Nate Schweber Writes Back

More From Nate’s Montana Mailbag

By Nate Schweber, 9-11-05

Sept. 4, 2005

Dear Nate,

Rumor has it that you are an employee of the University of Montana pulling down nearly $60K a year to write a textbook supplement to Robert Ledbetter’s History of Rock n’ Roll class. I see that you are happy to tout your affiliation with UM on your website, however the lack of said textbook prompts a question: what exactly are we paying you for? Please elaborate.

Sincerely,

George Dennison
President
University of Montana


Sept. 9, 2005

George,

Yes it is true that I am an employee of your university. I am happy to report that though it is not in my job description enrollment among Montanans has improved significantly since you hired me, which justifies my salary. Can you dispute this? As for the textbook, it’s coming man, it’s coming.

Nate


August 19, 2005

Dear Nate,

Hey, is Sam Riddle OK?

Sincerely,
Griz Hoops Nostaligist



August 25, 2005

Dear G.H.N.

I DON’T KNOW! SAM, ARE YOU OUT THERE? ARE YOU OK????

Nate



September 10, 2005

Dear Nate,

Mencken said that democracy is the theory that the common people know what they want and deserve to get it good and hard.

I tend to tow the Mencken line, but the happenstance of the Missoula Mayoral primary election on Sept. 13 prompts me to buck the trend. I think Missoulians deserve better than the jokers running. It’s been a woeful and teeth gnashing mayoral campaign, especially for an old school, bare-knuckled Missoula matron like me. The first four candidates to throw their hats into the ring to take over after Kadas ends his reign and vanishes to Central America were inside baseball people: city council members to a (wo)man. This is the same city council that told Griz Grocery to fix its damn sign because it was too high and bright, and then rolled over when big hotel chains like Hilton and Marriott asked for worse signs out on Reserve. The same council that bought, then abandoned the Blue Heron. The same council that has worked longer to put in a damn roundabout than it takes most kids to finish high school. If these were vigilante times, I’d be assembling a posse.

Then Geoff Badenoch, who can play the insider’s-outsider card having served as head of the Missoula Redevelopment Agency, threw down and for a second things seemed hopeful. That hope continued when local businessman John D’Orazi also engaged, in the parlance of Top Gun. I was expecting a real knock-down, drag ‘em out kind of race. Crazier than a three ring circus on Nyquil. I was thinking, sucker, if you thought that the last gubernatorial race in California was a freak-out, wait until you see this mayoral race in Missoula.

But that’s where it stopped. Where were all the town’s super-citizens? You know, the ones who sulk with me at the back of council meetings and bitch about local government at the Old Post. Where are the crazies who do critical mass bike rides or hang signs of metropolitan buildings for environmental causes? Hell, where are the second amendment goons? The ultimate Frisbee fanatics? We’re losing a damn hang-gliding mayor, one of the people running this time hasn’t even floated a river in an inner tube. Hell, only one of the six candidates would even agree to play a few cards with my buddy Bob Wire, who I used to whip on in six-card-stud at the Ox.

But since the field of six candidates will be slimmed down to two on Tuesday, it’s worth examining the race in terms of Vegas betting odds.

John Engen is the odds on favorite due to his campaign hustle (which for some reason reminds me of William “The Refrigerator� Perry scoring a touchdown for the Chicago Bears in the 1985 Super Bowl), endorsement from Kadas, eager-to-compromise governing style, and war chest of more than $16K. The odds are so good that he’ll make up half the candidates running come Sept. 14 that the house isn’t even taking bets. Shows how far a few lutefisk jokes can get you in this town.

The odds get a little dicier when it comes to the other candidates.

