Month: August 2023

by Travis Mateer

I took this picture of an abandoned “urban camping” site last April. This area is now getting some new attention from a group focusing on cleaning up sites like this. From the link:

The Deep Creek area on Southside Road next to the Clark Fork River is a popular area for recreationists, but over the decades people have been leaving a lot more behind than they take out.

Luke Jovin and Gennadiy Lemeza co-founded the nonprofit Woods Not Waste a few years ago after getting fed up with always seeing trash piles in the forests where they hang out. In 2020, they collected 17,000 pounds of trash from natural areas and got it to the landfill. Rotten mattresses, stoves, thousands of bottles and cans and discarded appliances have all been removed.

Luke and Gennadiy seem nice enough, but their rationale for starting this nonprofit shows how naive they are. Here’s more (emphasis mine):

“We actually started Woods Not Waste to address the initial problem because we figured that if people are dumping, you know, it’s probably because they can’t afford to take it to the landfill in the first place,” Jovin explained. “So our initial idea for the nonprofit was to be able to find and help people take their stuff to the landfill, which we still do and has been beneficial to people.”

While a few pieces of trash in this area MAY have been dumped because of landfill affordability, I’d say the vast majority of this problem is from illegal camps where the people give ZERO FUCKS about the impacts to the land around them.

Another nice thing is how Republic is being OH SO NICE to let this trash get dumped FOR FREE! Boy, I sure would have liked that price-point instead of being charged over $1,200 dollars for MY meth shack removal that removed 2.84 TONS of trash before the spring run-off put it all in the river.

You’re welcome.

Now, how about that DOOM LOOP WALKING TOUR in San Francisco?

As you can see, this is a SOLD OUT event, which is too bad, because it sounds like a FUN TIME! From the link:

You’ve read the headlines, you’ve seen the Tweets, now get close and personal to the Doom and Squalor of downtown San Francisco! How can a city with a $14.6 billion annual budget be a model of urban decay?

How can it spend $776.8 million per year on police and have no rule of law to show for it? How can it spend $690 million on homeless services and receive an official United Nations condemnation for its treatment of the homeless (“cruel and inhuman”; “violation of multiple human rights”)?

The tour will start at City Hall, and continue through Mid-Market, the Tenderloin, and Union Square. We will view the open-air drug markets, the abandoned tech offices, the outposts of the non-profit industrial complex, and the deserted department stores. 

Discover the policy choices that made America’s wealthiest city the nation’s innovative leader of housing crisis, addiction crisis, mental-health crisis, & unrepentant crime crisis.

You will find no better expert. Your guide is an urban policy professional, card-carrying City Commissioner overseeing a municipal department with an annual budget over $500m, and cofounder of San Francisco’s largest neighborhood association. He has spent hundreds of hours on both sides of the government dais, shouting into the opposite abyss. (This event is the result of his own mental-health crisis.)

Total walking distance 1.5 miles. Sneakers advised.

If my road trip takes me through San Francisco, maybe I’ll try and track this tour guide down and ask some questions, like HOW DID YOU PICK MY BRAIN? Because I have had this EXACT same idea, I just didn’t get around to operationalizing it.

Oh well, I guess all I can do is to continue writing what I write, and asking you, the public, for help doing the work. That help can be directed to Travis’ Impact Fund (TIF), or you can use the donation button at my about page.

Thanks for reading!

by Travis Mateer

I’ve been thinking a lot about masks and deception lately, and I’m not the only one. Nathaniel Gillis was recently interviewed by Greg Carlwood and his take on why there may be good reason to keep the public in the dark about the nature of the phenomenon once known as UFOs is incredibly disturbing because my gut tells me there’s something to what he claims.

What does Gillis claim? It’s hard to summarize, but let me try with this: human consciousness is so powerful that our ability to believe in something could itself function as a triggering event, allowing these entities to FULLY enter our realm of existence.

Did I mention the book I’m writing entails a parallel investigation into the metaphysical madness of synchronicity? And nothing highlights how this madness can take hold of someone more than the work of Michael Wann, who ALSO was interviewed recently about a 33 day road trip he concluded, which, of course, mirrors what I’m planning on doing.

When I get back on the road, I’m not sure the frequency or length of posts that I’ll be able to put up, but I’ll do my best. The bulk of my writing, though, is the story that’s coming together as I travel, so stay tuned and don’t forget there’s still ways to support ALL my investigations, and that’s Travis’ Impact Fund (TIF), or using the donation button at my about page.

