What does Bozeman care about?

Bozeman claims to deeply value and appreciate what makes it a great town - the mountains, trees, creeks, fresh air and peaceful surroundings. The Fowler Avenue connection will be a testimony to the truth or lie of that sentiment. Hundreds of Bozemanites daily use the path that is scheduled to be replaced with a multi-lane connector street. The current path is utilized all day long for running, walking dogs, biking, and taking kids to the nearby parks. It also connects neighborhoods to a variety of elementary schools in the area. This beautiful path runs from Durston to Babcock, in a quiet neighborhood along Fowler Street, but the matures trees and creek continue from Durston to Oak. One can only imagine the loss as the city begins ripping out every one of those trees and buries the creek in a culvert under the asphalt, or isolates it between four lanes of traffic. For the past two years neighbors have held a “save our path” concert and gotten signatures in hopes of saving the path. This neighborhood is not set up for a high traffic five-lane street, nor any multi-lane connector street. Unlike Ferguson or Cottonwood, the houses on Fowler street and other neighboring streets don’t have a buffer between homes/yards and the street. This is a small, R1 residential, community-oriented and kid-friendly neighborhood. This will devalue homes and a nice neighborhood, harm the environment (which burying streams and removing habitat for birds and other wild life does), create a dangerous atmosphere for the multitude of elementary students who walk through this neighborhood daily to and from school, and be a scar on the hearts and beauty of this place we call home. Is this what Bozeman is becoming?