It felt like a historical moment with over half of the 120 volunteers meeting at the north shelter of Riverfront Park on bikes. The idea is based off ciclovías – Spanish for “cycle way” or “bike path”- an event in Bogotá, Columbia where 70 miles of streets close for automobiles and open for people powered transit on Sundays from 7 a.m. to 2 p.m. Similar events occured in Portland – called “Sunday Parkways” – and San Francisco. I was fortunate enough to participate in the San Francisco event when the city shut down a 4.5 mile portion of their streets from Bayview to Chinatown—mainly Embarcadero— for four hours to make way for bicyclists and cultural activities.

For Spokane’s part, this Sunday, July 11th, from 9 am-1pm the people-powered movement takes over Howard Street for the 1.5 mile stretch between Riverfront Park and Corbin Park. There will be healthy food, Zumba exercise dance, hula hooping, Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, jump rope, and a bike decorating contest judged by Mayor Mary Verner, Councilman Richard Rush, and Councilman Bob Apple.

View Summer Parkways in a larger map

Organizers attended Neighborhood Council meetings and went door-to-door to let residents know of the street closure and were greeted with enthusiasm. Hopefully, Summer Parkways will become a more permanent fixture in Spokane and lead organizer Bill Bender of Spokefest fame wants it on as many Sundays as possible like Bogotá. Even though we can’t conceivably close more than 70 miles of streets, how far have we come that we are modeling an event after Bogotá’s attempts at a post-automobile city? Will our urban planners take note? Perhaps next year, organizers can shut down a major arterial like 2nd avenue for a path between Browne’s Addition and East Central so participants understand the importance of connectivity.

The free event repeats itself August 22nd.

Photo by Mark Anthony

I knew I had a unique perspective on the panel as a younger lady, but the more interesting contrast came from my experience as a nonprofit professional. There were a few questions about setting personal boundaries in the online arena. In the nonprofit world, people tend relate to their work more intimately which can make it easier to share things of genuine interest. Still some asked about a nonprofit “secret to success.” The panel agreed that by-and-large the social media strategies that work for nonprofits are the same as they are for individuals and businesses.

Aside from all the minutia and specifics, I was surprised at the number of people in the audience who were still struggling to “get their heads in the game.” To these kind people, Chris had the following to say:

Unlike Chris I tend to baby people and reassure them that they will get the hang of things eventually. Chris’s approach is much better. People need to quit making a science out of it and roll up their sleeves and start posting!  Another lesson that hit home was the importance  and power of video. The Spovangelist currently has an empty YouTube page. You can expect that to start filling up with film clips very soon.

“Check out my turnips! I grew these!”

The last take home message for me was being more fearless about the frivolous. Everyone has had to ask themselves “To post, or not to post?” Most people don’t want to hear about what you ate for dinner that night. So when it came to my prize turnips I was definitely leaning towards keeping these beauties to myself. Thanks to Chris for popping my turnip!

Hoopfest by Jack High

Even local authors Jess Walter and Sherman Alexie are fans, taking their love of hoops to new literary, ahem, heights:

We play basketball
because we want to
separate love from
hate, and because we
know how to keep score

Sherman Alexie, Why We Play Basketball.

But this weekend, separating love and hate during Hoopfest wasn’t as effortless as in years past. Spokane Police were mandated a DUI quota by contacting three motorists per hour this weekend as part of extra impaired driving patrols. One Geiger inmate escaped from a Hoopfest work crew.

The talk of the tournament was about a shooting between rival gangs. Three victims unrelated to the incident were injured, fortunately all with non-life threatening injuries to the foot and shin. (One of the assailants was responsible for a gang-related stabbing outside Club Uno last fall and was scheduled for trial September 20th.)

“We have a gang problem in Spokane. We have related crimes and they are continuing to be more violent. So when you have Hoopfest, and all those variables, it’s a recipe for disaster.”

Jennifer DeRuwe, Spokane Police Department Spokesperson

Do you feel last weekend’s incidents at Hoopfest will dissuade people from participating  despite their love for the game? It is estimated that Hoopfest contributes about $30 million dollars of economic impact to our community. What will be the cost of this shooting? What can be done to prevent 19 and 20 year old young men from firing into a crowd?

