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.

Design by Carson Schultz

Instead of describing their project as a gigantic armor-plated (albeit awesome-looking) cardboard slug slinking across the floor of River Park Square Mall, it is “a spatial intervention that is intended to intercept the public’s attention and inform them about National Architecture Week and the creativity/abilities of local architects.” It is similar in purpose to a 2-dimensional display our staff refers to as “Stonehenge,” cobbled together by Gabriel Brown for CME.

While the young architects are bristling with off the wall ideas unbridled by years of experience in an often painfully pragmatic industry, they also have undergone intensive study of architectural history. In the April issue of Inland Architect, a yAIAg member describes the profound influence the Expo had on Spokane’s landscape in a column titled “The Hometown Tourist.”

Designed and fabricated by Jeff Hyslop, yAIAg and several students from WSU-Spokane’s Masters of Architecture program.

Dare I detect a hint of 60′s/70′s prism preoccupation in this sculpture’s design? I love the patterns in the skylights on the ceiling of the Pavilion, and the shapes and colors of the floor tiles in the women’s restroom at Suki Yaki Inn and the breakfast area at Shangri La.

When one of the graduate students working on this installation was asked by a little kid “What is that?” he responded, “A question machine.”  I think that is a great way of looking at and approaching this project. It is a way for us as future architects and designers to push ideas on an attainable scale, while contently asking questions and challenging preconceptions. In this case architectural questions like, what is circulation, how can information be displayed, what is structure, and how does form evolve, and what makes a form engaging. -Jeff Hyslop

As a city that juxtaposes the Public Health Building with the Courthouse, I think we have something to say about architecture. For better or for worse. Either way there are a growing number of groups interested in alternative building and design, with several more invariably on their way.

Artistic Japanese manhole covers.

With all the attention paid to the recent idea of putting notifications near storm water drains for Earth Day, I wonder if the winning design will pay heed in some way to protecting the river. I think it would add some dimension to our local identity if the image ingrained in such a civic symbol did not include one of the stereotypical icons of the area. Marmots, Clock Towers, etc. etc. You know what they are. We love them, but we also overuse them.

Marmot mural by Tom Quinn

The tight age limit for this competition is another example of having too narrow of an understanding of what it means to support and recognize “youth.” Because a lot of services and programs are mediated through or significantly impacted by the school system, our culture has unintentionally created an arbitrary cut-off point at age 18.

Now that we are in a knowledge-based economy, functional adulthood is getting pushed further and further out, like it or not. If you are one of the many young Spokanites that are beyond “high school age” but did not make the immediate transition to college, good luck trying to integrate with your community. Many local youth serving agencies see the dire need of young people who are over 18, and thus regularly serve an audience up to around age 22. More on the cultural consequences of this mindset later.

For now I’d like to close with the language on a flier that was tucked in peoples’ utility bills (not so for those of us who prefer paperless billing):

The design should be welcoming and an enhancement to the visual appearance of the City of Spokane manhole covers. The design should appeal to a broad age range and should be uplifting and stimulating to the spirit, intellect and physical senses. The design should be reflective of the City of Spokane and communicate a sense of place. Designs can reflect the environment, nature, water, water quality or the landscape of the Pacific Northwest. Designs may not be offensive or serve as commercial advertising particular goods, services, or businesses.

]]> http://spovangelist.com/put-a-lid-on-it/feed/ 3 http://spovangelist.com/hey-spokane-fix-the-hotzone/ http://spovangelist.com/hey-spokane-fix-the-hotzone/#comments Mon, 22 Mar 2010 17:27:00 +0000 The Spovangelist http://spovangelist.com/?p=1900

It’s official, it’s a mania. What started as an earnest effort on behalf of the City and some key partners has finally hit the mass consciousness of everyday citizens in a mad dash to impress before Friday’s finish line.  What is going on here? In case you live under a rock, Google is planning to install a large experimental high-speed fiber optic network and is pitting cities across the country against each other to try to attract their investment.

(Look past the wretched font choice, we’re good for you!)

