Month: March 2024

by Travis Mateer

I was a little shocked this morning to see a Missoulian article about the LifeGuard Group, a “non-profit” run by the Chaplain of the Missoula County Sheriff’s Office, Lowell Hochhalter. Does this mean the dam of narrative control is finally breaking on this joke of an organization?

Before I get to all MY coverage, which is prolific, let’s see what the Missoulian is up to with THEIR sudden interest in this alleged effort to help victims of human trafficking. From the link (emphasis mine):

Montana government emails suggest an anti-human trafficking nonprofit that works closely with the state’s top officials has demonstrated poor practices when working with survivors at the organization’s residential safe house in western Montana.

The emails, most of which were secured by the Missoulian via a public records request, detail concerns about operations at the LifeGuard Group, a Missoula-based nonprofit that has partnered with Gov. Greg Gianforte and Attorney General Austin Knudsen.

Financial records show the LifeGuard Group received more than $500,000 from the Gianforte Family Foundation and is tied to local law enforcement agencies. The group assists with search efforts, oversees a safe house in the Bitterroot Valley and runs Montana’s human trafficking hotline.

It’s important to note that it took a PUBLIC RECORDS REQUEST for the Missoulian to substantiate what I’ve known, and have been writing about, for quite some time. Thanks to that request we now have a scrap of narrative that puts this shit-show into better focus:

In an August 2023 email, Montana Department of Justice Agent Andrew Yedinak informed colleagues that he had “received a concerning call” from an organization in Missoula. Yedinak detailed a “traumatic experience” that allegedly unfolded after a survivor and her daughter arrived at the organization’s safe house, known as the LifeHouse at Crooked Tree Ranch.

The survivor contacted the LifeGuard Group, met them at the Missoula airport and was taken to the LifeHouse, according to the email.

“Once at their ranch, the S [survivor] claims that she was told that they [the Lifeguard Group] needed to conduct a strip search of her and her daughter as well as a cavity search of their pelvic regions which would be conducted by Tami Hochhalter,” Yedinak wrote. “The S advised she resisted from these requests and eventually was able to get her daughter and leave the property.”

Was conducting a strip search really necessary? No, this is probably not a shining example of “best practices” when it comes to working with this vulnerable population, which kind of makes you wonder about Lowell and Tami’s law enforcement pals, like Detective Guy Baker.

What else did the Missoulian uncover with their records request? Here’s more (emphasis mine):

In a separate email from November 2023, Yedinak discussed the LifeGuard Group again with an individual who appears to have raised issues about the organization.

“At this point things with the LGG [Lifeguard Group] are still at just an admin level as far as determining our partnership, or lack thereof, with them,” Yedinak wrote. “Nothing we have been told substantiates criminal behavior but certainly inappropriate practices.”

Emilee Cantrell, a spokesperson for the Montana DOJ, would not elaborate on what “inappropriate practices” entail. She also reiterated what Yedinak said regarding the status of the case.

Don’t worry, Emilee, let ME elaborate, because I have a pretty good idea of at least ONE inappropriate practice, and that’s Lowell’s tendency to share confidential criminal justice information, something that COULD be criminally prosecuted, since disseminating this kind of information is a violation of Montana Code Annotated.

Emilee Cantrell continues shoveling out DOJ bullshit by making this claim (emphasis mine):

“The allegations we are aware of and looked into were not criminal and could not be corroborated,” Cantrell wrote in an email. “There was never a formal investigation by the Department of Justice. If there are criminal allegations that we are unaware of being made, those need to be reported to local law enforcement as the Department of Justice cannot initiate criminal investigations.”

If you think Austin Knudsen’s DOJ is capable of policing itself when it’s so deeply enmeshed in this shit-show, I have a bridge in Missoula to sell you.

Here’s one more challenge the Missoulian faced writing this article: the Hocchalter’s don’t just hide, they BLOCK anyone from even seeing their empty claims when the illusion of their fucked up savior model is challenged.

The Missoulian attempted several times via email and phone to reach the Hochhalters. As of Wednesday, they had not responded to interview requests. A Missoulian reporter was blocked from viewing the LifeGuard Group’s Facebook page shortly after the first email request.

