Last Best News (https://montana-mint.com/lastbestnews/tag/downtown-billings-alliance/page/2/)
Some people who drove to downtown Billings for shopping or entertainment in the wake of December’s big snowstorms may have discovered a new and occasionally perilous form of exercise. Once they parked their cars, they either had to walk to the end of the block on icy streets or climb over a steep berm of snow to access the parking meters. That wasn’t a situation that made downtown merchants or downtown shoppers very happy. (more…) Continue Reading →
As I drop down Interstate 90 into the river valley that holds the “Magic City,” I swear: I won’t ever live in Billings, Montana. The sun glints off a spawling refinery that dominates the city’s eastern entrance. A sickly sweet smell smacks my face, making my teeth ache and my stomach curl. And they’re processing sugar beets on the South Side. (more…) Continue Reading →
Backers of the huge building project proposed for downtown Billings will have to persuade a majority of the City Council to put up at least $30 million in public funds for the project to work. The tougher job might be winning the support of the city’s finance director, Pat Weber, to whom a lot of council members will be looking for guidance. (more…) Continue Reading →
The Outside magazine piece on Billings’ selection as the best town of 2016 is now posted online. Better yet, so is the five-minute video tribute to Billings that was created by the folks at Outside. To find the video, just click on the link above and scroll down to about the middle of the article. Two Billings attractions are featured prominently in the video: all the nearby mountain-biking opportunities and the many craft breweries in town. (This seems like a good time to remind our readers to be careful when combining these attractions.)
The downtown-centric video covers the ground quite thoroughly, to the point where you could almost imagine someone in a distant part of the country watching it and then Googling “job opportunities in Billings, Montana.” Continue Reading →
The public and private partners working on a huge development in downtown Billings got their first nod of approval Monday night from the City Council. By general assent—since no actual votes are taken at council work sessions like the one held Monday—developers of the One Big Sky Center got the green light to present the council with a predevelopment agreement at the council’s Sept. 12 meeting. (more…) Continue Reading →
This story has been updated. Developers of a $120 million-plus project in downtown Billings—including a skyscraper that would be the tallest building in Montana—unveiled their plans Monday afternoon. At a press conference in Meadowlark Gallery, 118 N. 29th St., attended by nearly 80 people, the developers and local people who’ve been working with them outlined plans to build the One Big Sky Center, which would take up two-thirds of a two-block-square area on the 2900 and 3000 blocks of First Avenue North. (more…) Continue Reading →
Downtown Billings business owner Sharli Kiner is back to where she started—running her Limber Tree Yoga Studio at 212 N. 29th St. On Monday, she pulled the plug on her second location, at 2710 First Ave. N., just about a year after she opened it. Since announcing the closure, she said, a lot of people have approached her to say how sorry they were to hear the news, more or less offering their condolences. (more…) Continue Reading →
My name is Travis Mateer and for the past seven years I’ve worked at the Poverello Center, an emergency shelter and soup kitchen in Missoula. When I started at “the Pov” in 2008, our nation’s economy wasn’t doing so well. The unsound lending practices of the big banks resulted in a housing bubble that caused significant economic misery when it burst. Ripple effects, like a decreased demand for timber, closed local mills and put people out of work. Shelters across the country struggled to meet the increased need. Continue Reading →
If you ever saw Dwight Raup in downtown Billings, most likely on a bench under Skypoint, or at a table drinking coffee at Rock Creek Coffee Roasters, you might have thought he didn’t have much. He carried everything he owned: his clothes, a bedroll and a green duffel bag stuffed with belongings. (more…) Continue Reading →
Nobody said it was going to be easy. Billings authors Adrian Jawort and Russell Rowland took on a complex, divisive and longstanding problem when they started the Native American Race Relations and Healing Consortium last year. Their inaugural event, an all-day symposium featuring three different panel discussions, attracted nearly 75 people to the Billings Public Library in August. (more…) Continue Reading →
