Month: April 2022

by Travis Mateer

It seems like just yesterday (because it was) that I mocked County shelter project whatever, Casey Gannon, for being ignorant or a liar when he claimed the Reserve Street bridge area was being successfully managed until just recently, when people started RETURNING to live and generate TONS of trash again.

I’m writing about this topic again, a day later, because the MOST AMAZING article just showed up at NBC Montana that I think warrants all the ‘I TOLD YOU SOs’ greeting readers at the top of this post.

Instead of the false success Gannon tried spinning for the media, it seems reality has set in, reality like this:

Nearly three months after the Montana Department of Transportation locked the gates to keep people from camping under Missoula’s Reserve Street Bridge, the chains are now cut and six to 10 people are camping in the area again.

District Administrator Bob Vosen says it may only get worse.

As readers may recall, I’ve determined Bob Vosen’s role in this charade is to be a soccer ball. But with all the money that’s been uselessly directed at this blackhole of idiocy, I may have to go with pinball–the kind that hits things and racks up points for the player feeding the machine the coins.

For a reminder on the coinage the fencing cost, here’s the price tag from last year:

The Montana Department of Transportation is contracting Idaho Fence for construction.

District administrator Bob Vosen tells NBC Montana the fence will be 3,133 feet with seven gates. 

The estimated cost of the fence is $163,686.

Once upon a time this amount of money could buy a fucking house. Now it’s chump change (thanks taxpayer!) going to a failed strategy I told PINBALL Bob, in more than one phone conversation, would end up this way.

Listen to the DINGS this pinball is singing now about the COMBINED failure of the private security firm, Rogers International, and the idiotic fence an Idaho fence company installed (partially) last summer.

MDT hired Rogers International security to patrol and try to keep people from under the bridge, but a Ninth Circuit Court decision limits what enforcement actions they can take. The decision says cities can’t criminalize homelessness through citations or other means.

In response, MDT is putting their efforts on hold.

“We do have some holdouts that are still down there who have moved back or have been extremely resistant to relocating,” said Vosen. “So rather than keep throwing resources at it without a strong legal backing, we’ve decided to suspend things until we have that strong legal backing we need.”

That means Rogers International won’t be patrolling the area until they can legally enforce no trespassing. They won’t replace chains and locks that have been cut either.

“It’s just an effort of futility until we have something we can go forward and process with,” said Vosen.

Do you see all this failure? I want to add emphasis, but then would be tempted to just bold the whole thing.

And I haven’t even included yet the intentional failure of the Missoula County Sheriff’s Department, who join the chorus in shouting NINTH CIRCUIT COURT DECISION like a “wounded” Vet with an eyepatch shouting PTSD to avoid accountability.

Here’s why no one can do anything:

Vosen says MDT, in conjunction with the Missoula County Sheriff’s Office, wants a court order that they have the authority to remove people from the area when they’re trespassing.

We called the sheriff’s office and spoke with PIO Jeannette Smith to confirm. She said that would be an MDT initiative and the sheriff’s office did not have plans to pursue a court order.

“We’re working toward that now,” said Vosen. “We definitely aren’t turning a blind eye, we’re doing everything we can.”

Sure, PinBob, I’m sure a court order will happen some day. Of course, to be ever malleable to the other forces that moves Bob’s balls, there’s “no timeline” for this new last final great hope of a court order. Just a feeble claim of “right direction”.

Vosen says there isn’t a timeline for when they may have that backing, but they’re moving in the right direction, calling it a long, slow, challenging process.

While PinBob does his thing, volunteers like me will be rolling up our sleeves next Friday to accomplish more in one day, in terms of trash removal, than the tens of thousands of taxpayer dollars have done over the years.

Thanks for reading, and have a great weekend!

by Travis Mateer

Why should I be surprised that a local government official is either blatantly lying or critically ignorant of the dynamics at the Reserve Street bridge encampment?

Here is Casey Gannon’s depiction of the situation, which offends my sense of reality (emphasis mine):

He noted that initially, the camp was successful in drawing people out of long-term, entrenched illegal camps beneath the Reserve Street Bridge. However, in recent weeks, he said people have filtered back to living under the bridge and there is now a lot of highly visible trash.

“We’ve seen folks moving back to the illegal Reserve Street camp,” he said. “There’s quite a bit of trash dispersed and spread out among the area.”

Now, plenty of people in this town would accept this description at face value, but I’m not one of them. And that’s because my visits to the Reserve underworld indicate a few people NEVER LEFT the trash-strewn shanty town.

Another false reality this article hints at, then later discredits, is the notion that people returning have brought the trash problem back. That’s simply not true.

While the Montana Department of Transportation did everything in their power to ACT like they were going to do a clean-up last month, Bob “Soccer Ball” Vosen couldn’t muster the staffing, supposedly. But I’m sure he tried REALLY hard.

