On this special Memorial Day Monday I’m putting on my “William Skink” persona to share a poem for Adam’s mother-in-law, Debra. Debra Gets Red Pilled is a FANTASTIC podcast, and I was delighted to hear Adam read a poem from the book I sent them.
In addition to celebrating Debra, I’d also like to give a shout out to the podcast people keeping me sane, so THANK YOU Adam, Binkley, Monica Perez, Greg Carlwood, Sam Tripoli, the Grimerica guys, Ryan Cristian, Jason Bermas, Whitney Webb, Charlie Robinson, the Convo Couch and the Slow News Day crew.
some minds stuck in concrete
some minds harmed by Trump
some minds rise for conceited prizes
some minds sink in slump
but oh the mind of Debra!
behold! it still absorbs!
how did age and American cages
not slam shut her door?
all the podcast padres
and madres who evolved
can see the Saint in Debra
and it gives them steel resolve
so THANK YOU dearest Debra
you're climbing quite a hill
thank you for bravely taking
Adam's reddest pill
Earlier this month, in a local news article about housing frustrations, Missoula City Council candidate Danny Carlino disclosed how his own housing insecurity could remove him from eligibility to run in Ward 3 against Dori Gilels:
“We just got a notice to leave from our landlord, without a reason, just kind of unexpected,” said Daniel Carlino who is running for Missoula City Council in Ward 3.
“You have to live in the ward to run,” he said and if Carlino can’t find a new place in his Ward, he might have to withdraw.
“Either run in another city council ward, and restart, or I might just have to postpone the campaign for a later time,” Carlino told MTN News.
Hmmm, I remembered thinking, I wonder what the story is here? Then, last Friday, I realized this might be the sort of thing a citizen journalist could look into, so I did.
It didn’t take much work to figure out Carlino’s Ward 3 residence is owned by an entity called Koostra Rentals, which is the unimaginative name of Barbara Koostra’s business entity created in order to extract rent from tenants.
And who is Barbara Koostra?
According to the search engines, Barbara Koostra was once the director of the Montana Museum of Art, a position she left in 2019. Here is online journalist and “fine” artist Martin Kidston using his platform to champion this very important supporter of the arts:
Before returning to Missoula, Koostra spent 17 years performing at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. After earning her MBA from the University of Montana, she stepped in as director of the Missoula Cultural Council before serving the National Endowment for the Arts in Washington, D.C.
But in January 2005, Koostra was named director of the Montana Museum of Art and Culture in Missoula. During her interview for the job, she got her first deep look at the museum’s treasured collection.
“I was shown the primary storage area for the collection, and pieces were pulled out for me to look at,” she said. “I was stunned at the beauty, the richness, and I wanted to help that collection. I wanted to serve what it represented – a lot of Montana history, world history, and a lot of fabulous artists and donors.”
How could this helper of treasured art collections who served fabulous donors and artists be so callous as to give Carlino the boot (totally her right if it’s a month-to-month lease) during his still nascent political campaign?
I wanted to ask Barbara Koostra this question directly, but finding contact info with just my fingers wasn’t working, so I used my feet and visited a few locations downtown that sell art. I explained to EVERYONE I talked to that I was a local citizen journalist investigating why Landlord Koostra was evicting Candidate Carlino, but, alas, no one could assist me in getting contact info.
Maybe I could get some insight into this situation from Carlino’s political opponent, I thought to myself, so I gave Dori Gilels a call. And she answered.
I identified myself as a local journalist, then cut to the chase and asked her if she knew Barbara Koostra. Gilels, who was completely unprepared for my question, seemed genuinely unaware of who Barbara Koostra was, so I explained to Dori that Barbara is the landlord potentially removing her political opponent from eligibility.
After that awkward conversation, where Gilels adamantly denied any awareness about her opponent’s housing situation, I did a little more research and discovered Barbara Koostra has given some modest political donations ($40 bucks here and there) to local Democrats, like our current County Commissioner, Dave Strohmaier.
Since it’s fallacious to claim correlation equals causation, I can’t say a few political donations and the curious timing of the eviction are proof of anything, but then I get this comment on a teaser I put out on FB:
To answer Bornstein’s question: no, I did not consider that doing this investigative work, which started with comments made to the media by Candidate Carlino himself, would make it harder for him to find a place to live.
Because why would that be?
Is there some kind of entrenched political establishment with operatives in the housing market capable of using their residential gatekeeper powers to deny this young candidate the stability of housing just because he has the temerity to challenge them?
Is that what you’re saying Maggie Bornstein?
Also, in the spirit of asking things politely, I’ll humbly request that you, Maggie Bornstein, please refrain from making public accusations in letters-to-the-editor about militia-backed funders giving money to the Elder campaign based on information you claimed in a phone conversation with me to have gleaned from you internships at the Montana Human Rights Network.
