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.

Outstanding examples of rooftop agriculture can be seen in cities like New York, Portland, Seattle, and Los Angeles. The Eagle Street Farm in Greenpoint Brooklyn is possibly one of the best examples of rooftop gardening in the nation. This farm sits on top of an old warehouse covering 6,000 square feet. Kale, lettuce, tomatoes, carrots, radishes, peas, and herbs all grown on the roof are delivered to residents and local restaurants through a community supported agriculture model.

What about the rooftop farm possibilities right here in Spokane? Our built environment boasts a variety of roofs and walls that could support urban farm operations. There are a few rooftop container gardens and the Main Market Co-op greenhouse, but there are yet to be any food growing endeavors that produce on a large enough scale to regularly supply residents and restaurants. Imagine an urban farm on top of the Jensen-Byrd building, the Wonderbread building on Lincoln and Broadway, or even on top of the Spokane Transit Authority storage and maintenance center!

Local developers, property owners, universities and community colleges could be engaged to assist in developing rooftop farms and other forms of urban agriculture in our city. Supportive developers and property owners are essential to the success of urban farming; they hold the keys that open onto the roofs of Spokane. The City and the County could help by writing or re-writing ordinances that are conducive to urban agriculture.

The universities could bring their programs together to develop an “Urban Agriculture Institute of Spokane” which would research and develop best practices and models that could be applied in other cities. Urban farming would greatly benefit the people, natural environment, food culture, and local economy, as well as reinforcing Spokane’s reputation as an innovative and creative city.

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.

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.

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.

With all the graduations last weekend, many young people are now faced with how to start paying off that pesky student debt. But the question of achieving financial independence begins long before the loans go into repayment. Students (and their parents) are often wondering about employment prospects right out of high school, and rightly so. This question of gainful employment plays into the programs of study students choose to pursue, and the extracurricular experiences they seek out while in school.

Too often college students try to “follow the money” without understanding the complex demands of the modern job market, or having the faintest clue about the kind of work they might actually *enjoy* doing. There is an assumption that a law degree or a business degree with high marks is some kind of ticket to employment entitlement. Think again kids. While the traditional college job fair might be fine for those going into accounting or insurance, the knowledge economy is evolving faster than degree programs can keep up, and has an insatiable demand for students with interdisciplinary skills that can prove their worth in real work settings.

Internships are a familiar, if underutilized tool for businesses to trial run the next generation of talent before signing on the dotted line. The challenge is how to reach out to these new recruits, and effectively manage them once they get into the work environment. For many organizations the risk and the burden are too high. Finding the right student for the right internship at the right time can be tricky. College career offices are great resources, but are not equipped to offer one-on-one services for every business and student that comes through the door. If you are a local nonprofit, chances are you don’t even have the resources to think about which door to knock on. Resolving these dilemmas is the domain of a social enterprise called InternMatch.

Click the picture above to get a glimpse of an InternMatch reception.

The founders of InternMatch are young people themselves, and have proven adept at utilizing the tools that many college students use to communicate. They have tested their match making models in Seattle, and are preparing to branch out into other markets. I’ve encouraged them to consider working in Spokane. If you think there is a need for this kind of service locally, let us know in the comments section below.

• InternMatch on Facebook
• InternMatch on Twitter

Scout’s book is a collection of essays that explore the emerging rewilding renaissance in which civilized people are awakening to their domestication through thousands of years of sedentary life. This lifestyle is posited as the root of all environmental destruction and social injustice.

Urban Scout has a wisdom and intelligence far beyond his years. He is helping us move away from this culture of death and toward a sane culture that will not kill the planet. -Derrick Jensen

Rewild Camp Skill-Share, Thursday May 20, 4-6pm

If you’ve got a skill you want to share or a craft you’re working on, let us know about it in the comments section. Example topics might include archery, bow-drill fires, nettle cordage, ivy basket weaving, story telling, language games, martial arts or herbal medicine, etc. Rewilding differs from other skills and crafts in its emphasis on respecting the natural world. The park does not allow harvesting of any material and we want to make nice with the park people if they are there, so come prepared!

