Ever ride your bike along the Bitterroot Branch Trail that runs along the railroad tracks in Missoula? I’m sure you have – it’s the major artery in Missoula for bike traffic.
Click for Google Maps
It stretches all the way across town and I’ve used that trail for years. You can get from one end of town to the other in 10 to 15 minutes, and in the future when we’ve gotten over our dependence on cars, it’ll be utilized more.
The railroad tracks aren’t utilized at all, perhaps just a few times a year and then mainly for engines and maintenance crews. In fact, they’re more a hindrance to cars, and therefore not worth anything.
But they do make a nice spot to store junk, and the City of Missoula has one of the largest junk storage areas I’ve seen, and right in prime real estate along that major transportation corridor.
The railroad tracks aren’t utilized at all, perhaps just a few times a year and then mainly for engines and maintenance crews. In fact, they’re more a hindrance to cars, and therefore not worth anything.
But they do make a nice spot to store junk, and the City of Missoula has one of the largest junk storage areas I’ve seen, and right in prime real estate along that major transportation corridor.
Open Junk Area in Missoula Along Bike Trail
Now, perhaps this could be a prime spot for an urban renewal area. But then you have to figure urban renewal areas are only used when the city wants to built more strip malls. Since this is in the middle of town, that probably wouldn’t work.
So we’ll just let it sit there collecting junk:
So we’ll just let it sit there collecting junk:
Now, maybe that area’s used for something. Maybe the electric company uses is – there sure are a lot of power poles and other stuff like that around there:
I don’t know what all that stuff is for, but it’s on one side of the tracks and trail and over by those new apartments they built by Russell and behind that Missoula Federal Credit Union Branch:
One phase of the new Russell Street apartments
Open junk space in Missoula
Over there to the left under Mount Jumbo you can see the general area where they’re doing those Mount and Russell apartments here in Missoula:
What the hell is this big Missoula building for? They'll have to make parking for those apartments, so expect this to go soon.
Tan work buildings along Missoula trail
There sure are a lot of those tan buildings too, huh? What are they, who owns them? That’s sure a lot of land and property there – prime real estate – and I’d hate to think the city is just sitting on it when it could be collecting tax revenue. Remember, that’s a source of tax revenue other than your back pocket.
And don’t forget there’s one stretch of that trail that just doesn’t even exist, forcing bicyclists to enter traffic, break laws, and give drivers headaches. Current and past city administrations have been perfectly fine with this.
And don’t forget there’s one stretch of that trail that just doesn’t even exist, forcing bicyclists to enter traffic, break laws, and give drivers headaches. Current and past city administrations have been perfectly fine with this.
So we'll just leave a gap in the trail here, and for no sensible reason? I bet more bikes use that trail in one hour than trains do in one year.
This is what a failure of leadership in Missoula looks like
Conclusion
Overall, this is a huge area of negative space. From an efficiency standpoint, we’re getting maybe 50% out of that land, if even that.
You’ve seen the pictures, you’ve ridden by it – what will you do? Just continue to ignore it? That’s what our city officials have done for years. What a waste!
This area could be cleaned up. There are grants and TIFFs and TEDs and all kinds of other fancy-pants acronyms that allow things like this to be developed for the good of the community at no cost to you. And remember, if we weren’t pissing away money on out-of-state lawyers, consultants, and those conducting surveys, we’d have money for things we need.
Maybe the idea is just to keep the fence up, however, and keep this area wasting away.
You’ve seen the pictures, you’ve ridden by it – what will you do? Just continue to ignore it? That’s what our city officials have done for years. What a waste!
This area could be cleaned up. There are grants and TIFFs and TEDs and all kinds of other fancy-pants acronyms that allow things like this to be developed for the good of the community at no cost to you. And remember, if we weren’t pissing away money on out-of-state lawyers, consultants, and those conducting surveys, we’d have money for things we need.
Maybe the idea is just to keep the fence up, however, and keep this area wasting away.
The attitude of those in power in MIssoula is to keep you on the other side of the fence
