Letters to the Editor
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nice article.....
I especially think this is humorous:
"he berated his critics for "class envy," claiming remarks like Feigley's were directed "at people who have had more success in life than the letter writers and blog writers ... Perhaps they were smarter. Perhaps they worked harder. Perhaps they managed their money better ..."
of course, these people NEVER acknowledge good ol fashioned LUCK when they talk about their success.
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Thanks for this article, Fred
I'm a Paradise Valley native, and I was also "suckered in" at first by the uber-green claims by this developer. Essentially, though, it's just another gated community, with the philosophy of "I have my piece of paradise. Now, close the gate, and to h*ll with the rest of you!"
Thanks for recognizing the Corporation for the Northern Rockies as well. My (late) cousin, a native of Park County Wyoming, was one of the co-founders.
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I fished with a woman who once guided for Dick Cheney and other elites.
She told me that they fattened trout in ponds, slipped them into concealed cages in rivers shortly before the elites arrive, withheld the trout food, and then said, "Cast there. That looks like a good spot."
This community reminds of that: "Live here. This looks like a good spot."
I wonder if this community won't figure a way to discharge dust into the air at dusk to increase the coloration of the sunsets.
More to my true story: this guide said that sometimes a native trout, like a cutthroat, slips through and one of the elites manages to hook it and is invariably disappointed, because it's not a big, fat, elite fish. I pity the fools.
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bozeman native
I was raised in Bozeman, a town about 20 minutes west of Livingston and Paradise Valley. The Yellowstone Club is bad enough... but like any good Montanan, I recognize that one of the special things about Montana is the fact that we are not, yet, filled to the brim with wealthy, arrogant settlers who are only interested in living out their Wild West fantasies and not in contributing to or becoming a part of the Montana community.
P.S., in a state in which the economy surrounding the working class is flagging while wealthy retirees continue to pour in, it's probably not a good idea to suggest that natives who have worked and sweated their entire lives for the state's substandard wages are somehow inferior to the California imports who gleefully scoop up property as if it were collectible. Montanans are, as any out-of-stater will tell you, notoriously suspicious of non-natives, and insulting them is not a good way to get into their graces.
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Paradise
Leaving Yellowstone NP at dusk after my first visit, I drove through Paradise Valley toward Livingston as the sun set to the west. It is truly the most beautiful place I've ever seen on earth - Yellowstone was almost just a prelude. I still dream about it and my heart sinks to think that there are movements afoot to change it in any way. Damn I wish I were rich.
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The C word
The very fact that he said "class envy" shows a lack of true class. If a little complaining elicits this response, can you imagine what it will be like if/when proposed project is completed.
kate
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What to write.
My first newspaper job was a short stint at the Livingston Enterprise in the late 1970s. I had a chance to buy some land in Paradise Valley, but didn't. Clearly I was stupid not to do so.
Paradise Valley is one of those special places, like Hanalei in Hawaii or Santa Fe. The excessively rich and bored always seem to take them over. That which was the reason in the first place to find them appealing evaporates.
If I'd bought that Paradise Valley land, I could be excessively rich and bored. Shit.
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So Feigley is another scumbag conservative-in-green-liberal-clothing...
>"Perhaps they were smarter. Perhaps they worked harder. Perhaps they managed their money better ..."
of course, these people NEVER acknowledge good ol fashioned LUCK when they talk about their success."<
1) And they never, ever have to use unethical methods to get and keep their fortunes.
2) If Feigley was that smart, he would have kept his condescension to himself until he got his Xanadu built.
3) As it stands, I hope the folks in Paradise Valley make his life (and those who buy houses in his development) hell.
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@deering
I believe you meant to refer to developer Dokken. Feigley is the wildlife ecologist who wrote the letter that provoked Dokken to reveal his richly thin skin.
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pardon my confusion
I'm not sure how to feel about this story.
It seems to me that the worst complaints being lodged in the article are simply sui generis assumptions regarding the wasteful, resource-intensive overdrive associated with the lifestyles of the wealthy- activities that are obviously subject to occurring independently of whether a property-owning developer makes a decision to design environmentally friendly and sustainable features into a planned residential community, or not.
And I'm not sure what positive alternative course is being proposed, either. Much of the USA consists of private property. People often build dwellings on such territory. It seems to me that the negotiations between private property owners and the wider community comprised of their neighbors should logically center around issues like blight and pollution in the surrounding region.
What would the neighbors prefer, in this case? What if Mr. Dokken decided to equip each residence with a hugely wasteful wood-burning fireplace, helipads, a captive game preserve, etc.- and said "how you like me now? Let's litigate."
It seems to me that pioneering green technology is a good thing- even if it's rich people doing it. The historical record shows that the rich were the first to get bathtubs and indoor plumbing, too.
I mean, get real- is the state of Montana planning to unveil a means, wealth, and asset test, in order to discourage or ban the wealthy from settling there? Because that's what sounds like the real heart of the issue- not anything that Mr. Dokken has done, but local resentment that massively rich immigrants continue to put up homesteads in Montana.
If that's the issue, then- have it out. Because otherwise, the uber-rich immigrant cohort will almost certinly keep settling there- whether the developments partake of a decided measure of eco-friendliness and sustainability, or if they're designed wantonly and heedlessly, as in-your-face footprints in the midst of the surrounding communities and countryside.
Parenthetically, I think it's a mistake to pass judgements on any individual without allowing them due process. Even a rich person. Undeniably, the success of certain political agendas and views in the USA has resulted in stacking the odds in favor of the wealthiest Americans in ways that are gratuitous and unfair to the rest of us- especially in terms of political power and civic influence. But it doesn't follow that 100% of everyone who can afford to buy a home in Paradise Valley is a phony capitalist pig, fit only for tossing flies at pre-planted, pellet-fattened stockies and similarly pathetic pseudo-recreations in the great outdoors. Isn't it also possible that at least some of them could be seeking to love and contribute to the place, with values not too much different from the rest of the good folks of Montana?
Am I being naive here? It seems to me that having wealthy neighbors doesn't have to inevitably mean catastrophe- especially if they're willing to kick down the expenses to keep from burdening the ecosystem with increased energy demand, erosion, and pollution. Unless you consider their mere presence to be pollution...(as opposed to, say, yours.)
How much of the problem with Paradise Valley is Mr. Dokken's doing- and how much of it is simply pique, a coalescence of long-simmering resentment for which he's merely a target of opportunity? It seems that one complaint of the neighboring public has to do with the locking away of large tracts of land from recreational access and travel by pre-existing local residents. Has there been an attempt to perhaps negotiate a compromise position on that issue, perhaps with the mediation of the state government?
I also have to note the irony inherent in the phenomenon of upper-middle class people, mostly relative newcomers themselves, feeling out-gentrified, and getting upset about it...there are worse problems, believe me. The "big sky" and "wide open spaces" for quite a few countries on this planet would fit handily on the leeward side of one Montana mountain peak.
Whatever the heroes and villains in this particular snafu- is this the hill you all really want to fight on? What about the impending earth-sickness of oil tar sands development, the privatization of aquifers, and the coal industry's newfound implementation of the beyond-strip-mining practice of bulldozing mountaintops into acid-waste rubble piles and dumping them into stream ravines? Will you have any energy left for those fights? You wouldn't be writing off any potential allies, would you?