Here’s some other people the Missoulian should consider contacting, since ALL THESE PEOPLE knew about serious allegations against the Hocchalter’s, and did nothing: former Sheriff, T.J. McDermott, soon-to-be former County Attorney, Kirsten Pabst, City Councilor Gwen Jones, and non-profit influencer, Susan Hay Patrick.

While I am trying to appreciate the Missoulian publishing this article, I can’t help think the timing is VERY political, and will therefore be SEEN as political by the public. The risk of that happening is serious because it would allow people to put their partisan blinders on, which means half the public would be inclined to take these claims LESS seriously.

When you consider all that I have written about the LifeGuard Group since they came on my radar in 2021 with the disappearance of Rebecca Barsotti, you will see this is MUCH BIGGER than mere politics. So, without further ado, here’s my coverage:

Missing In Montana And My Cynicism On The Narrative Framing (November 17th, 2021)

What The Hell Is Going On With The Rebekah Barsotti Missing Persons Case? (December 7th, 2021)

Who Are These “Life Guards” And How Will They Work With Town Pump To Combat Human Trafficking? (February 2nd, 2022)

Web-Sleuthing This Travis Mateer Guy To Conspiracy Smear His Journalism (February 8th, 2022)

Local Help Doesn’t Require National Organizations And Conferences (February 13th, 2022)

In An Ocean Of Trauma, Life Guards Must Be Better Than Well Intentioned, Or Else They Risk Paving A Serious Path Toward Hell (February 17th, 2022)

Does Chaplain/LifeGuard Group CEO/Dad, Lowell Hochhalter, Need A Hatrack For All His Hats? (March 13th, 2022)

What Can The Jermain Charlo Missing Person Case Tell Us About The Effort To Find Rebekah Barsotti? (April 10th, 2022)

Coming To Terms With The Power Of Things NOT Happening (April 18th, 2022)

What Employing “Returning Citizens” In San Francisco Can Teach Eager Savior Types In Zoom Town (April 20th, 2022)

Welcoming Traffickers To Montana (April 25th, 2022)

If Missoula County Sheriff Chaplain, Lowell Hochhalter, Is Having Some Kind Of Professional Freak Out, How Can He Help The Sheriff Deputies Terrified Of Homeless Camps And Ominous RVs? (May 1st, 2022)

My Invitation To The Department Of Justice To Return To Missoula To Investigate The Sheriff’s Department And A Call For National Coverage! (May 8th, 2022)

Oblivious Candidate Michael Burks And The Monumental Failure Of Public Protectors And Non-Profit Helpers (May 29th, 2022)

Putting Non-Profit And Political Enablers On Notice: Think It’s Hot Now? Just You Wait… (July 19th, 2022)

LifeGuard Group’s Lowell Hochhalter Activates His Beer Truck Army Against Traffickers (September 15th, 2022)

The Fireside Chat Montana’s Governor Held That No Other Media Will Tell You About…Because They Didn’t Know It Was Happening…At Fairmont (October 5th, 2022)

Why The LifeGuard Group’s Live Action Role Play (LARP) Is A Force You Don’t Want To Mess With (January 1st, 2023)

What A Little 990 Scrutiny Can Show About Missoula’s Pretend Anti-Trafficking Organization, The LifeGuard Group (January 17th, 2023)

On Snakes And Pussies (February 1st, 2023)

The Politics Of Human Trafficking Should Make Wannabe Senators In Montana Very Nervous (March 8th, 2023)

The Danger Of The Christian Savior Complex (March 17th, 2023)

While I Track TIF (SB 523), Those LifeGuards Track The Traffick (HB 112) (April 7th, 2023)

Why Are These Montana LifeGuards, Fighting Human Trafficking, So Quiet? (May 11th, 2023)

Hey, GUYS And Gals, Won’t You Please Dream A Little Dream With Me? (September 11th, 2023)

Is Montana Making A Mistake By Trusting These Christian LifeGuards To Help Victims Of Human Trafficking? (December 8th, 2023)

Why Doesn’t The LifeGuard Group Search For White Women? (January 4th, 2024)

Yes, I’ve written AT LEAST 27 articles that somehow involve the LifeGuard Group, and the personal impact on my life has been rather severe, so the Missoulian better not be doing JUST a political hit piece for our current election cycle, because I simply won’t let them get away with it if that’s the motivation here.