Much remains unclear about how exactly this decision will be made. Most Federal grants include a detailed scoring system so that applicants have an idea how important their “project narrative” is compared to the way they spend money in the budget, for example. We’ll leave it up to the consultants to do the digging and speculation, but one thing should be obvious. The sole purpose of any company is to make money, and therefore factors like infrastructure, cost of resources and consumers’ ability to pay for service seem like they would be at the top of the list.

When was the last time you saw them all smiling at the same time?

Given these are all things that are completely beyond the control of everyday people, all the hijiinks to “get Google’s attention” seem all the more precious and embarrassing.

Another clip to add to the “So Cheesy It Hurts” collection.

Next up on the menu of publicity activities is a rally in Riverfront Park on Wednesday night at 5:30 in the Clock Tower Meadows. Now flash mobs are nothing new to our city, but don’t let the name fool you. These gatherings can take months of careful planning and promotion to pull off successfully. Without a robust communications infrastructure more often than not the effort will flop. But don’t get me wrong. Do I think you should get yourself on down to the park to see who else shows up? Absolutely. I will see you there.

• Become a fan of “Hey Google, Pick Spokane” on Facebook.

“Getting closer to the 2,000th fan for the Spokane Aquarium in less than three weeks. Who will be the lucky 2000th?”

The aquarium concept is an informal proposal to the former YMCA building that has received little press. As the deadline approaches for spending Conservation Futures funds to tear down ($5.4 million of taxpayer money, thank you very much) and create an open space or re-develop the property, our elected officials are relatively silent on the idea as well.

Image courtesy of MetroSpokane.

A rally for the aquarium at Riverfront Park on March 27th hopes to create something substantive. It starts at 9:35am in front of C.I. Shenangians, then “fish heads” are planning to march to the old Y to let people know “We Want An Aquarium, And We Want It Now!”

By the time I finished writing this post, Spokane Aquarium had gained five new fans, inching closer to that lucky number. But the number of guests attending the rally: only 16. What does this arms length, self-promotion actually accomplish? That remains to be seen. Meanwhile the aquarium mania is mostly just fun and games without any detailed proposal to build financial support for the project.

A Spokane Aquarium is a big, beautiful idea and an admirable expression to the loss of faith of an anti-democratic process that got the old Y building ensnared in a financial nightmare. Yet the time spent on the page only makes the solution more elusive when a real community event is met with despondence. All it takes is a swift click of the mouse, after all.

• You can become a fan of the Spokane Aquarium and/or attend the rally here.
• There’s also an Inland Northwest Aquarium Society, but their site has not been updated in a year.

Our first Indians fished here, wood-frame homes designed by miners and loggers still make up the district, and today residents work hard to retain that integrity. The Peaceful Valley Charrette was a recent effort to involve the community in the design and planning process around the neighborhood’s parks.

Now the Riverview Condominium proposal looms, a creeping abstraction some neighbors say is equivalent to a solar eclipse. It is a monolithic juxtaposition in a neighborhood full of small charms and idiosyncrasies. Residents who had worked tirelessly to improve the neighborhood opposed the tower. So they sued and were called NIMBYs for their efforts. Then developer Mick McDowell filed a lawsuit against the city in an attempt to bypass the comprehensive plan and build the tower for less money closer to Peaceful Valley. It was part of this controversy that birthed the more controversial Proposition 4 – to give neighborhoods a stronger voice in the development process.

Image courtesy of Steven Meek Architects.

The City Design Review Board examined elements of the condo proposal at 1404 W. Riverside Avenue just east of the Maple Street Bridge and it sounded like the structure adhered to all downtown design guidelines, codes, and zoning regulations. The stars aligned for developers since the property is located in a special height district that allows a construction height of 150 feet off of Riverside Avenue and north of the street for 100 feet. The project includes:

• 18 floors of residential on top of a 3 floor parking garage.
• 60 total units.
• There will be approximately 93 parking stalls in the garage for a ratio of 1.55 stalls per unit.
• The site is approximately 96 feet wide and 212 feet long.

