Month: July 2020

by William Skink

Back when I worked at the homeless shelter doing outreach, there were two couples who stood out.

The first couple lived in a tent at Reserve Street. They did not receive services, like food stamps, despite being eligible. While they didn’t ask for necessities, like food, they would accept the sack lunches I always had with me when doing outreach. They barely survived the winter.

The second couple was only around for a few months (the warm ones). Every time they saw me downtown, they would beeline toward me for free bus passes (this was before Mountainline was free for everyone).

One time this couple asked me for bus passes as the young woman was slurping a nice, pricey iced coffee from Starbucks. I took one look at that coffee and said “no”.

Which couple do you think represents our Mayor as he adds his name to this letter firing off the warning flares of dire consequences if Missoula, along with other Montana municipalities, don’t get a bailout. From the link:

“If we do not stabilize our economy, we could see a precipitous drop in local government revenue,” the letter signed by 33 Montana mayors reads. “These revenues fund and sustain ongoing public safety and critical services in our local communities.”
…
In their letter to the delegation, members of the Montana League of Cities and Towns cited a recent study by the Bureau of Business and Economic Research at the University of Montana, which estimated a loss of 75,000 jobs and more than $6 billion in personal income across the state.

Missoula County officials have expressed concern that some property taxes will go unpaid due to lost jobs and furloughs. By June, the county had already seen a 1% increase in tax delinquencies, which accounts to roughly $2 million in lost revenue.

“It’s not insignificant for Montana,” Andrew Czorny, the county’s chief financial officer, told Rep. Greg Gianforte. “What I’m worried about is the fall. This fall if people continue to have lost revenue in their jobs, they’re not going to pay their fall taxes and it’ll create a cash flow problem for us.”

While our elected braintrust is worried about their “cash flow problem”, people who can’t pay their taxes (or rent) will be facing different problems, like EVICTION problems and FORECLOSURE problems and HOMELESS problems.

The iced coffee drink, to continue the metaphor, is the fact this same panhandling braintrust still want to build a home for butterflies, and showers for police, and a parking garage for an event center, and on and on and on.

In order to avoid this disastrous cash flow problem that threatens to disrupt the old normal these tax junkies are fiendishly protecting, they are willing to threaten job cuts, cuts to services, the whole reopening of the local economy, all while laying the financial burden on the “remaining” property owners:

Without direct assistance to cover lost revenues, local governments will be forced to cut employees and reduce services, “or shift the loss of revenue onto the remaining property taxpayers.”

“Without financial support, major cuts to municipal jobs and services will hinder the ability to safely reopen the economy,” the letter states. “There is a widespread recognition that it will be impossible to stabilize the economy without direct federal fiscal assistance to our cities, towns and counties.”

This is addict behavior and MY concern is enabling this behavior is just prolonging the necessary experience of “hitting bottom” required before true recovery can begin.

Amidst the dire panhandling requests for bailout revenue, the bad joke that is Parks and Rec want money for all kinds of things, including a collaborative parks-school community center. Even these parks requests are leveraging Covid to get what they want:

Parks and outdoor recreation have been especially value in Missoula throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, with about nine out of 10 residents going to their parks and 92% saying they think parks are worth investing in, Parks and Recreation Director Donna Gaukler said Wednesday.

Ok Donna, so what kind of money are you requesting?

Requests from Parks and Rec include $1,200,000 for completion of the Rattlesnake Dam restoration, $779,130 for construction costs associated with replacing the Northside Pedestrian Bridge, $131,250 to replace a restroom at Greenough Park, and $190,000 for aquatics maintenance to cover things like the replacement of the 50-meter pool liner at Splash Montana, as well as $100,000 to plan the process of redeveloping the Northside Park. The department is also requesting $175,000 for Clark Fork Riparian restoration, which would include the design of sustainable river access points through downtown Missoula.

If you head is spinning with all this government panhandling, you should know these are just the BIG ASKS. Parks and Rec also wants $50,000 for trailhead improvements to Waterworks Hill, $54,000 to complete Bellevue and Syringa bike parks, and $9,963 dollars to support “underfunded developed parks.