Gannon said that the Montana Department of Transportation, which owns the land under the bridge, was supposed to do a cleanup in March but canceled due to a lack of staffing.

Instead of waiting for our pathetic government agencies to clean-up their at-risk property, I’m going to volunteer my time and muscles with a few other ass-kickers later this month.

While we do this work for nearly free, the PRIVATE security company getting paid tens of thousands of dollars to manage this area is ALSO getting some good press.

Kevin Davis, an organizer for the Reserve Street Working Group, said volunteers are still needed for a cleanup of the riparian area under the bridge from 9 a.m. until 1 p.m. on Earth Day, April 22.

Gannon said that county officials are aware of the trash under the Reserve Street Bridge.

“Rogers is working with the city to get people out from under the bridge again,” he said. “With the Johnson Street Emergency Winter Shelter closing on April 18, we’re going to see more urban camping. We’re going to continue to work with the city on how that’s going to be addressed. The Authorized Camping Site is one piece of the solution, but it’s not going to solve everything.”

What a fucking joke.

This clean-up is happening because the organizer, Kevin Davis, has been a relentless offerer of solutions when it comes the gap left behind after I left my job in 2016, effectively ending the collaborative clean-ups I had spent so much energy organizing with the Health Department and the Clark Fork Coalition.

One business owner in the area is so cynical that the underbelly of the bridge will get a clean-up, he took a five dollar bet. When I win that bet, I will purchase a caffeinated beverage, and proceed to the XXXs with my megaphone.

Thanks for reading!

by Travis Mateer

Writing about one of Missoula’s most celebrated culture makers, Andy Smetanka, takes me back to my formative experiences as a college student in this college town, all way back to the turn of the century, the year 2000. That’s when a fantastic professor by the name of Mary Groom Hall plucked me out of orientation and convinced me to sign up for a FIG (freshman interest group) even though I was a transfer student.

Being a member of the creative writing FIG was an important part of my early years in Missoula because I met some amazing people, a few who I am still friends with. MORE importantly, though, it’s where I first had the distinct privilege of getting my first taste of The Smetanka.

Andy Smetanka appeared in our humble classroom, invited by our adoring FIG leader (who was clearly nerd-fucking him in her mind while he spoke to us) so he could impart some AMAZING wisdom about how to land a Fulbright Scholarship, which he had done himself.

The advice? Pick something obscure, like a hipster would do. Andy, from what I can recall, studied an obscure Finnish war, or something. I wonder what else one can apply this hipster-inspired concept to?

Anyway, back to our cherished cultural jewel, Andy Smetanka, who will be showing his film MISSOULA: A PLACE, SORT OF on April 15th at the ZACC.

What is this film “about”? That’s a silly question, and if you ask it, you are indicating your intellectual prowess is probably not up to the task of viewing this film. But for those of you who CAN produce enough brainpower, let’s take a look at the Kickstarter campaign that announced this sort-of-artist’s intention with his film project:

The short version, here, is that I intend to make a ravishing documentary about my adopted hometown of Missoula, Montana, full of love and mystery and some affectionate ribbing, called A Place Sort Of, to celebrate 25 years of livIng here. The long version, relayed below, is that this film project–an enigmatic “city symphony” film with its spiritual origins in a t-shirt design that happened almost by accident four decades ago–has been, as you might guess, a long time coming. 

I am emphasizing the AFFECTIONATE RIBBING part of The Smetanka’s description because it’s important to note that criticizing one’s “adopted” hometown is just fine when you’re an intellectual with hipster glasses who studied an obscure Finnish war and has lived here for 25 years, but, as we will learn, it is NOT OK for a literary OUTSIDER to swoop in and write critically about this sort of place.

To process the trauma of having the reputation of one’s “adopted” hometown so mercilessly besmirched in print and–even worse–placing our town’s name MISSOULA on the cover, The Smetanka applied his sort-of artistic skills to create a properly censored version of Krakauer’s cover.

Since Andy’s skills weren’t up to the task to accomplish this strategically censored poster all by himself, I reached out to the OTHER artist involved in this talented effort in blocking out enough letters of Krakauer’s name to make the word “our”.

Yes, you read that right, it took TWO artists to make this artistic statement of strategic censorship. From the link:

Smetanka doesn’t know what’s in the book, but he knows Krakauer has tapped prepositional phrases for other titles. “Into the Wild.” ”Into Thin Air.” ”Under the Banner of Heaven.”

Why not one for Missoula?

“I wanted to come up with something that was an artful protest against the name of the book, but it ended up being a little more ambiguous,” Smetanka said.

In fact, the depiction by him and Greg Twigg appears to reflect some community members’ reaction to the rape reports, as well as the later protest against the title.

