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!

After decades of discussions and proposals, nothing happened until last summer when a ribbon cutting ceremony for the first drivable link of the North Spokane Corridor confused drivers. Was the North-South Corridor (NSC) finally here? Currently, the finished stretch between Francis/Freya and Farwell Road is used by roughly 4,000 vehicles a day, equivalent to only a third of the traffic on the busiest portion of Garland Avenue, one of the city’s designated “centers and corridors.”

Do the benefits justify the cost? According to the most recent figures available from the Washington Department of Transportation, the NSC has an estimated price tag of $1.6 billion over a 20-year build out plan. With estimated risk and inflation variables included, the cost could reach $3.0 billion for just 10.5 miles. The money, however, simply isn’t there. This is the very definition of an “unfunded mandate,” the same complaintive catch-all that is often applied to more energy efficient modes of transit. To residents in East Central, the freeway is real enough. The Spokesman-Review did a good job reporting on the community displacement where freeway lanes will triple at the NSC’s “trumpet”:

Still, the loss of more than 400 homes will put a crunch on affordable housing in the community even if the state succeeds in finding new residences for individuals displaced by the freeway, said Chris Venne, development finance manager at Community Frameworks, a nonprofit organization that develops low-income housing.

“We’re having a hard time keeping up with the need for affordable housing without losing units,” Venne said. “It would take significant production of new housing units to make up the shortfall.”

East Central neighbors now complain that vacant homes haven’t been secured adequately and have attracted squatters – another hallmark of “progress.” But sprawl is really what we’re upgrading to. Urban planner Bill Grimes examined the effects I-90 had on developments in the Spokane Valley, believing the rural communities in the north would see auto-centric development like what’s currently viewable in Post Falls and the Rathdrum Prairie. On this front, there was strangely zero dialogue about the NSC impact on growth management; our elected officials simply rolled over for the freeway and let it eat the land.

Citizens for Sensible Transportation are fighting an uphill battle in federal court to stop construction of the NSC, alleging that a $35 million TIGER grant to help build the freeway should not have been awarded without proper environmental testing.

Other opponents assert the project is a monument to bloat. The NSC is designed to handle 150,000 vehicles a day. The vehicle flow on Interstate 90, where the ramps will eventually connect to the North Spokane Corridor, currently averages 95,000 vehicles a day. After an estimate of north-south traffic, an architect asserted 50,400 vehicles a day for the NSC, or just over one-third of its design capacity.

Building a freeway as a curative to congestion is like feeding Twinkies to a diabetic. Their appetite may be quelled in the short-term, but over the long haul the symptoms get much worse. Focusing on the case for pulling freight off Division rather than supporting initiatives to make us commute more efficiently is working backwards. Where’s the dialogue on light rail which concentrates development, leading to the growth of urban centers around main stops?

Several years ago, Washington State University’s Social and Economic Sciences Research Center conducted a survey showing 73 percent of Spokane residents favored construction of light rail with estimated costs at $600 million, one fifth of the cost of the NSC. Consider this while the NSC pollutes, divides neighborhoods and bypasses local business, all for the purpose of accelerating truck traffic through Castlegar.

Here’s to looking at the future.

Many are understandably skeptical that any particular elected official can make a difference in the quagmire that is Olympia. Delivering on campaign goals can prove difficult, especially when systemic change is what is actually needed. So if you want those jobs people keep talking about, or have a hankering for something like comprehensive tax reform, it is best to bet on the candidate who has proven their ability to articulate a vision, get people in alignment, and work like a maniac to make it all happen.

I am pleased to argue that this candidate is Andy Billig. Through the year I’ve served with him on the Citizen’s Financial Advisory Council to the Mayor, I’ve watched Andy repeatedly nail nuanced concepts that the group was searching for the just the right balance around. When needed, he easily takes on the role of conciliator, articulating what one party has stated in a way that is palatable to another so the process can move ahead. Through his steadfast participation, Andy has helped create consensus among a diverse citizen panel on recommendations for helping to balance the City budget.

Part of effective governing is reaching out and appealing to a variety of constituent groups. As far as young people are concerned, I have never seen a more compelling call to participate on behalf of a local politician. First Andy made sure that bright young people were well represented on his campaign team. Then he showed up at the Shrinking Violets Birthday Bash, a social event chalk full of younger folks who weren’t necessarily your usual political suspects. Then he asked local leaders what would be an effective introduction to his campaign. After seeking and responding to this feedback, his team hosted a knockout younger-person-focused event that offered plenty of opportunity for questions and constructive feedback.