Geoff Badenoch can wail on his experience with redevelopment and, unlike Engen, he’s making more noise about solving Missoula’s housing crunch by putting homes in former industrial sites than subdivisions (which lead to annexation, which lead to taxation) on the outskirts of town. He’s also a bike and bus rider, like me, and he speaks of doing things on a local level to solve the nationwide energy crunch. He also did a fine job as Redevelopment head of overseeing the work done on Missoula’s downtown and riverfront parks and trails -- two of the best things about the city. What Badenoch has going for him is that unlike his rival for the progressive Missoula vote, Lou Ann Crowley, he gives off a psychic aura of being able to crack some skulls to get his way. Perhaps if elected he would descend into the endless studies, discussions and petty arguments that seem to plague every city administration, but as the first catalyst for hope in this race, we’ll give him the benefit of the doubt.

While bantering about Jeannette Rankin’s name Lou Ann Crowley has certainly psychically allied herself with the best in Montana politics. With her base of support in the University district that she represents on the city council she’s got a honking block of supporters who are used to voting for her and will do so again in the primary. Her talk of passing on a clean environmental slate to the next generations of Missoulians rings good and well, but her campaign talk of listening and listening and listening to as many factions of the Missoula community as possible strikes us as right in theory, but ineffective in practice. Too much talk is what this resident thinks has led to the stalemate that cancers the city government currently. Also her votes for occupancy standards in Missoula houses and vote against city participation in Play Ball Park rankles us. Still, I’ve got to like her because according to the Independent, she’s a Playgirl reader, like me. She’s got almost $14K in her war chest, almost $6K more than Badenoch.

Clayton Floyd has the ability to rock my little world with his talk about the city taking its power back and telling some developers to just pack up and go home. Floyd is stubborn enough to do just that. Unfortunately, his allegiance to cars far outweighs his allegiance to bike and bus riders and that doesn’t strike this voter as any way to a) plan a city, b) cut down on congestion or c) cut down on air pollution. Plus he supports occupancy standards. His war chest is around $4K.

While I’ll defend to the death Jerry Ballas’ right to say what he wants to say, that doesn’t mean I wanna’ hear it. With his single-minded neighborhood-character-preservation, Ballas is too myopic to see the big picture in Missoula, namely: infill isn’t all bad and the alternative is sprawl from Clinton to Frenchtown. He was the swing vote that gave us Jack Reidy as council president, which should be grounds for dismissal unto itself. He’s on the right track when he talks about the city looking into making sure that local businesses who bid on properties are given preferential treatment over out-of-town bidders, but I think he’ll be too tied up in suing his neighbors over property boundary lines to do anything about it. He’s got $3.6K in his war chest, mercifully.

D’Orazi is without question the most fun of all candidates. He’s also the craziest. Maybe even crazier than me. Unlike anyone else running, he seems to be the least bent on being mayor to satiate his ego, only his anger. I wish there were 25 more D’Orazi’s running in this race. Unfortunately, he’s got a simplistic view of city government, which isn’t a one-rule-fits-all kind of affair, and his jihad against Public Works Director Bruce Bender is a little creepy.

The progressive voters that don’t siphon off for Engen will be split between Badenoch and Crowley, just as conservative voters will be split between Ballas and Floyd with the few remaining mad-as-hell votes going to D’Orazi. They say the primary is the time to vote your heart, not your head, so for this resident it’s a primary between Badenoch and Crowley. Of the two Badenoch gets my endorsement for having the clearest vision of where Missoula should go and the right tools to get it there, namely fixing blighted areas and focusing on the town’s urban features in order to preserve its non-urban character.

In the primary, which has historically low turnout, the question will be: after Engen cleans up, will there be enough progressive voters to put either Badenoch or Crowley over the top, or will the more conservative faction -- often the retirees, the ones who actually have the time to vote in a municipal primary -- put up Ballas or Floyd? My guess is that Badenoch’s drive and Crowley’s solid block will see one of them through.

The final thing that needs to be said about the primary election is that the residents in Ward 2 must vote for John Couch. Doom awaits if he goes down.

Rantingly,
Angelita Cutthroat
Jackson Street
Missoula, MT 59802




Sept. 12, 2005

Dear Angelita,

May the best (wo)man win.

Nate

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