APRIL 1-7, 2021 | THINK GLOBAL. LIVE INLAND.
FINAL FOUR WILL THIS BE THE ONE? PAGE 24
WHAT’S THE
BIG IDEA?
27 ways to make our region an even better place to live PAGE 14
2 INLANDER APRIL 1, 2021
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he proposals in this week’s BIG IDEAS issue run the gamut, from the whimsical (“Turn All of Spokane into a Giant Puzzle Game”) to the folksy (“Let’s Have Regular Block Parties”) and even to the aeronautical (“Make Airplanes in Spokane”). Sure, one person we polled rejected the entire premise — “Stop Looking for Big New Ideas,” says Spokane County Commissioner Josh Kerns — but overall, the wish list we assembled filled us with hope as we begin to reimagine life after the pandemic. Begin reading on page 14. Also this week: We have a look at local author Kate Lebo’s new Book of Difficult Fruit (page 22), a check-in on live music returning to local venues (page 30) and a report on how refugees are faring (so far) under the Biden administration (page 8). — JACOB H. FRIES, editor
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Thank you for supporting our community’s restaurants!
For the past several weeks, the Great Dine Out has promoted dining in and taking out from more than 160 restaurants in the Spokane / Coeur d’Alene region, and what a GREAT job we did as a community to support our restaurants. While the event may be over, our restaurants are ready to keep serving you as our community continues to grow stronger. Also, a huge thanks to the 14 local and regional credit unions and banks who came together to make the Great Dine Out possible!
4 INLANDER APRIL 1, 2021
COMMENT STAFF DIRECTORY PHONE: 509-325-0634 Ted S. McGregor Jr. (tedm@inlander.com)
WHAT BIG CHANGE WOULD YOU LIKE TO SEE HAPPEN LOCALLY? BOBBY WHITTAKER: More dedicated (not commingled with motorized traffic) bicycle, pedestrian and ADA access trails connecting the heart of downtown to nearby historic neighborhoods, business districts, culturally significant areas and public spaces (parks). Also more land acknowledgment.
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MISTY QSYK: A better performing arts center with real acoustics for musicals and other stage shows.
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EDITOR’S NOTE
Normally, we ask our question of the week of people we randomly encounter on the street. But with the coronavirus pandemic, we instead asked our followers on social media to share their thoughts.
JOLENE DELYEA BALDWIN: Make the heart of downtown a walking area only. Have parking in the outer lying areas. SHANNON FELL BONIFACE: More bike friendly.
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ERIN MAGGART: I would like to see the houseless humanized and housed. RYAN OELRICH: Zoning changes partnered with incentives to build creative, fun and affordable housing options with community in mind. HOLLY ROBERTSON: Affordable housing, affordable parking that’s not a sprawl. Invest in infrastructure as well as art. We need to invest in our community and less in “tourism.” SAMANTHA FALCONE: Food truck court like in Idaho! BLAISE BARSHAW: Beer carts like in Portland! DORI LUZZO GILMOUR: Less white supremacists and racism. NEAL SCHINDLER: We could really use a great Jewish delicatessen.
Travis Beck CIRCULATION SUPERVISOR
! s ’ k n a h o t n i Hop
JAZ STARRY: Trash/litter cleanups and preventing waste buildup. There’s way too much of it around town. I know people are going to blame the homeless, but it’s a problem everywhere. MIKE FALES: How about donated pianos available to play in the downtown area. Everett, Washington, has quite a few, and it’s amazing. n
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APRIL 1, 2021 INLANDER 5
COMMENT | COMMUNITY
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One shot down.
Fear, empathy and the power of true stories BY CMARIE FUHRMAN
I
am trying to define, to my students, what memoir is by showing what it is not. Facebook is not memoir, I tell them. Here’s an example. Yesterday I went to Albertson’s for my first round of the vaccine. As I was taking off my coat, I asked the nurse if I might take a picture. She nodded, brought out the needle, and asked which arm. I told her my right, the one with tattoos. She aimed for the center of a spiral inked beneath my shoulder, and the picture was made. I took the picture to post it to Facebook with a caption that read: First day of Spring and First
6 INLANDER APRIL 1, 2021
round of Vaccine! I edited it carefully, cropping the nurse’s face and my own, focusing on the needle piercing my skin. It is easy to imagine the reaction from my friends. Hearts and thumbs up. Dozens of hugging emojis and comments to congratulate; admonishments to drink water and take ibuprofen. But Facebook is not memoir, I reiterated.
I didn’t post the picture. The moment was nothing like what I’d cropped it out to be. In fact, I told the women on the screen before me, I still wasn’t quite sure what the moment meant. The truth is that I had not planned on getting the vaccine. That I had told my sister, a respiratory therapist who worked on the COVID floor of a major hospital, that I didn’t want to get it. She begged me to reconsider. That is not the whole story either. I wanted the protection. I watched the Frontline report on how the vaccine worked and Googled possible side effects, expanding the search to include conspiracy theories. I asked my most right-leaning friends if they were getting the vaccine, assuming they may be against it, and one replied, “It would be ridiculous not to.” LETTERS I told my students that I Send comments to had shots before. I used to have editor@inlander.com. a weekly dose of B vitamins injected into my butt cheek, and my skin is proof that I can lie for hours beneath the tattooer’s gun. My parents vaccinated my sister and me. Only a month before, my partner, a search and rescue volunteer, had gotten both shots, with barely a reaction, and I, myself, was encouraging my employees to do the same. When I told my closest friend that I was afraid, she asked what I saw when I imagined getting the vaccine. I told her I saw people going in a building and not coming out and that I knew it was irrational, but something in me begged caution, like knowing when ice is too thin, something my DNA knew to fear.
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Mistrust and skepticism run deep in Native communities where medical racism is still prevalent. “Oh, I totally get that,” one of my students interrupts. “For Black people, we see government shots, and we think Tuskegee.” The class is primarily women of color; they start nodding. “The government has been using Black people for experiments for years. Giving us Mississippi appendectomies and syphilis,” the student said. “There’s no trust.” The past and future collapsed in my mind. I recalled the stories I had read about Native women and government-sponsored programs practiced at Indian Health Service offices that sterilized thousands, a generation of children who would have been my age. I thought of smallpox blankets. Mistrust and skepticism run deep in Native communities where medical racism is still prevalent. Another student, a Pacific Islander, joined the conversation. “Now it’s about privilege. Those of us living in tighter communities with lower incomes that don’t meet the essential requirement can’t even get vaccinated. First, we are guinea pigs, then we are denied.” I understood this, too. My co-workers and I had been working with the public since June 2020. We were considered nonessential, except to the nonprofit we serve. “I tell people that this is a miracle of science, and I try to be brave. I want to be a role model,” another student adds. We all grow quiet, thoughtful. Memoir, I tell them, inspires conversation. It creates empathy and allows the writer to make discoveries while bringing her reader along. I ask if they understand, and they nod. Our stories, I say, must illicit more than emojis. n CMarie Fuhrman is the author of Camped Beneath the Dam: Poems (Floodgate 2020) and co-editor of Native Voices (Tupelo 2019). She has published poetry and nonfiction in multiple journals as well as several anthologies.
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APRIL 1, 2021 INLANDER 7
IMMIGRATION
THE REFUGEE LOCKDOWN
Michael Bacuth’s mission: Rescue his niece who’s stuck halfway around the world. YOUNG KWAK PHOTO
World Relief helped local immigrants survive the pandemic; now they’re urging Biden to reverse the refugee clampdown BY DANIEL WALTERS
S
udanese refugee Michael Bacuth’s brother and sister-in-law were shot and killed in 2013, victims of the kind of violence that Bacuth came to Spokane to escape. But his niece survived, turning up in an Egyptian refugee camp five years later. Ever since Bacuth has been focused on one mission: Rescue his niece. “I need to bring her here because she’s a little girl,” Bacuth says. “Nobody is with her. That’s why I need help. … We’re waiting for anybody to help us.” During the refugee-restricted years of the Trump administration, bringing his orphaned niece to America was nearly impossible. But Trump isn’t president anymore. All it took was a few pen strokes for Trump to slam the door shut, and all it would take is a few pen strokes from President Joe Biden to fling the door back open. “I think probably the most optimistic anticipation was that within the first week or two we’d see a dramatic reveal on the refugee program,” says Mark Finney, director of World Relief Spokane, the region’s local refugee settlement organization. After Biden signaled forthcoming refugee-policy changes in a report to Congress in February, confidence was so high among some local refugees’ family members, that flights were actually scheduled. But weeks have passed, and Biden still hasn’t signed.
8 INLANDER APRIL 1, 2021
“We’ve had families whose relatives have been booked to be reunited with them in March of this year,” Finney says. “But because the Biden administration hasn’t acted yet, those bookings were canceled. And they don’t know when they’re going to see their loved ones again.” Spokane’s refugees have suffered through all the misery of the COVID lockdown and isolation along with everyone else. And while World Relief has tried to help those refugees navigate the pandemic, Finney knows that many of them have been waiting a lot longer than a year to be able to hug their family again. “The fact that the Biden administration is choosing to punt on addressing refugee issues is really disheartening for people who are hoping that their family members can find safety,” Finney says. “There’s nothing we can really do locally to make up for the fact that the doors are just closed tightly right now.”
SOMEONE WHO UNDERSTANDS
Across four years, Finney watched as Trump hollowed out America’s refugee system. First, Trump temporarily froze the entire refugee program with his early travel ban, and then, year after year, he slashed the number allowed in the United States. In Obama’s final term, the cap was set at 110,000; by last year, Trump had winnowed the number to just 15,000.