All this and we haven’t even reached the filing deadline, which brings us to good old fashioned hard work. Andy has received financial support from more than 310 individual donors. This is among the highest in the state for any House of Representatives candidate, including incumbents, and demonstrates the broad, grassroots support of this campaign. Andy has already motivated 147 volunteers who are willing to lend their energy to his campaign. These volunteers have distributed literature to over 5,500 homes, and Andy has personally knocked on over 1,550 doors so far.

With all this mounting enthusiasm in the air some might ask “What is the point?” The point is that a surprising number of people in Spokane are willing to get involved to back something they believe in. They are willing to look around at their options, and contribute to their own success. Now that is what I call a point of civic pride.

• Learn how you can help Andy help Spokane on his campaign website.
• Show your support for this outstandingly qualified candidate on Facebook.

I found equal horror – and wonder – at the thousands of people here and the perversion of all the contradictions. It is really not that surprising to see this in Spokane. Judging by the license plates, no doubt a large number of the audience traveled from the North Idaho woodwork, a bastion of conservatism, as they would for a RV show.

(Example: There were far more environmentalists than tea partiers at the Earth Hour protest in front of Spokane City Hall.) Idaho Governor Butch Otter spoke which lends a scary legitimacy to the proceedings and his words of state rights whipped through the crowd to a standing ovation. The biggest shock were candidates shaking hands, as an obscene passing sign said “Obama is doing what Osama did,” showing their true colors. They were:

• Steve Salvatori, (R) running for County Commissioner
• John Ahern, (R) running for State Representative
• Michael Baumgartner, (R) running for State Representative

Two of three have been endorsed which is precisely why they will lose. If there is one profound reality in Spokane politics, it is that when the city makes any advancement, it is going to be met with creatively crazy opposition such as “Get The U.N. out of Spokane” (as a rally sign read). So far, local conventional wisdom says the Tea Party is toxic to any politician they endorse. One wonders why Salvatori – who has won over some local greenies – tip-toed around a Tea Party endorsement even after taking the Lincoln Day and Medical Lake Polar Plunge with party celebrity Sherriff Ozzie Knezovich?

Perhaps he’s uncomfortable associating amongst Tea Partiers after watching Mike Fagan’s unsuccessful bid for City Council go down with 37% of the vote in District 1. However, he was comfortable enough to be there and perhaps has different plans than he wants the public to know.

One sign said “Remember November.” Indeed. The hypocrisy will not go unnoticed.

• Read the Spokesman spin here.
• Read the Inlander spin here.

Spokane’s P-Jammers at the last MLK Jr. Day march.

The P-Jammers (or PJAMRS, standing for the Peace and Justice Activist Musical Rascals of Spokane) are a rag tag bunch of folks that love to get out and be the life of any social or economic justice party. They often accompany events organized by the Peace and Justice Action League, and can also be heard at a smattering of other relevant political gatherings.

In no small part due to our vigorous sports culture and our position as  a hub to hundreds of small rural towns, marching bands are actually still a pretty big deal around Spokane. But they tend to be of a stiflingly traditional nature that emphasizes militaristic uniformity to the detriment of personal creativity and expression. Not so with the P-Jammers! This funky bunch fashions itself after the Sgt. Pepper Lonely Hearts Club Band, and members often make their own uniforms by hand out of reused materials.

While I might cringe a bit at some of the comments made by the crazier bards in this video, you’ve got to hand it to them for entertainment value. When people talk about a city being “vibrant,” for me this is the pinnacle of good old fashioned public fun.

Apparently these Honk! Fests aren’t unique to Seattle, they take place in a small number of cities all around the country. Not to wax nostalgic about Portland or anything, but in the brief time I lived there I encountered several Honk! style groups. There was the No War Drum Corps, a percussion booster band that often plays for the Rose City Rollers, and the unforgettably talented March Fourth, to name a few.

If we ever made a cultural asset map in Spokane and came up with indicators to measure our local creative health, I think the number and vitality of Honk! bands could be used as one of the canaries in our culture mine. They require a high degree of coordination dedication and guts, and thus would do well in reflecting our creative surplus. So cheers to the day when our people can go to Seattle to represent without the inevitable comment, “I didn’t know you had [insert cultural/social whatever it is] in Spokane!”

