by Travis Mateer
The images I’m sharing in today’s post were taken on August 27th, which leads me to my first question: WHY has this riparian habitat near Lion’s Park NOT been cleaned up yet? What the hell is Parks and Rec waiting for, more of our tax money?
Despite the alarm I’ve been raising FOR YEARS, people who should be more informed about local developments around homeless policy, like a former Republican legislator, are doing the predictable NIMBY freakout now that THEIR little park is being threatened.
Here’s Doc Moore and his wife, Penny, telling NBC Montana about their reactionary non-profit and adorable little protest against turning Bellevue Park into a homeless camp.
Bellevue Park is at the epicenter of tension between homeowners and city officials over a homeless ordinance the city rolled out late last month. Butler and her partner, Dave Moore, who live near the park, co-founded the nonprofit No Camp Missoula.
“We’re just keeping an eye on things and doing outreach to people, because even now a lot of people in the neighborhood and in the city are unaware of this problem,” Moore said.
Moore, a former Republican state representative, and his partner spoke to NBC Montana from the spot where a homeless person camped out over the weekend. The unhoused person eventually left, the couple said, leaving their stuff.
According to this article, Doc Moore is from Great Falls, spent 30 years working on cars, and has degrees in business and organizational communications. I suspect Doc is going to need that communication degree to explain how creating a non-profit called “No Camp Missoula” is going to help this NIMBY insulate his neighborhood from urban campers.
Yesterday I visited Bellevue Park and used my amazing skills of analysis to determine this park is a particularly bad one to open up for urban camping. Maybe Doc Moore would like to HIRE me as a consultant, since his non-profit, I’m assuming, will be soliciting money to address this issue. Since there might be money here for an expert like myself, I’m going to hold off on explaining WHY this park will be such a challenge.
The money raised by this NIMBY couple will initially be used for yard signs. The signs that popped up claiming NO CAMPING, though, that sign is NOT sanctioned by our elected braintrust. That’s why this article claims the signs were removed (emphasis mine):
The nonprofit is working to get 500 yard signs, Moore said. The group’s aspirations extend all the way to Helena, where members will try to get state law changed so park use can not stray from its intended purpose.
NBC Montana reached out to the city about urban camping in Bellevue Park, and the city confirmed via email that overnight camping is permitted in the area, specifically in a small portion near Paxson Street.
As for the signs declaring no camping is allowed in the park, the city said it is not aware who put the signs there, but the postings were removed “because they were inaccurate and not approved by the City.”
The city of Missoula wrote it is not aware of who placed the signs in Bellevue Park.
Not ALL the postings were removed, as the image below shows. If the signs are inaccurate and NOT sanctioned by the city, why the partial removal?
NBC Montana interviewed the man who put up the signs and discovered that much of the public in this area of town are ignorant of the controversy that’s been simmering ALL SUMMER (emphasis mine):
NBC Montana spoke with the man behind the homemade postings — Dan Alt. Alt said he was responsible for placing the signs, saying the city asked for them to be removed earlier this week. Only two remain in the park, one of which is lying on the ground.
“I just decided to take action and put them up to make it known that we’re very upset with the decisions that the City Council has made and making,” Alt said.
Several neighbors told NBC Montana they were unaware of the new homeless ordinance and its ramifications until very recently.
This type of ignorance is incredibly frustrating for a citizen journalist like myself who reports on this topic at great personal risk. If I knew how to make people in this town less ignorant and stupid about how to mount an effective response, I would, but I’m only one person, and my ability to report on this topic has been significantly impacted by the lawfare I’m currently experiencing.
If you’d like to help out my local journalism, Travis’ Impact Fund (TIF) is the way to do it, and any little bit helps. I guarantee that no one is covering homelessness in Missoula like I am.
Thanks for reading!
>>>Several neighbors told NBC Montana they were unaware of the new homeless ordinance and its ramifications until very recently.
This is a failure of local media like “NBC Montana” and its pretty amazing the lack of self-awareness local media has about it.
The question was asked about why the parks department has not cleaned up Lion’s Park. I do know that there are many parks that still need to be cleared of July storm damage, such as the ball fields near Playfair Park and also Lester Park. I’m sure the continuing effort of clearing tree damage is taking up the time of the parks department.