Not only that, but his administration changed the categories for which types of refugees were allowed in. “A lot of refugees from places like certain parts of Africa don’t qualify the way they used to,” Finney says. For refugee resettlement nonprofits like World Relief that rely on per-refugee federal grants to operate, Trump’s policies starved them of funding. Donations increased, but it wasn’t enough to compensate. “The number of refugees went down by nearly 90 percent over just a few years,” says Matthew Soerens, director of church mobilization for World Relief’s national office. “We couldn’t sustain the same footprint that we had in 2017.” Across the country, World Relief shuttered eight offices, including their Boise branch. “It was really hard for the clients and the families they are working with,” says Laura Armstrong, codirector of a Boise-based refugee-support organization. Armstrong says the local World Relief office worked hard to connect the refugees with the other local resettlement agencies before they shut down. In Spokane, where World Relief is the only resettlement agency, the office stayed open, but with a smaller staff. And when the COVID pandemic hit a year ago, the role of these agencies became that much more crucial. ...continued on page 10
APRIL 1, 2021 INLANDER 9
NEWS | IMMIGRATION “THE REFUGEE LOCKDOWN,” CONTINUED... “Anxiety and depression are hard for all of us now during COVID, but even more for people whose family members are on the other side of the world in dangerous places,” Finney says. Saw Gary, a Myanmar refugee who came to the United States 17 years ago, says that the loss of in-person church services and other social activities was particularly hard for their community. “We, as a refugee community, depend on each other,” Gary says. “We always go to homes and visit each other. When COVID hit, we couldn’t really do that.” Worse, as violence escalated after February’s coup in Myanmar, the military government shut down the nation’s internet, cutting off one of the few lines of communication with their families still in the country. “I have a close friend that now cannot connect with their mom and dad,” Gary says. Meanwhile, Spokane’s refugees, including some who speak only limited English, had to navigate the same complicated bureaucratic processes facing other Americans: filing for unemployment, seeking rental assistance, assisting their kids through online schooling, getting
Patricia Castaneda joined World Relief in February 2020 to help with outreach for the Census. help with outreach for the Census. Once the pandemic hit, that mission broadened. Castaneda says World Relief put together a team of “trusted messengers who are already leaders within several ethnic communities” to help local refugees and immigrants with tasks like finding rental assistance. “They are these people who go to see what a letter says or to help make an appointment with doctors,” she says. “We hire them to do the same thing, but more organized and more effective.” For something as important as convincing people to
“It’s not a light switch that you turn off, and then two years later you turn it back on.” COVID testing and registering for vaccines. That’s where World Relief’s new “community ambassadors” program comes in. Patricia Castaneda, a Venezuela immigrant, joined the agency in February 2020 to
10 INLANDER APRIL 1, 2021
DANIEL WALTERS PHOTO
get vaccinated, Castaneda says, having someone who spoke the language, understood the culture and already had established trust was vital. If a family was having trouble paying for groceries, the community ambassadors would help them restock their pantry. If a refugee tested positive for COVID, the ambassadors would translate for them and get them the right resources. “We were there for them. It was absolutely beautiful,” Castaneda says. “They would call us, just to talk. ‘Hey, I need somebody to talk to who understands our fears.’”
IN THE DARK
Funding World Relief’s community ambassador program, however, took a patchwork of grants, local donations and federal COVID relief funding.
“We’re pretty aggressively looking for funding to keep this going,” Finney says. But the future is particularly uncertain right now. “Everybody I’ve been talking to in the refugee-settlement world really doesn’t know what to expect now,” Finney says. He says it’s unclear why the Biden administration has delayed reversing the Trump administration’s immigration restrictions. “It’s hard to imagine what else would motivate them to LETTERS hold off from refugees aside Send comments to from the attention on different editor@inlander.com. migration issues,” Finney says. With a sharp spike in the number of minors fleeing across the southern border in recent months, Biden has been assailed from both sides of the political aisle for how he’s handled the crisis. Still, on March 17, Biden Chief of Staff Ron Klain told the Congressional Progressive Caucus that Biden would raise the cap on the refugees “soon.” “Which is good,” says Soerens, with World Relief’s national office, “but ‘soon’ is kind of an ambiguous Washington word — not Washington state, Washington, D.C. — that can mean different things to different people.” Hopefully, Soerens says, Biden raises the refugee ceiling, and World Relief can go back into expansion mode, opening up new offices and hiring new staff. But that will take time. “It’s not a light switch that you turn off, and then two years later you turn it back on,” he says. For now, refugees like Bacuth and his niece are left in the dark, kept apart by the kind of lockdown that may remain long after COVID goes away. His niece is 13 now. He calls her in Egypt almost every day. “She’s asking me, ‘What are we going to do now? When are you guys to bring me there?’” Bacuth says. “I say, ‘No way now. Everything’s closed. Nothing’s open.’” n
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APRIL 1, 2021 INLANDER 11
NEWS | DEVELOPMENT
Come Growth or High Water As development in a flood-prone part of the West Plains continues, plans to handle the stormwater emerge BY SAMANTHA WOHLFEIL
E
arly this year, amid the increasingly competitive Inland Northwest housing market, Sanoma Buckman thought she’d finally found a great place to
buy. Recent additions to the West Terrace area near Cheney have made new homes available. She and her partner put $3,000 in earnest money down on one of the newest homes and made an offer. But while walking through the neighborhood, Buckman says they ran into neighbors from up the street who said flooding issues have been rampant in the area. At home, she searched for more information and learned from the Spokane County stormwater department that flooding had long plagued older homes there. But how bad was it? “I said, ‘In other words, there’s a 0 percent chance you’d buy a home out there?’” Buckman says. “[The staffer] said, ‘Correct.’” Buckman also found a 2018 Inlander article that led her to West Terrace resident Terry Horne, who’s earned the nickname Terry “Brockovich” — a reference to Erin Brockovich, the notable activist — as she’s made it her personal mission to address the water issues since her own home flooded. From Horne, she learned residents had complained to the county about flooding and the street overflowing with water since the first homes were built around 2004. The soil there has a high clay content, groundwater sits near the surface, and the flat landscape doesn’t help water flow to drainage ponds. The fix back then was to install sump pumps for several homes, but with the systems spitting water directly into the street, there’s been a decade of problems with ice dams forming in the winter and standing water in warmer months. Later homes were built above crawl spaces (which also flooded). The newest homes are being built on slab foundations with newer stormwater systems. Matt Zarecor, assistant county engineer for Spokane County Public Works, says he hasn’t heard that any of the new additions have had trouble with flooding once their pump systems were turned on. “To my knowledge, the new developments have been working like they’re supposed to,” Zarecor says. But Horne says that sidewalks in one recent addition started to crack after just a year. As an experienced homeowner, Buckman says she wasn’t convinced the slab foundations would prevent the problems she learned about, and she decided to back out of her purchase. “When I talked to [the developer’s] realtor, she said, ‘We build the new homes on slabs so we don’t have flooding problems,’” Buckman recalls. “I thought that was kind of crazy because that doesn’t mean water won’t come up into your home.” Still, Amazon and other companies are booming on
12 INLANDER APRIL 1, 2021
A video recorded by Terry Horne shows water pools in front of brand new construction near the newest West Terrace homes in January. Flooding in the area has prompted in-depth stormwater studies to find solutions as the West Plains continues to grow. the West Plains properties around Spokane International Airport and driving growth. The need for homes is high, and listings are quickly scooped up. Meanwhile, politicians hope to entice even more businesses to the area. With West Terrace draining toward the West Plains, planning how to get water away from any new developments in that area is key. This spring, two major stormwater studies are figuring out how to do just that.
IN THE NICK OF TIME
Buckman says she luckily learned about the flooding blocks from the home she was about to buy just in time to rescind her offer. The developer, Homestead Construction (which didn’t return a message seeking comment), even returned her $3,000. “The thing that was surprising to me was that they were still building even though they know there are problems,” Buckman says. Yet, even the son of the neighbors who told her about the flooding plans to buy there. Now, Buckman is unsure where she’ll be able to make an offer. Since she sold her home in late 2019, she’s seen prices skyrocket. Technically, she’s homeless right now, living out of a camping trailer and taking time in between houses to vacation. “I can’t find anything to buy that’s decent with the money I have,” Buckman says. Still, she wonders if first-time homebuyers in the West Plains might not be as savvy about researching issues there. Zarecor says that it’s the duty of sellers to disclose issues like flooding on a property to buyers. The county wouldn’t likely issue a blanket warning. “It’s not the county’s place necessarily,” Zarecor says. “Frankly, it could be a liability if we warn about that where people don’t have flooding issues.” When her home flooded just months after she bought it, Horne put in dozens of public records requests and learned basements shouldn’t have been approved there. She organized neighbors to push Spokane County for a solution to their water woes. While the county hasn’t offered to pay to move water away from affected homes, it commissioned a study from Osborn Consulting Incorporated to figure out options for the entire drainage basin. Osborn’s team has already had public meetings about solutions like expanding existing ditches and stormwater ponds, says Aimee Navickis-Brasch, Osborn’s project manager for the West Terrace and West Plains stormwater studies. The plan is being updated with neighborhood input and will be released in April, with another open house that month, Navickis-Brasch says. It’s still not clear who would be expected to pay for the local flood fixes, which may include work in the pub-
lic right-of-way and on individual properties. Property owners in three problem development areas — including part of the South Hill, West Terrace, and Five Mile Prairie — pay more into the county’s stormwater account than other county residents, Zarecor says. But he notes the highest stormwater fee is still lower than elsewhere in the state. “It’s kind of an ongoing conversation about who should be responsible for what, and there’s a lot of emotion on both sides,” Zarecor says. “We’re trying to be responsible stewards of public dollars and not benefit one group too much, but also be mindful of the neighborhoods … which were the early learning curve of developing on the West Plains.”