With all these requests, Mayor Engen renewed his promise that he will not raise city property taxes for fiscal year 2021, but that could all change if the city’s panhandling efforts to the state don’t address their “cash flow problem”.

Meanwhile, if you are behind in rent or your mortgage payments, you might want to reread this post about places around Missoula where homeless people put up tents, because the Mayor isn’t panhandling to keep you from being evicted, he’s panhandling so the ridiculous wishlist requests from out-of-touch government tax addicts can be honored.

by William Skink

After years of trying to figure out some kind of reason–ANY REASON–to use the land around the Reserve Street bridge, it looks like the Montana Department of Transportation has finally figured out something to do.

What that something is is not yet being spelled out, but the reason WHY a reason had to be found is pretty obvious: the homeless camps.

After setting the scene, this KPAX piece explains why the Poverello Center is planting the seeds of relocation in the minds of the inhabitants of the sprawling encampments:

The Montana Department of Transportation is looking at various options for using that space which would require the encampment to, in effect, dissolve. Thompson and her team have been collaborating with MDT in an effort to come up with a plan that works for everyone. She says the options for those that would have to relocate is sparse, at best.

“Unfortunately, there are not any safe options in our community,” Thompson said. “The Poverello Center is full every single day. We are at max capacity. At this time we are seeing a significant increase in un-sheltered homelessness in our community. We’re seeing the Reserve Street encampment increase pretty significantly.”

Thompson says they are working on delaying any changes that would force those in the encampment to relocate at this time.

“What we’re hearing is they’re really fearful, they’re not sure where they can go,” Thompson said.

Obviously a director of a homeless shelter is constrained by the ideas she/he can float to the public, so it’s a good thing I’m not a director of a homeless shelter, because I have all kinds of ideas.

First, establish a leader of the encampments by popular vote. That leader can live where City Council used to show up in person to disperse public tax money to developers and consultants from Florida. Since this important city business can be accomplished through Zoom meetings, that critical space downtown is unoccupied.

Once this leadership is established, take a needs assessment of current and past locations where people have illegally camped. From my days working at the shelter I can tell you there have been encampments near Buckhouse Bridge, Grant Creek (where the old Ruby’s once stood), Rattlesnake creek, the woods in Bonner at the end of Mountain Line’s service route, the Kim Williams trail, and various empty lots around town.

After the needs assessment, use the Pandemic to identify outside-the-box options that only a hyped health crisis can make possible. After all, the director of the homeless shelter is using the pandemic to try and guilt MDOT from carrying through on whatever it is they plan on doing:

“Asking an encampment to relocate in the middle of a global pandemic is not a good thing. I understand the need for a solution of some sort, but at this time without any alternative for folks, I think we’re putting people in a really challenging place.”

Ok, since Thompson is devoid of imagination (out of necessity due to fealty to funders), let me do some spitballing for her.

Alternative 1: Osprey Stadium

I think this is a great option, though maybe not so much once the weather turns. There could even be music provided (remotely, of course) by Logjam Presents to raise the spirits of the relocated campers. Maybe a few campers could even provide a small payment (portion of disability check, if they have one) to Nick Checota, since the pandemic destroyed his business model. Also, local musicians will get to play for an audience. EVERYONE WINS!

Alternative 2: University of Montana

Again, if I say so myself, this is another great option. Who really believes UM is going to have the physical bodies of students on campus for long? So let’s just speed up the inevitable and relocate campers to campus. See how close those two words are? It’s like it was meant to be. Another bonus, the campers could attend classes on the benefits of Tax Increment Financing while simultaneously being prepared to replace the service sector workers who are back living with parents.

Alternative 3: Caras Park

This would be a controversial option, but the silver lining (to only be discussed in back rooms far from recording equipment) would be the exploitation of the CAZ (Caras Autonomous Zone) in order to create chaos, which will lead to an uprising of reasonable Missoula citizens begging for the TOTAL REVAMPING of Caras Park in line with the Downtown Masterplan (which will have to be renamed because it has the word master in it.