Also, I’ll point out this article posted on a FRIDAY, so that’s one red flag right there. Will there be more? And will there be more RATS jumping ship, like County Attorney Pabst?

Stay tuned HERE (not the Missoulian) for further developments because longtime Zoom Chron readers knew TWO FUCKING YEARS AGO that Lowell and his family were a joke.

If you appreciate what fearless local journalism can STILL DO, how about throwing me a monetary bone? It’s been 16 days since the last kind soul kicked me some money for doing the work I graciously offer readers here FOR FREE, which is NOT a sustainable business model.

Thanks for reading! And, for some of you, get ready to receive an I TOLD YOU SO email in your inbox.

by Travis Mateer

I didn’t know, when I picked this image, that I would be using it to conclude my latest poetic gem, but that’s how my creative process works. If you are not entertained yet by the fruits of my creativity, just wait, because this one was shared in its infancy with City Council yesterday morning during the Public Safety Committee.

Here’s me stumbling over some words and providing some context to the silent (and unseen) faces sitting and waiting for their poetic fate. I think Stacie Anderson does a FANTASTIC job keeping a straight face after my performance is done!

https://vimeo.com/920507325?share=copy

Of course, four stanzas is no where near enough when you’re a poetic genius using triggering language to tear apart the stupid illusion that our two party political system is anything more than a slightly better produced series of professional wrestling matches.

Yes, when you’re aiming high, like I try to do, a dozen stanzas is more appropriate, but before we get to the end-product of my poem-song, let’s take a look at what the state where I was born is doing to promote free speech:

This is GREAT news. Why? Because, the harder these stupid fuckers push, the bigger the pendulum swing will be against this bullshit, and every day my anecdotal interactions point to BIG problems for the soul-sucking psychopath class. Let me share a few to keep up the morale.

I had the most delightful phone conversations with two women recently who work in call centers, where I sincerely hope the recorded calls are kept for posterity. One woman was up-selling me something from the bank financing by nascent bookmobile dreams, and the other woman was inside the Lee Enterprise’s beast, the company slowly destroying Montana’s newspapers.

My no-filter approach to communicating with ANYONE leads to fascinating places, and because I try to orientate my butt-hurtedness about the pains of doing local journalism to the more humorous side of venting, I’ve garnered audiences in unusual places. The woman from Lee Enterprises, for example, didn’t want me to stop trashing her employer because she KNOWS the capacity for real news reporting has been decimated by these cutthroat boardroom motherfuckers and the whole panoply of bullshit that props up the more obvious villains harvesting what they can from breaking-down system.

There are real consequences for being this public and abrasive, like ruining the chances of the cute girl I’ve been flirting with saying yes when I get the guts to ask her out. But I’m willing to risk being a wise hermit dispensing poetic truth if that’s what my karma requires.

Ok, enough of the damn bellyaching, here’s my tune, and here’s your chance to help me out with some digitals 1’s and 0’s.

https://vimeo.com/920518570?share=copy

Thanks for supporting FREE SPEECH!

by Travis Mateer

The other day I made up a term inspired by Montana’s Attorney General, Austin Knudsen, and that term is LAW-CUCK, which I define as allowing someone else to do the LAW job you are contractually obligated to do yourself.

For those on the left-side of the political spectrum, my use of the word CUCK could indicate my affiliation with the ALT-RIGHT, since that’s how the CUCK word has been recently deployed, according to Wikipedia.

Though I don’t consider myself alt-right, I am using this term in a similar manner, since conservatives like to ACT TOUGH when it comes to law and order, especially the ones who preside over the criminal justice system here in Montana, where Austin is framing himself as LEADING the opposition of 24 Attorney Generals across the country against the disastrous Supreme Court decision that enabled urban camping across the immense jurisdiction of the 9th circuit.

Here’s the latest from the AG website:

Montana Attorney General Austin Knudsen led a coalition of 24 attorneys general in filing an amicus brief Friday in the case of Johnson v. City of Grants Pass which asks the Supreme Court to reverse a lower court’s decision prohibiting states and local governments from enforcing laws that prevent public spaces from becoming homeless encampments.