A REGIONAL FIX
North of West Terrace, the boundary for the West Plains Public Development Authority (renamed S3R3 Solutions) starts just on the other side of I-90. In partnership with neighboring cities and the county, the development authority wants to promote large businesses and manufacturers moving there, so Osborn has also been commissioned to study whether it makes sense to install regional stormwater treatment facilities around the airport. Typically, owners would be asked to accommodate runoff from newly developed properties on a project-byproject basis. But that can lead to large properties requiring huge portions of their land be used for evaporation ponds, Navickis-Brasch says. LETTERS “Is there a better Send comments to way for this system editor@inlander.com. so developers can maximize the use of their property and manage and treat stormwater without having issues?” she says. “We’ve got a lot of development anticipated in the area, and we want to be ready for it.” The study, scheduled to be finished in May, suggests installing infiltration sites that would look like parks from above while storing water underground to naturally infiltrate into the soil, among other options. If the public agencies involved decide to move forward, federal and state grants could be sought to help tackle what could take several years and close to $200 million to build. While pricey, the estimated benefits are larger: between job creation, increased tax revenues, reduced project costs and value added to the properties, the regional approach could create benefits of $645 million. “Regional systems happen all over. They’re challenging because you have to plan for a large area and they can be expensive to get going,” Navickis-Brasch says. “But there can be tremendous benefits.” n samanthaw@inlander.com
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APRIL 1, 2021 INLANDER 13
WHAT’S THE
BIG IDEA?
14 INLANDER APRIL 1, 2021
TURN ALL OF SPOKANE INTO A GIANT PUZZLE GAME
27 ways to make the Inland Northwest an even better place to live
A
s we begin to see the light at the end of the pandemic, what could we do (or at least start) this year to make the Inland Northwest more fun, more livable, more just, more practical, more successful, more hopeful? That’s the unnecessarily wordy question we put to some of our favorite local thinkers. Their responses, amassed together in the following pages, create an inspired wish list for our region and if we’re lucky (and work hard), more than a few of them could come true! — JACOB H. FRIES
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Submitted ideas — which have been lightly edited for space and clarity — were compiled by: Wilson Criscione, Chey Scott, Daniel Walters, Nathan Weinbender, Samantha Wohlfeil.
BY RAND MILLER, CYAN FOUNDER AND MYST CREATOR
I’VE MADE MY LIVING RIGHT HERE in Spokane building imaginary worlds with rich stories and compelling puzzles. But I’ve always been fascinated with the idea of adding puzzles and narrative to the real world — hiding story and clues in plain sight in the everyday world. As a company, we once procured a billboard in Carlsbad, New Mexico, with a strange symbol and some GPS coordinates, leading curious adventurers down a trail of clues that eventually brought them to a cast metal artifact in the middle of the Bisti Badlands. I’ve always wondered what it would be like if a whole region embraced the idea, making it part of their DNA, imbuing an entire city with tiny bits of information that add up to a larger treasure-hunt quest. For example: What if there was a compass direction and a number stamped onto the side of the garbage-eating goat? Walking that direction for that many feet leads you to a wheel of the big red wagon. Behind that wheel, under the wagon is a map of Riverfront Park, with an X on the corner of
the Clock Tower. Do a pencil-rubbing on a suspicious brick on that corner of the Clock Tower and come away with a rough image of a phone number. Calling the number plays a message that… you get the idea. Suddenly every Inland Northwest landmark, large and small, becomes part of a larger meta-game, leading you down paths to places you’ve never seen. Think of a coffee shop that suddenly has a strange poster on the wall with a set of odd numbers and letters. Or even an electronic sign at the airport with an odd internet URL that flashes briefly — almost unnoticeably. Everyone starts to pay a little more attention. It’s as if the entire city becomes an “escape the room” game with an unfolding narrative hidden in plain sight. It’s just a matter of making a little something more out of all of the real-life bits and pieces that we’ve grown to love here in the Spokane area. Let the game begin.
STICK A BIG URBAN MARKET IN THE CENTER OF SPOKANE
BY MELISSA LUCK, KXLY EXECUTIVE NEWS DIRECTOR
SPOKANE IS ON THE VERGE of peak foodie-hipster glory. There’s just one thing missing: a one-stop shop for all things food, beer, wine, art and community. For its next big idea, Spokane should look a couple of hours to the west. Spokane needs an urban market/gathering place like the Pybus Market in Wenatchee. Not just a farmer’s market, but a spot that also has small restaurants, wine bars, kiosks that sell locally made goods. The idea is already forming at the Wonder Building, but a larger spot in a more centrally located area could really be the spark Spokane needs. Make it a food destination. A
mall food court on crack. Pike Place Market, but hip. All you have to do is look at the success of the Kendall Yards Night Market to know that Spokane is craving that kind of spot, where you can get dinner, dessert, wine, bread-to-go all in one place. These markets, like the Milwaukee Public Market in Wisconsin, also provide space where you can hold smaller community events, cooking classes and art displays. Bonus points: Do this in a renovated old building like the Pybus Market did to better connect us to Spokane’s past.
ALLOW SENIOR RENTERS TO OWN PETS!
BY ED BOKS, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, SPOKANE HUMANE SOCIETY THE JOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN GERIATRICS SOCIETY routinely publishes studies on how pets lower our blood pressure; mitigate depression, stress, and loneliness; encourage physical fitness, social interaction, and self-care; console us in our grief; and provide us with a sense of security and companionship. We know seniors with pets live longer, happier and healthier lives. And yet, according to the Foundation for Interdisciplinary Research and Education Promoting Animal Welfare, 50 percent of all rentals prohibit pets. Problems from allowing pets are minimal, and the benefits outweigh the problems. Landlords profit from allow-
One idea submitted to the Inlander would involve making Riverfront Park part of a lifesized treasure hunt. YOUNG KWAK PHOTO
ing pets because tenants with pets are willing and able to pay more to live with their pets — and they stay an average of 46 months compared to 18 months for tenants in rentals prohibiting pets. Whatever time landlords spend addressing pet-related problems is offset by spending less marketing time on pet-friendly units by a margin of eight hours per unit. For landlords, allowing pets provides a low-risk opportunity to increase revenue, tenant pools, and market size — especially now that America’s fastest-growing group of renters is senior citizens. For seniors, owning pets creates longer, happier and healthier lives — it is the ultimate win-win!
UN-STEAL INDIGENOUS LAND
BY TARA “QALLAQ” RAMOS, INDIGENOUS CITIZEN AND ACTIVIST INDIGENOUS CITIZENS IN SPOKANE are overrepresented in our homeless population, in police contact and police-related killings, in child welfare removals, and in the school-to-prison pipeline — all due to colonialism. Spokane and the rest of its citizens could make the world more just for their Indigenous brothers and sisters by giving their land back. Since tribal people have been inhabiting this land since time immemorial, it only fits that the city of Spokane and its beneficiaries return land as a way to make just what colonialism stole from Indigenous people. Such a gift to Indigenous people could be a place where we build small houses for our homeless, create a place to
practice food sovereignty to address hunger in our community, and a place for cultural practices to address our mental, physical and spiritual health. There are plenty of spots throughout the city that could be given to a group of Indigenous leaders to manage, like the 48 acres in Vinegar Flats called Kampa Farm. The current landowners want to preserve the land for public use or benefit. The city of Spokane should and could purchase the property for use for Indigenous citizens with support from the whole community. Acknowledging the history of stolen land is nice. But actually giving the land back is true justice.
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ENCOURAGE MENTORSHIP OF YOUTH
BY ADAM SWINYARD, SUPERINTENDENT OF SPOKANE PUBLIC SCHOOLS AS WE EMERGE from the pandemic, the value of connections and relationships shine brighter than ever. One small action that can change the life of a student and make our community a better place is serving as a mentor for youth. Mentoring is a small investment of time that shows mentees they are valued. Having someone in their corner — that human connection built on mutual trust and respect — can help give them the space to grow resilience and confidence. The more connections and support students have with positive role models, the greater their chances
of success navigating school and life after graduation. Students’ success benefits everyone, it empowers the individual, and creates a strong and healthy Spokane community. We have numerous programs in our schools that include mentoring opportunities for community members. One such example is PrimeTime Mentoring facilitated by Communities In Schools. These types of services depend on caring volunteers willing to donate a few hours and a listening ear to a student. Every mentor who volunteers in our schools is actively creating a better place for us all.
OPEN A CULTURAL HUB THAT TEACHES ART AS BUSINESS
BY RYKER, SPOKANE TALENT MANAGER AND ENTREPRENEUR ENTERTAINMENT AND MUSIC AND ARTS have to grow. If you look at any major growth city, all those places are very heavily rooted in the arts, and the growth of those cultures is what feeds the growth of all these other corporate concepts. We need a community center that’s focused only on music, arts and entertainment. We need a Vera Project, or something like Macklemore’s the Residency, something that not only inspires but educates the youth on many facets of growing their entrepreneurship within the arts. The Vera Project in Seattle is really cool because it offers a variety of classes and training on being an entrepreneur within that space. A lot of Seattle’s up-and-coming artists had their first shows at the Vera Project. They also have a recording studio there. They teach you how to make your own T-shirts. They teach you how to make posters. They have marketing classes. It’s just a center point for the growth of arts and entertainment in Seattle. If you had an entire building and an entire group of people dedicated to pushing that concept, it would exponentially change the art industry and our city.