• Apologies for not mentioning the recent Musical Freedom Rally in Riverfront Park. Apparently it was a big success.

Make of it what you will.

Spokane recently lost two grants of more than $4 million that provided after school, mental health, and substance abuse services for elementary and middle school children, forcing our city to become increasingly complacent to the shortcomings of local public schools. Dropouts are 63 times more likely to be institutionalized and ill-equipped to compete in today’s world as unemployment awaits.

Enter the Children’s Investment Fund, a definite game changer. This potential levy proposes to raise $5 million a year to support early childhood learning, abuse and neglect prevention, treatment and mentoring programs, and before- and after-school activities through earmarking 35 cents per $1,000.00 of assessed property value (or about $65 a year for a median home valued at $197,000). The money would be made available through a competitive granting process to supplement proven programs that are currently administered by nonprofit organizations in the area. No new city department or agency would be created.

Our Children First says these types of programs could improve Spokane’s graduation rate by up to 20 percent. Some will inevitably cry over taxation while neglecting to acknowledge that a school loses $7,291 for each dropout, and hundreds of thousands more can be exacted on taxpayers in the form of emergency social services. The levy will have a built-in sunset date, which means in a number of years the program will go back to voters so they can decide whether or not they would like it to continue.

Many other cities have already opted to establish such funds. Some examples are the Portland Children’s Levy and Seattle’s Families and Education Levy. When asked why Communities In Schools decided to help lead the Children’s Investment Fund campaign, Executive Director Ben Stuckart had this to say:

I’ve seen the need directly. Our job is to connect community resources to schools, and I’ve seen the number of services available to our kids in schools through nonprofits has shrunk. I understand the dropout rate, and I think it’s a huge social and economic issue that we need to address. Our organization can’t address it alone. I think there’s a need for something larger here in our community.

Since City Council wasn’t able to deliver on their individual promises to help put this proposal on the ballot directly, a broad coalition of community advocates has formed to gather a hefty 12,000 signatures by April 16th. To learn how you can help, please visit the Our Children First website.

• A 2009 Report on Spokane’s Dropout Rate.

I was disheartened to learn of the Mayoral smackdown that occurred within the last decade when certain commissioners were too outspoken on the issue of gay rights.

I was discouraged upon volunteering for the commission to observe that meeting after meeting went around in circles despite the best efforts of participants to be useful and move through the agenda.

I was disillusioned when a review task force took several months to decide that the commission did not in fact have the authority to issue $25 fines for human rights abuses within the city limits.

Design by Bobby Breidholt

In the end with most things being deferred to the State Human Rights Commission, and with the Spokane Regional Taskforce on Human Relations picking up the torch on education and awareness, I had to ask “What is the point?”

Hopefully some bright young 16-18-year-olds can figure it out. It is a significant development that their involvement is now slated to occupy 33% of all the seats on the commission. While I understand the Spokane Regional Youth Department is currently geared to serve mostly students up to 18 years of age, I must say that 16, 17 and 18-year-olds only are a pretty narrow segment of the potential young population available to serve in this capacity.

I dare say that college students may have unique perspective that could add value due to the nature of the curriculum they may be immersing themselves in, and 20-somethings in the workforce probably have some relevant insights as junior employees in various work environments around town, and as people who predominantly rent as opposed to own.

While I fully support the intentional inclusion of “youth voice” I hope that doesn’t become tantamount to high school voice. It is going to take commissioners with gumption and resolve to help the Spokane HRC rediscover its stride. That kind of talent is attracted to impactful decision making authority. If the commission continues to decide not to decide, well the the young blood strategy may not have the desired effect.

Those interested in applying may obtain further information and an application by contacting the Spokane Regional Youth Department, 625-6440 or by visiting www.chaseyouth.org. Applications are due by 5 p.m. on Monday, April 5, 2010.

]]> http://spovangelist.com/hrc-jonesing-for-young-blood/feed/ 3 http://spovangelist.com/will-march-for-fish/ http://spovangelist.com/will-march-for-fish/#comments Thu, 11 Mar 2010 18:03:06 +0000 The Pope http://spovangelist.com/?p=1777 It really is stunning what Facebook can do. This was the most recent status update on a fan page called Spokane Aquarium:

“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.