When Sean Stevenson needed a warm place to stay on a cold Missoula night in January of 2020, the place our community built to alleviate the discomfort of homelessness became the structure that hid the violence of his death.
Despite this tragedy in Missoula’s own backyard, the more comfortable political strategy to play is a name-changing, race-shaming one because that wins you more donations for the non-profit and less enemies at the cocktail party, I guess.
And while we play these games with words through the mediated reality of screens, the story on the street last week is that another person consumed by addiction lost his battle in a motel bathtub.
I guess he didn’t have the same treatment options as our Mayor did.
In 2017 Montana experienced its worst fire season since 1910. The budget cuts that resulted, overseen by a Democratic Governor, significantly impacted Medicaid recipients and the organizations that serve them, like Western Montana Mental Health. Attempts the following year to restore some of the funding helped, but much of the damage was already done.
Most of the cut restorations in the governor’s proposal will go to the Department of Public Health and Human Services. That’s just over $30 million.
However, that does not restore the entire $49 million the governor and Legislature cut from the agency last year amid a projected budget shortfall.
Some of the key areas targeted by the Bullock administration under this Thursday’s announcement include an across the board rate restoration for Medicaid providers and re-funding assistance programs for people who require behavioral health and developmental disabilities services.
Now, four years later, the ripple effects are still being felt, but for some interested parties, the economic degradation of Western Montana Mental Health is a great opportunity.
The building eyed by the county was formerly occupied by the Western Montana Mental Health Center at 140 N. Russell St. It includes roughly 7,700 square feet of office space divided across three floors and will require around $500,000 in renovations.
The ground floor would accommodate non-election events while the basement would serve to tabulate ballots. The upper level would be used to process ballots.
“Currently we operate in several buildings and move ballots back and forth between buildings,” Zeier said. “It will all now all be within one area with no outside exposure whatsoever.”
A planning and architectural firm is in the early process of proposing a mixed-use development within the Historical Fort Missoula District, including the preservation and use of the old post hospital.
While the project remains in design, it would cover roughly 5 acres of private land within the district, including the post hospital, the old nurse’s quarters and a shed. It also includes a parcel of undeveloped land adjacent to the hospital.
“Maintaining this as a place for the public is crucial,” David Hoffman of Tres Birds planning told members of the Historic Preservation Commission this week. “The hospital is the primary structure. It’s one of most historic buildings on the site. We want to restore it as close as we can to its traditional design intent.”
And for residents of the Bridge Apartments on West Broadway, it’s an opportunity to be used as emotionally potent poker chips in financial negotiations that could see a public financing DOUBLE TAP used to save this housing from gentrification:
The potential sale of an apartment building constructed years ago for affordable housing has city and county officials looking for ways to buy the property, which is listed for $2.19 million.
But some elected officials are concerned about using public money to purchase a project that was initially built with public funds. Essentially, the property’s owner, Western Montana Mental Health Center, could benefit twice, all on the public dime.
“There’s something hard to swallow about a large facility purchased twice with public money, which looks like something we’re about to do,” said Commissioner Josh Slotnick.
Yes, there IS something hard to swallow about all this, like Democrats blaming every problem in Missoula on state Republicans while conveniently forgetting the previous Governor’s legacy of balancing the budget on the backs of the poor and disabled.
For now, the demonization of Western Montana Mental Health will help keep the focus on a mental health service provider (that just lost a Missoula County contract) and NOT the virtue-signaling politicians buying up election properties while lamenting the sale of disability-friendly housing.
But will this focus remain, or will Missoulians recall our recent history and ask tough questions of our illuminated braintrust and their feigned victimhood status at the hands of mean Republicans?
Public scrutiny in the form of local media attention can effect change, especially when the scrutiny is of a taxpayer funded service, like the bus.
Missoula’s bus service, Mountain Line, could have avoided this NBC Montana news story about a parent filing a complaint after a bus driver skipped a bus stop TWICE if they had just responded to the woman and addressed her concerns. Instead, it took a City Council member AND the media to get a response from Mountain Line.
This is what happened AFTER the woman filed the complaint:
Goss filed a formal complaint that day. By Monday, she still hadn’t heard back.
“So I called and checked in, and the lady I talked to on the phone acted like she had no idea what I was talking about,” said Goss.
That’s when Goss reached out to us. We called Mountain Line to find answers.
On Tuesday, Mountain Line told us they would review the footage, but they had to wait for the bus to get back to the station that night.
Wednesday morning, they told us the bus driver didn’t stop at the second stop for safety reasons.
“As the operator is approaching the teenagers at the stop, you can see that one is pushing another into traffic,” Mountain Line general manager Corey Aldridge said. “It was right after that the operator got back into the lane of traffic and continued on.”
On the footage, you can hear the bus driver: “There were a bunch of Porter kids at the bus stop, and they were pushing each other into the street as I went by them, and they hit the bus,” the bus driver radioed in.