Still, a building permit application has yet to be submitted. It’s easy to look at McDowell with a jaundiced eye and not just with knee-jerk defiance to a new developer in an old neighborhood. This from McDowell in an interview with the Spokesman:

“I find the constant paralysis by analysis frustrating. I have never ever shied away from presenting my case to a jury of peers. If I have a disagreement with a neighbor and we both present our cases to the appropriate body, I will live with the decision that’s reached. But what drives me wild is when we have a holdup of the process by a minority. It drives me wild.”

Not exactly a display of the self-consciousness a concerned neighbor would hope for in the role of the development process. But if you build it, will they come?

Builder George Doran knows. He lost hundreds of thousands on his Peaceful Valley project, the Lina Marta Condos, located at 1405 W. Water Ave. And this was just a four-unit building! Word is that foreclosure awaits. “Maybe we went a little overboard for that area as it is right at the moment,” Doran said in a story, aptly titled Condo cooldown.

While we’re all for dense living and urban revival in old neighborhoods, the Riverview structure would be Spokane’s mammoth pink elephant, casting a shadow on century-old dwellings. Peaceful Valley residents cherish the unique and fragile – whether student murals on the Maple Street Bridge or renovating a dilapidated house – and they are deeply rooted in this place as the landscape continually threatens to change. Something important is at risk of being lost.

The first step is to get your facts straight. Who owns the property in question? In this case it is the Main Street Antiques building located at 7 W. Main. An easy (and oft underutilized) tool to figure this out is to visit the County Assessor’s Parcel Information Search Page. Type in the address of interest, and voila! A handful of nitty gritty details are at your fingertips.

Can you imagine this block without the building behind the billboard?

Seven W. Main is nearing one hundred years old, and would potentially qualify for historic status if it weren’t for a remodeled facade. It was apparently the location for the House of Charity back in the 70′s, after the organization was ousted from Riverfront Park to make way for Expo.

One’s first instinct might be to write your representatives at the City urging them to do something to preserve the endangered structure. This is a perfectly valid response, and is a fine way for officials to be notified of the degree of steam surrounding the issue. It is important to understand, however, the many limitations our representatives are operating under given the current structure of local government. Once a demolition permit is obtained, the City is legally hog-tied to do much to stop it – should the landowner decide to yank.

Would you do this to your neighborhood?

Proponents of retaining the building acknowledge that the nice lady who owns it claims she does not want demolition, but this begs the question of why such a permit was requested in the first place. Concerned people are left to wonder what would drive such a drastic move. Like they say, “follow the money.”

Some theorize the building was purchased at the height of the real estate bubble and the owner is now looking for ways to cash out. It is probably a safe guess that the eclectic antiques market isn’t exactly booming these days. I have anecdotal reason to believe that the landowner might also be the tenant, in which case we thought of a zany approach for trying to save the building.

Note lack of gaping holes.

What if around 1,200 people signed a pledge to purchase an item from Main Street Antiques if the demolition permit were to be revoked in exchange? Do you think it would be possible for that many people to get on board? Would the value of 1,200 purchases be enough to tide the building over until better times? Would this incentivize small businesses to get into the public extortion game? Would it foster faith in neighborly goodwill and the power of positive thinking? If it actually happened, would Spokane get picked up in the news?

When no viable course of action can be taken it is best to accept your losses, painful as they may be, and turn your eye towards what can be done to win the larger war. In addition to the variety of credible talking points laid out here, preservation of such quasi-historic buildings can help make applications to become a nationally recognized historic district more competitive.

It is important to be able to speak concretely about all the ways in which a single building can impact the entire district and city around it. So express your thoughts to the city if you are so moved, and say a prayer for the Seven.

]]> http://spovangelist.com/save-the-seven/feed/ 9 http://spovangelist.com/platform-presents-the-sunset-junction/ http://spovangelist.com/platform-presents-the-sunset-junction/#comments Tue, 29 Dec 2009 06:20:58 +0000 The Spovangelist http://spovangelist.com/?p=1254 Another announcement of such cultural and social significance it needs no annotation. If you are *at all* interested in local live music, you’ve probably heard murmurings of what’s been brewing at the Junction…

Sometimes people don’t realize what is in their own back yard:

1801 W. Sunset :: Browne’s Addition :: Spokane, WA

• Full in house sound/stage
• New paint/design
• Local art monthly
• 200 capacity
• 21+/Full bar
• 4 pool tables
• Huge patio
• Parking
• Sprinklers throughout!
• Basement venue/65 capacity

If this sampler lineup doesn’t entice you, nothing will. (All shows are 21+ and start at 9pm unless otherwise noted at this new neighborhood venue.)

