A new city planning commission has taken form and I’m impressed with how the gentrifiers have co-opted the anti-gentrifiers to make this commission a performative rubber stamp for Missoula’s pro-develop-everything-mono-party.
To accomplish this, a couple of things had to take place over the last year, starting with the re-branding of the North Missoula Community Development Corporation, which I witnessed happen alongside the re-branding of the Montanan Human Rights Network into Catalyst Montana.
From the first link:
Having outgrown its original name and mission, a Missoula-based community land trust has rebranded to align with its next phase of growth.
The North Missoula Community Development Corporation on Monday said it was now the Front Step Community Land Trust – a move that better reflects “the growth and evolution of our work.”
…
The organization began in 1996 in an effort to revitalize Missoula’s North and Westside neighborhoods. At the time, the two districts were viewed as the city’s lowest income and most neglected areas.
But over the past 25 years, the city’s growth and housing costs have risen, making affordability a challenge for many families. The organization believes gentrification and displacement represent a growing risk.
Yes, I agree, gentrification is a risk, as is driving under the influence of alcohol, something that seems to be plaguing a particular type of Democrat in Montana. Know what I mean, Pam Walzer?
And Rep. Sootkis?
And _________?
Why am I suddenly talking about alcohol? Great question. Let me answer it this way.
Now that Missoula’s new City Planning Commission has the Executive Director of Front Step on it, Brittany Palmer, I went scrolling through Front Step’s “Meet Our Team” page and I found they employ a storyteller who, I assume, has been hired to tell stories.
Kate Whittle also tells stories at The Pulp, like this one about fancy alcohol sold at Plonk, a restaurant that once employed ________.
“Your body tends to recognize bitterness as a toxin, so it wants to purge, so amaros stimulate digestion,” Hibbard explains. “It’s a very common drink for service industry staff because at the end of the night, you’ve been around sweet things and your palate is worn out, and fernet cuts through that — all the sugar and citrus.”
Bartenders would seem to agree. At Plonk, Ryan Cole describes fernet as “the bartender’s bran muffin.”
Closer to where I live, at an address the Missoula County Sheriff’s Office has NO RECORD of me refusing to update with them, The Pulp ran this piece about a dive bar people like to drink and drive home from. Behold the power of narrative control!
“I’ve only had to break up a handful of fights,” she says. “It’s just not the kind of place where we really have to worry about that.”
The bartenders agree that the No. 1 cause of banishment is repeated drunk driving. People get told. They get warned. They keep doing it anyway, perhaps overestimating their ability to mask their inebriation while skulking out to their cars. Eventually they get banned.
“Sometimes we’ll give people a 30-day suspension and kind of say, ‘Hey, if getting hammered and driving the four blocks to your house is that important to you, you won’t be with us,’” Lindsey says. “But the thing is, when we give somebody 30 days and then those 30 days are up? I’d say 90 percent of the time they end up on the fucking wall.”
Implying goose-stepping is particularly poignant for our next housing all-star, Danny Tenenbaum, another one of these non-player players who tells me they aren’t really doing local politics anymore, but then pop up like Jason Wiener did Tuesday offering AI soothsaying services for the Data Center worriers.
Does this look like not doing local politics?
For more context on Tenenbaum’s passion for housing, here’s the bio info from whatever the “Sightline Institute” is.
When I gave Sightline, based in Seattle, just a little more scrutiny, the triple-threat focus on “Climate + Energy”, “Democracy + Elections”, and “Housing + Cities” definitely piqued my interest.
Finally Front Step, along with other organizations that know it’s essential to bow to Missoula’s new UNIFIED CODE, have joined up at Pro Missoula Housing.
Yes, it’s as nauseating as you would expect it to be.
And it features all the right players.
As told by all the right “storytellers”.
And that, ladies and gentlemen, is how the narrative goose gets cooked.
Before the City Planning Commission met yesterday I got a chance to address the Climate, Conservation and Parks Committee with my poetic skills. It was a lot of fun being in chambers because I got a chance to see how those who attempt to control narratives around their use of public money couldn’t even control the thermostat, which had everyone feeling pretty hot before I read my poem. Considering my poem addresses an increasingly hot climate, I felt the need to deny responsibility for the temperature in the room.
Thanks for reading!