Stuff To Bring:

• Raw materials for your project
• Water
• Snacks (to share?)
• A carving knife
• Dress for variations in the weather (cold and rainy!)
• A chair or something to sit on
• Some donation dollars
• Any materials you need for your demonstration

Rewild Camp Reading & Discussion, Thursday May 20, 6-8pm

At age 16 Urban Scout left high school to begin his life-long unschooled journey of rewilding. He keeps a popular blog detailing his rewilding projects and writings and created an international internet forum and wiki for fellow people-who-rewild. He has received local press (The Oregonian, The Portland Mercury, Willamette Week, The Portland Tribune), national press (ReadyMade Magazine) and international press (Chain Reaction AU, Positive News UK) for his efforts to promote rewilding. Using thoughtful, humorously cynical and at times angry prose, Urban Scout explores how the ideology of civilization clashes with the wild and how thinking, feeling and most importantly living wild is the only way to achieve lasting sustainability.

When I feel like surfing a bit nearer the edge, I check out Scout’s latest. It’s irreverent, angry, informative, and sometimes he’s not even nice. Urban Scout is out there exploring and inventing rewilding and contemporary tribal skills with style, and I admire that he doesn’t claim to know it all. Scout always takes me down an unanticipated path. We civilized folk have forgotten what he’s trying to remember for us. -Toby Hemenway, author of Gaia’s Garden: A Guide to Home-Scale Permaculture

One of Scout’s dreams is to create a network of rewilding communities across Cascadia. Rewilding is already happening in bigger cities like Portland and Seattle, but what about inland towns that account for the rest of the Northwest? It is in these places that there is a vibrant rural culture celebrating craft, localism, and environmental stewardship – a combination ripe for rewilding!

Urban Scout will be at Wentel Grant Park (1900 S. Inland Empire Way) from 4-8pm. This event is free and open to the public, visitors may come and go. All ages are welcome.

One that particularly caught my eye was an architectural exhibit at the Garage Door gallery showcasing the Pacific Bridge Development project. Nystrom | Olson | Collins has hosted local artists in the past for First Friday, but this is the first time they are displaying their own work.

Their purpose in participating on First Friday is to display their creative edge as a component of Spokane’s art and design culture, as well as provide an opportunity for the public to learn about and critique a project that will function as a key bridge between Downtown and the University District.

The Pacific Bridge development project is a mixed use development consisting of residential, commercial and retail uses located at the “Gateway” to downtown Spokane. The project consists of three phases to create low income and living wage jobs while revitalizing one of the City’s most underutilized and underserved neighborhoods. The property lies within the boundaries of the University District and enjoys one of the most recognized and heavily traveled locations in Spokane’s central business district.

The presence of the Spokane Public Market will greatly enhance the long term stability of the neighborhood while allowing local farmers and artisans the opportunity to interact with buyers in a year round indoor/outdoor venue. It is anticipated that that the market will be a community gathering place where individuals and families will be able to take advantage of locally grown and manufactured goods.

The developer BR3 development group in partnership with Spokane Neighborhood Economic Development Alliance will develop business incubator opportunities. This concept will provide small start up businesses the opportunity to lease inexpensive office space on a short term basis allowing maximum flexibility for long term growth.

Success of this development will create a diverse mix of uses which will add necessary density to the neighborhood in order sustain an active, secure and vibrant 24 hour presence. With the reintroduction of one or more residential components comes the requisite lighting and other security enhancements to ensure not only the viability of the project but the perception of a more secure environment. This housing is not intended to be high-end but rather a combination of workforce and low income units.

• New Members Group Show at the Saranac Art Projects
• Art at the Globe with Matt Bogue, Jason Bagge and Travis Masingale
• First visit to the new J.F.Thamm Gallery on Washington
• Concept Home featuring Ben Joyce (my inner yuppie made me do it)
• Tiffany at Second Space (always a big deal) a.k.a. INK
• This Garage Door thing (see above)
• Where I would go if I weren’t riding my bike: Ruby Slipper
• More complete listings and details.