But the bus didn’t stop at the first bus stop either, even though it was supposed to. That time, there was no reason given.
It shouldn’t take this much energy for a taxpayer to get an answer as to why a bus driver didn’t do the ONE JOB they are supposed to be doing, which is picking people up and dropping them off at bus stops.
While it’s disappointing a tax-funded bus service isn’t being responsive to customer complaints, it’s not surprising. Over two years ago, in January of 2019, I wrote about Mountain Line suddenly removing benches at several bus stops near the Poverello Center.
After several citizens made this an issues at a City Council meeting, Mountain Line issued a statement that included this (which I covered in this post):
Mountain Line was recently made aware of complaints regarding leaning benches at three bus stops in our system. Our agency is always tasked with trying to balance the needs of various interests, and this balancing act is never easy. Accessibility and the safety of our riders are just a few of the concerns we grapple with everyday. The benches in question were installed at three bus shelters on W. Broadway in early 2018. This action was in response to frequent, almost daily, complaints at these shelters, from riders and local residents alike, of litter, public drunkenness, illicit drug use, and people sleeping in bus shelters. Missoula Police were contacted on several occasions to deal with individuals who refused to move at the request of our staff and became belligerent. Divided benches were used, but they were continually vandalized. Since the installation of the leaning benches, these problems have decreased substantially, but we may have unintentionally created another problem in its place.
In the past few days, many people, both in Missoula and elsewhere, have expressed their dislike of the design of these benches. Upon hearing the concerns of the public, it is apparent that our solution may have not been the best remedy to these problems. In response, we are examining other ways to ensure the safety of our riders while keeping our stops accessible and friendly. We ask for your patience we continue to work through this process and thank you to those who have voiced their concerns.
If you are driving on West Broadway you will notice that NOTHING HAS CHANGED. Nope, over two years later, and those same bus shelters have the same bullshit “leaning benches” installed in them.
As a PUBLIC service, Mountain Line needs to understand that sometimes PUBLIC means unruly kids and unruly homeless people. If you’re a bus driver and you don’t like unruly kids and/or unruly homeless people, then GET A DIFFERENT JOB. I hear nearly everyone in Missoula is hiring.
And if you’re a higher up at Mountain Line, like General Manager Corey Aldridge, I suggest getting a little more proactive when it comes to complaints, because when you’re not, there does appear to be some local media outlets willing to bring their lens of scrutiny to the situation.
The Montana Human Rights Network and the Montana Racial Equity Project could be helping a black family right now, but they’re not.
Why is that?
Months ago I sent Meshayla Cox at the Montana Racial Equity Project this link to my interview with Sean Stevenson’s sisters about serious questions they have regarding their brother and what happened to him at the Poverello Center and Saint Patrick’s Hospital.
I never heard anything back.
And just a few weeks ago I sent Travis McAdam the same link. So far, crickets.
I finally realized why these people are too busy to bother themselves with what happened to a black man in Missoula. They are consumed with the VERY IMPORTANT process of finding dead white guys they can call racist, then expunging their names from all the maps.
“African slavery, as it exists in the United States, is a moral, a social and a political blessing.”
Believe it or not, there are three places in Montana named in honor of the man who wrote those words – Jefferson Davis.
Yes, that Jefferson Davis, the president of the Confederate States of America and defender of slavery, white supremacy, and racism to his dying days.
When historical racists like Jefferson Davis say racist things, it’s obvious. But when Missoula Sheriff TJ McDermott depicts Sean Stevenson as someone NOT FROM OUR COMMUNITY just a day after he was removed from life support WITHOUT HIS FAMILY BEING NOTIFIED, it’s much less clear that something might be going on, like narrative control.
Here’s an excerpt from McDermott, as reported by KPAX, from a January 2020 post I wrote about Sean’s death:
A man who was involved in an assault at Missoula’s homeless shelter last week has passed away.
Missoula County Sheriff TJ McDermott reports that Sean Stevenson, 45, who is from out of state, died after being involved in an altercation on Friday night at the Poverello Center.
This case isn’t something the name-changers want to deal with. Instead of scrutinizing how the power structures in our liberal utopia function, we get shit like this:
Renaming these features with Salish terms celebrates the importance of the people who first cared for this land. It sends the message that Montanans understand our history and want to continue moving towards justice and inclusion for all people.
There is no objective “history” for Montanans to understand. There are different versions of history and those versions get written by narrative gatekeepers.
If the narrative gatekeepers have their way with Sean Stevenson’s story, then his death, if it’s remembered at all, will just be some vague act of violence between two homeless individuals.
It’s not too late for Montana race-based virtue-signalers to help the Stevenson family understand what happened to their loved one.
I suggest starting with the interview, because when you listen to Jejchelle and Angela Stevenson you can’t deny the disturbing implications of their questions.