GIVE THE COURTHOUSE TOWER A CHANCE TO SHINE
Another proposal: Use street parking revenue to build a couple of covered parking lots.
BANISH DOWNTOWN SURFACE PARKING LOTS
BY BEN STUCKART, FORMER SPOKANE CITY COUNCIL PRESIDENT FEW CITIES OUR SIZE willingly fork over so much space in their urban core for surface parking lots. The valuable land downtown should be dedicated to the highest and best use of the property. A surface parking lot is the lowest and worst use. If Spokane wants a thriving urban core, we must fix this issue before anything else. If we do not deal with the 76 vacant parking lots, we will never have the number of people living downtown necessary to support the walkable environment, successful restaurants and dense retail needed to survive long term. The more people who live downtown, the more eyes watching the street, the safer it will be. During my eight years on the City Council, two large
employers wanted to locate downtown but a lack of covered parking for their employees drove them into the arms of Spokane Valley instead. Spokane had plenty of surface parking available, but their employees wanted lighting, safety and protection from the weather. The solution is easy. Every business owner downtown pays a business improvement district fee. Raise the prices on each surface parking lot spot so much that it becomes a disincentive. Use the street parking revenue to build a couple of covered parking lots. You get covered parking that businesses want, and you force lot owners to build up for a higher and better use.
HOST A BIG LOCAL SUSTAINABLE FOOD FEAST
BY MARIA EMMER-AANES, SUSTAINABILITY GURU AT SPICEOLOGY WHAT MAKES A COMMUNITY a better place to live? The food! Food has the great power to transform lives and bring us together. Chefs have the power to curate a new conversation about food, and whetting our appetites with ways to make our community a better place. Here’s how we’d like to harness that power for Spokane: By partnering with local chefs and a couple of renowned chefs from around the country, Spokane would host a local, sustainable food festival called “Feed People, Feed the Earth.” We’d recruit 30 to 40 vendors and exhibitors to showcase foods produced in the Greater Spokane area. We’d work with civic leaders to block off a large section of downtown Spokane and put tables of 10 on the sidewalks and in the streets where locals could enjoy the feast. Picture tastings prepared by well-known local chefs featuring fresh fruits and vegetables, herbs, spices, seafood and locally grown meats. The chefs would feature
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how they support local farms and food-related businesses, showing off the local food and drinks on their menus. Imagine interactive exhibits and workshops at the event, where farmers and other local food leaders could share ways to live lighter on the earth through the food we choose to eat. We’d encourage attendees to use public transportation to the event, and educate them on ways in which they personally can make a difference. Much of the food and beverage would be donated, and proceeds would go to both local charities that feed the hungry and the “Chef’s Manifesto,” a global UN sustainability initiative. We would support initiatives that provide nutritious food that is accessible and affordable for all. For example, if you purchase a meal at the festival, you will be given an opportunity to give a meal to someone in need. This event would help position Spokane both as a culinary hub and as an ecosystem focused on bettering the earth.
BY ROB CHASE, WASHINGTON STATE REPRESENTATIVE, R-LIBERTY LAKE BRING BACK THE COLORED LIGHTS for the Spokane County Courthouse Tower. As I recall, the courthouse used to look like the Disney castle. My sister and I thought Rapunzel lived up there. If there is ever room in the budget, or a generous philanthropist appears, it would be nice to have a clock in the Courthouse Tower as was originally intended in the architect’s designs. An oldfashioned clock with hands, not digital. (You don’t want it stuck flashing the wrong time whenever the power goes out.)
INVEST IN INNOVATIVE SUMMER PROGRAMS FOR KIDS
BY AMBER WALDREF, DIRECTOR OF THE ZONE AT NORTHEAST COMMUNITY CENTER
THE PANDEMIC HAS DISRUPTED kids’ access to education, especially those children and youth furthest from opportunity who were already facing an achievement gap. Traditionally, Washington state does not invest deeply in after-school and summer-learning experiences. We should invest dollars that school districts will be receiving from the American Rescue Plan into quality opportunities for students whose families can’t afford camps and other programs that keep them learning and engaged over the summer. Effective programs would include these best practices: five to six hours of programming; five to six weeks of operation; and a mix of academic learning and enrichment in a camp-like environment. We should build programs around student interests so kids want to be there, especially teens. Teachers are tired from a year of online and hybrid learning, which means looking beyond school personnel and thinking creatively about partners we can bring to the table: community-based organizations, parks and recreation, affordable housing organizations, libraries, college staff and students, and more. Spokane has great parks and school fields. Let’s use these public spaces to hold programs outdoors to prevent the spread of COVID-19. We could really make a difference in kids’ attendance and grades, and we could shrink the achievement gap (and provide more access to food). Funding and operating quality summer learning gives parents and caregivers of kids the time to sharpen their skills, take classes, and find new employment during the summer — a benefit to two generations in Spokane! Together, let’s build a framework to invest in Spokane County’s kids this year and continue this commitment for future summers.
OUR MEMBERS ARE WHAT MAKE US.
MORE THAN JUST MONEY
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APRIL 1, 2021 INLANDER 17
CREATE A NEW NORMAL
PROVIDE HEALTH CARE FOR ALL, INCLUDING THE UNDOCUMENTED
BY ROB McCANN, DIRECTOR OF CATHOLIC CHARITIES EASTERN WASHINGTON
WHAT IF WE DIDN’T go back to “normal” after the pandemic is over? What if we created a “new normal” that included all of us having an open mind, loving our neighbor, creating an equitable and inclusive community, and we left political anger behind us? Spokane has risen to the COVID-19 challenge, and there is a light at the end of the tunnel. I recently walked through a vaccine clinic at the House of Charity, and the excitement and hope for a better future was palpable. We made it through one of the most challenging years any of us can remember, but we made it. Let’s get vaccinated, hug our family and friends, support our local economy, and begin anew.
BY LILI NAVARRETE, DIRECTOR OF PUBLIC AFFAIRS AND RAÍZ FOR PLANNED PARENTHOOD OF GREATER WASHINGTON AND NORTH IDAHO AS A LATINA IMMIGRANT with deep roots in my community and as the director of public affairs and the Raíz (Spanish for “root”) program of Planned Parenthood of Greater Washington and North Idaho, I have seen firsthand the impacts of COVID-19 on BIPOC in our region. I have traveled to provide food and COVID tests for farmworkers on visas. I have been turned away from agricultural warehouses that were forcing sick staff to work. I have seen hope, and I have seen heartbreak. During this pandemic, the issue of health care and
assistance has never been more urgent when one of the communities impacted the hardest by COVID-19 was the Latinx population, especially undocumented folks. As we all know, our undocumented community members do not qualify for any type of federal government benefits, but many were listed as “essential” to supply your food. This led to tremendous health disparities and deaths. As a society, we need to be able to provide health care for everyone who resides in the United States of America, regardless of immigration status. Health has no borders!
PUT ARTISTS BACK TO WORK
BY MELISSA HUGGINS, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, SPOKANE ARTS We could entice companies to provide more guided tours.
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MAKE URBAN RECREATION ON THE SPOKANE RIVER INCREDIBLE
BY MARK RICHARD, PRESIDENT AND CEO DOWNTOWN SPOKANE PARTNERSHIP
THERE HAS BEEN GREAT DISCUSSION in the past about more active use of our Spokane River, going back many years to what was known as the Spokane River Gorge Park concept: the formation of a whitewater park and more recreational use of the river. Infrastructure would be built to create more in-water rapids, provide more access for boats and attract outdoor water sports enthusiasts to the area. We could also entice private companies to provide more guided float tours and fly-fishing opportunities. This would provide first-class river experiences for local residents, and attract people to visit and live here. Further, we could build up the infrastructure for more passive water recreation opportunities above the dam, in the form of boat inputs and outputs as well as infrastructure to support private kayak and paddleboard rental stations. To start — with WSU owning riverfront property, private ownership developing nearby and No Li’s output — we could envision a master plan that would create a very tranquil waterway experience for U-District students, local residents and tourists to enjoy. This upper part would require community engagement and possibly incentives for private development of publicly accessible infrastructure, or modest public investment in areas like the U-District or elsewhere along the river. This work could provide some unique and beautiful outdoor experiences that showcase our river, expand our outdoor offerings and add to our quality of life brand.
LET’S HAVE REGULAR BLOCK PARTIES
BY RYAN OELRICH, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR OF THE NONPROFIT PRIORITY SPOKANE
AFTER MONTHS OF DISTANCING, division and isolation, we need to relearn what community is, feels like, and how to connect in person. We need to meet our neighbors. Once it’s safe to do so, let’s implement a neighborhood block parties program. Let’s encourage neighborhoods to schedule a time to have a central street shut down. Neighbors will be invited to bring out their lawn chairs and hold potlucks, outdoor movies, games, etc., in the street. During colder snowy months, the same street block parties can occur around careful bonfires. Neighborhoods can compete for the title of best block party. We’ve done this informally in our neighborhood with wonderful results. Let’s earn the nickname “Inland NW: The Region of Good Neighbors,” and relearn what community is and feels like.