The impact of this court decision is further described by Montana’s AG a paragraph later. The emphasis is NOT mine:

“In Grants Pass, the Ninth Circuit doubled down on Martin and insisted again that, unless a community provides adequate shelter, the Eighth Amendment bars any punishment based on ‘engaging in involuntary, unavoidable life sustaining acts’ like sleeping on public property,” the attorneys general wrote. “Since Martin, homelessness has grown worse across the country, and especially in the Ninth Circuit, where more than 1 in 1,000 people are now homeless and most States have seen homelessness rise at least 25% in five years.”

The Ninth Circuit’s ruling has tied the hands of officials in communities across Montana and the western United States that are struggling to combat widespread homeless encampments.

That’s a lot of BOLD EMPHASIS for an Attorney General who is allowing Sheriffs, like Missoula Sheriff Jeremiah Petersen and T.J. McDermott before him, to create NO GO ZONES where much more than “involuntary, unavoidable life sustaining acts” are occurring.

If this was NOT the case, then the Montana Department of Transportation would NOT have been forced to use a lawsuit in order to get the Sheriff’s Office to do their job in the Reserve Street area of Missoula, something I saw up close as I volunteered to help remove TONS of trash from this area over the years.

For some visceral visuals, here’s a short video I produced during the spring of 2021 juxtaposing a virtue-signaling statement with on-the-ground reality:

Now, if I’m including our current Sheriff, Jeremiah Peterson, as an example of a Montana law-cuck, I should probably have something to back up this assertion, and thanks to a recent NBC Montana article about the job PRIVATE SECURITY is doing, I have just that, including what it costs Missoula County to have a law-cuck as a Sheriff. From the link (emphasis mine):

When the area was at its busiest, more than 100 people were camping around the Reserve Street Bridge, Steve Felix, with the Montana Department of Transportation, said.

U.S. Highway 93 and Reserve Street is one of the busiest corridors in Montana, Felix, the department’s Missoula-area maintenance chief, said. He said homeless activity in the area put the corridor at risk.

“Huge impact if something bad were to happen to the bridges due to some type of fire or propane explosion or certain things that we thought were really high risk,” Felix said.

The Montana Department of Transportation fenced off its land around the Reserve Street Bridge, and a cleanup followed in 2022, which Felix said removed around a couple hundred tons of materials.

The department contracted with Rogers International to monitor the area, paying the company a little more than $8,000 a month, Felix told NBC Montana. The area maintenance chief considers the changes a success that protect the infrastructure, environment and cuts down on the “lawlessness” previously seen in the area.

When you add it up, the annual cost of having a Sheriff’s Office that thinks the 9th circuit gave them an excuse to ignore things like non-compliant sex offenders peddling fentanyl-laced weed is $96,000 dollars, and that’s JUST from the need to rely on private security in ONE part of town. As Austin points out in this article, Missoula has encampments ALL OVER, and there’s nothing Montanan law-cucks can supposedly do about it. Here’s more (emphasis mine):

As of August 2023, Missoula had 60 separate encampments across its 400 acres of public parks. However, Knudsen says the city is restricted in its ability to combat the issue following the 2018 decision that said jurisdictions must have bed space that outnumbers homeless persons before enforcing an anti-camping ordinance.

Knudsen said residents are forced to deal with dirty and unsafe parks, vehicles “full of human waste”, and debris clogging the city’s irrigation and waterways. Missoula is not the only city in Montana dealing with these types of issues. Billings, Bozeman, and Kalispell are experiencing similar problems.

“It is States and localities that have the local knowledge needed to address the problem, and it is States and localities that ultimately bear the costs of homelessness and of homeless policy,” said Knudsen. “It should be States and localities that make the decisions.”

Do you REALLY want some “local knowledge”, Austin? No, I don’t think you do, because MY local knowledge exposes the slow implosion of our entire criminal justice system, and this implosion has become late-stage critical while badges bitch and moan about why they claim their hands are tied. This is law-cuck bullshit, and I prove it’s bullshit on a nearly daily basis by accurately describing the reality on the ground, as I see it.

Missoula has created PLENTY of emergency beds in multiple locations, and we have subsidized lots of housing, like the HALF-FULL Villagio, so why are NONE of these options enough to keep our parks from becoming open-air meth colonies? Why do we keep getting MORE worthless fucking excuses about why housing people is so damn hard?

While the property opened last year and continues to accept applications, filling the units has had its challenges.

