Month: May 2024

by Travis Mateer

The segment of “houseless” people who have the luxury of a motorized vehicle still have a problem: where to PARK that vehicle? If you consult Reddit, the obvious answer to the question of where to park is the Walmart parking lot. Here’s some context from the Reddit thread:

My idea is to ALSO find a nice parking lot, and thanks to a friend’s monitoring of scanner chatter, I have a top-notch idea brewing about which one to establish as a TAAAAAZ-enabled car-camping spot.

Scanner chatter? Yes, the chatter was about a break-in at a building once occupied by corporate information peddlers, but now sits empty. I confirmed it was the OLD location where the information peddlers once did their narrative control work by calling one of ’em up and asking, and it was.

What does this mean? For one thing, it means there’s some validity to the idea of the Broken Windows Theory, which posits that visual indicators of urban decay send messages to would-be criminals that a permissive attitude exists toward low-level nuisance activity, making it more likely that MORE SERIOUS crimes will be committed.

Here’s how Wikipedia explains it:

In criminology, the broken windows theory states that visible signs of crime, antisocial behavior, and civil disorder create an urban environment that encourages further crime and disorder, including serious crimes. The theory suggests that policing methods, which target minor crimes, such as vandalism, loitering, public drinking; and fare evasion, help to create an atmosphere of order and lawfulness.

My TAAAAAZ-enabled car-camping spot will be a COUNTER to the chaos-creep of societal collapse by ensuring that anyone entering this space understands the NAMF restrictions I plan on establishing and enforcing (No Alcohol/Meth/Fentanyl).

Maybe if the Authorized Camping Site had done this our city leaders would have avoided creating a safe space for meth dealers and human traffickers.

Another benefit about this location is the fact I’ve been trying to get in contact with the property owner, but so far the White Lion of Lehi County has ignored ALL my attempts to understand WHY this property is being allowed to blight such a “hip” part of Missoula. Perhaps the White Lion is busy fucking up another property in Scottsdale?

With NAMF restrictions in place, I’ll start training my fellow campers to do perimeter checks and to use deescalation techniques if any riff-raff give us trouble. Don’t worry, I’ve been trained in Crisis Intervention, so I have the skillset to properly train my little Lion Cubs to do good community work.

To sustain our little community, I envision having a little market where the alchemy of trash into art can occur. Again, this is well within my wheelhouse of skills to do properly. Doesn’t this all sound GREAT?

To wrap up this Friday post, I want to extend my congratulations to some members of law enforcement who recently showed off their skillset in doing GOOD police work, and NO, I am NOT being sarcastic.

One of the detectives (not the one I developed a methodology for) getting much-deserved kudos is the one I spoke with last May about my interpretation of graffiti along the river trail in Missoula. Another member of the PD team is the one who arrested me, and who shows up in the poem I started writing in jail.

I’ll share the concluding stanzas of that poem after the following quote about what our Missoula team achieved.

From the link:

“They were very calm under the pressure of this intense exercise, they made decisions as a team, organized the intelligence they were gathering thoughtfully, and kept both incident commanders and the tactical components well apprised of major developments during the standoff,” King said. “Coming to an event of this type competing with teams of this caliber and taking home a trophy as a first-time competing team is an impressive accomplishment, and the citizens of Missoula should be proud of the work their team is doing.”

The 10-hour competition assessed teams across various criteria, including communication, intelligence gathering, rapport-building, and resolution outcomes. The Missoula CNT earned perfect scores in two categories, which King said is a rare achievement for a first-time competitor.

One more thing before the rhymes, and that’s how this successful showing at a competition actually bolsters my claim that the “false alarm” SWAT response in September of 2022 was actually a police training, and that the MPD Public Information Officer, Lydia Arnold, potentially lied to me when I asked her about it via email.

Doesn’t this make you want to support my unique style of independent journalism on today’s GIVING pitch to keep enabling local non-profits?

Ok, now the concluding lines of poetry for this lovely looking Friday morning in Zoom Town.

I’m sorry for the time 
taken by this scam, but 
Sean I think I felt you 
through his arresting hand 

and the simple gesture 
of giving me control 
to choose the FM station 
on the cruiser radio 

Lord, please protect him 
and good ones with the badge 
none of us really know 
how much time we have

Thanks for reading!

by Travis Mateer

The signage pictured above is from May of 2021, when Parks and Rec closed down the West Broadway Island for “environmental remediation”. I’m making note of the year for a specific reason, and that specific reason is to ensure the urban camping situation along West Broadway isn’t blamed on the closing of the Reserve Street encampments, since BOTH areas were serious problems back in 2021.

