Gazette feeling: Financial investment in downtown, inexpensive housing is welcome information | Editorial







Babcock Building

Cloudy skies hold more than the Babcock Building in early January in downtown Billings.




The new investments in downtown Billings actual estate are encouraging for what they signify for area business, reasonably priced housing, and the ongoing revitalization of downtown.

As household actual estate skyrockets, economical housing gets to be far more and additional critical to continuing the present-day cycle of enterprise advancement here. And traders acquiring assets with the stated intention of providing a lot more affordable housing is a get-acquire.

As set up organizations prosper and more companies open downtown, receiving through our current labor lack will have a lot to do with their achievement, and developing downtown inexpensive housing is a vital and overdue very long-expression answer.

All the additional explanation we should acquire every step achievable to minimize downtown criminal offense. That suggests serious financial investment in social services and law enforcement. It will include the continuum of treatment social-solutions solution to homelessness — and the skill, through jail expansion, a “sobering middle,” and continued passage of public-security levies like the one that will go ahead of voters in November, to make a genuine dent in general public intoxication and connected crimes.

We believe that the (Massive) sky is the limit for Billings’ downtown, and we are delighted to be aware the arrival of other individuals who think the identical, and are willing to make investments in that conviction.

The Billings Gazette Editorial Board involves President and Publisher Dave Worstell, Regional Editor David McCumber, and Chief Photographer Larry Mayer.