“We have a few challenges here in this current market. We’ve processed a total of 420 applications so far and of those, 284 are either lost or disqualified applications,” said Oliver. “One of the questions we face frequently is how in the heck can you not be full immediately when we have such a community need.”

The Villagio, developed by Blueline with partial subsidies from the Missoula Redevelopment Agency, represents a significant influx of affordable housing into the local market. Together, the Villagio and Trinity projects provided a decade’s worth of affordable housing in a single year.

If Austin wants some more local knowledge, how about this recent post about the cancerous growth called BlueLine Development spreading across the northwest. I guess Montana’s petri-dish of failure is so impressive that we are now exporting the predatory business models that flourish when it becomes apparent your Top Dog in law enforcement is a law-cuck.

If you think I’m being too hard on our law enforcers, please explain to me why the ONE MURDER our Sheriff’s Office had to deal with last year has STILL not been charged 16 months later. Are you finally beginning to understand why calling Montana a failed state isn’t hyperbole?

Later today, less knowledgeable people than myself will be meeting to bang their heads against the wall while studiously ignoring the underlying dynamics of an imploding criminal justice system. Here’s a screenshot with some details about the bullshit you can expect to see, and when:

Will I be attending? Fuck no, I’m trying to NOT be a sadomasochist, so I’ll be doing something that actually PAYS, because exposing local corruption DOES NOT PAY THE BILLS, and constantly asking readers of my FREE content for a little financial help gets fucking old.

No wonder other locales don’t have truth tellers like me using their inside knowledge to try and improve their communities.

by Travis Mateer

There is a new outrage opportunity in Missoula for people who like to get upset about the wrong things, and that opportunity is the terrible existence of a crafting corporation that just had a grand opening at Missoula’s Southgate Mall a few days ago. The reaction on social media was quite predictable.

It’s kind of amazing to see the cognitive blockage here because what Millie is essentially saying is that she can’t believe women don’t automatically adhere to a form of monolithic thinking that prioritizes liberal ideals, like the freedom to fuck without procreating. This is what happens when national narratives infects the brains of local citizens: the REAL dynamics stay occluded from view.

For me, the mall property is more interesting as a cultural artifact that MUST be kept economically viable in order to redevelop Midtown, since the mall is the lynchpin of economic activity in this part of Missoula. That is why I covered the Southgate Mall Tax Increment Financing scheme that Adam Hertz prophetically criticized 4 years ago. Here’s a prescient quote about TIF money saving the mall from “blight”:

Hertz didn’t disagree with the program’s designed intent, though he believes that cities have abused the program and found ways to skirt state statute. He cited Southgate Mall as an example, saying it wasn’t considered blighted until it announced its plans for expansion.

Only then, Hertz said, did the Missoula Redevelopment Agency add the mall to Urban Renewal District III, qualifying it for tax increment financing.

“The mall had announced their intent to do a very large project,” said Hertz. “They had been excluded from URD III when it was created, because there were no findings of blight at the mall. When they began to announce their projects, MRA saw an opportunity to capture some of that new increment that otherwise would have gone to the taxing jurisdictions as it normally should.”

Yep, the mall got added to the incremental SIPHONING of money that funds Missoula’s shadow government, the Missoula Redevelopment Agency, a cancerous entity that turns first responders into panhandlers begging Missoula for a 7 million dollar levy.

Working at Hobby Lobby is not the same thing as paying taxes because one is a choice and the other is a requirement, so it might be more productive to get upset about the things you are REQUIRED to do, like handing over a portion of your tax money so this government bureaucrat can dole it out to her friends and political supporters:

Here’s Ellen doing some hilarious damage control after the TIF scheme resulted in Southgate Mall getting flipped to an Ohio conglomerate (emphasis mine):

The head of the Missoula Redevelopment Agency said on Monday that Southgate Mall does not have to repay monies from Tax Increment Financing (TIF’s) after being sold, for just one reason, no monies actually went directly to the mall.

MRA Executive Director Ellen Buchanan said the city has been trying to connect Brooks Street to Reserve Street for many years, but was unable to do so until the mall began its remodeling project.

“The tax increment money involved in this particular project is to pay for a public street that was built through the mall,” said Buchanan. “That area has never been penetrated by a public street, north-south, or east-west. So, what this does is it pays for a connection between Brooks and Reserve Street that the city has wanted to accomplish since at least the mid 1990’s and it’s been showing up in the long range transportation plans. So, that’s what the money’s for, it’s for a city street.”

