We Gonna Do This The Easy Way Or The Hard Way?

by Travis Mateer

The easy way: support my cleanup efforts on April 8th when I ECLIPSE THEIR BULLSHIT or, at the very least, stay out of my way. I can coordinate a safer, cheaper, more efficient cleanup than ANY individual or entity in this town, and if you doubt me, just scroll through the 20+ links featured in yesterday’s post if you want proof about how kick-ass I am.

The hard way: allow what’s currently developing to continue its destructive path toward a full-fledged public uprising against our local cabal, which includes public officials, non-profit influencers, and badges who use their power to protect all the wrong people.

I surveyed the area near Lion’s Park yesterday for a potential alternative location for my dumpster in case Imagination Brewery continues to be unresponsive to my multiple attempts to make contact. If I had to place the dumpster on a city street instead of a private parking lot, what would that take to get permission?

After being bounced around different departments and talking to FOUR people, I finally got the person on the phone who could answer my question about cost and process. The cost? Nearly $100 bucks for the permit AND it has to be reviewed by an engineer. Just to place a dumpster on a street? Yes.

I laughed at this person on the phone and said NO WAY am I paying the city $100 bucks to do some kick-ass trash removal, then I hung up to see if the private sector could be less insane and costly.

I made a call, then sent some subsequent info via email to the private business that has a PERFECT spot for a dumpster. As of this writing, I haven’t heard anything back, but I’m cautiously optimistic, despite being told that the owner sits on the Urban Camp Working Group, which met for the second time this week.

From the link:

“You got people way over on this end who are going to be extreme, and people on the other end who are going to be extreme. You’re never going to solve it for everyone,” said facilitator Ginny Tribe. “We aren’t here to solve all the problems related to homelessness.”

But the task force, created by Mayor Andrea Davis, does seek to achieve a number of goals. Among them, it looks to define the problems created by and associated with urban camping and find general agreement on desired outcomes.

It also looks to recommend actionable solutions and regulatory tools – and monitoring metrics – that support community safety. Members of the group on Wednesday shared feedback from their mailbox regarding the wide range of opinions in Missoula related to the issues around urban camping.

Does reading this shit make me a little crazy? Absolutely, especially because I can quickly boil down the problem these people are struggling to “define” in stark, simple terms, like this: Missoula needs CARROTS (treatment incentives) and STICKS (real consequences), but we have NEITHER of these things in adequate quantities to make a difference. No carrot and no stick means no progress. It actually is that simple.

But MONEY our supposedly helpless officials bleat as they trade-in their human cognitive faculties for this:

No, this isn’t a picture of our Mayor, Andrea Davis, it’s an image of what happens when you accept the false notion that you are helpless in the face of immense corruption and deception. You are NOT, so start acting like it, people.

If you want a GREAT example of how my former employer, the Poverello Center, is more concerned about OPTICS than genuinely continuing the work I did as the Homeless Outreach Coordinator, check out THIS bullshit from Jill Bonney, sent to the organizer of a cleanup at Reserve Street in 2021:

Guess what, Jill? Kevin didn’t need you OR the HOT team because he has ME, and there’s NO ONE with more experience in this area, so good try leveraging your staff to exert whatever narrative control you think you still have to keep the lid on.

When the Missoulas County Sheriff’s Office euthanized Sean Stevenson, no one working at the Poverello Center took time to reach out to Sean’s family, so any concern Jill and company may express over RESPECTING homeless people is utter bullshit.

No, who Jill REALLY wants to protect is her funders and political enablers, like United Way and that State Senator who started her political career on the corpses of homeless men, like Clay Salcido.

Do you appreciate getting all this history and local context on the efforts of our local officials regarding this supposedly COMPLICATED issue? If so, consider supporting Travis’ Impact Fund (TIF) because in a year’s time I’ve done more with the meager donations that have trickled in than anything our city can produce.

Thanks for reading!