I can't properly describe the cultural phenomenon but there is a sort of intelligent/privileged/rich get-out-there demographic that has been on a steady incline for some time causing gentrification of many rural areas.
Sort of a cross between totally-stoked-Mountain-Dew-guys + farm-to-table-vegan-tatooed-hipster + do-not-really-have-to-worry-about-money + love-ridiculously-over-hoppy-ipas + own-four-bikes + sustainable-forever + into-outdoor-shaming-others [1].
I'm not that knowledgeable on demographic groupings but I think you know the type. Yes stereotypes are dangerous and I hope I don't offend anyone.
EDIT: btw to be clear I don't have any problem with above mentioned traits (as I'm not far from it myself). IMO I prefer it to the rural stereotypes I grew up with which is toting guns and killing animals for sport (which again sadly I don't actually have strong feeling against either). However I do hate IPA beers. The over hoppy beers have to stop (I'm stout, porter guy).
Also if you are looking for a similar city to Billings I just recently visited Flagstaff Arizona. Flagstaff is pretty darn cool.
I'd say I fall in this demographic. It helps that many jobs can now be performed remotely. The thing holding me back from small town mountain living was my career, but now with remote work I can relocate to where I'm happiest.
Rural America is, on the whole, losing population [1], and having the sorts of groups you're lumping move in (for either "hipster farming" or outdoor recreation reasons) provides socioeconomic diversification and robustness to many rural areas that would otherwise be in decline as family farms and natural resource extraction become less profitable.
I'm not sure about the not having to worry about money portion, but I agree with the rest. It seems to be the 90's adventure sports crowd "settling" down and enjoying family life.
I grew up in a ski resort, but I don't want to get a remote dev job, and move back, just to find a bunch of people like me are already crowding the place up.
I'll do my part to make their life better by staying in Raleigh. We have: trees, 100% humidity for over 4 months of the year, this big area people keep claiming is a park, creeks that flow when it rains.
It always seems like I'm one of the few in my age cohort (~24), but I'd rather work in Montana than SV/NYC any day. It feels like everyone just wants to be downtown to some major city, but I just want a respectable house on 1/2 acres with mountain views and snow every winter.
I think downtown in a major city would be fun for a few years while building up the start of a career, then switch to somewhere like Chattanooga or Asheville and get a comfy house somewhere in the mountains (small cities but not rural). I think my problem is that I like constant novelty. I'm not sure any location is "best" for me — I seem to want different scenery every few years.
We have significant trouble hiring developers here in Socorro, NM. Most are of the downtown favoring variety. But here, you can get a modest house for under $100K, have lots of great hiking opportunities, see a lot of open space. I think my lot is 1/4 acre with a 1200 sq ft house on it, and I paid $95K. (You'd have to compromise on the snow.)
I think you're right about your cohort. But in the next 15-20 years, I think there will be a swing in the other direction. These things are cyclical; your cohort hated growing up in suburbs with nothing to do, but their parents hated growing up in crime-addled cities packed with people, and their parents hated growing up bored on a farm, etc.
Every time I drive through Billings I wish they didn't have several oil refineries in town. Given the choice, I'd always pick a town that did not host major industrial sites.
That video didn't have a single person that wasn't white and young adult/middle aged. Maybe the hat guy is older, but still – diversity didn't seem a priority in the list of features. Maybe that's entirely representative of the demographics, just found it striking.
As an non-USAn, I'm always suprised how much emphasis is put on this in the USA ("look, these office visualisations have only white people in them, that's unacceptable!"), while at the same time very little is done to really improve the lives of minorities.
This is probably because the state of Montana has a 90.6% white population and a 6.2% American Indian population.
There are only 2,700 [1] black people living in the state, it looks to me like they're exactly showing the racial diversity of the state. Sure, they could have a single black person so the numbers are correct but then someone will just complain about them including a single, token black person.
The Billing specific census information is a little bit older but has the same 0.3% figure for black people [2] - that puts their total black population at 270/95,220.
I'm not sure about age. My anecdata is that I know a reasonable number of people who have moved to, more or less, "the mountains" when they've retired--for at least part of the year.
But based on my observations hiking, skiing, etc., the participants in those activities in much of the US are pretty overwhelmingly white, as are the long-time population of cities in the Mountain West.