Now it’s 2024 and Missoula’s new Mayor, Andrea Davis, wanted a working group, so that’s what she got. And the result? Here’s the result:

From the link (emphasis mine):

The goal of the group is to come up with recommended actionable items to send to City Council for a possible ordinance.

With this being the last work group meeting, many expected to see clear-cut recommendations from the group, which wasn’t necessary the case.

“Lets try some things out. If they don’t work, let’s course correct. Let’s be transparent about what did work, what didn’t, but doing nothing isn’t an option,” Davis said.

One of the problems I have identified with this “working” group is the quality of “experts” they invited to be a part of this conversation, like the “houseless” tokens used by our elected leaders to show how goddamn inclusive they are.

Yesterday’s post highlighted Brad’s story, and today’s post is going to focus on Tully’s story, since this houseless dude and the shanty town he started building was one of the reasons the Authorized Camping Site near Walmart failed.

Before getting to that, here’s Tully complaining about a lack of progress from the NBC Montana article:

“I do have hope there is going to be progress in this. We’re getting down to the nitty-gritty of coming to a decisive conclusion on what needs to be done. I do think all of this should’ve been addressed two or three years ago,” homeless work group member Tully Sanem said.

Now, let’s contrast this statement by Tully Sanem with what he was complaining about two years ago when I wrote this post (emphasis mine):

The destruction of the structures presented a significant financial loss to campers like Sanem, who invested almost $800 into pallets, nails and tools to build a sturdy apparatus.

“I wanted a structure because I don’t want to be huddling up in five blankets when it’s 15 degrees outside,” he said. “I go out, and I work, and I contribute, and I engage in commerce and I help so many people out. I should not have to live in squalor.”

Beyond the immediate security a structure provided to Sanem, he wanted to use the stability of the building to build a foundation for a better life.

“That’s what you need, a foundation,” he said.

He hoped to build up the structure and use it as a base of operations to potentially start a small business or nonprofit building crafts with the other residents of the Authorized Camping Site.

“I wanted to make it a home because everybody wants a home,” he said.

The situation is especially frustrating, Sanem noted, because he checked with authorities at the camp before moving in about six weeks ago.

“We all had the understanding we could do whatever we wanted to do,” he said.

Yes, you read that correctly, this “houseless” dude spent nearly $800 hundred dollars that SHOULD HAVE gone toward appropriate housing, but since Tully’s understanding was “we could do whatever we wanted to do,” he did something quite stupid, and the result is that his situation years later HAS NOT improved.

When I looked up Tully’s name I found another article from last year that highlights how this Iowa man, who has been in and out of Missoula since 2000, can’t figure his shit out. From the link:

The first thing Tully Sanem mentions is the breeze. It’s July, and the heat and sunshine have been unrelenting for the past few days. “I don’t have any place to go and sit in air conditioning,” he said.

Sanem has lived in Missoula on and off since 2000. Originally from Iowa, his housing has varied during that time. At one point he owned a modest home, but he’s been living out of his car for the last three years. He works odd jobs as a carpenter and builder when he can, but he hasn’t been able to save enough to afford the rising rents in Missoula.

Later in the article the specific program that Tully thought was a shanty town free-for-all, therefore helped contribute to its closer, is referenced. Isn’t that ironic? (emphasis mine):

Missoula has experienced a surge in the cost of living since the COVID-19 pandemic, making it difficult for people to afford housing. As a result, the number of people experiencing homelessness has swelled, prompting the city to spend one-time federal money on several attempted solutions. In 2022, it opened an emergency Authorized Camp Site on Reserve Street that it then closed, citing budget limitations and difficulty managing the health and safety of the space, in favor of a winter shelter on Johnson Street. The shelter provided an additional 150 beds, but it was closed for the season in March.

Upon the closure, most people who relied on it for shelter were left without a place to go. The year-round Poverello Center is almost always filled to capacity overnight. Dozens of people — “urban campers,” they’ve been called — started sleeping in parks, on trails or under bridges, and city officials started fielding an unprecedented number of complaints.

Last June, Mayoral candidate, Shawn Knopp, thought bringing back the Authorized Camping Site was a good idea, but since people like Tully had turned it into a shanty town shit-show (which local law enforcement nicknamed the THUNDERDOME), I said NOT SO FAST.

If you’re not deeply annoyed and disillusioned yet by all this bullshit, then let me explain what happens next now that this working group is done working. What happens next is the 25 hours this group met will be turned into municipal propaganda, and that process is expected to take up to TWO MONTHS. Isn’t that hilarious? (emphasis mine):

Most of the work group couldn’t come to a general agreement on the vision and guiding principles in the last meeting.

Next up, the meeting’s facilitator will write up a summary and send it to the group. A minority group will also prepare a report, and then it will all be sent to the city to start work on a draft ordinance.