I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately … I wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life.

The reasons Thoreau once gave for his retreat into the forest near Walden Pond are eerily similar to our own reasons for moving to Spokane last month after ten years spent living abroad. My wife and I wanted a more measured pace of life without sacrificing the arts and culture that enrich our existence. We sought a place that wasn’t stagnant, that was reinventing itself without falling victim to vanity and greed and therefore losing sight of the things that mattered — things like the environment and a strong sense of community. We were looking for somewhere we could easily concentrate on the essentials and not, as that surly transcendentalist dismissively wrote all those years ago, fritter our life away on a headlong rush of insignificant details.

You could be forgiven at this point for snickering at our naiveté. Deliberate living? Arts and culture? Spokane? There’s a prevalent strain of thought that will grant the city just one concession when it comes to positive attributes: “It’s a good place for families.” In other words, it’s quaint. Predictable. Stodgy. Dull. And, for better or worse, maybe it is. This city could certainly use a few more bookstores, bands, and exhibitions.

But right now there’s a week-before-Christmas kind of vibe in Spokane, a feeling that something’s on the verge of happening; or maybe it’s already been happening for a while and the effects are only now starting to become apparent: the Main Market Co-op and the larger slow/organic food movement, the push for bike- and pedestrian-friendly “complete streets,” the resurgence of community-oriented and sustainability-minded businesses such as Roast House, the one hundred blocks of free Wi-Fi coverage at the city center, the development of the long-dormant and dilapidated Kendall Yards area, the moves to protect the aquifer.

To us Spokane appears to have, for the first time since the mid-’70s, the requisite impetus and desire to reflect and decide precisely what form it will take in the twenty-first century. And unlike those enduringly beguiling destinations of Seattle and Portland, whose powerful cultural tractor beams continue to entice some of Spokane’s finest away (I’m looking at you, Sherman Alexie et al.), this city still has the ability to do just that, to collectively re-imagine itself in whole or in part. Its reputation and fate are not yet so fixed.

That’s a unique position for a city of this size to be in. It has the opportunity to maintain the back-to-basics qualities that attracted us in the first place and still adopt the very best amenities that cities such as Seattle and Portland have to offer: bike lanes, arts funding, music and film festivals, architectural highlights, the proliferation of public parks. And it can grow and evolve in this way while resolutely avoiding what are so often viewed as the inevitable by-products of progress: a grotesque sprawl at its periphery, a blight of exclusive upmarket condominiums, a wanton pursuit of white-collar job creation that often succeeds only in raising the cost of living, poorly planned traffic thoroughfares and expensive public transportation.

Spokane is indeed a diamond in the rough, and we’re excited about the ways it’s begun to shine. If it were to take the right steps and channel the right resources, Spokane could exert a cultural influence to rival that of its more cosmopolitan coastal cousins. Stem that creative drain and it won’t be long before this city shakes off its parochial stigma altogether. A vibrant creative class attracts a vibrant business class. Which in turn cultivates a vibrant middle class. A city like that doesn’t need to woo location scouts and CEOs; they come of their own accord.

To truly live deep and suck the marrow from life… that would be a challenge even in Eden itself. But to live simply, to live deliberately; to live in a place where your farmer has a Facebook page, where you can drop in unannounced at a specialist coffee roaster and be invited to “cup” before they even learn your name, where you can stroll down to the most popular citywide annual event and not have to fight for a front-row spot, where more than ten cars at a stoplight constitutes heavy traffic, where the symphony orchestra plays to an annual audience almost as large as that of the Oregon Symphony operating out of Portland, where there’s a local public radio station for every 100,000 inhabitants, where the historical buildings haven’t been razed or yuppified, where there’s a postcard-perfect waterfall and rapids running right through the heart of downtown, for heaven’s sake — these are the things that drew us to Spokane. And as this city in flux attempts to augment those qualities with much-needed technological, creative, and environmental assets, our active support is with those who will ensure that any changes are carried out for the sake of those existing qualities and not at their expense.

Three weeks and countless innocent make out sessions later, The Priest pulled the plug. The Priest had admittedly gone too far. After making out with me for what turned out to be the last time, The Priest told me that, up until then, he had never been so sure that becoming a priest was his life’s calling. ZING!