Billings is actually one of the more diverse towns in Montana (which isn't saying much) due to how close the Crow and Northern Cheyenne Indian Reservations are. 4.4% Native American according to Wikipedia. But I guess that's not part of the image this marketing team wanted to project...
Billings? Really? It gets a bad wrap out here in Montana (unfairly, I will add). Missoula and Bozeman are the 'cool' cities. Billings is just a big oil town. They do have some nice bouldering though.
I had read about Greg Gianforte's startup RightNow Technologies (IIRC the name). Think he started it somewhere in Montana, maybe Billings or Bozeman. The interesting part of the story was that he did it the lean way - before creating any product, he asked some people whether they would buy what he was going to make. Some did, so he built it. Not sure but I think some time later he sold it for a good sum (maybe to Oracle?). First read about it on Sramana Mitra's blog, www.sramanamitra.com .
Look pretty nice. Anyone else thought they are trying to be the next Portland ? ;-)
Maybe unpopular here, but I for one, like suburbs next to a big city. I can have access to the city once in a while, there is a potential large job market if I want to jump ship, but also have a garden and quiet streets. This is basically an ex-rural town with a history, but it just grew suburbs and tech offices around it.
I rationally understand that it is unsustainable and I watched all the videos about death of suburbia and all that. Yet, am I going to uproot my family because I watched those videos and read a few article on HN? Probably not.
I grew up in a city, in a small apartment, with noisy neighbors, piss in the elevator, being flooded from upstairs, getting pick-picketed in transport. So there is nothing romantic about that for me.
I have also seen farming life and living in the rural areas, getting up at 5am in the cold and rain to feed the animals, worried about crops being eaten by pests, nope not for me either.
I think if more places accepted remote work, and job market would be more stable, there would be a great opportunity to places like Billings.
After living in Montana for almost 10 years, this video is kind of funny. It's like an ad for all of the things that _other_ Montana towns like Bozeman and Missoula are famous for!
Granted Billings is obviously changing (for better or worse), but it's known for it's industrial plants, not it's bike trails. I will say the "rimrock" above town is lovely and unique (and it's home to one of the most challenging disc golf courses in the country!) but in terms of trails and other recreational development Bozeman and Missoula are years ahead in development.
Billings actually does have some diversity due to it's close proximity to the Crow Reservation (4.4% Native American), but that fact is just as absent as the 3 oil refineries in this cheery white-washing promo video.
As a side note: it's incredible how many breweries and distilleries are springing up across the country - even in Billings! I love beer, but it's kind of overwhelming.
Interesting. I grew up in Kalispell, went to college in Bozeman, and now live in Missoula. I would agree with some other people in the thread that Bozeman and Missoula seem like the 'cooler' cities, but I think the Mission and Flathead valleys take the cake when it comes to views and recreation.
I mean, you cant beat the mountain views of the Missions and Swans with Flathead lake right in the middle. AND Glacier Park just to the north. But I'm biased I guess :).
When I lived out there (10+ years ago), I remember the locals always grumbling about people from California moving in and ruining it. I wonder if that has changed.
I prefer the Glacier/Whitefish area, but Montana is a thing every American should experience. I miss it every day.
It seems Outside magazine propelled itself from obscurity by driving traffic to its site with population contests through Facebook. People tend to vote familiarity, so the larger metro area of the two tends to win. The exceptions are the tourist towns that have regional pull. I'm impressed this method continues to work.
[+] [-] agentgt|9 years ago|reply
Sort of a cross between totally-stoked-Mountain-Dew-guys + farm-to-table-vegan-tatooed-hipster + do-not-really-have-to-worry-about-money + love-ridiculously-over-hoppy-ipas + own-four-bikes + sustainable-forever + into-outdoor-shaming-others [1].
I'm not that knowledgeable on demographic groupings but I think you know the type. Yes stereotypes are dangerous and I hope I don't offend anyone.
EDIT: btw to be clear I don't have any problem with above mentioned traits (as I'm not far from it myself). IMO I prefer it to the rural stereotypes I grew up with which is toting guns and killing animals for sport (which again sadly I don't actually have strong feeling against either). However I do hate IPA beers. The over hoppy beers have to stop (I'm stout, porter guy).
Also if you are looking for a similar city to Billings I just recently visited Flagstaff Arizona. Flagstaff is pretty darn cool.