See, just off the top of my head I have provided both actual locations around our community where people have camped in the past, and three outside-the-box alternatives for consideration.

Just imagine what I could do with a little funding?

by William Skink

At Monday’s City Council meeting BLM activists continued their call to defund the police. This is how the Missoula Current is reporting what happened at the virtual meeting:

Calls to defund the Missoula Police Department grew a little louder on Monday night with a handful of callers blasting the city for “siphoning off” money to equip officers while ignoring mental health, the city’s needy and “life giving Mother Earth.”

They also questioned the actions of the City Attorney’s Office in its choice to file misdemeanor charges against a legally armed individual accused of posing as a security officer without a license and unlawfully restraining a demonstrator.

That case has been filed in Missoula Municipal Court with a notice for the defendant to appear prior to July 31.

Several commentators on Monday night suggested local police intentionally sided with so-called vigilantes who were present at a BLM rally at the county courthouse on June 5 and in doing so, ignored the “culture at large.”

I have a hard time reading this without getting incredibly frustrated. Maybe that’s because I spent a decade of my life trying to understand the systems of neglect that leave mental health issues untreated until they become a crisis and people without homes languishing on the streets until they either die or move on.

As I continue to read I get more frustrated. These activists wanted charges against the white man with a gun, but when the city complies and charges the man with a crime, it’s not good enough.

You want felony charges, BLM activists? People are being LITERALLY MURDERED in our community, and the killers are facing NO CHARGES.

When the BLM activists claim law enforcement “intentionally sided with so-called vigilantes” they omit that a BLM organizer was present and actively escalating the situation with the unnamed black teen. Who is this BLM organizer? Is this person still involved with the protests? Was this organizer coordinating with law enforcement?

BLM activists are throwing all they got into this unlawful detainment situation because they think it’s the wedge that gets their foot in the door, so I guess awkward facts should just be ignored as they disrupt a Monday night City Council meeting. Here’s more from the link:

The June 5 incident has yet to go to court and the facts have yet to be litigated. But callers on Monday night were united in their call for City Council members to use the “collective power” of their office to defund the Missoula Police Department and press higher charges against the alleged vigilante.

One Monday night caller interrupted a number of council members and other callers in pushing his agenda. Other callers urged the city to move money from law enforcement to subsidized housing and mental healthcare.

“The people’s money is being siphoned off to don the police department with military grade gear and tactical vehicles that only contribute to street intimidation and show off cool tactical gear among each other,” one caller said.

No member of the City Council defended the police department during Monday’s call-in session. But several defended themselves against what they saw as slanders and falsities presented by one or two members of the public.

Again, it’s hard reading this. Why? Because these activists are just spouting off without any real understanding of what they are asking for.

Take the caller who claims “The people’s money” is being used to obtain military grade tactical gear. If this caller had spent ten minutes doing some research, like I did this morning, he/she would have discovered that Bullock signed an anti-police militarization bill FIVE YEARS AGO:

Gov. Steve Bullock surprised a Republican lawmaker Thursday by signing a bill that limits what state and local police forces can take from the Pentagon’s warehouses of surplus military equipment.
…
The new law bans receiving weaponized drones, combat aircraft, grenades, grenade launchers, silencers and militarized armored vehicles from the Pentagon’s 1033 program. It also requires agencies to publish their requests within 14 days.

Since I was young and naive myself once, maybe I should try to be a little more sympathetic.

I can remember being horrified at the wars launched by a Republican president after the terrorist attacks on 9/11. I was in my early 20s and very much anti-war, which is I voted for Jon Tester for the Senate in 2006, and Barack Obama for president in 2008.

I can also remember being horrified at the rampant corruption of Wall Street during the economic crisis of 2008. I had just started working at the homeless shelter in Missoula, and my first child was born that same year. I had high hopes for President Obama as he entered office on a wave of exuberant optimism.