As I wallowed in self-pity, I realized that three weeks with The Priest had enabled me to ponder the role spirituality plays in my life. While I don’t advocate cruising the local temple or church for the next Mr. or Mrs. Right, I do recommend checking out the religious “scene” in Spokane. I was pleasantly surprised to find that Spokane offers some pretty cool environments that cater to the spiritually devoted, or spiritually curious, 20-30 year olds in the area.

Contact St. Mark’s Lutheran Church on the South Hill to find out what nights they hold Theology on Tap; a casual gathering at a local pub where points of religion are discussed over a pint. The Porch located on Broadway in the West Central neighborhood has a laid back, coffee-house-feel to the traditional idea of “church” Sundays at five and Pastor Deb, of Liberty Park United Methodist, holds small group gatherings for young adults outside of the traditional bible study format. Or for a more radical, non-traditional service, check out one of Whiskey Dick Mountain’s next gospel infuse shows which is sure to rock the devil right out of you.

Regardless of where your spiritual quest may lead you, I pray that the good Lord bless you with peace, love and a smoking hot soul mate in your near future.

Now that Bike to Work week is through and SpokeFest isn’t until September, the Spokane biking community could pull together an early season blowout in preparation for the new Summer Parkways festivals that will be taking place in July and August. If it is too late to pull off such a biking fete in June this year, we should definitely think ahead for 2011.

It would be a benefit event for local grassroots groups on wheels, like Pedals2People and the Lilac City Rollergirls. And lets also throw in The FBC since *someone* has to pay to print all the rad spoke cards Jeff painstakingly puts together, and Board of Spokane, since they promote skateboarding, and maybe Meals on Wheels could be sponsored to cater lunch, and so forth.

Core volunteers at P2P.

Lilac City Rollergirls, photo by Josh Smith.

Clearly there is enough critical community mass to make this thing a smashing hit. And clearly this would represent a great way to cross-promote cycling readiness among people in Spokane who are already athletically predisposed to get off their duffs and bike around, but may not be a part of the family/office-going demographic that Bike To Work week appeals to.

I would pay for a bike wash, or donate to be shown (again) how to clean my chain. I could pay to get into the beer garden at the event. I could pay for Pop-Up Spokane lunch, and pay for some sweet P2P and LCRG merch. I think this thing would definitely be worth everyone’s while. We could do it in a church parking lot to avoid the bureaucracy of Spokane Parks and cut down on overhead.

I suggest the Unitarian Universalist Church of Spokane, for example, and volunteer to be the church liaison should someone miraculously appear to organize this event and should the church be able to partner on the project.  It is a nice little ride outside the city center and is close to wonderful rides around Riverside State Park. Finding a parking lot in Spokane to host the event will not be a problem.

After we emerge victorious from all the scrubbing and spraying, the event concept will go viral and people in Bellingham and Tacoma will do bike washes in a similar fashion. Just another idea floating around in the cauldron of community innovation that is Spokane.

As for the rest of you Spokanites, we need to have a serious talk. Only 54 percent of ya’ll are registered to vote. Of that 54 percent only 51 percent of you voted in the last election. That leaves about 72 percent of the population that isn’t voting. What’s up with that? Perhaps you don’t think it matters. If that’s the case, consider this: In 2008 John Driscoll beat my personal nemesis, John Ahern by 74 votes. That would mean that if only 74 people hadn’t voted John Ahern would be in office. I’ll let you imagine the consequences.

Have I convinced you? Probably not, so here’s my secondary pitch:

This weekend at Elkfest in Browne’s Addition, NextUp (Greater Spokane Progress) and the Washington Bus have jumped on the voter engagement band wagon. There will be popsicles in exchange for the completion of a civic engagement quiz and the opportunity to dunk an elected official if you register or pledge to vote. This isn’t a partisan deal, we are trying to engage every citizen in government so we all have the right to complain when things go wrong.

The NextUp/ Washington Bus Booth will be at Elkfest, 1931 W. Pacific Ave., all three days of the festival. You can check Elkfest out on Facebook or last.fm. Did I mention that Elkfest is a music festival, too? Put on your dancing shoes. Oh yeah, did I mention that it’s free? ‘Cause it is.