When we asked Davis when we can expect to see a proposed policy draft from the work group’s recommendations, she said there was no set date, but it most likely will be a couple months before council sees it.

This stupid timeline will take us straight to the heart of summer, a magical time in Montana when NO ONE is really paying attention to municipal bullshit, so I suspect that’s a function, not a bug. Because really, how long does it take to boil down 25 hours of shrugging shoulders and complaining about having NO location for another authorized camping site and NO funding to fund it if they did?

To wrap this up, I ran across an op-ed recently by some former elected officials in Missoula opposing a study to assess local government. Their argument? Missoula’s local government is doing JUST FINE.

I appreciate this “viewpoint” because it exemplifies how former Mayors, like Mike Kadas and Daniel Kemmis, have laid a retarded foundation of blaming others to avoid accountability for anything our local government might do.

Here’s the money shot from the article (emphasis mine):

At the city level, we do not support commissioning a study. While our city government certainly faces some major challenges, those are either of a national scale (as with homelessness) or the result of poor state policy (as with property taxes.) Changing the form of city government will not solve these problems.

Yes, this is the main blueprint for our retarded “leaders” because it works amazingly well. Have a problem? Then blame either STATE government, or the Feds. What a bunch of fucking losers.

Too bad these losers have control over YOUR tax money, and if you don’t like it? Tough shit.

Today and tomorrow is “Missoula gives” when local non-profits panhandle citizens for donations. If you’d like to give theses bib-less babies a message, how about sending a donation to MY effort to raise money, which is Travis’ Impact Fund (TIF)?

Or maybe you’d prefer to purchase some helpful items for our local non-profit influencers. Here’s a good gift idea!

Thanks for reading!

by Travis Mateer

To show you that it’s been YEARS of dealing with abhorrent behavior in the West Broadway Island area of Missoula, the screenshot above is from a 2021 article when an “urban camper” thought pulling knife on law enforcement was the appropriate response to being told to NOT CAMP in this part of town. From the link:

The Missoula Police Department has been conducting two daily sweeps on the West Broadway Island in the Clark Fork River, and officials decided to start a cleanup Tuesday night.

An increase in camping on the island prompted the action.

During Tuesday night’s cleanup, police said James Muster pulled a knife on an officer when he was asked to leave the island.

“We began to be concerned about the activities that may be going on down there and the people who are occupying or other persons who were continually at risk by persons of this nature,” Missoula Police Department public information officer Travis Welsh said.

During that cleanup, officers and volunteers counted 29 tents on the island, some occupied and others abandoned.

In addition to the violence associated with those living marginally, there’s also the fact that the West Broadway Island FLOODS during spring run-off. Despite these factors, that “houseless” guy on the Urban Camping Working Group thought standing his ground and NOT leaving was worth getting arrested for.

Here’s a brief description of how the programs intended to “help” someone like Brad apparently did the opposite:

From 2021 to 2023, Carlson stayed at the Temporary Safe Outdoor Space, he said. He was close to securing housing, but changeover in staff slowed the process. He eventually moved to the Johnson Street Shelter, where he said things started to fall apart.

Carlson said he quit his job at MOD Pizza shortly afterward, mostly because of the increased time he spent protecting his personal items at the Johnson Street Shelter.

After a couple weeks there, he took his chances outside.

Is theft at the Johnson Street shelter this rampant? Yes, I believe it is, and this isn’t the first story I’ve heard about theft derailing someone’s plans to get into more appropriate housing. I had a former client by the name of Geoff ALSO move from the Transitional Safe Outdoor Space (TSOS) to the Johnson Street shelter, where his phone was stolen FROM HIS POCKET while he slept.

After quitting his job to become homeless full time, Brad’s experience continued to be, unsurprisingly, NOT positive, especially when he refused to leave the West Broadway Island. Don’t worry, one of the activist Municipal judges (who had Westridge Creative help her get elected) threw out the case. Isn’t that nice, Brad? (emphasis mine):

On April 18, one day after the Missoula Urban Camping Working Group meeting, city police arrested Carlson for urban camping. After a judge threw out his case the same day, Carlson moved camps and was soon assaulted by a neighbor at his new location.

Carlson said he’s OK, but said the city has created a dangerous situation for those living on the streets. As the final meeting of the workshop approaches on Wednesday, Carlson said the city needs to give people a place to camp.

“I just would like to come up with a safe space for us to be immediately,” Carlson said to city council last week. “What we have going on right now is inadequate and doesn’t really help us. There’s a lot of us that don’t have a space to be.”

