by Travis Mateer
It’s official, on May 4th my TAAAAAZ 2.0 established autonomy over the parking lot of the former Missoulian building with some signs and my first benevolent act, which was dealing with the TRASH EMERGENCY I discovered after confirming this property was being vandalized by local scoundrels.
For some quick history, it was November of 2021 when Aaron Wagner and Cole Berquist announced their purchase of this property for development. Here’s an excerpt from that distant time when Wags Capital still had that ALPHA essence wafting from Lehi County, Utah (emphasis mine):
“The plans for the building, obviously that will be demolished at some point,” said Aaron Wagner.
The Missoula City Council approved a rezoning request for the property in early October by a 9-to-1 vote.
“I think it’s impossible as an elected official to not see the sale of the building with our local paper and have a great degree of sadness about that,” Missoula City Council member Bryan von Lossberg said at the time.
The river facing property is deemed premier real estate on the Hip Strip.
Premier property, you say? Too bad the property owner can’t even manage to empty his own little trash can. Cool pyramid topper, though!
Don’t worry, my trash removal skills are ALSO premier, which is why the lone hornet and spiky foliage didn’t deter me from immediately improving my TAAAAAZ!
Another factor that makes me well-suited to respond to trash emergencies is the neat hat I acquired in an antique store during one of my three crazy loops around America. Not only is it the right color, but the number also makes the Virgo in me smile.
On a more serious and credible note, in another life my name DID appear alongside the influencers of Missoula as I did my Homeless Outreach Team thing for the narrative controllers. To back up this claim, here’s a link and a screenshot of the minutes from a Mayor’s Downtown Advisory Commission meeting I attended as a member in February of 2016:
See all those VERY IMPORTANT names? It’s weird seeing those names from my current vantage point, considering one of them is the prosecuting attorney in the case that resulted in my arrest on Tax Day.
Another name I’ll point out is the Municipal Court judge at the time, Kathleen Jenks, who CAME TO ME for advice on Glen Harley Stephens, who died last year on the sidewalk outside the door to the County Commissioners offices. Here’s a link to my post about searching for his next of kin in Salmon, Idaho.
The name that REALLY bolsters my bonafides as an emergency TRASH responder is Rob Scheben, the former Crime Prevention Officer for Missoula PD. Rob helped me see elements of situational awareness and how it relates to physical space that gave me an interesting lens in which to see my surroundings. This lens was a great tool when I was assisting downtown businesses with taking some basic steps to make their businesses less likely to be places trashed by transients, like adding motion-sensing lights, or trimming back hedges.
My new neighbors seemed to appreciate my freely-given insights on Saturday as I rollerbladed into their works spaces handing out my card. I specifically told them about the recent break-ins at the Missoulian building, and my worry that the prevalence of people I’ve seen cutting through this property (from the river trail to 4th street and Higgins) don’t understand that poor lighting, the cover of trees, and the years-long vacancy of this property make it a PRIME area for shady shit happening, which the over-flowing trash clearly and its contents cleared indicated.
Yep, not only do I pick up trash, I also ANALYZE it, and what you are seeing is a scrap of medical paperwork, most likely discharge instructions from St. Pats, and a container that once held a legally-purchased joint of Cannabis.
Do you now see why I simply could NOT ignore this TRASH EMERGENCY and was essentially FORCED to establish another autonomous zone? If Aaron Wagner has a better idea for maintaining the property still owned by Belle LLC, all he has to do is give me a call. I’ll even publicly provide my phone number (406-529-1655) so he has NO excuse for continuing to ignore my inquiries about his prowess as an alpha developer trying to build condos on this PREMIER piece of riverfront property.
For more of my reporting on this development, here are some posts to check out:
Embracing The Tin Foil Hat While Former Football Players Further Gentrify Zoom Town (November 7th, 2021)
City Council Member Daniel Carlino Is Hopping On The Citizen Anger Over Riverfront Development, But To What End? (November 30th, 2021)
Getting To Know Wags Capital While Speculating On A Brewing Oligarch Battle (December 2nd, 2021)
Is Corporate Media In Strategic Retreat From The Public? (August 8th, 2022)
Wags Hands Off To Bergquist To Build The Archie, The Belle, And The Cam (September 21st, 2022)
Missoula Needs More Housing, But The White Lion Sleeps Tonight (January 5th, 2024)
If you appreciate my independent GONZO-styled journalism, then please consider supporting Travis’ Impact Fund (TIF).
And, as always, thanks for reading!