Opinion
Hot takes from people who definitely know what they're talking about.
My Neighborhood Hosted a Safety Workshop and Now Everyone Is Scared
Last week our neighborhood association held a street safety workshop at the community center off Oak Street. It was prompted by a series of traffic incidents, one of them fatal, and the stated goal was to empower …
I Was Fine Before the Energy Drinks
There’s a new Montana-made energy drink at the Co-op and it costs $5.49 for a single can. Five forty-nine. For caffeine. I work the breakfast shift at a restaurant on Main and the closing shift at a bar on Rouse. I …
The Elk Crossing Signs Are an Insult to the Elk
The Montana Department of Transportation has installed new signs along U.S. 191 near the mouth of Gallatin Canyon warning drivers of elk crossings. The signs feature a picture of an elk. As if we didn’t know what …
The Main Street Crosswalk Is a Test of Faith
Every day I cross Main Street at the midblock crosswalk near the Rouse intersection, and every day I place my life in the hands of drivers who may or may not see me, respect me, or understand the basic legal concept that …
May Is the Cruelest Month in Bozeman and I Have the Data to Prove It
On Monday it was 72 degrees. I wore shorts. I sat on my porch. I thought: we made it. Winter is over. On Tuesday it snowed four inches. On Wednesday it was 65 and sunny. The snow melted. Crocuses appeared. Hope returned. …
The Person Who Brings a Guitar to the Trailhead
You know who you are. You’ve got the guitar strapped to your pack. You’re sitting on a rock at the Drinking Horse trailhead. You’re playing Wagon Wheel. You’re playing it in a key that …
I Moved Here Two Years Ago and I Think We Have Too Many Newcomers
I moved to Bozeman from Denver in 2024 for the quality of life, the mountain access, the tight-knit community, and the sense that this place was still real in a way that bigger cities had stopped being. Two years later, …
Roundabouts Are a Coastal Conspiracy and I Will Not Be Moved
I have driven through Belgrade’s four-way stop at Broadway and Main approximately 11,000 times in my life, and not once has it required a circular intervention imported from Europe. A four-way stop works on a …
People Who Back Into Parking Spaces
You know who you are. You pull past the spot, stop traffic, and then spend forty-five seconds reversing into a space that you could have pulled into face-first in three. You do this because you believe it will save you …
I Drive The Speed Limit On North 19th And I Am Not Sorry
The speed limit on North 19th Avenue is 35 miles per hour. I know this because I read the sign. It is a white sign with black numbers. It is not ambiguous. It does not say “35 or whatever feels right.” It …
The Shopping Cart Situation
The WinCo parking lot has become a lawless frontier. Not because of crime — because of shopping carts. Abandoned shopping carts rolling freely across the asphalt like tumbleweeds in a western nobody asked for. There is a …
I Tried Oat Milk
My wife asked me to try oat milk. I said fine. I’m a reasonable man. It is not milk. I don’t mean that politically. I mean I poured it into my coffee and the coffee turned a color I’ve never seen …
Stop Calling It A 'Quick Trip' To Costco
There is no such thing as a quick trip to Costco. It has never existed. Every person who has ever said “I’m just running to Costco real quick” has returned ninety minutes later with a rotisserie …
The Roundabout Is Not That Hard
You go in. You go around. You come out. That’s the whole thing. And yet every single day I watch someone stop inside the roundabout. Inside it. As if the concept of yielding to the left has broken their …
Whoever Changed The Pickle At The Deli Owes This Town An Explanation
Editor’s note: The following was submitted unsolicited to our offices in a hand-addressed envelope. We are printing it in full. I have been going to the same deli for seven years. Every Thursday. Turkey on wheat, …