It appears NOTHING can really help someone like Brad, considering he stayed TWO YEARS at the “Transitional” Safe Outdoor Space, then attempted to use the Johnson Street shelter for assistance, yet he STILL ended up camping in an area where NO ONE should be allowed to camp. Why?

The fact Brad gets a seat at the table to complain about his life is incredibly obnoxious, especially since another member of this community is now facing CRIMINAL CHARGES for how he handled an interaction with this “houseless” man who started camping on his property. Will the judge in THIS case do the same thing done for Brad and THROW IT OUT?

Carlson said the decision to stand his ground was an “act of civil disobedience” to point out the inconsistency of city policies.

Carlson was released and returned to his camp, where he said he was immediately threatened with a rearrest for trespassing. He said he then packed his items and moved across the river near the Milwaukee Trail.

Roughly an hour after Carlson arrived, a man who lived in the neighborhood alleged Carlson was on private property and tried to confront him. 

The neighbor, William Webster, allegedly left and returned with a weapon.

“He came with a weapon, like a rough-cut 2×2 that he sanded or fashioned a handle onto one end,” Carlson said. “It was unprovoked, I had never met this man before in my life. He just wacked me when I told him I wasn’t going to move.”

When police arrived, Carlson had pinned Webster to the ground, according to the police report. Carlson said he is a U.S. Army veteran and said he tried to deescalate the altercation.

Isn’t this fucked up? Here’s a KGVO article about this assault that Brad Carlson instigated, but didn’t get in trouble for.

From the link:

At approximately 2:40 p.m. on April 18, 2024, a Missoula Police Department Officer received a report of a disturbance at Dakota St. and N. California St. The reporting party stated a male attempted to assault his friend and his friend was holding the male down.

The officer began walking eastbound on the Milwaukee Trail and observed two males approximately 500 feet south of the trail. John Doe, who the officer recognized from a prior call for service earlier in the day, had several pieces of grass and dirt in his hair and on his shirt consistent with being in an altercation.

Doe stated he was sitting at his tent after being moved from his prior location earlier in the day. The officer observed Doe’s tent was a distance from the residences on N. California and appeared to be an easement, not owned by any resident in the area. Doe stated while sitting at his tent, he was approached by an unknown male with a 2×4 and then a “stick.” That male was identified as 66-year-old William Webster.

It’s amazing to me that some entitled members of our local “houseless” community are making the erroneous assumption that this town owes them housing when EVERYONE who isn’t independently wealthy is being squeezed right now.

In another KGVO article, Mike Colyer, Missoula’s Police Chief, specifically called out responses like the one required to deal with Brad’s altercation as taking up LOTS of police time and resources. Duh (emphasis mine).

Colyer said one of the biggest challenges to their service has been central to the issue of unhoused and unsheltered. 

“The MPD is committed to being a problem-solving partner as we search for solutions to this circumstance,” Colyer said. “We have committed to proactive crime prevention efforts by conducting over 1,000 directed patrols at and around the Johnson Street shelter. When crime is reported in and around the shelters, we promptly investigate and refer those cases for prosecution.”

The “resolution” speculated on in Brad’s article is why I am openly and consistently now using the word RETARDED to describe our community’s leadership, and the pending results of this RETARDED working group is the “central issue” why I feel this trigger-term is warranted (emphasis mine):

Carlson told the Missoulian last week that the city must create a place for people to safely camp, otherwise he said the city could violate rights of homeless people. 

“I’d like to make sure that we make some sort of resolution or codify that we don’t destroy and take people’s property,” Carlson said. “My kinda thing at the (working) group is to make sure nobody’s rights are violated.”

The Urban Camping Working Group has met four times to find a solution to people sleeping outdoors in Missoula. While the solutions have not been finalized, an additional space for people to camp is at the top of the list.

Maybe Brad and his fellow Working Group pals should review the part in Montana’s constitution that codifies NOT turning ideal river spots into trash pits where theft and violence regularly occur.

Or, here’s another idea: how about utilizing the resources and POSITIVE RESULTS of Kevin Davis and his successful efforts to transform the area around the Reserve Street Bridge, where encampments once sprawled. This effort is one I was DIRECTLY involved with helping to accomplish, since my previous job as the coordinator of the Homeless Outreach Teams entailed doing lots of positive work in this same part of Missoula.

Here’s the evidence of the good collaborative work that’s been done, but gets VERY LITTLE attention, since it makes so many of our influencers, like Susan Hay Patrick, look SO VERY bad.

Do we kick ass? Yes, we do. Will we keep kicking ass? Yes, we will. And if you would like to help the people doing REAL work (instead of just preparing to tell this burned-out community that there’s NO MONEY for their retarded ideas), then please consider making a donation to Travis’ Impact Fund (TIF).

Thanks for reading!