It was the 'Last Best Place' - now, not so much

Before you read this, please take a moment and go outside. Take a big breath in and feel our pure, crisp, clean air we are so privileged to have. Look around at your surroundings, see the mountains, the trees and notice the beauty of this place.

Standing on the edge of the cliff at Lone Pine Park, I have a good view of Kalispell and the entire Flathead Valley. I can see where the great lake begins at Somers, the new bypass below, and the panoramic towering mountains with its one gateway through Glacier. As I lean-up against the rock wall on the edge, I peer off over an amazing stretch of land, a countryside fit for a God.

This is God’s country, it’s Big Sky Country, and it’s a jewel of our vast, beautiful, diverse state known as Montana. Our home has been called many things, but described perfectly as “The Last Best Place.” The natural beauty of this area can never be forgotten or overlooked, but it can get covered up and pillaged. If you were born and raised here, or if you’ve lived here for 10 short years or longer, you will probably notice much has changed.

Not too long ago, if you were standing where I am and saw the town of Kalispell below, you would see no houses at your feet until you got to the tree lined streets of the West Side, you would see defined and separated business districts and neighborhoods. You would notice buildings were built in smart locations for their purpose, and most had the camouflage of natural trees and terrain; they were decorated and logically placed to blend in. Just 10 years ago you would see a much different landscape: The land was open and the buildings of man were intelligently contained… it was clear that the fathers before us had put much thought into growth and developed the town with respect.

Now… I don’t see The Last Best Place anymore, I see the most recent quickly developed ANYTOWN USA. I see a city limits that has doubled in size in less than a decade. I see thousands of new homes that look identical to each other and were sporadically placed on the outskirts of old pasture land. I see a huge, gigantic shopping mecca that has moved the bulk of commerce and sales out of the town that was known as Kalispell. I can’t believe how quick it all turned...

The shopping district at the north end of town — representing overdevelopment by the people with undeveloped minds — has just about singlehandedly destroyed this place… it was the conquest of money and the faults and blighted paths of our leaders that allowed this to happen. This “growth” sold us out locally by shifting much of the commerce, industry, sales and jobs that we needed to outside shareholders.

The local government allowed and authorized just about any construction project that came before them from about the year I graduated high school in 1999 on. It didn’t matter if our population did not require it, nor if our schools and public services could accommodate it — houses went up without a thought ahead. Cookie-cutter subdivisions on all sides were erected, some almost as big as half of the old town that had rows of houses built up through the ages in a gradual growth process.

Ten years ago I could drive from the center of Main and Idaho in either direction for just a couple miles and I would see where the buildings stopped, nicely contained within the town and the road gave way to a country drive. It was peaceful.

Now, Kalispell SPRAWLS... when it never had to. The shift of business to the North Kalispell shopping centers has left many vacant buildings within the city and directed almost all commerce and traffic to one spot, instead of having it nicely spread around. The people followed, creating congestion, which brought even more people to the valley to come on down and spend money at “China made” shopping plazas where 90 percent of the goods are manufactured and produced in a communist nation.

Apparently our commissioners and growth coordinators now take orders on how to permanently develop this town to suit shoppers’ needs. Is that what happened? California and Canada called to let us know they were moving in, and this is what they wanted when they got here… it seems like it!

So… the face of this place has changed drastically and with that change brought the face of a changed citizenry as well. No longer is Montana a simple place where old ways were still alive and people were capable and true. With the growth in population came what I like to call the Resident-Tourists movement, a new breed of second homers that have much disposable income. The streets are littered with brand new SUVs that all seem to have Montana plates. I personally welcome you folks, and only ask one thing of you… know the code and do something good with that money, which doesn’t entail throwing it at worthless NPOs, environmentalists and politically correct crazies who are disrupting this place even further.

Folks, you are now Montanans, because you bought into it. Act like one and cherish this place — don’t change it. I guess that is how we all got here in some way (buying into it), but it used to be one of the unique parts about our state that humans stayed for generations… most of us had the luxury of growing up here. I vent because I am angry at what this place has become. The people that made this place great are vanishing, some for work because we have failed to produce good paying jobs, others gone because of the anxiety of boom-town Flathead Valley. Replaced with folks whose personalities resemble their new SUVs, no character but shiny.

This is the Flathead Valley that we have now. The land has been raped, in my opinion, and illogically developed, hurting much of the local economy in the process. This is not a hard-working Montana town anymore with strong families; it’s become a service town where the wages are reflecting the work force. Take a look at all the youngsters these days. Very little uniqueness there; everyone wears hoodies, with designer jeans and ugly shoes (even for the ’80s!), their clothes are either too tight or too baggy and have no utility purpose whatsoever… it amazes me. Is this fashionable? Or even comfortable?

Then, if you look at a lot of the 30-somethings out there, you’ll see some common threads: Tattoos — lots of them, cigarette and alcohol over-enjoyment, grungier appearances and their cars have dents in them. There have been a lot of teen pregnancies and females in this valley having children out of wedlock and we are now a growing safe haven for single mothers, which isn’t a bad thing… except that’s a big part of what’s wrong in our state and America… Kids raising kids, and broken families.

Our society is crumbling in many ways, far more than I could ever fit into a newspaper opinion. Kids are lost and consumed by “unparenting technology”: television that is almost complete garbage, the open Internet, cell phones, texting and living through social media imagining they are movie stars. The adults won’t let their consciences see the problems because they are too busy, don’t care and have too many demands as it is… people in general are dissociated and scatterbrained. I can’t live in denial, and I can’t help but notice the world.

Anytime a complete town or geographical location changes abruptly, you know two things occurred: 1) A lot of people just made a lot of money, and 2) Local government allowed it to happen. So… thank you, council members, commissioners, mayors and growth department heads of the last 20 years. Don’t forget to put on your resume for your next stepping-stone position that you were partly responsible for selling out Kalispell and scarring The Last Best Place permanently.

You are to blame for cashing in for those potential tax dollars, and drooling over your budget increases. You should have thought about it. You had a chance to control the growth. If you would have used your hearts and had half a brain, we would still be gradually growing today, erecting quality planned-out permanent structures and having good jobs with a stable economy.  

The reality is this place has grown and changed considerably in a few years. The sad fact is that the development could have been done much better and rationed to grow gradualy. Now, the system is set and the only way to change it is for the people to come together and stop hiring politicians to be our leaders. That is a job they are not capable of.

Learn from yesteryear, Kalispell, and change for the better. We are all welcome here, and we are all living here… let’s put a stop to the nonsense and politics and just be people, smart and friendly with an admiration for this “Last Best Place” and all of Montana.

Hall is a resident of Kalispell.