Is the Missoula Redevelopment Agency Pulling A PR Retreat From Public Scrutiny? – by Travis Mateer

Yesterday a Zoom Chron supporter told me that the Missoula Redevelopment Agency was closing its MRA Facebook page in order to merge its unique gentrification mandate with the City of Missoula Facebook page. The question is WHY?

This question gets even more interesting when you consider how other organizations, like the Downtown Missoula Partnership, have been busy this year rebranding their look. Hmmm.

For me, a long-time critic of MRA with dozens of posts (like this one and this one) and a documentary about the corrupting influence of Tax Increment Financing, there’s a second question that comes to mind when I see this PR retreat being enacted, and the question is this:

The latest effort from MRA to throw $75,000 at the library for a “living roof” is probably one of the moves they’re feeling a little defensive about, since Montanans are getting FUCKED HARD by property taxes, with average homes becoming so out of reach, a former news director (driven out of Montana for her attempt to report on corruption) went to Facebook (where MRA is in retreat) to show why she will never own a home as a fourth generation Montanan in her home state:

Now, let’s pair this screenshot with an image I found by navigating the confusing city website labyrinth where I CONTINUE TO FIND inaccurate information for making remote public comments via the phone. Sure, the city can’t manage to do the simple things correctly, but check out this AMAZING VISION for the “living roof” of the trillion dollar library MRA bailed out when these budget divas threw a tantrum when they’re trillion dollar public bond fell short.

Funny, this image lacks the true “diversity” the library offers because I don’t see ANY mentally ill drug addicts around, though I have seen their drug residue in the library bathroom several times (which I of course documented here and here). To see how much our elected leaders and their MRA minions don’t care about local taxpayers, these numbers should land like a kick to the groin for anyone dealing with the actual fiscal reality of a collapsing society led on all sides by absolute idiots.

These are the numbers being dedicated to the library’s “living roof project” and it’s insane, if you ask me. If these elected assholes think they need this dumb shit so badly, then why don’t they try tapping the GIANT HEADWATERS FUND of money from the sale of Community Medical Center that always flies under the radar in Missoula when our elected officials LARP as panhandlers to the public?

I’ll wrap up this post with a reminder that you are only reading this critical perspective here because I understand this is an information war for narrative control, and that’s how I’ve been operating since Gwen Jones came to my place of work at Missoula Aging Services, where she was a board member in 2018, and tried intimidating me because the Missoulian published by op-ed poem about her sidewalk obsession.

I don’t gain money, friends, or sanity by doing any of this, but that’s ok. I’m doing it because I know, better than most, what the fuck is REALLY going on, and if I’m ever asked later on what I did to try and stop what I saw coming, I want to be able to say everything I could.

Thanks for reading.