[1]: https://stuffwhitepeoplelike.com/2008/01/20/9-making-you-fee...
[+] [-] hoodwink|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] cossatot|9 years ago|reply
[1]: http://www.ers.usda.gov/amber-waves/2016-june/five-years-of-...
[+] [-] timmaah|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] euroclydon|9 years ago|reply
I'll do my part to make their life better by staying in Raleigh. We have: trees, 100% humidity for over 4 months of the year, this big area people keep claiming is a park, creeks that flow when it rains.
[+] [-] ianleeclark|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] Xcelerate|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] fusiongyro|9 years ago|reply
I think you're right about your cohort. But in the next 15-20 years, I think there will be a swing in the other direction. These things are cyclical; your cohort hated growing up in suburbs with nothing to do, but their parents hated growing up in crime-addled cities packed with people, and their parents hated growing up bored on a farm, etc.
[+] [-] humanrebar|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] rb808|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] bryanlarsen|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] dboreham|9 years ago|reply
Source: https://www.google.com/maps/search/billings+oil+refineries/@... (this query doesn't pick up the refinery in Laurel, just to the West of Billings).
[+] [-] nmcfarl|9 years ago|reply
Of course jobs are nice to have as well, and certainly more important than views to the locals.
[+] [-] mstade|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] lgieron|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] Shanea93|9 years ago|reply
There are only 2,700 [1] black people living in the state, it looks to me like they're exactly showing the racial diversity of the state. Sure, they could have a single black person so the numbers are correct but then someone will just complain about them including a single, token black person.
The Billing specific census information is a little bit older but has the same 0.3% figure for black people [2] - that puts their total black population at 270/95,220.
[1] http://www.infoplease.com/us/census/data/montana/demographic... [2] http://www.infoplease.com/us/census/data/montana/billings/
[+] [-] ghaff|9 years ago|reply
But based on my observations hiking, skiing, etc., the participants in those activities in much of the US are pretty overwhelmingly white, as are the long-time population of cities in the Mountain West.
[+] [-] thaddeusmt|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] clean_send|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] settsu|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] thieving_magpie|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] vram22|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] fusiongyro|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] andrewvijay|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] darod|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] rdtsc|9 years ago|reply
Maybe unpopular here, but I for one, like suburbs next to a big city. I can have access to the city once in a while, there is a potential large job market if I want to jump ship, but also have a garden and quiet streets. This is basically an ex-rural town with a history, but it just grew suburbs and tech offices around it.
I rationally understand that it is unsustainable and I watched all the videos about death of suburbia and all that. Yet, am I going to uproot my family because I watched those videos and read a few article on HN? Probably not.
I grew up in a city, in a small apartment, with noisy neighbors, piss in the elevator, being flooded from upstairs, getting pick-picketed in transport. So there is nothing romantic about that for me.
I have also seen farming life and living in the rural areas, getting up at 5am in the cold and rain to feed the animals, worried about crops being eaten by pests, nope not for me either.
I think if more places accepted remote work, and job market would be more stable, there would be a great opportunity to places like Billings.
[+] [-] thaddeusmt|9 years ago|reply
Granted Billings is obviously changing (for better or worse), but it's known for it's industrial plants, not it's bike trails. I will say the "rimrock" above town is lovely and unique (and it's home to one of the most challenging disc golf courses in the country!) but in terms of trails and other recreational development Bozeman and Missoula are years ahead in development.
Billings actually does have some diversity due to it's close proximity to the Crow Reservation (4.4% Native American), but that fact is just as absent as the 3 oil refineries in this cheery white-washing promo video.
As a side note: it's incredible how many breweries and distilleries are springing up across the country - even in Billings! I love beer, but it's kind of overwhelming.
[+] [-] tahon|9 years ago|reply
I mean, you cant beat the mountain views of the Missions and Swans with Flathead lake right in the middle. AND Glacier Park just to the north. But I'm biased I guess :).
[+] [-] ratacat|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] dccoolgai|9 years ago|reply
I prefer the Glacier/Whitefish area, but Montana is a thing every American should experience. I miss it every day.
[+] [-] JustSomeNobody|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] dboreham|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] seanmcdirmid|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] sneezeplease|9 years ago|reply
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[+] [-] ryanmaynard|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] paulcole|9 years ago|reply