by Travis Mateer

I took this picture earlier today after walking from where I was parked to where all the sirens were responding. The path of this south-bound truck down the embankment of the north end of the Orange Street bridge wasn’t as obvious as you might think, and from the initial response, I don’t think anyone was seriously injured.

Unfortunately the motorcyclist involved in the accident over the weekend doesn’t appear to have been as lucky was the driver of this truck was. Is this just your typical spring-time craziness taking hold, or could something else be swirling in the ether?

Since I don’t shy away from engaging in wild speculation from time to time, I’ll throw out a few data points that make me go hmmmmm, like the FREE concert series happening at the Top Hat, owned by Nick Checota.

Maybe it’s the fact this river-bound truck drove off the road where Checota’s dream of building THE DRIFT once seemed viable, or maybe it’s my current work exposing a different developer, that has me thinking weird thoughts about what it takes to pull off large development projects, like, is there a non-corporeal constituency that must be appeased?

Last October I wrote a post with a question for the title, and the question was this: Does Nick Checota Have A Reason To Be Celebratory?

While those free concerts are still happening, NOTHING continues to happen in terms of development at the riverfront property known as the Fox Theater Site, despite a story two years ago about renewed interest. From the link:

A new group of developers is looking at taking on the development of Missoula’s Riverfront Triangle, although the proposal is still in the very early stage.

City leaders have been working with a host of developers over the past three decades, hoping to find someone interested in the old “Fox Theater” site along the Clark Fork River west of Orange Street. But it seems like the ideas, while often grand, always seem to run into problems.

Yes, and the local uprising this local documentary covers in detail was ONE of those problems.

Upstream of today’s accident the TAAAAAZ 2.0 is going great! When the weather gets nicer, I may try to show that documentary, and I’m also working on a puppet show. More on that later this week.

Thanks for reading!

UPDATE: I just went to post this on Facebook and saw footage of the truck trying to pass another truck aggressively, then going off the road like an idiot. I have seen A LOT of aggressive driving in this town, stay safe out there!