Thanks for reading!

by Travis Mateer

Normally Sean Stevenson scoffed at wearing a seat belt. Nope, not for him, and his family knew this about him because they would give him shit about it. But when the car accident happened, one I’m still trying to better understand, Sean listened to something that compelled him to do what he wouldn’t normally have done, and it saved his life.

The accident was bad, and because I’m not sure how sensitive the subject might still be, I’m going to leave it at that, for the moment.

Before going to “Empower Field” at Mile High, I visited the building, pictured below, but the person I wanted to talk to doesn’t work there anymore.

I found out AFTER taking this picture that the person I DID end up talking to met Sean at the groundbreaking celebration of this very building. I learned more, but that’s for the book I’m writing.

I spent some time walking around this area and talked to some City/County outreach workers operating a mobile pop-up location. Here are some of the tents in the neighborhood:

I was very busy today, so Lego John Engen and Lego Travis stayed in the car, but if they had accompanied me to lunch they would have had the pleasure of observing two bloggers meet in real life for the first time. Thanks for the food and conversation, Mark!

I’m writing this post sitting in the lobby of the Sheraton and the noise from the group around the bar is obnoxious, but I wonder what it was like last weekend when the furry convention was happening. No, I’m not kidding.

I perused the website a bit and think the language around the art show might give a little indication on some of the possible slippery-sloping this kink could produce (emphasis mine):

All art sold or displayed by dealers must be in accordance with local, state, and federal laws. DenFur does not permit dealers to display any sexually charged merchandise to the public, except within the 18+ Art Show area. Displays in the main Art Show should be “PG” rated – remember, minors are in attendance at our convention. Artists may be asked to move their display area by the Art Show staff at their sole discretion– these requests are non-negotiable.

If this doesn’t make the no-no’s clear, here’s a list that makes VERY clear what is NOT allowed:

Yes, I’m having an interesting time in Denver, and after a few more days, I’ll be continuing the trip south, so stay tuned! And, if you’re feeling generous, Travis’ Impact Fund (TIF), or the donation button at my about page, are waiting to receive that generosity.

Thanks for reading!

by Travis Mateer

To make sure I’m not at risk of feeling homesick, I tuned in to City Council as a preventative measure and wasn’t disappointed by the observation of a technology delay. It seems there’s almost ALWAYS some glitch that needs to be worked out, which can be a real problem for someone like me relying on technology because in-person attendance has been taken off the table.

Since I’m in Denver overlooking a swimming pool on the 14th floor a hotel that just got done checking out the furry convention that had been going on all weekend (I’m not kidding), physical attendance wouldn’t be a possibility anyway, even IF I was allowed.

The first THREE comments–from David, Bob and Matts–were NOT friendly to Tax Increment Financing. Does that make me smile? Yes, it makes me smile. Bob talking about “sidewalk blight” around his house was especially entertaining.

The image at the top of this post is an example of a local business that got public money to…end blight? No, we are so far away from the original intention of Tax Increment Financing, it’s not even funny. Though I am hearing Matts chuckling a lot as he references shit like the train study that TIF funded.

Here’s a quote from a post I wrote at the time (emphasis mine):

On Thursday, the Missoula Redevelopment Agency’s board authorized the agency to provide up to $26,300 in Tax Increment Financing to fund a Railroad Quiet Zone Analysis and Traffic Study. The area affected would be generally near the lower Rattlesnake.

Tod Gass, a project manager with the MRA, said Missoula Mayor John Engen, City Council President Bryan von Lossberg and many concerned citizens have brought the issue forward recently.

The fourth comment came from a guy who works at Opportunity Resources and he likes to walk around expressing his love for Jesus. Cool. Then he brought up morality and shamed City Council for their policies.

Oh, did I mention he purposefully lived on the streets in Eugene as a spiritual thing? Cool. Yeah, life is hard out there, so let’s throw more money at shit without acknowledging the true extent of what’s going on out there.

Next up is Clayton, a regular “houseless” person who is upset that he’s wet and had to move his camp again. Is moving people along “sweeps” or are they NOT “sweeps”? That’s one question Clayton brought up.

I’ve talked to Clayton a handful of times, but I think there is a growing sense of empathy fatigue that more and more people in Missoula are experiencing. I know it’s hard for ME to hear from people that we, as a community, aren’t doing enough for them when the cost of living for EVERYONE is skyrocketing.

Clayton was the first person to be called out for going over the time limit. And this is BEFORE the budget conversation.

