal if we feel the need to leave civilization entirely.

On public safety, we have maintained a very consistent crime rate in Bozeman. We remain the safest city in Montana, and while absolute crime (total # of crimes) has increased, the crime rate (crimes per number of people) has not seen a significant jump. Believe it or not, but the crime rate has largely remained flat over the last decade in Gallatin County, with the offense rate marginally lower in 2025 than it was in 2016. Violent crime has risen at a slightly higher rate than the population, but property crime and drug crime have actually decreased since 2016. The Montana Board of Crime reports a higher overall crime rate in Bozeman in 2000, than in 2025, but popular narratives would have you believe otherwise.

Lastly, on our current path, there are realities that are unavoidable. There are more tourists, and tourists can be annoying. This is true of any place. However, they also shop at local businesses, eat at local restaurants, and have always been an important part of our economy. We have always been the gateway to Yellowstone and Big Sky. The rising cost of living is also incredibly challenging, particularly for those working on hourly wages in retail, hospitality, and other sectors. The wealthier elements who have relocated to Bozeman part time (which, remember, is a small sliver of our growing population) are certainly out of touch and do directly contribute to these problems. Luckily, the vast majority of new residents are coming here to work, learn, and build lives in Bozeman.

Now I’d like to shift to the second and third paths, which I believe are unquestionably more harmful to the average Bozemanite. They both share a common theme: anti-growth. 

The first anti-growth version of Bozeman is a town that only builds multi-million dollar condos (think above Wild Crumb) and custom single family homes. This pathway also discourages population growth and larger multi-sector investment in the town, meaning larger businesses are not incentivized to open offices or scale, and high density housing is difficult to build. Further, this model is institutionally hostile towards any sort of population growth, meaning those who can afford to stay, will, and those who can’t, won’t.

Examples of this are Jackson, where average rent is $4,000, or Carmel-by-the-Sea, where average rent is $6,100. Bozeman’s is $2,400 and declining from the previous year - though still high, don’t get me wrong. Neither Jackson or Carmel want to grow, and they actively discourage it through local legislation and policy. This results in the ultra-wealthy monopolizing these places, with working and middle class families simply unable to make it work in most cases, or over the long term. These towns are now genuinely dominated by millionaires and seasonal workers, not people building long term roots and lives.

A second-version of anti-growth is a situation where there are no jobs, no tourism, no amenities, and no people, which means that even the wealthy don’t want to live here, and it becomes a former boom town with no prospects. Sure, the trailhead is empty, but so are your career options and friend groups. This scenario is far less likely in Bozeman’s case due to its overall beauty and livability, and I believe we’ve already passed the rubicon away from this option. However, it’s worth considering the alternative paths Bozeman could have taken.

The final version is a path that doesn’t actually exist, and unfortunately too many of us fall victim to believing it is an option. This is the “Save Bozeman” sentiment, which believes Bozeman can be restored to an earlier version of itself. For many, including me at times, this might be the idyllic late-90s Bozeman that had the Leaf and Bean, where Sweet Pea was affordable, a lift ticket at Bridger was $30, and where downtown felt like it belonged to locals. Further, this fantasy has nice homes for $250k (or less), parking is abundant, and traffic is some folk tale from far away lands.

I get why these versions of Bozeman are so alluring, but the same nostalgia exists in nearly every town or city worth a damn in the US. Every city’s resident thinks back to a time where it felt like a better era to live there. These are yoked to realities, because some things were certainly better, but some things were also worse, as I’ve argued. Nostalgia tends to edit those details out of public memory.

This all points to the inevitability of change in any place. I’ve felt the impulse to blame changes in Bozeman on a single cause, but I quickly look around to realize that all of this is expected and entirely unsurprising. We live in an amazing place that people want to live in. This is why other towns, like Boulder or Bend, have also seen so much growth and change and needed to adapt. 

Some of us have been lucky enough to live here for a long time, but others are just discovering for the first time. 

Can we blame them for wanting to live here?

Love that people are trying to get stuff on the ballot, but my wife and I had a canvasser walk up to our car (and two others) at a stop light on Grand to try and get our signature…

Who are these people and why does it seem like none of them are local?

The Main Street cathedral bell rang for 25 minutes straight on Saturday afternoon. Does anyone know why?

Edit: I meant Holy Rosary, which I guess is not considered a cathedral. Also, apparently it does not have a bell…

I was driving behind a truck on North Wallace near Theory Hair Salon just north of the Misco Mill, and saw it hit the mirror of a big white truck parked on the curb (probably from the construction site). The parked truck’s mirror was clearly shattered.

I wasn’t able to get the offender’s plate number in time, but it was a beige, first-generation Chevy Silverado z71 (1999-2007) that had a Bridger Bowl license plate.

If this was your truck that was hit, feel free to DM.

What are your unpopular local opinions that are Bozeman specific?

Unserious opinions are strongly encouraged, but if you have a serious one, please keep it and the responses civil.