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IN ORDER TO STRENGTHEN NEIGHBORHOODS, increase equity and lead the way toward economic recovery, Spokane should enact our own version of the 1935 Works Progress Administration, which created public projects to get workers (including artists) working again. We could do so using a portion of federal dollars already passed by Congress and en route to our local and state governments. By putting creatives back to work, we could increase local access to cultural experiences at the same time. For example, the funding could ensure youth have access to art and music lessons. There could be professional dance and music performances in senior centers, parks and community centers, helping those most isolated by the pandemic to heal and reconnect. Let’s hand out creativity kits at every farmers market and house of worship, send authors to visit classrooms and hospitals, and commission poets and storytellers to perform. Let’s engage every neighborhood to select and help install their own community mural. Let’s
pay folk and traditional artists to do public demonstrations of methods passed down through generations, and ensure their stories are captured through oral histories or documentary films. Let’s nurture cultural festivals and traditions that simultaneously celebrate food, dance, music, language, storytelling and so much more. Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s administration believed that culture is a reflection of democracy; that instead of an ivory tower where art could only be seen or appreciated by the wealthy, access to culture is vital. For Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt, it followed that in a truly democratic society, music, theater, art, writing, film and more must be visible and present in people’s daily lives. Roosevelt, while terribly wrong in other areas, understood artists are professionals and tradespeople; they need to work, and by putting them to work, you can benefit the public sphere, build community, and enact a more livable, more equitable, more hopeful community.
We must move beyond performative justice.
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INVEST IN RACIAL JUSTICE
BY DAVID LEONARD, PROFESSOR IN THE SCHOOL OF LANGUAGES, CULTURES, AND RACE AT WASHINGTON STATE UNIVERSITY WE HAVE ALL MADE STATEMENTS and promises over the year. Whether we’re stating our plan to spend more time with friends when this all ends or promising to prioritize health, the last year has prompted a wave of resolutions. These assurances of change are not limited to personal transformation. With ample reminders of endemic injustice, systemic inequality, and America’s persistent racism problem, and with even more time to reflect, the last year has seen promises of societal change. #BlackLivesMatter; #StopAsianHate; #ProtectDemocracy. We have seen ample statements of commitment to being sources of change. Words matter. Such statements, from institutional
press releases to social media posts, are important in the struggle for justice, equity and the fulfillment of our collective promise. Yet words in absence of action ring hollow; words without a commitment to changing institutions, policies or own behavior are nothing more than gaslighting. We must move beyond performative justice. To enact justice requires action, commitment, resources, policy shifts, sacrifice, and the courage that brings those words to life. Let our post-COVID resolution be that we talk less and do more, committing to investing in racial justice and reimagining our communities through resource, action and material transformation.
BARBECUE WITH YOUR ENEMIES
BY THOMAS DALY, BISHOP OF THE DIOCESE OF SPOKANE
Commissioner Al French: “My big dream is that we’re going to manufacture an airplane and fly it out of Spokane.”
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MAKE AIRPLANES IN SPOKANE
BY AL FRENCH, SPOKANE COUNTY COMMISSIONER
AL FRENCH, IN A PHONE INTERVIEW with the Inlander, says he wants to bring an aerospace manufacturer to Spokane County. “My big dream is that we’re going to manufacture an airplane and fly it out of Spokane,” French says. French has been set on bringing an aerospace manufacturer for years, and he says “we’re closer today than we were three years ago.” S3R3 — a collaboration between
county, city and Spokane International Airport leaders formerly called the West Plains Public Development Authority — helped attract the Amazon fulfillment center to Spokane, he says. Now, Amazon says it will open a second one in Spokane Valley. French says that’s evidence that Spokane is primed for more job-creating development. “We now have the ability to deliver projects just like other communities in the state,” French says.
OVER THE LAST YEAR, the Diocese of Spokane has celebrated a Year of the Eucharist, reflecting on the sacrament at the heart of our religious practice as Catholics. For that year, I wrote a letter to the diocese; one of the topics I reflected on was unity: “Brothers and sisters, there is no room for division among us; it is our prayer, it is God’s will that we be ‘one body, one spirit in Christ.’” Unity is not just for Christians but for our whole human family. Pope Francis often speaks about the need for increased human fraternity. As we emerge from this pandemic — when division has seemed to grow all the more severe — I hope that we might recover our unity, even our fellowship with one another through a few simple actions. I would encourage everyone to begin by inviting neighbors and friends — even those with whom you sometimes or even often disagree — to dinner, to parties, to cookouts in the backyard. The British essayist Chesterton once quipped, “The Bible tells us to love our neighbors, and also to love our enemies; probably because generally they are the same people.” As our lockdown ends, I hope that we can learn to love our neighbors once again and begin to break down walls of enmity that plague our society.
GO ALL-IN ON OUTDOOR DINING
BY ANTHONY GILL, ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT BLOGGER AT SPOKANE RISING LAST SUMMER, as the pandemic was raging, many restaurants faced a difficult choice: Stay open while prioritizing costly and fickle to-go orders, or close temporarily until dining rooms could reopen. Some with the necessary amount of space elected to stay open to on-site dining in outdoor spaces, often with hastily rented furniture and temporary canopies. Many others were frightened off by the necessary permit requirements or were waiting for hand-holding that never came. But at those spaces where outdoor dining was deployed, the experience was revelatory, with great views, entertaining people-watching, and a lively experi-
ence. In many ways, it made me wonder why we hadn’t really been doing this all along. This summer and beyond, let’s take what we learned about outdoor dining and bring it to the next level. The city could do more to ease the permitting process and allow more types of spaces. The Downtown Spokane Partnership could offer one-on-one permitting advice and marketing assistance. Perhaps federal stimulus funding could cover costs for more permanent and attractive awnings, wind screens and heaters. Working together, we could make al fresco dining not just a pandemic imperative, but a cultural and resident amenity all its own.
DEDICATE MORE PROPERTIES TO ARTS AND CULTURE
BY GINGER EWING, CO-FOUNDER OF TERRAIN
INSIDE SEATTLE’S OFFICE OF ARTS & CULTURE sits Matthew Richter. His role? Cultural space liaison — a job carved out in the midst of Seattle’s booming tech industry. Although there are many positive attributes to a city’s growth, that growth often comes with consequences like skyrocketing housing prices, broadening economic divisions and the squeezing out of the working class. While I know it’s hard to fathom Spokane ever being in a similar position as Seattle, the Department of Licensing has tracked over 1,000 new out-of-state license registrations in Spokane County every month for the last two years. Alongside Spokane’s very real housing crisis, a couldbe-dire picture is forming in which independent restaurants, galleries and music venues are forced out of the city’s core by rising commercial rents. The very people who made Spokane a desirable place to move to in the first place. But here’s the beautiful thing. We have the opportunity to learn from other cities. Imagine if the City Council, the mayor and the Office
of Business & Development joined forces to incentivize developers and building owners to dedicate projects, or portions of projects, to affordable housing and the preservation of cultural spaces. If you’re Matthew Richter, you look at incentivizing the creation and maintenance of cultural spaces in the form of a city bonds program used as a re-investment fund. And in 2020, in the midst of a pandemic, you work with your mayor to create a city-run real estate company that purchases properties and develops them for arts and cultural groups. If you’re San Francisco, you incentivize affordable housing by allowing developers to construct taller buildings, but only if at least 30 percent of that building is dedicated to low- to moderate-income housing. Not only do we have the opportunity to learn, we have the opportunity to get in front of the potential problem in ways other cities — in hindsight — can only dream of. Spokane has a unique chance to welcome growth in a way that’s balanced and responsible, but we must act now. Our city’s soul depends on it.
Nudge our region in that direction of the electric car.
LIVE THE ELECTRIC SLIDE
BY LARS GILBERTS, UNIVERSITY DISTRICT CEO
THE ELECTRIC SLIDE WAS A STAPLE in most pre-pandemic wedding receptions. It’s easy and fun enough that most anyone can jump in and enjoy. Soon, hopefully, the electric slide will make a triumphant return to dance floors everywhere. Making the segway to electric transportation, on the other hand, is a bit tougher. Besides maybe taking a ride on a Lime scooter, the average person in this haven of hydro-powered green energy won’t benefit from electric cars for nearly a decade. Each of us can nudge our region in that direction. Renters can either choose properties that have electric vehicle chargers or ask the property owners to install them. Want to start a business? We don’t have any subscription electric car rental companies or used EV refurbishers. Go create one. The sooner more of us push for electric cars, the sooner demand will create jobs to accommodate them. Businesses will pop up to help us safely share car ownership, recycle batteries, or even build super-efficient electric aircraft to shuttle between Spokane and Coeur d’Alene (or that sweet backcountry ski slope). This year, let’s go all in for the environment and entrepreneurship. After all: It’s electric.
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CONNECT TO ONE ANOTHER
LET A THOUSAND WORKER CO-OPS BLOOM
BY LUKE BAUMGARTEN, CO-OWNER OF TREATMENT MARKETING FIRM AND PODCAST HOST
BY KIANTHA DUNCAN, PRESIDENT OF THE SPOKANE NAACP
IT’S 2021 IN AMERICA. Deregulation, consolidation and decades of declining corporate profits have employers squeezing blood out of their workers like few times in our history. Union participation has been gutted. Pensions are almost unheard of. “Disruption” in tech often means finding new ways to treat employees like contractors. In Spokane, the heat of our housing market means the traditional path working people have used to build wealth — homeownership — is becoming a pipe dream. So how do we rebuild a path to wealth for working people?
THE INLAND NORTHWEST IS ARGUABLY one of the most beautiful places in the United States, from the tree-lined mountains to the waterways that give life to us all. Yet there remains one thing that we can all do to make our homeland more beautiful than it already is, and although it is simple, it requires intention and commitment. When we align in our commitment to humanity by showing up in the fullness of our best selves and inviting others to do the same, we create connection. That connection is the key to creating a more livable and just Inland Northwest Together we make the Inland Northwest beautiful. Our vibrant and diverse culture, faiths, thinking and experiences make us unique. We are a collective of critical thinkers, creatives and innovators and hard workers. Our ability to show up as the best versions of ourselves is how we connect to one another. Good connects to good, light connects to light and love connects to love. Our connectedness fertilizes the soil that nourishes the Inland Northwest and all of the communities represented here. When we collectively commit to showing up fully as our best selves, together we make the Inland Northwest the best place to live.