Getting on to other business, like the consent agenda, I’m glad to hear Council person, Sandra Vasecka, speak to a sort of jurisdictional nether world commonly known as “sidewalks”. Vasecka’s point is that she will NOT be supporting the snow removal program (and some hazardous vegetation thing) because neither homeowner, nor city, technically “owns” the sidewalk, so having a homeowner fined for NOT removing snow of said sidewalk is problematic, according Vasecka.

I agree! And you know how much I love me some sidewalk policy! It’s almost as exciting as bridges and that cold, hard space between buildings.

To lull the audience into a hypnotic trance, Hess first deploys Bickell to monotone-budget-talk, then deploys slides of pie graphs. BRUTAL! I am tempted to return to my binge-watching of Yellowjackets, which will comprise the rest of my evening.

The next slide/graph makes Mayor Hess ANGRY! This graph is how Hess hopes to scapegoat the state for the budget pain everyone is experiencing. Here it is:

I wanted to capture a screenshot of Hess complaining, but all I had on my screen was slide data, so I had to find an image to give readers who didn’t tune in to budget bullshit from a hotel room like I did.

Here is what Hess sounded like to me in the Mile High city:

There were more slides, and more scapegoats, like inflation, but, like I said, Yellowjackets is calling.

Wait! Mayor Hess just said he’s going to defend TIF! With a pie graph!

There were more TIF-defending slides, but Hess just passed the mic back to Bickell, and I’ve had enough Bickell. Back to Lord of the Flies with a high school soccer team! If I miss some exciting public comments about the budget, so be it!

If you appreciate my continued dedication to watching boring Council meetings, Travis’ Impact Fund (TIF) is one way to say thank you, and the donation button at my about page is another. I even have graphs of my own at the about page!

Thanks for reading!

by Travis Mateer

I didn’t plan on making it all the way to Wyoming, but Montana really wanted me gone. First there was the hilarity of being expected to pay over $500 bucks for Motel 6 in Bozeman because it was orientation weekend or some shit, then Billings was just Billings, and the dead owl I saw on the side of the road sealed the deal. Hello Sheridan!

I know there are people worried that I’ve gone on a solo journey, and that being away from my family is maybe not the best thing for me to be doing. Well, what I’m doing is important, and as the image above clearly indicates, I have friends to keep me company!

I took this picture in a town called Buffalo. Was I looking for Crazy Woman Square? No, but Crazy Woman Square found ME! Is this when I started to suspect that maybe one of my companions wasn’t actually my friend?

No, couldn’t be, not Lego John Engen! Why would Lego John Engen want to hurt me? Doesn’t he know I have SO MANY interesting stories left to tell?

One story I came across in Buffalo is how proud they are of THEIR stories, especially when you can watch one of ’em on Netflix called Longmire. It’s about this little town, don’t ya know!

Kind of like Darby with Yellowstone, this town has merch opportunities all over to desperately turn a buck on the back of a popular show.

Maybe I should appreciate this as a more honest way of making some cheese than the schemes of developers with public money. That’s the story I found in Casper, where I DEFINITELY got the vibe that Lego John Engen is a ghost and NOT friendly

I found Lego John Engen contemplating an impressive scene at David Street Station, a hub of community activity partially funded with public money. I think what Lego John Engen is appreciating is the use of language, specifically the use of the word SPONSORSHIP. Check out the word and tell me if the REAL John Engen wouldn’t nod in approval at what’s going on here (emphasis mine):

See that? The sentence reads “…because while some SPONSORSHIP would come from PUBLIC FUNDS…”

Isn’t that funny? How did the public communicate their desire to SPONSOR this development project, I wonder? Not my town, not my problem, is ultimately what I thought, then I got the fuck out. Because I sensed trouble!

If you step back from this perspective you’ll see that Lego Travis is stupidly celebrating a quote that, on the surface, seems empowering, but CONTEXT IS EVERYTHING!

This gave me a good laugh, which is good, because peel back the ha-ha and shit gets serious quick. But in the clip You’re about to see? Nothing but smiles, baby! Probably because I had yet to see the additional demands from my petitioner that, were I to respond, would be a violation, and I already gave in once in the last 24 hours under threat of litigation. Classic rock and hard place situation!

https://vimeo.com/856297292?share=copy

Where did I end up on my second day? Well, I had this idea while driving, but I think I’ll save that part for the book.

If you’d like to help me while I travel, Travis’ Impact Fund (TIF) is still taking donations, and you can still use the donation button at my about page.

Thanks for reading!