Opinion-Editorial
Opinion Editorials state the views solely of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Community Journal.
By Patricia Grabow
Jefferson famously said, “Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty.” Perhaps you could rephrase that today as, holy heck, you have to watch people like a hawk.
Around fifty moderate-sounding people attended a special town hall meeting on September 11th at the Fairgrounds—they were probably feeling eternal vigilance… is a very long time.
You might imagine this meeting was held in public outreach by the city. It was not. It was organized in fact in response to the city’s not seriously keeping people in the loop, and although the commissioners and manager were invited, they did not attend.
More possibly concerned about public approval, at least most of the candidates for the Livingston City Commission went to listen and learn. The poster for the meeting read, “Change is coming to Livingston: Our Parks, Our Housing, Our History; Let’s talk about it and help plan the future together.”
The meeting was held to address two recently produced city studies. Things were courteous, and I believe those interested in the subject have acted in generally good faith. Livingston at this point in her history includes some remarkable and productive minds. They will be needed to keep watch—at times even on themselves.
The first study mentioned was the Livingston Master Plan. An outside consultant took on the downtown and came up with ideas, not all of them worthy, and a number of them dead wrong. More on how that’s being used below.
Remember this city was carefully planned out in its earliest years by the Northern Pacific (NP) and largely preserved over the last half century by the City’s Historic Preservation Commission. Our functional yet postcard-worthy downtown was part of a building frenzy for world’s first national park’s first rail gateway that paralleled most of Yellowstone’s best, most of it in half a decade. We were a part of Yellowstone, and it of us. The NP had more practice, competence, and horse sense than most contemporary consultants do today.
The second study dealt with our mostly citizen- and WPA-created parks. These remain, at least for now, a treasure enjoyed by people and occasionally animals alike. I still smile at that bear two years back sleeping off what might have been a few slightly fermented crab apples in a tree planted by the crew of Warren McGee.
In discussion of these plans, people who care deeply offered good ideas at the fairgrounds meeting. They identified concerns they have and offered solutions. Most of them spoke like people whose ideas were rooted in long lives and perspective in Livington.
Out of curiosity, I had earlier inquired into where the decision makers and key city employees were born and raised. I was a little surprised to learn none of our leadership; the city manager and five commissioners were originally from here. Well, makes some sense, America is a country on the move. What made slightly less sense to me however was that of the 114 city employees, only seven seemed to have been born and raised here. Perhaps the perspective of those rising to speak that night rooted in their lives here and enhanced with childhood reminiscences, was a critical and useful reminder.
There were some pretty amazing comments made. For example, the new owner of Wilcoxson’s Ice Cream spoke up regarding the bulbouts, at one farmer’s market the city promised, were temporary. He said that with just the bulbouts put in and the diagonal parking at Neptune’s which he had been promised would be parallel, it is almost impossible to get his large delivery trucks out of his building after they are loaded. The city’s best response was to reposition the poles a few inches, which is little more than a joke. He said this casual experiment—with little or no public input—had forced them to contemplate moving their thriving business to Billings. He said he did not want to move. After all Wilcoxson’s started in Livingston in 1914.
An unintended consequence of significant proportions!
Famed Livingston businesses here for well over a century should not be forced to or even imagine something that drastic based on the whims of a tiny handful who might otherwise be well meaning, but who could uproot the deeply rooted for their pet projects. The new manager said that as slammed as he already is, it looks like he will have to attend more city meetings, since the city seems entirely uninterested in listening to the public on those bulbouts, and possibly other things besides.
One of the people in attendance essentially reminded the meeting of the classic wisdom, if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. For all its simplicity, this idea seemed to resonate strongly with most who were there.
Another visible consensus that seemed to emerge was strong opposition to the park plan element to close off McGee Drive. One person said that she was handicapped, and that one of her spring joys is simply driving by the ducks and the flowering trees, again originally planted by Warren McGee, which could almost qualify for historic preservation themselves. Not everyone can or should have to walk across the fields just to reach those parts of the park.
