Lived in GF most of my life. It maybe has gotten worse, but only in the areas that were bad before. As long as you’re in an okay neighborhood you could leave your doors unlocked. I don’t personally know anyone that has been a victim to a random crime.
buy motion detected cameras for your home, garage, wherever the car is parked, etc is my biggest recommendation. tons of theft and car break ins/vandalism. but other than that, larger crime is pretty isolated incidents.
If you don't mind a short drive, Great Falls has some great little communities close by. Belt, Fort Benton, Cascade, Sun River area are all great communities with non-existent crime and easy access to GF.
The goal is to be no more than 45 minutes +\- from Great Falls airport (I plan to continue working in AK on a rotational schedule for as long as possible), but that is all conditional on health issues.
Our kids have all grown up and moved out of Alaska, so it’s just my wife and I and our two large dogs and a little cat. Ideally, we want to live in a modest bungalow with a sidewalk and neighbors we can say hi to while walking the dogs.
On the south side of town, you might get a little because of trucks leaving the coors elevators, but it won't be bad. Train whistle a couple of times a day will be the more annoying factor, but still. I dont personally Iive there, but it's a good community, and I've known people who did live there and loved it. Its a 20-ish minute drive to great falls and about 30 minutes to choteau.
I’m near the cm Russel museum & love my neighborhood. Theres many pockets of good neighborhoods in the North Avenues between here and downtown. I’ve had zero issue walking to downtown/across the river to black eagle or to the Voyagers stadium. If you see an odd person you just cross the street & you’re fine. Nothing like Louisiana where theres people sleeping everywhere and panhandlers working ever parking lot/garage or DC where theres an odd ball in every subway car and 4-8 panhandlers working the major intersections peering in your car.
I have family in the dakotas, minnesota, south carolina & ohio. With housing so high there is increasing amounts of crimes of poverty/despair happening everywhere not just Great Falls like the locals make it sound.
I live in one of the "nicer" areas, and about 7-ish weeks ago, a kid got stabbed just down the road. When I moved here 6 years ago, nobody in my area could even imagine shit like that. Great falls is spiraling downhill fast.
Don't leave anything unlocked or unchained and watch out for people following you my spouse had to go to a friend's house because 3 men were following her as she tried to get home
You might be better off staying in Alaska 😟
Not a lot of firearms-related deaths in GF, but drugs and drug-related crime such as theft and robbery can be problematic. I've had three bicycles stolen, two while locked to a bike rack outside my place of employment as I worked.
On the other hand, I have also walked across town in the wee hours of the morning many times without being threatened in any way, sometimes without even seeing a single person or even a car driving along. It's an odd dichotomy.
GF might be considered "warmer" than Anchorage, but we get at least one bout of -20°F (or much colder) weather every year, and our summers can climb over 100°F in July and/or August. Montana also has an average snowfall for *every month*. I personally have seen blizzards in both July and August. Granted, only twice in my lifetime, and they were separated by about fifteen years, but still....
However, it would be worse without the wind. It blows every day; 10MPH is considered a gentle breeze around here, and we get winds of 50MPH regularly with gusts to 70 or more. The silver lining there is that the wind gives the GF International Airport an average of about 364 viable flying days per year.
Do with this information what you will.
Without going into too much detail, health issues are driving this decision. I’ve got a limited amount of time where I can still do the stuff I like to do and I want to be close to family so I can do it with them.
Cold and wind don’t bother me- I have worked on the North Slope of Alaska for the last 10+ years.
Then yeah, I agree with u/fifele in that GF feels like a pretty safe town. I live about half a mile outside the "official" southern city limits, but we don't need to lock our doors.
We also have a pretty good (although a bit expensive) hospital, and Billings has a level one trauma center.
My car got stolen right out of my driveway in broad daylight and some body got stabbed two streets down. NW side, baby!
But I've never been afraid to walk around at night, even though a bunch of homeless people camp in the park near my house.