Happy art marketing!

The Rocks of Sharon at Iller Creek.

Up in the hills behind childhood homes, we noticed signs of runoff washing soil down into the creek bed below. Could these ruts somehow be prevented? Were our footsteps adding to the erosion? Then, as if by miracle, we ascended the next ridge to find a crew of several dozen Washington Trails Association volunteers addressing this very issue.

Clearing brush for new “water stable” trail (left) and old trail gulley (right).

We thanked them for their generous public service, and ventured on as the very first group of recreational hikers to set foot on the new, breathtakingly scenic erosion-resistant trail.

From I-90:

Take Argonne Road exit, #287
Drive south on Argonne Road
Continue past Sprague Avenue onto Dishman-Mica Road
Turn right at Schafer Road stoplight
Turn right at stop sign on 44th Avenue
Turn left on Farr Road, continue to stop sign
Turn right on Holman Road, drive 0.75 miles to switchback
Park right before the switchback at the conservation area entrance
Iller Creek Conservation Area is on both the right and left of the creek

For more information about this location, visit Spokane County Parks and Recreation, sign up for a tour, or volunteer with the Dishman Ridge Dream Trail Team.

Crystal Gartner

Crystal has done an amazing job working for Conservation Northwest for many years now to promote collaborative processes that will ultimately lead to wilderness designation and other protection for wild places in Eastern Washington. Just last night she organized, on very short notice, a meeting of the Northwest Forestry Coalition that was attended by about 100 people, including political figures from liberal to conservative persuasions.

Jace Bylenga

Jace represents a whole new crop of pioneering young men in Spokane that like to get out into the great outdoors and do what they can to protect our natural areas. He was an Environmental Outreach Coordinator at the Center for Community Action and Service Learning at Gonzaga, and helped connect students with local organizations such as the Spokane River Clean-up, Sierra Club’s Inner City Outings, and many more.

Green Drinks Girls

Tracy, Alli and Cassie (pictured in that order) are the life of any Green Drinks gathering in Spokane. Every month people who are interested in the environment meet up at these informal social events to catch up with people they know and make new contacts. They include a lively mixture of people from nonprofits, academia, government and business. The next Spokane Green Drinks will be held at Herbal Essence on May 11, 5:30 to 7:00+pm. Come along and you’ll be made more than welcome by these lovely ladies!

Adam Brown

Adam needs no professional titles to shore up his status as a crazy loving local hippy. Let’s have his favorite quote do the work for him instead.

“If we grew our own food, we wouldn’t waste a third of it as we do today. If we made our own tables and chairs, we wouldn’t throw them out the moment we changed the interior decor. If we had to clean our own drinking water, we probably wouldn’t defecate in it.”
-Mark Boyle, Freeconomy

Kitty Klitzke

Kitty is a local environmental and social justice advocate who also happens to be a fourth generation Spokanite. Her service in the US Army inspired her to seek out other ways to serve her country and the planet. After studying art in college, she got involved in the Fair Trade movement and then went to work as a Program Outreach Director for The Lands Council. Now she is a Field Organizer for Futurewise, and is currently exhibiting a show called Blueprints in the room in which she is pictured (Saranac Building lobby, 25 W. Main).

Shallan Dawson

Shallan is wearing a sexy Sustainable September Spokane T-shirt at last year’s Kickoff Luncheon. As the Strategic Coordinator for this year’s program, she’ll be doing more than just serving you delicious food from Sante. She’ll be slinging sponsorships and offering up a lot of other ways to get involved with this month-long affair. Click here to read more about Shallan’s, ahem, Fields of Gold, and her amazing work at the Gaia House in West Central.

If you are a local Earth Lovin’ Hottie and you are not pictured above, my apologies. There are simply too many of you to list!