1/6/10: TheSomShow.com & Platform Booking present: Whammy Wednesdays w/SUPERVILLIAN – Rotating DJ sets, Open turntables, Live podcasting, FREE!

1/8/10: 2nd Friday Art Show Featuring new work by Ruben Villarreal. Reception 7-9pm, FREE. Music starts at 9pm – O’Neill/Long Family Showcase Featuring Annie ONeill, Kevin Long, Brandon ONeill, Curren Long, and more! (rock/blues/acoustic) $5

1/9/10: Buffalo Jones and Plastic Saints (alt. rock) $5

1/13/10: Whammy Wednesday w/DJ DESEURE – Rotating DJ sets, Open turntables, Live podcasting, FREE!

1/15/10: Dearly Departed and Hillstomp (gypsy punk) $5

1/16/10: Mon Cheri w/Picture Radio (pop/alt. jazz/folk) $5

1/20/10: Whammy Wednesday w/PETER PARKER – Rotating DJ sets, Open turntables, Live podcasting, FREE!

1/22/10: One Gun Galleria and The Missionary Position (rock) $5

1/23/10: Belt of Vapor, Space Opera 77, Beluga (prog rock) $5

1/27/10: Whammy Wednesday w/LOCKE – Rotating DJ sets, Open turntables, Live podcasting, FREE!

1/29/10: Silver Treason w/ TBA (country/rock) $5

While it’s unfortunate this new local music rollout is not all-ages, select all-ages shows will still happen at various locations around town as support and demand allow. So for those of you who are under 21, (and those of you who understand the value of all-ages music) get busy lobbying the local music powers that be and turning your friends out for shows.

The on-again-off-again availability of all-ages music in Spokane suggests the need for a nonprofit approach to providing this valuable community asset. For those interested in making the all-ages magic work, I suggest scouring “In Every Town: An All-Ages Music Manualfesto,” an excellent guide on how to make the stars align around a successful all-ages venue in Anywhere, USA.

• TheSomShow.com, “The Sunset Junction: It’s not just for strippers and drunks anymore.”

Portrait by Austinspace

We’ve issued an appeal to round out the local blogosphere before, but we’ve learned if you really want something done you’d better be prepared to roll up your sleeves and do it yourself.

Consider: There is a world-renowned street fashion blog called the Sartorialist. It was one of the first in its genre  many years ago and helped to set the stage for the dizzying number of street fashion blogs that are around today. The basic format is a regular digest of full-length portraits taken of interesting-looking people on the street, commentary optional. The appeal? You get to gawk and opine all from the comfort of your own computer. People watching at its anonymous best.

Now some might scoff at the prospect of true fashion in Spokane. To those (you know who you are) I say “get over it!” Fashion is not about striving to look like a Nordstrom’s catalog, it is about self-expression and people relating to the social and cultural context to which they belong. People who don’t have the luxury of being chronically self-conscious are some of the most beautiful and interesting looking around.

Who might be caught in the lens of the Spotorialist? The answer is anyone. Everyone. It could be the punked-out tween by the Bloomsday runners that actually manages to pull it all off. It could be the stately grandmother in an over-sized pea coat inching her way back to the car after a show at the Fox. It would be that girl with the red glasses who works at CUES, and the painfully pretty barristas at Madeline’s just down the street.

The bus station is also ripe for the shooting. Just this morning we saw a bombshell blond of a basketball player. She was wearing Ugg boots (a fashion faux pas seemingly everywhere except for Spokane – OK, maybe even here too) with these awkwardly cut-off gray sweat shorts.  The look was topped with a bulky white cable knit sweater and a slouchy black purse. To describe it sounds appallingly generic, but I swear, there was something intimidatingly sexy and slightly off about this girl. It would take a picture to believe it.