Expand worker ownership, and do it at scale. Historically, employee-owned companies hold more wealth for rank-and-file workers and are more resilient during recessions. During COVID, co-ops in the U.S. laid off fewer employees than traditional businesses. Capitalists have always used periods of crisis to snatch up assets, consolidate power and further build personal wealth. It’s a great time for workers to use that playbook for the good of us all.
CREATE A LOCAL VOLUNTEER HUB
BY RICK CLARK, FOUNDER OF GIVING BACK PACKS AND SPOKANE QUARANTEAM
Parades “embrace our pledge of one nation.”
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THROW EVERYONE A PARADE
BY CHRIS COOK, SPOKANE POET LAUREATE AND HOST OF AUNTIE’S 3-MINUTE MIC PARADES: THEY’RE HOW WE’VE ALWAYS CELEBRATED both heroes and our collective survival. They embrace our pledge of one nation. We love them and can’t get enough of them. They’re the smoked brisket of public gatherings. For all the teachers who faced the impossible, and for parents and grandparents who facilitated remote learning: a parade. For all graduates who were denied a ceremony: a parade. For all athletes who were denied a home crowd: a loud, partisan parade. For all in the hospitality and food service industries: a parade. For all who’ve endured darkened stages — the arts organizations, musicians, venue
owners, comedians, dance companies, actors, filmmakers — we’re bringing you out into the sunlight and giving you a slow, serpentine curbside standing ovation. For all writers with virtual book release events, and the bookstores and libraries that organized them; for all artists with virtual exhibits: a parade. For all in places of worship who served spiritual needs without putting their flocks in harm’s way: a parade. For all survivors who lost a loved one to COVID: a parade. And for all health care workers who faced the unimaginable every day: a parade. For all who were denied a parade: a parade.
LET’S CONNECT AND BUILD UP
BY JENNYFER MESA, FOUNDER OR LATINOS EN SPOKANE AS WE SEEK TO RETURN to a sense of normalcy, let’s remember that the old normal was tied to inequitable systems that predated COVID-19 and were only exacerbated during this pandemic. These systems’ unpreparedness left us relying on individual actions to defeat a pandemic. Even when we were confined to our individual homes, our lives were still at risk, and unquestionably intertwined. A year of restrictions taught us to rely on essential workers to keep us supported, the importance of having access to a stable home to shelter and keep safe, and the need to keep outdoor space open and accessible to the public. We need collective action to build up equitable sys-
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tems that are accessible and encompass inclusion to protect workers, renters, marginalized communities and lowincome families. Let’s build up, invest and preserve affordable housing in Spokane. We can fund, diversify housing stock, and soften development restrictions to create more affordable homes. Let’s reduce restrictions to open outdoor spaces for the public and small businesses to encourage connection and social cohesion by prioritizing local art, cultural gathering, planning with and for our multicultural city to rediscover our meaningfulness of place. We can start this year.
THE ONE THING THAT WE (Spokane) can absolutely put into action this year that would enhance lives, include people, be just and hopeful — and a complete success — is to create a volunteer hub. There are so many people in Spokane who desperately want to help in so many ways but just have no idea where to start. Rather than waiting and hoping that the city or our federal government will step in to help in different areas, we can do much of it ourselves! Watching 30,000 people donate nearly $300,000 in a matter of 120 days to the efforts of Spokane Quaranteam has really opened my eyes to this new kind of community. I am not just talking donors either; I am talking delivery drivers, sorters, organizers, graphic designers and so much more. When we pool together our talents and our resources, big things happen. This past year has really helped so many realize the importance of community and the strength we get when we work together. Before the pandemic, messages of unity and hope seemed to be words that did not come with as much substance and got tossed around like they were just words. Now, it truly seems like unity and hope are things that mean a lot to us and we are actively ready to “practice what we preach.”
STOP LOOKING FOR BIG NEW IDEAS
BY JOSH KERNS, SPOKANE COUNTY COMMISSIONER
AS WE BEGIN TO SEE THE LIGHT at the end of the tunnel of the pandemic, we don’t need to look for a new shiny idea. We need to focus on reinvigorating what has made this community the best place to live, work and raise a family. You will not hear me talking about “the new normal.” I am focused on getting us back to our real normal. Let’s focus on getting fans back into the stands at high school football games and cheering on the Spokane Chiefs in the Veterans Memorial Arena. We need to make sure we show up for the next big exhibit at the Northwest Museum of Arts and Culture and attend a concert in the park. I look forward to walking in one of our amazing community supported parades, from the Hillyard Hijinks Parade to the Armed Forces Torchlight Parade through downtown Spokane. It’s not about finding something new after a pandemic, it’s about making sure we don’t lose what makes our community home. n
“Own your voice.” - Lindsey Myhre, EVP & CFO, STCU
Twenty years ago, Lindsey Myhre was an accounting assistant at STCU. Today, she’s the executive vice president and chief financial officer. “I was a mom of two toddlers with a husband working the graveyard shift when I went back to school,” says Lindsey. “STCU paid for my degree which was instrumental for my growth into the EVP & CFO role.” This Women’s History Month, we’re proud to celebrate the women, like Lindsey, who make STCU’s future bright.
(509) 326.1954 | stcu.org
APRIL 1, 2021 INLANDER 21
WORDS
TART AND TENDER Kate Lebo warps the boundaries of food writing in her new Book of Difficult Fruit BY DAN NAILEN
I
t’s a testament to Kate Lebo’s curiosity, knowledge and sheer writing chops that she can spend a chapter describing something as tasting “like peaches laced with onions and garbage” and smelling “a little like turpentine” and you’ll want to merrily try some for yourself — laughing all the way. Of course, you probably won’t get the 38-year-old Lebo to join for another round of the spikey fruit called a durian, grown primarily in Southeast Asia and only found through some digging through Spokane’s Asian grocery stores. The author of The Book of Difficult Fruit: Arguments for the Tart, Tender, and Unruly (With Recipes), arriving in stores April 6, readily admits she threw out
Kate Lebo goes beyond “pie lady” with her new book. YOUNG KWAK PHOTO
22 INLANDER APRIL 1, 2021
most of hers, having tried just five bites before she started to feel ill. Some people do have a taste for the durian, though, and you’ll find a recipe for durian ice cream at the end of that chapter, even if Lebo never intends to eat the stuff that caused her husband and fellow author Sam Ligon to proclaim, “That smells like A-S-S.” The difficult fruit in Lebo’s title doesn’t mean just fruit that’s literally hard to keep down (durian is an outlier there), but fruit that’s challenging to work with, hard to find in stores, or rarely referenced in mainstream food writing and recipes. And this book, Lebo’s third, isn’t simply a guide to tackling dishes featuring those fruits (although it is partly that). Difficult Fruit is a
remarkable combination of food writing, memoir, medical and natural history, and cultural anthropology that’s unlike anything you’ve read before. And it’s as welcoming for non-foodies as it is for those familiar with Lebo as the “pie lady” writer of A Commonplace Book of Pie and Pie School: Lessons in Fruit, Flour and Butter, or as co-founder with Ligon of the annual Pie & Whiskey bacchanal during Spokane’s Get Lit! Festival. The inspiration for tackling tricky fruits in her new book, Lebo says, as well as the tricky navigation of family history, romantic relationships, longtime friendships and medical challenges also in its pages, came from back when she was writing and promoting her old books,
particularly the fruit-forward Pie School. “I was having a good time on the food circuit, but I was also frustrated by kind of the limits of what was expected of me if I was just there to talk about pie,” Lebo says. “I write poems, and I write personal essays, and have artistic pretensions as well. I think the phrase ‘difficult fruit’ started bopping around my head around the end of 2013.” She had some false starts while trying to find the right balance of all the things she wanted to address. She worked through putting some “terrible, terrible stuff” on the page to eventually find her way into a work that introduces readers to certain uncommon fruits (aronia, medlar), and reintroduces them to familiar ones (pomegranates, blackberries) in unexpected ways. It also delves into the fruits’ histories in the natural world, their uses by medical practitioners and herbalists, and their culinary, cultural and spiritual roles in communities around the globe and close to the West Side transplant’s Spokane home. Taking a “food book” into all those areas in a compelling way is a high-wire act that Lebo performs with seeming ease and an inviting style. There are hilarious lines, and poignant reflections as well, and the style in which she approached her writing was in part designed to be the kind of food writing she wasn’t seeing in the ’00s and early ’10s. “Most of the food writing I was encountering just felt like it was really just peddling a vision of the good life,” Lebo says. “It seemed really entwined with product promotion. It seemed like such an obvious way to attract a reader, because it’s about food and we’re all attracted to food and excited about food. And that seemed like such an opportunity to hold the reader’s attention with less palatable subjects. “The way I couched pitching Difficult Fruit was counter to the palatability that I saw as a problem in food writing. I think that food writing must be palatable, and part of our job is to get people to explore cuisine and show people why it’s worth this much attention. But I think food writers can get caught in this trap of just stopping right there and maybe not looking at the complexities of those foods or those cuisines, or the communities that make them, or the histories that bring them all together.”
