HomeMy WebLinkAbout09-01-26 Public Comment - J. Kleller - To Mayor; Commission job_mandateFrom:Jaime Kleller
To:Bozeman Public Comment
Subject:[EXTERNAL]To Mayor; Commission job/mandate
Date:Tuesday, September 1, 2026 2:51:12 PM
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Dear Mayor,
Dear Mayor,
Remember that your job is NOT to “manage” below, it is to STOP it.
Period.
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The "enshittification" of Bozeman—often localized as the transformation into "Boz
Angeles" or the "Yellowstone Effect"—describes the systemic erosion of a
community's soul. Author Cory Doctorow coined "enshittification" to describe how
tech platforms lock in users before degrading services to maximize profit. Applied to
Bozeman, Montana, locals use the term to describe how the city’s natural beauty and
"cow-town" charm locked in a massive influx of wealth, only for speculative real estateand corporate tourism to degrade the actual livability of the community.
1. The Death of the $40K Teacher (Housing Lockout)The hallmark of Bozeman's decline is its extreme wealth disparity. Driven by
pandemic-era remote tech workers and luxury buyers, median single-family home
prices peaked near $900,000, stabilizing at roughly $715,000.
The Reality: The average worker in Montana makes about $42,000. Essentialworkers—including teachers, police officers, and service industry staff—have been
completely priced out.
The Fallout: Longtime residents face skyrocketing property taxes, forcing seniors to
sell and leave the state. Even mobile home parks have seen lot rents spike 60%,removing the last bastions of affordable housing.
2. "An Occupied City"
Local sentiment has increasingly turned into a feeling of economic colonization.Longtime residents describe a town where they work two to three jobs just to serve
grass-fed burgers and artisanal coffee to vacationers and multi-millionaires, while
unable to afford to live within city limits.
The city's infrastructure has buckled under the weight of this expansion:
The Skyline: City commissions approved raising historic downtown building caps from
70 to 90 feet to accommodate towering luxury condos, creating "wind canyons" and
blocking iconic mountain views.
Urban Camping: A sharp increase in locals being forced to live out of vehicles led the
city to implement a controversial urban permit and ban system to crack down on
unhoused campers.
The Airport Pipeline: Direct flights to tech and wealth hubs like Austin, San Francisco,
and New York effectively turned a remote mountain getaway into an elite suburb.
While the manic post-pandemic real estate market has cooled, the structural changes
remain. The original "community value" has been extracted, leaving behind a highlyexclusive resort city where the people who make Bozeman work can no longer afford
to live.
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Prevent, dont fecklessly “manage” enshittification.