HomeMy WebLinkAbout02-04-22 Public Comment - J. Troxel - Bozeman Deaconess HospitalFrom:Jo Anne Troxel
To:Agenda
Subject:Bozeman Deaconess Hospital
Date:Friday, February 4, 2022 4:01:37 PM
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Dear Folks,
I have lived in the same house at 607 W. Lamme since 1964.
When we first bought this old heirloom, Bozeman was a village, and Lamme street and
environs had a diverse population. Joe's Market was in the neighborhood, as well as a service
station across the street on North 7th Avenue. There was a mailbox on the corner.
My daughter was born in the Deaconess Hospital on Lamme street in 1968. She played with
neighborhood kids, and attended Whittier School, then Willson, then junior and senior high
school. She remarks often that she received an excellent education.
During the 50 some years of living on Lamme street in this same house, the neighborhood
that my daughter grew up in has undergone many changes. Five story hotels darken the
streets; familiar houses for low income people have disappeared to developers; and the
remaining houses are dwarfed by imposing buildings that block the sun and shade gardens.
These changes have occurred city wide, and community members have protested and
explained, but to no avail. In essence, Bozeman has become an enclave for the wealthy, with
little regard for the soul of a community and its civic strength.
The beautiful old Deaconess Hospital needs to be considered a memorable building for our
inner landscapes, a sense of the past that stays amidst all the other changes. The most useful
and best purpose of such a building so close to town is for it to be renovated to code, and
serve as an apartment building for ordinary citizens that serve our community such as service
staff, teachers, artists, plumbers, artisans of all kinds. Right now, our city has, by its
economic decisions, made it too costly for working people to live here; they have moved on,
and the business community cannot find help.
The research indicates that remodeling this beautiful place will leave less of a carbon footprint
than tearing it down. This is hopeful news, and has an ethical grounding in what we know of
global warming.
What of the people, the invisible ones, who live there now? Are they to go the same way that
the other apartment building dwellers in our town have gone? Those invisible lives that lived
in the trailor courts, the low rental houses, the old apartment buildings? Are we to become a
city of just the privileged?
And if those dwellers.those folks who do our work for us have to live miles away, what about
that carbon foot print on our warming world? Our decree to become more sustainable?
Please...For the future, for ordinary people like me, restore this building, and make
apartments for the working community, the people who have a vested interest in our town,
but cannot afford to buy a house. Let us do this one good thing for our lovely town, and at the
same time, preserve this building that means so much to so many of us.
Sincerely,
Jo Anne Troxel