Half a block later I rode right past this crazy skinny androgynous looking kid in a trench coat and nothing else, save some black heavy-soled boots and a pair of bright blue sun glasses. His hair was slicked back on his skull. Some people in this town know exactly who they are and they don’t give two cents about contradicting the omnipresent mainstream. They aren’t different for the sake of being different like the masses of hipsters in Portland, all scrambling to differentiate at once. No. They are simply raw and unedited versions of their adult selves.  Sometimes the gamers hanging around Merlyn’s are the most creatively dressed dudes in town.

Another thing the Spotorialist would do is help dispel the ridiculous notion that there isn’t *any* ethnic diversity in Spokane. The attractive young black man riding his chopper bike on the sidewalk around the smoke shop would get captured. The ultra-preppy Saudi students that have taken up residence at Starbucks would be in there too. Mukogawa women in Riverfront Park, the traditionally clad Indian girl getting into a minivan outside Bollywood Video – these are the fascinating, sometimes striking faces of Spokane.

They deserve to be documented, iconized. Through such self-reflective photojournalism a community can uncover it own unique style. We have something special to offer here. It is just a matter of seeking it out and appreciating what is often staring you in the face.

]]> http://spovangelist.com/the-spotorialist/feed/ 15 http://spovangelist.com/novella-novella/ http://spovangelist.com/novella-novella/#comments Thu, 22 Oct 2009 07:35:36 +0000 The Spovangelist http://spovangelist.com/?p=877 The rock star of urban farming. There she stood on the hunter green stage at Auntie’s, making the audience giggle about the prospect of slaughtering bunnies in their backyards.

Behind the podium in black and a recycled sari silk scarf, she was upfront and comfortable about her urban cultural leanings, citing a hipster-driven tour through some of America’s most recited “cool” cities: Portland, Brooklyn, Austin, Seattle, and now the up-and-coming Oakland of all places.

But how many of the audience’s middle-aged green thumbs were able to fully grasp the reference? I will never forget in college the awkward moments where I had to explain to my parents the difference between 40′s jazz hipsters and the modern hipster. It was like the day I tried to teach my sweet old grandmother how to text. Futile.

A reoccurring theme throughout the talk was Novella’s juxtaposition of urban and rural experience. She even got to crack a few jokes about being an Orofino Maniac. Before starting in on her first passage she paused to explain “Sometimes I get a little nervous around audiences like you. My New York audience is a lot different than in places like this. They are all like ‘Whoa!’ whereas… How many of you have been to a pig auction before?” No one that I could see raised their hand. “Oh, well I guess this is my New York audience after all!”

This honest little miscalculation says a lot about Spokane’s identity issues. Are we urban? Are we rural? Why can’t people seem to comprehend the gaping chasm in between? Defying the polarity doesn’t just create confusion, however, in the world of grant writing it can carry a cost. Being neither urban or rural can make it difficult to qualify for certain types of funding, especially when it comes to agricultural projects. No one seems interested in earmarking resources for “suburban renewal” or “suburban development.” It just isn’t as sexy or poignant as the categorized extremes.

Another thing that got me thinking about Spokane was the author’s comment that she tends to gravitate towards places that present a challenge. This played nicely into the theme of being a pioneer, or a homesteader of sorts. She spoke blithely about gun shots and prostitution in the neighborhood. All elements that contribute to a graphic, gripping tale.

But what about the challenges of the mid-sized city? The challenge of a community that is just functional enough that the majority of its problems are simmering right below the radar? What about the challenges of social isolation, boredom and homogeneity? These are themes that simply go untreated when your Yemeni neighbor is coming over with his family to butcher a goat for dinner.

Think about the examples of Riverfront Farm and One World Cafe. They are both doing exceptional work for exceptional causes. They’ve received some much-deserved local press, but what are their publicity prospects much beyond that? If Ghost Town were located out in Hillyard by the new freeway, would the story retain it’s tantalizing appeal?

Regardless we can’t wait to read the book and start shopping at the new co-op. It was touching to observe how Novella used the word “honor” in the same sincere way as our own Jennifer Hall. We’re telling you, these Slow Foodists are really on to something!