Yes, Ellen put on her metaphorical strap-on and proceeded to penetrate this area but good with public tax dollars! If you’re worried this penetration could lead to little mall babies running around, don’t worry, I’m sure Ellen’s health coverage includes contraceptives.

If you find the idea of Ellen wearing a strap-on to be more repulsive than the reality of using public tax dollars to sweeten a massive corporate real estate deal, then you’re a perfect target for the stupid partisan outrage campaigns that get people riled up about conservative businesses like Hobby Lobby and Chick-fil-A, and NOT the very real sucking sound coming from your wallet.

The sounds coming from MY wallet are like the echoes one hears in an empty warehouse. Why? Because I am driven by a similar passion that motivates David Green, the head honcho of Hobby Lobby, and I never would have discovered this connection if it wasn’t for the eager culture warriors of liberal orthodoxy. Here’s the connection:

At least one example of the printed word is in great demand even in the digital age: ancient Bibles.

With a goal of establishing a national Bible museum of great depth and size, the evangelical Christian family behind the Hobby Lobby chain of craft stores has been spending heavily to amass a collection that has set dealers buzzing in the staid world of rare books.

Specialists estimate the family has bought illuminated, or decorated, manuscripts, Torahs, papyri and other works worth $20 million to $40 million from auction houses, dealers, private collectors and institutions, some of which may be selling because of financial pressure.

The man leading the effort is Steve Green, president of Hobby Lobby, a private company based here that is a favorite of scrapbook makers, do-it-yourselfers and home decorators. The company, founded by his father, David, in 1972, now numbers 439 stores and has generated a family fortune that Forbes magazine estimates at $2.5 billion.

I find this incredibly interesting, and I don’t think David and myself are alone in valuing physical copies of books, especially the old and rare ones. In fact, I think LOTS of people are becoming more and more concerned about what our reliance of digital technology means when it comes to ACTUALLY preserving history versus what the cultural terrorist, Max Wolf, is planning on doing to Fort Missoula.

One final thing, since the mall got publicly subsidized in order to exist beyond its exportation date, I’ll note the curious LACK of coverage regarding WHERE EXACTLY this young woman was taken into custody after a serious bomb threat last April shut down ALL schools in Missoula. Was it the mall? And, if it was, why did this detail never make it into local media?

If you appreciate how my amazing coverage of Missoula transforms stupid outrage into interesting content with useful local tie-ins, consider supporting my work here and do it quick before Ellen’s vacuum sucks anymore coins from your pockets!

Thanks for reading!

by Travis Mateer

Last week Missoula developer, Max Wolf, chose violence. The original plan denied by City Council was to allow Wolf to subsidize the renovation efforts of the historic hospital by building new residential development in a dense cluster around the historic structure. Here’s my coverage thus far of this latest development in developing what should NOT be developed if PRESERVING HISTORY is something these developers are actually serious about:

City Council Said No To The Wolf (February 23rd, 2024)

Max Wolf, The Cultural Terrorist, Just Shot His Figurative Hostage In The Head (February 27th, 2024)

Build Back Happier: A Builder’s Support Group For Men! (February 28th, 2024)

When Max Wolf appeared before Council last week he was flanked by architect, David Gray. Both men put their names on this op-ed last year after they got their first NO, which must have been offensive because PRIVATE PROPERTY! From the link (emphasis mine):

Last spring, Missoula’s Historic Preservation Commission (HPC) denied an historic preservation permit to save and restore the Old Post Hospital. This was an unfortunate result of a flawed process, full of errors and disparate consideration of our application compared to others at Fort Missoula.

As the property owner and project architect, we want to set the record straight on misconceptions caused by a malicious campaign of disinformation.

A key fact is that the Old Post Hospital and adjacent acreage is privately owned, and has been since the Federal government declared the buildings and land surplus property in the 1960s. The Western Montana Mental Health Center (WMMHC) took ownership for more than half a century before selling the property in 2019. For over four years, we have engaged in a collaborative process with the HPC and community members for an historic preservation permit that would allow us to restore the Old Post Hospital. We believe we have adhered to the standards that apply to a National Historic District, and there were insufficient grounds to deny the permit.