L
ebo’s chapter on huckleberries is a good example. Obviously a favorite among Inland Northwesterners, Lebo naturally includes a recipe for a huckleberry pie at chapter’s end, but before readers get there they’ll learn about some misconceptions about them (a century ago they were thought to be “easily domesticated”), and the ethics and techniques of picking wild huckleberries. There’s a reflection on their importance to Native peoples in the region, time spent with LaRae Wiley, founder of the Salish School, and a lesson about White “huckleberry camps” in the area in the early 20th century. There’s a scene from a modern farmers market, a dive into where the berries got their name and how they became emblematic of the Wild West, and a look at what forest fires mean for the sweet little summer treats. The woman covers some serious ground. “What drew me to the huckleberry besides the deep local love for it is the complete ignorance of what it is everywhere else,” Lebo says.
“Sam and I were having dinner at this fantastic restaurant in Omaha once, and they were serving like a steak with huckleberry sauce. And just for kicks I asked them, ‘What’s a huckleberry?’ And they said, ‘Oh, it’s related to the blackberry.’ Sam and I looked at each other and were like, ‘Uhhuh. You have no idea.’ But knowing that this is a fruit that is revered by the Native community here, by people who just arrived five years ago like me, by the descendants of White colonizers — we all think it’s great. So how to write an essay that can contain the reverence of all those people, some of whom are still in conflict?” That’s what I mean by a high-wire act, and the fact Lebo can touch on so many aspects of a fruit in her chapters, organized alphabetically like a reference book, is a true feat. At no point does the writing feel dry or merely academic, and that’s because Lebo puts so many personal touches throughout. She writes about her own kitchen failures, about her family and tackling dandelion issues in her yard. She takes readers back to her childhood, back to a cancer scare during the writing of this very book, back to the nursing home where her mother worked, and where a teenage Lebo worked for a summer, too. The memoir-ish passages weave throughout to make Difficult Fruit probably the most intensely personal “cookbook” imaginable. Delving into her personal history and sensitive subjects came naturally, Lebo says, probably part of her “instinct” as a nonfiction writer and poet. “I kept trying to create ways to feel like I was completely alone in the room with the essays,” Lebo says. “I could say whatever unsayable thing and try to get to something that surprised and even scared me, if possible. “Unintentionally, I told my family that I was writing a cookbook. That was probably, in some way, subconsciously intentional, if that’s even possible. But it gave me some protection to just go and tell these stories I’m really not supposed to tell. My family members did get a chance to see the book while there was still time to make edits because it was important to me for them to feel like they had some control over the story as I’m telling it. They were really generous, and I think they understood this was just my version of it.” Inland Northwesterners will find themselves throughout Lebo’s book, too, whether through seeing their own family travails through her stories, or literally seeing places she mentions in and around Spokane, the city she’s called home since 2015. Difficult Fruit has a definite sense of place, despite its sprawling subjects. “Thematically, that was important to me because this is a book about plants,” Lebo says. “And it’s also a book about how we are rooted, and how our roots connect. And the setting of the book, I wanted to feel rooted. And I also wanted the act of writing the book to help me root further into this particular place where I’m living right now, Spokane.” n Kate Lebo in conversation with Kim Addonizio, a virtual multi-store release party with Auntie’s Bookstore, Third Place Books, Village Books and Browser’s Books • Mon, April 5 at 6 pm • free; first 20 to buy book get a Madagascar vanilla bean gift • auntiesbooks.com/event for details, links to the Zoom
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CULTURE | ZAGS
Domantas Sabonis went from dominating in college to stardom in the NBA.
It’s a Long Way to the Top
GONZAGA UNIVERSITY ATHLETICS PHOTO
The Zags’ tournament history is littered with memorable moments and formidable foes BY TED S. MCGREGOR JR.
A
ny big accomplishment is built on many smaller milestones. To really appreciate that view from the top of Everest or, say, the lifesaving launch of a new vaccine, you can’t help but recall the small victories, the painful setbacks and all those lessons learned. So as the Gonzaga Bulldogs continue their quest for a national championship that started in 1999, here’s a reminder of some of the most memorable moments and the heroes we met along these past 21 NCAA tournaments.
EPIC WINS FLORIDA; MARCH 18, 1999
This was the Cinderella moment, when Gon-zahga from Spo-caine turned the college basketball world upside down with a 73-72 win on a last-second putback by Casey Calvary. Florida really was a Goliath, as mostly the same Gator roster made it to the championship a year later, losing to Michigan State.
24 INLANDER APRIL 1, 2021
ST. JOHN’S; MARCH 18, 2000
Powered by new head coach Mark Few, the Zags proved the year before was no fluke, taking down the No. 2 seed and winning a spot in its second straight Sweet 16. Matt Santangelo had 26 points, playing all 40 minutes; a few sportscasters started pronouncing “Gonzaga” correctly.
WESTERN KENTUCKY; MARCH 21, 2009
This was the fresh, new Cinderella taking on the prototype. The Hilltoppers were seriously feisty, and it took a less-than-last-second shot (like, 0.9 seconds) by Demetri Goodson to put them away. Fun fact: Goodson switched to football and played three seasons for the Green Bay Packers.
SOUTH CAROLINA; APRIL 1, 2017
This was a classic college game played by two great teams. Still, somebody had to lose — with a trip to the championship on the line. Zach Collins had 14 points,
13 rebounds and six (!) blocks, previewing the skills that led the Portland Trailblazers to draft him 10th overall two months later.
FLORIDA STATE; MARCH 28, 2019
The Seminoles of the ACC are well-coached, super-athletic and very intimidating. In the 2018 tournament, they bullied the Zags and ended their season. In the rematch, Rui Hachimura and Brandon Clarke delivered the payback, sending the Zags to their fourth Elite Eight.
FIERCEST FOES MIKE MILLER, FLORIDA; MARCH 18, 1999
As a freshman on a stacked team that also featured Udonis Haslem, Miller got 10 points and 11 rebounds in losing to the upstart Zags. Miller left college after leading the team to the final in 2000, and later was NBA rookie of the year and a two-time NBA champ with LeBron James in Miami.
RICHARD HAMILTON, CONNECTICUT; MARCH 20, 1999
In his final season with the Huskies, “Rip” Hamilton led his team to the NCAA championship — but only after having to squeak by the Cinderella from Spokane. He had 21 points on 9-14 shooting. He took his smooth shooting to the NBA, winning a championship with Detroit in 2004.
DOMANTAS SABONIS V. UTAH; MARCH 19, 2016
Jakob Poeltl is a great basketball player, now with the NBA’s Spurs. He’d be showcasing his skills to scouts in this one against Domantas Sabonis — maybe the only recruit to pass on a $630,000 European contract to play for GU. Sabonis had 19 points and 10 rebounds; Poeltl had 5 points and four rebounds.
STEPH CURRY, DAVIDSON; MARCH 21, 2008
This was a trap all the way. The 7-seeded Zags get sent to North Carolina to play a local team with a skinny kid who apparently could shoot pretty well. That kid? The now-legendary Steph Curry. He hung 40 on Gonzaga, with eight three-pointers, on the way to beating Gonzaga and nearly leading his team to the Final Four.
HEARTBREAKERS ARIZONA; MARCH 22, 2003
But for a couple bounces, Gonzaga nearly pulled off the upset of the No. 1-seeded Wildcats, finally falling 96-95 in double overtime. Both teams had plenty of firepower, with Luke Walton and Channing Frye going up against Rony Turiaf and Blake Stepp. Tough loss, but a definite character-builder.
UCLA; MARCH 22, 2006
This one still hurts, as the Bruins went on an 11-0 run to finish the game, winning 73-71. NCAA co-player of the year Adam Morrison’s tears flowed after the buzzer; two UCLA players helped him off the floor in a show of sportsmanship they still play on highlight reels.
TY LAWSON, NORTH CAROLINA; MARCH 27, 2009
What started out as a demonstration of the beautiful game by both sides quickly got out of hand as point guard Ty Lawson orchestrated a masterpiece with his stacked ensemble (Danny Green, Tyler Hansbrough, Wayne Ellington). The Tar Heels went on to win the tournament.
WICHITA STATE; MARCH 23, 2013
JIMMER FREDETTE, BYU; MARCH 19, 2011
DUKE; MARCH 29, 2015
Gonzaga earned its first-ever No. 1 seed, but they ran into a buzzsaw in fellow mid-major Wichita State, which hit 14 three-pointers including, at one point, five straight. The Shockers were for real, making it to the Final Four as a 9-seed and going undefeated the next regular season.
It’s easy to forget, but BYU used to play in the Mountain West. In fact, 2011 was their last year before moving to the WCC. Jimmer Fredette was the biggest college scoring sensation since Adam Morrison, and he did not disappoint with 34 points, including seven three-pointers, in an 89-67 win.
ZAGS ON FIRE DAN DICKAU V. VIRGINIA; MARCH 16, 2001
When the Zags landed transfer Dan Dickau from the mighty UW, it served notice that the little team from Spokane was taking things up a notch. And his impact was on full display here, as he racked up 21 first-half points on the way to 29 for the game. Gonzaga needed every point in the 86-85 upset. GONZAGA UNIVERSITY ATHLETICS PHOTO
ADAM MORRISON V. XAVIER; MARCH 16, 2006
The scoring machine with the wispy ’stache was teased by Xavier fans throughout. But in the end, he shut them up by dropping 35 points, including two free throws to seal it. How much did he want it? He jumped into the scrum on a rebound, winning the ball and drawing that final foul.
STEVEN GRAY V. DAVIDSON; MARCH 21, 2008
All eyes were on Steph Curry in this one, but Gray also went off, with seven three-pointers. Fun fact: Just as current Zags Corey Kispert and Anton Watson are Washington recruits, Dickau (Prairie High, near Vancouver), Morrison (Mead) and Gray (Bainbridge Island) were Evergreen State talents.