I no longer have any hope that our two party political system is capable of being responsive to the actual needs of its non-billionaire citizenry, and that’s not a bad thing, because it allows me to put my energy into things that I find more satisfying and worthwhile.

BLM activists are wasting their energy right now appealing to local officials for radical reform. Every naive call to DEFUND THE POLICE will further isolate them from the public support necessary to move progressive agendas forward.

And BLM activists are also wasting time. If their relevancy is contingent on media attention (and I think it is) then I suspect that attention will be maintained right up until November 3rd, when America’s quadrennial Dear Leader ritual is held.

After that, if Dementia Joe is the victor, the politics of placation will commence. Expect lots of vacuous speeches by dubious tokens like Al Sharpton.

Before the most consequential vote of all mankind in all the universe happens on November 3rd, is it too much to ask our local BLM activists to at least spend a few hours researching the things they are demanding of their local community?

There are about 80,000 people living in our little valley, and if a good portion of this population doesn’t agree with the demands being made, then it’s not going to happen.

Take this from someone who spent a decade of his professional life trying to make positive changes happen in his community. What I got instead was lip-service and an education in corruption.

If you would like to schedule a Missoula history lesson with me, hit me up at willskink at yahoo dot com. I currently only accept the following forms of payment: Legos, silver coins and certain calibers of ammunition.

by William Skink

The article about housing going up,up,up in Missoula has a new wrinkle with the pandemic, and that’s a focus on whether or not more out-of-state buyers are flooding the market.

Wade through all the speculation and at the end of the day it doesn’t matter because the result is this:

…a new report from the Bureau of Business and Economic Research at the University of Montana shows that Missoula housing prices continue to soar.

The median sale price of a Missoula home in 2019 was around $315,000. According to economist Brandon Bridge, the first few months of data for 2020 shows the median sale price rising to over $340,000.

While our local housing market shows no sign of softening, the reality here and elsewhere could be changing soon with moratoriums on evictions about to end.

At Mintpress, Raul Diego has a concerning article, titled Tech Giants Eye Lucrative Rent Market as End to Eviction Moratorium Could Leave Millions Homeless. From the link:

Just as news of a mysterious virus was breaking late last year, Facebook invested $1 billion for the construction of 20,000 new affordable housing units in California, following Google’s lead which had made the exact same commitment a few months earlier. Apple more than doubled Google’s and Facebook’s investment, combined, when it put down $2.5 billion for the same cause.

On the occasion of Facebook’s investment, California governor Gavin Newsom declared that the “State government cannot solve housing affordability alone” and praised the public-private partnership for advancing the fight against “economic inequality and restoring social mobility.”

It is of course utter crap that Big Tech is investing in affordable housing to fight against economic inequality. If you can handle the investor-speak, this February article from Globe St. will help you understand why Big Tech is investing in affordable housing. From the link:

Investors may be overlooking the profitability of the affordable housing segment of multifamily assets. Affordable housing has recently become a popular investment class, but there is still a misunderstanding about the stability of the sector. Affordable housing has an attractive risk-return profile and is better positioned to perform through a recession than class-A apartments.

My translation: hey investor class, with all that interest-free stock-crack sloshing around in your portfolio, you should consider taking a bullish slumlord position, since our latest transfer of wealth is hollowing out those middle class pretenders.

Here’s more:

First, there is typically strong demand for affordable housing, but new apartment development this cycle and low wage growth has driven affordable housing demand up. “It is a paradox,” says Needell. “The cost of new construction goes up, so the more that you build new, the less affordable housing is available because you have either torn down or gentrified affordable units. On top of that, millennials, which is a great demand set, have an inability to pay for the highest quality apartments, and when you combine that with demographic demand, you end up with a need for affordable housing greater than it has been in the past.”

My translation: by destroying existing affordable housing to build new apartment housing, and by destroying the upward mobility of an entire generation, we have engineered a demand you can now make good money exploiting.

