Today, NBC Montana had a story up called Missoula seeks public input on W. Broadway Master Plan. They included the following image:
The real selling point is this: “The site is also part of Missoula’s only Opportunity Zone, which is likely to be attractive to developers.”
Yes, one of the Trump opportunity zones. These were created to try and stimulate growth and development in “economically distressed communities.” There are over 8,700 of these zones in the country. Personally, I don’t think Missoula’s west Broadway area qualifies as economically distressed. But that’s not going to stop the meddling ‘do-gooder’s’ of Missoula city government.
Where is Missoula headed?
I think this recent story about Whitefish tells us exactly where we’re heading.
“We’re really starting to see employers really, really struggle,” said Kate Lufkin with the Kalispell Chamber of Commerce, one of the partners behind the Opportunity Fair. “It’s a massive problem.”
Why is Whitefish experiencing such a massive worker shortage? The answer is simple - housing, the lack thereof, and the massive prices asked for what’s available.
Workers can’t afford that, so they leave Whitefish and new ones don’t come in. Whitefish decided long ago that they would be a community for the rich and well-off, the entitled and the elite.
Now they find they have no one to cater to them. What a dilemma!
To solve the problem, the community hopes to bring in dozens of foreigners to do the jobs that Americans can’t (becaused they've been priced out of the housing market).
Whitefish Mountain Resort needs 160 workers to get through this summer, they can’t find them, and hope to bring in 30 foreigners on work visas.
Ever been there?
I haven’t. And it’s no surprise - the resort was built to cater to rich, out-of-staters, not average Montanans. That’s why they charge $200 a night for their rooms, on average.
Whitefish is a dying community, one that decided long ago that the rich were more important than the average. It’s come back to bite them, and the problem is only going to get worse as Montana continues to age, the population continues to get older, the young continue to leave.
Missoula is following the template of Whitefish, from the developments erected to cater to the rich all the way to the quest for a local option sales tax.
Missoula is desperate, has been for a long time.
They’re desperate for your money, but since you don’t have that much to give, they’ll try to get more rich, out-of-staters in here. They have money, and Missoula wants to get as much as it can through taxes.
Yes, it's true that Missoula gives great lip-service to the idea of affordable housing, but when was the last time any of that was built? Do you honestly think any will be built in this new opportunity zone? I don't, not for one second.
Now with massive amounts of election fraud uncovered, that’ll take a back seat as the city goes into damage control. Watch as they point the finger at anyone they can in an attempt to take the heat off their elections office.
What’d we spend, about $1 million over the past year to get the elections office a new locale away from the fairgrounds? How much affordable housing would that have built?
Keep your eye on these charlatans, these clowns. You’re paying their salary, but they do not care one iota about you or your family.
Deep down, you know this.