Great Ideas From Current And Former Great Falls Citizens
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Recently I posted the following question on my public Facebook page:
What does, or what would, make Great Falls unique in terms of being a destination hot spot for tourism, business, and new residents?
Not surprisingly so far I have received 376 comments and ideas coming from a wide variety of Great Fallsians. Or is it Great Fallsites?
Either way I’m going to do a series of posts on E-City Beat highlighting some of the responses and a few of my thoughts as well. So here we go, some great ideas from the people of Great Falls. That’s where the real solutions are.
The first comment here is spot on. Our leadership can’t be afraid to look at what other state and regional towns and cities are doing to be successful. And then we need to be nimble and humble enough to adjust, adapt and adopt.
The ideas about a racing/motorplex are interesting because that idea plays into what our strengths are in Great Falls.
We are a blue collar, working class town and motor sports fit right into our sweet spot.
I love this. We need to think outside the box here and come up with new ways of doing things, because a lot of the same-old-same-old just doesn’t work anymore and hasn’t for a long time.
I would add that the fairly recent issue of a Great Falls park tax is a prime example of what I mean when I say our city commission hasn’t exactly been dealing honestly with us.
I believe the evidence is clear that the city commissioners intentionally left the Park District 1 fiscal impact language off the ballot in an effort to deceive voters, making it more likely they would vote “yes”. You can find a more detailed account of this issue here.
Stay tuned for more innovative ideas and suggestions coming from ‘average’ citizens, who are not so average after all, on how to build some new glory days for Great Falls. Feel free to contribute your ideas to the comments section on this blog or on our Facebook page.
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As far as the park issue- Now that the Nat is dead… get businesses to build a commercial recreation center. It is in a neighborhood that needs access to affordable fun. I grew up next to the Nat and we were there every day we could afford.
Andrea- The Nat died for the same reason that Paris Gibson and West Middle schools did, too few kids. That same issue will impede the development of a commercial recreation center. Good jobs to attract young families is the best way to bring vitality to our community. The businesses we have are the ones that citizens frequent. Want different businesses, then we need to change the demographics of our city.
In order to change the demographic, we need to put more effort into local shopping and other amenities and we need to put more funding into parks and rec.
Tori- Chicken/egg. You can’t convince any rational business person to invest in retail or other amenities years before there are any customers to support the new business. Retail will not lead any change to Great Falls, the regression of Great Falls was predicated by the loss of the smelter (-3,000 jobs) and loss of flying mission at Malmstrom (-4,000 jobs). Any resurgence will require new jobs that bring in revenue from outside of Great Falls and employ young workers who will frequent the business you spoke of.
[…] There are currently 389 responses. Here I am continuing this regular series of blog posts on E-City Beat highlighting some of the great ideas coming from the taxpaying citizens of our wonderful community. You can read Part One of the series here. […]
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