Billings needs a new performing arts center downtown that will hold around 2,500 people. Without a larger venue, we won't get larger concerts. Metra just doesn't work for most things. It's too big and it is hard, if not impossible, to get the sound right. A new performing arts center downtown would help downtown and all of the businesses there.

Community needs to focus on the basics to assure their success. For example: crime, air service, schools.

Billings’s future is dependent on a vibrant downtown with events centers, and another large hotel.

Get more events to Metra

There needs to be more downtown living options.

Please build a parking garage at the airport. I understand that the city is tearing down an airplane hanger to create another parking lot. We don't just need more parking, we need covered, safe parking that is closer to the terminal. Airport management simply is not responsive to Billings citizens. They don't get it.

Billings is at a time when the demographics are changing and we need to ensure the younger generations stay here and prosper, instead of moving to places like Missoula, Denver or Portland. I believe there is a long list of things Billings can do to make the city more "livable" and inviting: 1. Bus Rapid Transit with dedicated lanes. 2. Physically separated bike lanes on main streets, neighborhood greenways on side-streets, trails through green-space and bike parking for the end of the trip. 3. Neighborhood commercial centers 4. Limited building setbacks 5. A cap on downtown parking and a ban on new surface parking 5a. Market-rate parking (i.e., Parking Increment Finance) 6. Infill development, perhaps a growth boundary 7. Smaller lot-sizes for affordable housing 8. Town square in the downtown, perhaps make SkyPoint area pedestrian only 9. Remove the cattle fences off the sidewalks downtown and treat outdoor seating as a way to improve permeability. 10. Higher gas tax to fund public transportation or non-motorized transportation. 11. A continuation of the street grid (blocks) into new developments on the West End and Heights. 12. MIxed-use, mixed-income pedestrian, bicycle and transit-oriented developments 13. Bicycling Business Districts 14. Promotion of www.getaround.com peer-to-peer car sharing 15. Urban design guidelines (e.g., buildings that front the street, 70% glass in pedestrian areas, garages behind the front door of residential units, gas stations with pumps in the rear). 16. Height limits on buildings downtown, so one developer doesn't come in and absorb the entire market for the next 20 years. 17. Public and very fast internet infrastructure that will invite new start-up businesses, similar to the way urban highways invited sprawl. 18. No more "Power Centers"! Focus instead on regional and neighborhood centers. 19. Taxi waiting/loading zones in key areas. 20. Very limited automobile parking at bars to show we mean we don't want people to drink and drive. 21. Food truck pods 22. Eco-Industrial Districts 23. Temporary interventions 24. Increased community engagement and involvement from government 25. High speed rail would be nice, though not economically viable Basically, the City has become a nice place for people from Wyoming to come and shop. It's also an easy place to drive. Now, the City and community would do well to begin focusing on neighborhood commercial, small businesses and different means of transportation than the automobile. Perhaps get back to our roots and see how the City first began to develop. In general, I think the one thing that needs to be done is a robust and pro-active discussion that addresses the questions: "how do we want to live?" "what do we want to look like in 20, 40, 200 years?"

As people move to Billings or even just consider a move to Billings, the Chamber should be in front of them to connect people to job opportunities and local businesses.

Build a network of sky bridges down town. Our winters are terrible. The ice lasts forever. Crossing the street is a terrible experience with the ice, mud, snow, and traffic. Please build a network of sky bridges to connect buildings so that we can ger around downtown without being in the cold. Other communities have done this with the spaces above alleys and side walks. This would make Billings even greater.

Better street maintenance.