See you there!

One aspect of the community clean-up was having a dumpster available for people to bring their excess garbage, old furniture or large items they might not be able to afford to bring to the town dump. The huge dumpster filled in about three hours. It surprised and pleased me how people from the neighborhood helped each other load and empty their cars full of stuff, and stopped by to take an interest in the One World organic garden.

I was pulling weeds when someone asked me if I was “artistic,” and I responded, “Sure, why not?” The volunteer coordinator led me to a very old trailer. The corrugated metal siding was rusting in places where the paint had chipped off. It had certainly seen better days. I’m not sure how this trailer was important to the operations of the restaurant or garden, but I said, “Sure! I’ll paint it.” It is amazing how a coat of cream colored paint can make a difference in how something looks: old, dilapidated, or clean and well-cared for.

After finishing the paint job, clearing most of the weeds out of the garden, and picking up trash in the neighborhood, we had some hot dogs and potato salad donated by Sonnenberg’s, an awesome local deli just down the block. I felt like I’d done something good for my neighborhood and for people I don’t know very well who live pretty close to me.

The concept of “stewardship” comes up a lot in conversations about how human beings should live in relationship to the earth. How do we use natural resources and how do we care for the people and earth around us? While I acted locally, the real benefit was a new connection to the place where I live.

From the EWU Flickr photostream.

But what does it say about a culture when the heart of that society resides in a shrine to sex-driven conspicuous consumption?* Since there are few public meetings that take place in the mall, maybe it isn’t fair to say that RPS is the heart of Spokane. All political activity has been sequestered behind the sign-in desk across the street at City Hall. If the park is the recreational center, the mall is the commercial center, and City Hall is the civic center, I would like to posit that the Museum of Arts and Culture be recognized as our region’s cultural center.

While this is an obvious statement to some, I don’t think enough people see the museum in this way. It is interesting to think about the effects of these four areas of society being separated in terms of physical space, but my real purpose here is to invite you to participate in BeGin! at the MAC, tonight from 6-8pm. BeGin! is a series of open house-style happy hours to celebrate the resources that the museum provides to the public, and to remind folks that the museum depends on their support.

With live music, appetizers, drinks available and good people, these events are a guaranteed good time. They are similar in demographics to the Spokane Metro Magazine parties that were wildly popular until the publication’s eventual demise. Let’s not allow our precious museum to experience the same fate. BeGin! is also part of an effort by the museum to cultivate new audiences and foster an environment of participation that helps the institution stay responsive and relevant to the public’s interests.

I believe that at this time The MAC is in a sort of courtship with the younger generation of Spokane. We’re trying to find new ways to speak their language…to let people know that their voice matters and that the MAC is listening. Creating an environment where the public feels welcome – where they feel like they are a part of something – is a huge step in the right direction. In my opinion, establishing this atmosphere is just as important as the programs we promote or the exhibits we choose, as we journey towards our goal of becoming a cultural hub for the Spokane Community. -Ginger Ewing, Museum staff organizer.

Whether you’re going for the party or going to support an essential cultural institution, at least you will be there for BeGin!

• The Museum of Arts and Culture on Facebook.
• RSVP to BeGin! on Facebook.

*Small locally owned and operated businesses like Anemone paper flowers are a notable exception. I’m referring to chains like Abercrombie & Fitch.

Bloomsday spirit down in Peaceful Valley.

One thing I love about Bloomsday is all the funny shenannigans people come up with to grab each others’ attention. For the majority of people doing Bloomsday it isn’t about setting a record, its all about getting outside to stretch your legs and be a part of something fun and kind of silly.

Many folks are on no kind of exercise routine whatsoever, and Bloomsday is an annual tribute to something they know they should be doing year round. It is humbling to walk through a river of imperfect bodies and be reminded that we all suffer from the same mortal ailments.

Home embankment on Doomsday Hill overlook.

Wouldn’t it be rad if the Spokane Arts Commission (or some other similar entity) obtained permission from the home owners to pay a local artist to do some kind of Bloomsday themed mural on this wall? It must be at least 10×50 feet in area. Just an idea.