Missoula’s Left Divided, Sandy Vasecka Tackling Transient Crisis

Hats off to Missoula City Councilwoman Sandy Vasecka. She's been the lone voice in the wilderness for quite some time now on the transient crisis in Missoula.

A while back she joined us on our statewide radio talk show to talk about how bad the transient crisis has become in Missoula. There's people doing drugs in the middle of the street, there's transients masturbating in public, and one transient even defecated in a water fountain in a local park. She can't even take her toddler to the park near her own house.

Then, earlier this Spring, we told you how a Missoula man was targeted by the city for voluntarily picking up trash. Remember him? He was the guy that saw all sorts of human waste, drug needles, and other garbage along the banks of the Clark Fork River- so he decided to pick up the trash, and got fined by the city. (Click here for that story)

Earlier this week, I caught up with Vasecka and former councilman and State Representative Adam Hertz. We talked about how some Leftist members on the Missoula City Council are finally recognizing that something needs to be done, but how they are getting serious pushback from their own side.

Sandy Vasecka: "My issue is not with the homeless individuals that are just out on their left. My issue is with the transients who are deliberately breaking the law, and who are leaving their needles, and leaving trash, and defecating on our public property so that I and other taxpaying citizens cannot come with our children and play in the park."

Thanks to Vasecka's efforts, some new "urban camping" rules were approved by the Missoula City Council this week.

Missoulian | Missoula City Council approves new urban camping laws

A step in the right direction, but will this stop or hinder the transient invasion? You tell us.

By the way, here's our full chat with Vasecka, Hertz, and more folks who joined us in Missoula earlier this week.