Another person had counted all of the parking spaces and said that there were actually more parking spaces now than the hired South Dakota parks consultant would leave if they were allowed to cut down some of those trees to install a new proposed cement parking lot.
Another attendee commented that the parks were created organically, and that cement is not what we want in the Sacajawea and Miles Parks lots. It’s a good point. Just like with sidewalks, the old engineers were smarter; the terrains shift significantly over time, begging for maintenance nightmares. And gravel is better overall for people and dogs for walking. You do not necessarily notice, but the naturalness of the Miles/Sacajawea Park is part of its character. It is not a giant urban beast; it is a natural blend on the bend of the natural Yellowstone River.
One of the community members at the meeting said perspective is important. Minor enhancements or things needing genuine repair are one thing, but that taxpayers have a right to demand these issues be treated realistically like a home budget. We need realistic prices and should set priorities after that, just like in a family. We need to guarantee a budget that will not break us, instead of a blind blank check.
And we deserve a say in what actually gets cherrypicked to happen. One person said that right now the city commission is treating studies, particularly the first, like an omnibus bucket they or the staff can grab-bag to implement arbitrarily any time they feel like it, bypassing entirely a true public input process for either approval or cost.
A petition was made available at the meeting, which attendees could sign, titled “Request to Hold the Parks Master Plan for Livingston, MT., until 1st Quarter 2026.” The intent was for the concerned to ask the commission to hold off on such actions until fuller public participation takes place first.
Attendees there were also given instructions and support on how to fill out the not terribly well known survey by the commission. Truth be told, however, the survey feels skewed to shape the feedback in city-intended directions, it is intimidatingly large in scale, yet seems seriously narrow and inadequate as real feedback. Plus, it is difficult for those who are not as computer savvy in general, let alone proficient in QR codes.
I mentioned in past my concern about a proposed highway sign saying to explore Livingston like the locals just faintly whiffed of urban saviorism by some on a mission to enlighten the hicks. I was not feeling reassured about that by this point in the meeting.
I digress, but I repeat for those who resist it; entitled elitism has no place at any level of a democracy. We are all citizens and taxpayers in equal standing, and are at risk the instant any of us forgets this—or choose to ignore it.
One of the comments given at the town hall was that we should all go to the meetings and that we should be kind to our commissioners. Probably sound, it hopefully keeps the vigilance effective. But the key takeaway was still the idea of restraint: keep it travelable, keep it minimalist, and don’t destroy function for some half-baked destruction of flow. Hmm—that about describes both the threat to McGee drive and the bulbouts both, doesn’t it?
And all of this still pales in the public’s mind in scale with finally intelligently fixing the northside rail crossing. Bet I’ve mentioned that one before as well.
It was an almost two-hour meeting, and the comments are available I believe at the Chamber. You know, for anyone... interested.
It hit me this morning. Jefferson really was an astute observer of human nature, even centuries before the paid-for-by-the-taxpayers-studies-with-no-accountability era. The age might be as different as the styles of dress, but the boondoggles remain the same.
I thought back on the 25 years I have been attending Livingston City Commission meetings, both as commissioner and as regular public attendee, and realized the consistency over time with which we have paid for expensive studies and then done little more with them than shelve them or pitch them out.
It may sometimes be for good reason, but the reality is little to nothing seems to reach final implementation. What has worked best over time has been veggies instead of dessert—commonsense, useful, unsexy, practical, functional spaces, maintained not replaced, both in parks and the downtown.
We rejected the $40,000 study to make Main Street a bulbout-infested one way. Ditto the $47,000 study for an underpass near PFL serving the few instead of the many, and another at $780,000. The $45k foolishly planning the Wellness Center in Miles Park and pointlessly demolishing the Civic Center. These might tally up around a million dollars, and it suggests they might have more served the expected whims of the check writers than the actual public. And all before the two discussed at the meeting.
Remind me in the future to tell you tales of our budget expansion over time, because in real money we might be at double what we used to be. No wonder people were concerned. The disconnect still feels real.
I am grateful to those who put the event together, and those who attended. On all of our behalf, I only wish eternal vigilance still allowed for the odd sick day here and there and a few weeks' vacation.