If you didn’t pick up on the shade being thrown by the author of the article, Keila Szpaller, that’s because she’s hasn’t referenced Jim Foley yet.

In the poster, Smetanka blocked out letters in Krakauer’s name so the poster says “Our Missoula” instead of “Jon Krakauer” and “Missoula: Rape and the Justice System in a College Town.”

Early on, some UM officials and Grizzlies boosters similarly tried to block out news the campus had a rape problem. Former UM vice president Jim Foley, for instance, protested the media’s use of the term “gang rape” to describe a report a UM student made that she’d been assaulted by four UM football players.

Foley since left the university, and current UM president Royce Engstrom fired former football coach Robin Pflugrad and athletic director Jim O’Day.

The poster also reflects the reaction many people had to the book’s title. Why not call it Boulder, where Krakauer is based?

“Missoulians are kind of wonderfully defensive and touchy about our image,” Smetanka said.

I added the emphasis where Andy Smetanka pretends he has the agency to speak for ALL Missoulians regarding how we feel about “our” image because I find it quite impressive, still, all these years later, what some people in this town decided to get outraged about back then.

I was curious what The Smetanka’s co-creator thought of this statement piece in our current climate of campus censorship, so I found Greg Twigg’s email (since he’s a professor of digital art and technology at the University of Montana) and sent him this email:

Sadly, I haven’t heard back.

If you’re hoping to see this VERY SPECIAL version of Andy Smetanka’s Missoula film, I’m sorry to inform you it’s sold out. Which is too bad, because there’s a special Q&A and cocktail party after the viewing.

Maybe I’ll sneak in and get some footage of this exciting event because, in my humble opinion, a cultural gem like The Smetanka should NOT be hoarded for the select few–he should be LIVE STREAMED!

Thanks for reading…and for supporting those unique creators who sacrifice so much to give definition and meaning to this town.

by Travis Mateer

Despite being an avid Harry Potter reader, one of my kids doesn’t believe in magic, which means if an actual Boggart was coming after him, he wouldn’t be able to ward it off with a RIDDIKULUS spell.

Maybe you think a Boggart CAN’T exist; that it’s just a figment of J. K. Rowling’s imagination. I used to think that’s the way fiction works. I don’t anymore.

The short two minute video you are about to watch is magic in action, and I’m fairly confident it will work because a powerful young conjurer of love made the googly-eyed ROCK OF JUSTICE.

I’m hoping to return with a new podcast episode next week. Until then, enjoy!

https://player.vimeo.com/video/698454375?h=0e09f1ffad&badge=0&autopause=0&player_id=0&app_id=58479

by Travis Mateer

When the Mayor’s communication guru, Ginny Merriam, tackles a challenging issue in the press, like the reality of RV living in Zoom Town, I know I’m getting high-grade narrative management that in no way corresponds to the actual reality of what’s happening on the ground.

Here’s what the Mayor’s mouthpiece WANTS you to think they are doing within the confines of the court ruling that ties their hands:

“We’re mindful of the 9th Circuit Court ruling that told municipalities in the whole Ninth Circuit district we’re not to criminalize homelessness,” explained city communications manager, Ginny Merriam. “So, writing tickets for camping or throwing people in jail for camping is not a best practice and that is not something that we are doing.

“But we’re attempting to balance taking care of people as best we can with respecting their rights and respecting public safety as well.”

And here’s the reality:

https://player.vimeo.com/video/698045657?h=e27b113a5f&badge=0&autopause=0&player_id=0&app_id=58479

I’m not sure telling a woman to SHUT THE FUCK UP after rousing her from sleep is all that respectful, but maybe Ginny Merriam is operating on a different understanding of what respect means.

The stories in the media about the visibility of the less fortunate are happening right now because the Johnson Street shelter will be closing in exactly one week, so it’s important for Ginny and the gang to say 9TH CIRCUIT COURT really loud. Repeat it enough and it might work like a magical spell to make the reporters disappear–at least until a tragedy happens, or the snow starts to fall again.

It can be a little jarring how our community can so quickly shift from CELEBRATING all the innovative options for homelessness creatively funded over the years when it’s convenient, then turn around and LAMENT the lack of options when one component of the triage isn’t available.

Here’s the current look at capacity, according to the reporting of NBC Montana:

“We do not have in Missoula enough indoor beds for all the people who need shelter,” said Ginny Merriam, the communications director for the city of Missoula.

Merriam says the 78 beds at the Poverello Center, the 20 tents at the Temporary Safe Outdoor Space and the 40 tent sites at the Authorized Camping Site are all either full or almost full.

With such sparse offerings, it’s a good thing someone has developed a plan.

No, not another 10 year plan to END homelessness. This is a more targeted plan, called an INCIDENT ACTION PLAN.

So many great plans for a great town that does SO MANY great things.

When are those Ukrainians set to arrive again?