Yes, this KEY FACT will be important to remember when this duo of tantrum-throwing developers come back with NEW plans to shit out town-homes all over our community’s history. If you don’t know what a threat from a developer sounds like, here’s more from the cultural terrorists sounding like my kids whining about HOW UNFAIR life can be (emphasis mine):

Given the HPC’s history of unfair, arbitrary decisions, the Missoula City Council needs to ask itself if our experience with city government is what private property owners wanting to preserve and restore their historic structures should be subjected to. 

Why do these men feel so entitled to plop new development down where MANY citizens DO NOT WANT IT? Maybe the picture at the top of this post can illuminate the developer dynamics here, because that gorgeous renovation project was completed by David Gray’s architecture firm, DVG Architecture and Planning P.C. Why is this significant? Maybe because I think it’s funny that Missoula County is leasing office space out of this building.

While there is nothing that points to obvious conflicts of interest here, it still seems worth noting that cozy relationships like this exist between local government and local landlords. Is a more nuanced atmosphere of congeniality created by these financial relationships? I don’t know, but it might help explain the degree of tantrum we are witnessing by these developers who CLAIMED to care about Missoula’s history, but are now positioned to destroy another small part of it, seemingly out of spite.

I took this picture yesterday while walking around downtown and I struck up a conversation with a man who was staring at this building. Why? I asked and found out that he used to go to school in this building, so we talked about how much this town has changed. I told him about my documentary about Tax Increment Financing and how our Mayor died shortly after it was released, possibly with our critical attention as a contributing factor, to which this man approached me and shook my hand.

Yes, our five-term Mayor, John Engen, sold out this town and his legacy still makes some people VERY upset because some of us know that it didn’t have to be this way. For example, I know someone in Public Works who told me about a viable plan to save the Merc, but it was IGNORED by our fair Mayor at the time because he wanted that building razed to the ground and hotels to be built on the footprint, and Engen usually got what he wanted.

Is this the origin of developer entitlement in Missoula?

John Engen might be dead, but his legacy lives on through Ellen, the woman wielding the oversize scissors to his left. What does this legacy entail? Doing borderline retarded shit, like pitching a fucking sculpture park while your city is burning down to the ground.

From the link (emphasis mine):

The city of Missoula is seeking public comment on a proposed sculpture walk in Silver Park at 900 Cregg Ln. in the Old Sawmill District.

The grant and donation-funded project will feature an outdoor sculpture gallery.

Missoula Parks and Recreation will manage park and trail operations.

I highlighted the role of Parks and Rec to MANAGE this sculpture park because THAT is where hidden costs lurk in a project that’s being pitched as NOT using public funds. BULLSHIT! (emphasis mine):

A sculpture walk is an outdoor gallery where durable sculptures are placed amidst landscaped settings. Many cities nationwide have designated public areas for these installations, providing accessible art that fosters community identity, pride, and a sense of belonging, ultimately enriching the lives of residents and visitors alike.

The sculptures would be funded through grants and donations rather than public funds. Local art advocates are establishing a community-driven non-profit to raise funds for the purchase, installation and maintenance of the sculptures. The City’s Public Art Committee would help ensure a transparent public review process. Parks and Recreation would manage the park and trail operations around the sculptures with minimal costs to the City.

Do you detect the rank aroma of bullshit emanating from this city-speak effort to mesmerize the public into accepting the “minimal” cost of this UNNEEDED project?

The triumvirate of good-willed idiocy running this town into the ground operates under a public/private/NON-PROFIT framework, and any one of these three legs is capable of institutional tantrum-throwing, or strategic scapegoating, when challenged.

Lucky for them, challengers like me are grossly underfunded and very exposed to asymmetric retaliation, since I’m hyper-local in my focus, and apolitical in my disdain for D’s and R’s. If you’d like to help the underfunded part, my gofundme is still accepting donations.

The last factor I’ll note in this particular development saga is how the entity that would be best positioned to advocate for historic preservation–the Historic Museum at Fort Missoula–can’t say shit because they are County employees.

Here’s an email reply I got after trying to set up a meeting and sending this link about the Larchmont golf course development scheme, which is right in the neighborhood of Fort Missoula:

I anticipated a response like this, and offered the following cheeky reply:

Yep, this is what it looks like to FIGHT BACK against wolves offering to renovate the hen house.

Thanks for reading!