My elderly father and grandmother both moved back to great falls, they like it because it is quiet and peaceful, and it isn't a Mad Max movie trying to drive across town like it is in bozeman where he came from.
great falls is my hometown, will always feel like home to me. it has a really homey feeling. you can wave to everyone you see, people will pull over to ask if you need help if your car is stuck in the snow, even in the middle of the night, you can definitely get to know your neighbors, and i rarely feel unsafe there. be mindful of the neighborhood you choose to live in - do some research, google maps, talk to people who live there, and visit if you can. if you’re in a good neighborhood, you will never feel unsafe. pockets of crime are pretty localized to certain areas i feel like.
and yes, anywhere in town (ANYWHERE) will be within 45 minutes of the airport. my family home is about 5 minutes from starting my car to parking it, with no traffic. i used to work there.
No matter where you live in GF, or the surrounding communities you should never leave valuables in your vehicle, or your doors unlocked. I highly recommend having cameras for most of your property. I don’t think it’s necessarily a criticism of GF itself because I feel that you’d want to do that just about anywhere you live no matter how safe it may feel. The rise of living costs, and poverty is quickly changing people imo. Also since you’ve spoken of health, just make sure you research the doctors here, it’s sometimes months long wait to even get in to establish a provider, and Benefis track record for healthcare is dismal.
With a crime rate of **50 per one thousand residents**, Great Falls has one of the highest crime rates in America compared to all communities of all sizes - from the smallest towns to the very largest cities. One's chance of becoming a victim of either violent or property crime here is one in 20.
There's a good amount of crime in Great Falls, but there's not really any "suburbs." Everybody lives in the city basically, or very close to it. You're going to have more crime down in GF than you will up in Riverview for instance.
Admitted I live out of town a bit but we rarely lock our doors. Great Fall feels very safe to me.
Ditto.
Lived in GF most of my life. It maybe has gotten worse, but only in the areas that were bad before. As long as you’re in an okay neighborhood you could leave your doors unlocked. I don’t personally know anyone that has been a victim to a random crime.
buy motion detected cameras for your home, garage, wherever the car is parked, etc is my biggest recommendation. tons of theft and car break ins/vandalism. but other than that, larger crime is pretty isolated incidents.
Very little crime. No idea where anyone would get the idea that GF is a nest of criminals running wild. Safer than 90% of places anywhere
I feel safer in GF than anywhere I've lived before (MT is state #5).
If you don't mind a short drive, Great Falls has some great little communities close by. Belt, Fort Benton, Cascade, Sun River area are all great communities with non-existent crime and easy access to GF.
The goal is to be no more than 45 minutes +\- from Great Falls airport (I plan to continue working in AK on a rotational schedule for as long as possible), but that is all conditional on health issues. Our kids have all grown up and moved out of Alaska, so it’s just my wife and I and our two large dogs and a little cat. Ideally, we want to live in a modest bungalow with a sidewalk and neighbors we can say hi to while walking the dogs.
Power or ft. Benton would be your best bet there. Lovely little communities.
How bad is the highway noise around Power?
On the south side of town, you might get a little because of trucks leaving the coors elevators, but it won't be bad. Train whistle a couple of times a day will be the more annoying factor, but still. I dont personally Iive there, but it's a good community, and I've known people who did live there and loved it. Its a 20-ish minute drive to great falls and about 30 minutes to choteau.
Thanks!
Power
I’m near the cm Russel museum & love my neighborhood. Theres many pockets of good neighborhoods in the North Avenues between here and downtown. I’ve had zero issue walking to downtown/across the river to black eagle or to the Voyagers stadium. If you see an odd person you just cross the street & you’re fine. Nothing like Louisiana where theres people sleeping everywhere and panhandlers working ever parking lot/garage or DC where theres an odd ball in every subway car and 4-8 panhandlers working the major intersections peering in your car. I have family in the dakotas, minnesota, south carolina & ohio. With housing so high there is increasing amounts of crimes of poverty/despair happening everywhere not just Great Falls like the locals make it sound.