The Big Tech making moves into Missoula is Cognizant, so I poked around their website and, oh boy, is it creepy. They are already anticipating the future of work with something called “Remotopia”. I didn’t watch their video because their description was all I needed to get that queasy feeling:

If there ever was a societal wake-up call, COVID-19 was it. The pandemic forced us to rewire work, correct hygienic sins, and double-down on our understanding of the cause and spread of infectious disease—simultaneously.

Months later, many questions abound: Will all who can work remotely do so for the near and long term? Will we be able to ever travel safely again? What environmental changes are needed to guarantee the safety of our physical workplaces and preserve the sanctity of our food supply? Can AI help identify, prevent, treat and cure infectious disease before it undermines us? What have we learned to sustain our way of life as we know it?

The Cognizant Center for the Future of Work, along with Cognizant healthcare and life sciences subject matter experts, have charted a path forward. Journey with us to see what is to come.

The Big Takeaway I’m getting from this cursory look at Big Tech’s near-term plans is this: they are very busy shaping what the future is going to look like, even housing…so what are we going to do about it?

by William Skink

On Saturday I listened to an interview with the BLM protestor who was unlawfully detained by a group of people in a downtown Missoula alleyway on June 5th. The interview was a featured part of Saturday’s BLM protest, blasting from car windows as both KBGA 89.9 and 105.5 played it on a loop.

A few days ago I wrote about how the Missoulian and the Missoula Current differed in their reporting of this incident. The Missoulian is trying to push a simplistic narrative of WHITE MAN detains BLACK TEEN, while the Missoula Current told a more nuanced narrative.

One of the details NOT included in the Missoulian coverage is the fact a BLM organizer was one of the people confronting this teen. According to the victim’s own words, after the white man with a gun asked him if he was a Nazi, the BLM organizer (armed with the camera on his phone) allegedly told the teen he had to show his face.

Instead of complying with this bullshit demand from a BLM organizer, the teen fled the alley toward the courthouse, where someone tripped him (another evil white man?) and then cops arrested him, warning him they would “break his fucking fingers” if he resisted.

While I don’t condone the behavior of the vigilantes or law enforcement, I also don’t appreciate this attempt by local BLM activists to depict this incident as one that occurred because the teen was targeted due to his skin color, because I don’t think that is what happened.

At the time this incident occurred, there were rumors flying around that people from Spokane or Idaho were coming to Missoula to cause trouble, and not Antifa types, but possibly Neo-Nazi types. In a post I wrote about the protests on June 3rd, I said this about the coordination between law enforcement and protest organizers:

The biggest reason it’s a good thing protestors and cops are speaking peacefully with each other now is because a baseline of local protest has been established, so if and when outside elements try to pull some shady shit, both sides of our local protest/cop divide will hopefully be ready.

There is concern outside groups from Spokane and/or Idaho could be coming to cause trouble.

If the teen was targeted because he was black, as he claims and the Missoulian insinuates with its race-baiting headline, then why did the man with the gun ask him if he was a Nazi? And why was a BLM organizer present with a camera escalating the confrontation? And why did this organizer assume he had the right to demand this teen expose his face?

The teen was wearing a hoodie, glasses, and a mask. Before the group demanded he show his face, they wanted to see his hands. Isn’t it more probable they thought he might be someone from outside our community coming to Missoula to cause problems?

After nearly two months, the bad white man with a gun is now facing criminal charges for unlawfully detaining the teen and acting as a security guard without a license, so this teen will have the opportunity to see his alleged assailant face consequences in a court of law.

If the victim of this alleged profiling incident isn’t happy with getting his day in court, he should consider the fact people are literally being murdered in our community and not facing charges, like Johnny Lee Perry, the 29 year old homeless man who killed Sean Stevenson at the Poverello Center in “self defense” earlier this year. And Joshua Paniagua, the 19 year old psychopath who stabbed Ben Mousso 4 times in “self defense” around the same time.

So congratulations, unnamed black teen, because of politics and publicity your case is getting community attention, and if you play your cards right, like that Convington teen did, you might even get a nice payday.

What you WON’T get–because our system is incapable of producing it–is justice. That would require having a fair, impartial criminal justice system.