by Travis Mateer

UPDATE BELOW

I see lots of interesting things in the morning in downtown Zoom Town as I skate the sidewalks toward my morning cup of joe.

For example, yesterday I spotted a Smetanka in the wild and it was VERY exciting!

This artist (sort of) was busy filming the Wilma with his hipster camera, so I briefly interrupted him to inquire if he knew that the Wilma’s owner, Nick Checota, had killed the music at the Top Hat, but sadly Andy’s ears couldn’t hear my inquiry. Not wanting to further disrupt this artist in the wild, I chose to continue my morning roll.

Later in the morning I finally followed up on my inquiry about why Missoula’s bridge to no where has been shutdown. Is the city trying to avoid another encampment no-go-zone situation?

For a more visually stimulating report, here’s my on-the-ground perspective filmed on July 20th, 2022.

The final short for today’s post involves a bold figure to panhandle from an already tapped and pissed off public currently being replaced by deep-pocketed transplants. Here is the VERY predictable outcome of providing short-term Covid cash to “crisis” services:

Saying the cost of tending to the city’s most vulnerable residents has become too much to cover with unpredictable funding, advocates on Tuesday asked Missoula County to consider placing a crisis services levy on the November ballot.

If approved and passed by voters, the funding would replace revenue from the American Rescue Plan and CARE acts. Funding from such programs was used to start or invest in a number of programs but is not long term.

I hope those voting machines are pre-tabulated to support this bullshit, because sane citizens with functioning eyeballs and more than 3 brain cells can easily see the charade for what it is: a money grab.

That is all for today, thanks for reading!

UPDATE: The following day after this posted, I drove by the bridge and noticed it was finally open. Did I ever get a call back from the Parks and Rec person I called? No, I did not, but I may try to follow up to see why it was closed in the first place.