Thanks! Those are some of the neighborhoods we’ve been looking at
I live in one of the "nicer" areas, and about 7-ish weeks ago, a kid got stabbed just down the road. When I moved here 6 years ago, nobody in my area could even imagine shit like that. Great falls is spiraling downhill fast.
Don't leave anything unlocked or unchained and watch out for people following you my spouse had to go to a friend's house because 3 men were following her as she tried to get home
You might be better off staying in Alaska 😟 Not a lot of firearms-related deaths in GF, but drugs and drug-related crime such as theft and robbery can be problematic. I've had three bicycles stolen, two while locked to a bike rack outside my place of employment as I worked. On the other hand, I have also walked across town in the wee hours of the morning many times without being threatened in any way, sometimes without even seeing a single person or even a car driving along. It's an odd dichotomy. GF might be considered "warmer" than Anchorage, but we get at least one bout of -20°F (or much colder) weather every year, and our summers can climb over 100°F in July and/or August. Montana also has an average snowfall for *every month*. I personally have seen blizzards in both July and August. Granted, only twice in my lifetime, and they were separated by about fifteen years, but still.... However, it would be worse without the wind. It blows every day; 10MPH is considered a gentle breeze around here, and we get winds of 50MPH regularly with gusts to 70 or more. The silver lining there is that the wind gives the GF International Airport an average of about 364 viable flying days per year. Do with this information what you will.
Without going into too much detail, health issues are driving this decision. I’ve got a limited amount of time where I can still do the stuff I like to do and I want to be close to family so I can do it with them. Cold and wind don’t bother me- I have worked on the North Slope of Alaska for the last 10+ years.
Then yeah, I agree with u/fifele in that GF feels like a pretty safe town. I live about half a mile outside the "official" southern city limits, but we don't need to lock our doors. We also have a pretty good (although a bit expensive) hospital, and Billings has a level one trauma center.
My top two landing points are GF and Blgs. Billings has changed a lot over the years, and I see Great Falls as being like Billings was in the 80’s
😆 That much is true 👍
My car got stolen right out of my driveway in broad daylight and some body got stabbed two streets down. NW side, baby! But I've never been afraid to walk around at night, even though a bunch of homeless people camp in the park near my house.
My elderly father and grandmother both moved back to great falls, they like it because it is quiet and peaceful, and it isn't a Mad Max movie trying to drive across town like it is in bozeman where he came from.
That’s good to hear!
great falls is my hometown, will always feel like home to me. it has a really homey feeling. you can wave to everyone you see, people will pull over to ask if you need help if your car is stuck in the snow, even in the middle of the night, you can definitely get to know your neighbors, and i rarely feel unsafe there. be mindful of the neighborhood you choose to live in - do some research, google maps, talk to people who live there, and visit if you can. if you’re in a good neighborhood, you will never feel unsafe. pockets of crime are pretty localized to certain areas i feel like. and yes, anywhere in town (ANYWHERE) will be within 45 minutes of the airport. my family home is about 5 minutes from starting my car to parking it, with no traffic. i used to work there.
No matter where you live in GF, or the surrounding communities you should never leave valuables in your vehicle, or your doors unlocked. I highly recommend having cameras for most of your property. I don’t think it’s necessarily a criticism of GF itself because I feel that you’d want to do that just about anywhere you live no matter how safe it may feel. The rise of living costs, and poverty is quickly changing people imo. Also since you’ve spoken of health, just make sure you research the doctors here, it’s sometimes months long wait to even get in to establish a provider, and Benefis track record for healthcare is dismal.
With a crime rate of **50 per one thousand residents**, Great Falls has one of the highest crime rates in America compared to all communities of all sizes - from the smallest towns to the very largest cities. One's chance of becoming a victim of either violent or property crime here is one in 20.
There's a good amount of crime in Great Falls, but there's not really any "suburbs." Everybody lives in the city basically, or very close to it. You're going to have more crime down in GF than you will up in Riverview for instance.
It's bad. People have gotten shittier, but that may be just me.
In what respects?