When I started explaining to my readership in 2019 that they were getting a “bridge to nowhere”, that explanation came with a plea to local media to cover the increasing cost of this bridge, originally estimated by the Missoula Redevelopment Agency to be $500,000 in Tax Increment Financing.
That cost, which I had already heard was going up before the bridge was completed, ended up being (we were finally told) $800,000. And now they want to remove it?
Yep, and the image above makes it clear: the final draft of the master plan for the West Broadway Corridor proposes removing the bridge built less than a decade ago. And, like in 2019, I’m not sure a significant portion of the public even knows.
Today I went through the obnoxious process of calling in to make a public comment at the Climate, Conservation and Parks Committee, but when I got through at 10:12am, the person leading the meeting had already moved on to the agenda items. Did the meeting start early?
When I did finally get the stream of audio going through my phone, I heard that Missoula’s latest performative freak out over the dark cloud of artificial turf was the ONLY agenda item for the committee today. Really?
Since I was deprived of making my comment, I’ll clue any of the council hate-readers of this blog with my plan: DECLARE THIS BRIDGE WORKFORCE HOUSING!
It’s either that, or Missoula should be fully made aware that THIS is official municipal policy now:
One of my sources told me the line-item on this part of the MASTER plan is $800,000, or, for those keeping score, approximately the SAME AMOUNT it cost this city to built a bridge I warned them about building in the first place.
For context on what was supposed to be accomplished with this the building of this bridge, here’s some of my reporting from a different 2019 post:
Behan, I believe, is now a consultant who still attends MRA board meetings from time to time, and Mike Brady got his parachute job with the city for protecting our alcoholic Mayor, John Engen, when he was still alive and doing active damage to this town.
Can we save this bridge as workforce housing? No, I’m not seriously suggesting that. Instead, let’s make removal of this bridge contingent on removing EVERYONE at MRA responsible for supporting this bullshit at the time, because I can personally attest that I fucking told them so.
Thanks for reading!