YOUNG KWAK PHOTO
BRANDON CLARKE V. BAYLOR; MARCH 23, 2019
When you play for San Jose State, not everybody knows your name. But when you transfer to Gonzaga, then go nose to nose with Zion Williamson and beat him in Maui, people get to know you. Clarke’s stat line against Baylor later in March Madness looks like a misprint, but it’s not: 36 points, eight rebounds, five blocks.
So this is what it feels like at the grown-up table. Starting in 2014, Gonzaga ended their next four seasons against Arizona, Duke, Syracuse and North Carolina. Championships ain’t easy. Missing a chance to pull into a tie late against an uber-talented Blue Devils squad, the Zags lost by 14.
NORTH CAROLINA; APRIL 3, 2017
After a tough loss to Villanova in the 2016 Final, the Tar Heels turned it around to win a bit of a weird championship game with lots of whistles and 52 total free throws. Still, the squad from Spokane did everyone very proud and gave us a taste. Four years on, it lingers and Zag Nation wants more. And here we go... n
FINAL FOUR ON SATURDAY
For the second time in school history, Gonzaga is heading to the Final Four. And they’re doing so on one of the most impressive college basketball runs in history. After an undefeated regular season — a season anything but “regular” thanks to COVID-19 — and run through the West Coast Conference tournament, the Zags dispatched Norfolk State, Oklahoma, Creighton and USC to make it to the Final Four. If they win their next two games, Gonzaga will bring a national championship to Spokane, and be the first undefeated men’s college basketball team since Indiana in 1976. As the Inlander went to press, Gonzaga’s opponent hadn’t been determined. The Zags will play Saturday against either Michigan or UCLA at either 2:14 pm or 5:34 pm Pacific time on CBS. A victory Saturday puts them in the national championship game Monday night at 6:20 pm.
JAMIE SCHWABEROW/ NCAA PHOTOS VIA GETTY IMAGES
APRIL 1, 2021 INLANDER 25
COFFEE
Coffee Quest A personal search for the perfect cup of pour-over coffee, with tips from two local roasters BY NATALIE RIETH Warren Gilles brewing a perfect cup at Arctos Coffee. YOUNG KWAK PHOTO
T
hose who know me are well aware I’m a coffee fiend. And by coffee fiend, I mean my pour-over set is one of my closest companions. It wasn’t always this way, however, and mastering the perfect cup of at-home coffee took plenty of trial and error. In fall 2019, I made my first adult kitchen appliance purchase. My new Nespresso machine made me quickly grow accustomed to pampering myself with coffee, both for luxury and functional purposes. Last March, the first task on my spring break bucket list was getting pour-over coffee from one of my favorite coffee shops back home in Fullerton, California: Philz Coffee. But then COVID-19 hit, and pandemic life became my new reality. I resorted by day to my family’s tried-andtrue Keurig to survive my 8 am Zoom classes. By night, I dreamt of the luxurious Nespresso that was oh-so-lonely back in my college dorm. My lavish latte lifestyle was put on temporary delay.
26 INLANDER APRIL 1, 2021
About a month into my new Keurig-brewing fate, I began missing flavorful, coffee shop-grade caffeine. The next stage of my coffee-making journey started when I saw a TikTok recipe for whipped coffee. Since a milk frother wasn’t readily at hand in my home kitchen, I opted for a handheld mixer to blend the instant coffee, water and sugar, a task that interrupted far too many of my brother’s Zoom calls. After a few weeks of daily whipped coffee, my best friend discovered a copycat recipe for Philz’s pour-over coffee that influenced me to purchase my own pour-over set and additional supplies. My brother was ecstatic that the constant whipped coffee commotion was over, but then he had a loud coffee bean grinder to deal with until I went back to school in the fall. Don’t worry: I repaid him with more than enough coffee. If you’re a fan of delicious brown sugar flavor, get your barista apron on, because you’ll adore this Philz Coffee dupe: Start off by heating your pre-filled kettle to 200 degrees. As the water heats, weigh out 20 grams of coffee beans (to make one cup of coffee). I usually opt for 21 grams as a portion of the grounds will typically get caught in the grinder. Once heated, soak the coffee filter to wash out its paper taste, and then fill the liner with the ground coffee. Before you start pouring water — please, I beg you — reset your scale so it reads zero. Far too many personal breakdowns have been caused from this rookie mistake. Soak the coffee with a little water to allow them to oxidize and release flavor for roughly 40 seconds. Once submerged, continue to pour water in a circular motion, until your scale reads 180 grams of water, and set aside when complete. Add roughly 2 tablespoons of heavy whipping cream and a spoonful of brown sugar to a shakeable container. Twist on the lid, and shake until the cream reaches a whipped consistency. If you enjoy sweeter coffee, add more heavy whipping cream and brown sugar to your liking. After you shake, add some ice, pour in your coffee, delicately mix to combine the coffee and whipped topping and viola! I typically make this topping as an occasional treat, since it takes a bit more time to make. Most mornings or afternoons (depending on how the day is going) I add in a splash of half and half or flavored creamer.
Happy Easter
holes in styrofoam cups and adding a paper filter to create their own pour-over method. “There’s a lot of wiggle room from just purchasing fancy-dancy equipment,” says Jordan.
THE PERFECT ROAST
“Number one is finding the coffee that you like the best,” says Jordan. Light roasts are lighter in both taste and texture and often have a juicy, fruity quality. Medium roasts are where chocolatey and caramel flavors come in, and dark roasts are smoky and sometimes bitter in taste. Even though there are plenty of delicious options at grocery stores, Jordan recommends supporting local roasters that sell organic, fair trade coffee.
April 4th 2021
Here Comes the Sun!
THE DAILY GRIND
When it’s time to grind your beans, it’s important to consider how coarse or fine the grind is. When a coffee grind is finer, it takes longer for the water to drip through, but the tasty flavor will be pulled out as gravity pulls the water down through the filter. With coarser grinds, the result is a lighter and sometimes thinner coffee. “There’s definitely a window there that you can tinker with,” Jordan says. “And that’s where personal preference comes in.”
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I’m (almost) exclusively an iced coffee drinker, no matter the weather. But for those who prefer hot coffee, here’s a recipe from Gilles that makes two hot pour-over cups.
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“Setting aside time to make someone else I love a cup of coffee to enjoy with me in the moment is the best feeling.”
F
or fellow coffee lovers looking to elevate their at-home coffee making skills, we sought some tips and tricks from two local roasters: Warren Gilles of Arctos Coffee & Roasting Co. and Aaron Jordan of Roast House Coffee.
TOOLS OF THE TRADE
Gilles at Arctos says if you feel the need to invest in more coffee-making kitchen gadgets beyond a pour-over brewing set, a nice electric kettle is well worth the investment. The ideal barista kettle can heat up to 200 degrees and has a long, skinny spout to allow for a controlled pour. But any sort of electric kettle will get the job done. While working in a restaurant in Detroit, Jordan recollects he and his coworkers poking
Start off by grinding 40 grams of coffee beans. Heat your electric kettle to 200 degrees, and then pre-wet a filter. Once the water touches the coffee grounds, start timing for 30-40 seconds. You’ll be pouring 600 grams of water total, but start off with 100 grams of water, just enough to cover coffee grounds. Continue filling water to the top of the coffee until it’s a combined 600 grams of water. Remember to pour in slow, circular motions.
CUSTOMIZE YOUR CUP
Coffee making is a game of trial and error when it comes to creating a cup you enjoy. Both Gilles and Jordan recommend altering grind size and/or the amount of water poured through the grounds to either strengthen or dilute the coffee to your personal liking. A year into this coffee-making journey, not only have I been able to save a lot of money, but I’ve also been able to support small businesses whenever I’m in need of a new bag of beans. Making coffee also brings happiness into my life. By making myself an iced pour-over, the daily dose of caffeine is sure to make me smile. But setting aside time to make someone else I love a cup of coffee to enjoy with me in the moment is the best feeling. What can I say? Homemade coffee is my love language. n
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APRIL 1, 2021 INLANDER 27
ANNIVERSARY
YER DARN
TOOTIN’
Does the Coen brothers’ Fargo hold up 25 years after its release? You betcha. BY NATHAN WEINBENDER
W
hat’s your favorite movie? I’m asked often, usually a few drinks into a discursive barroom conversation, and I’ve always had a tough time answering. But the older I get, the more confident I’ve become in my choice: Joel and Ethan Coen’s Fargo, a 1996 black comedy about a string of increasingly bizarre crimes that leaves a trail of dead bodies scattered between Minnesota and North Dakota. The film was released 25 years ago this week, and it hasn’t aged a day. It was a critical smash upon its release, with both Siskel and Ebert naming it the best film of ’96, and it eventually won two Oscars (for its screenplay and for Frances McDormand’s lead performance), was preserved by the Library of Congress and inspired a beloved TV spinoff. So why is it my favorite movie? It has all the qualities I look for in a film: rich characters, an unpredictable plot, a gorgeous visual style (courtesy of frequent Coen
28 INLANDER APRIL 1, 2021
collaborator Roger Deakins), an audacious juggling of tones, and a lived-in specificity that makes its setting seem so real and right. It’s funny and it’s scary. It’s brilliantly acted. It ends on a note of disarming warmth and wisdom. I never get tired of it, and I get something new out of it every time I watch it. Just about everyone remembers isolated scenes and images from the film. The pregnant cop. The all-seeing Paul Bunyan statue. The “Minnesota nice” accents with their exaggerated vowels. The wood chipper. But Fargo is about so much more than its cultural shorthand, and it’s arguably the most empathetic film the Coens have made, its shocking bursts of violence notwithstanding. They began writing it shortly after their indifferently received screwball throwback The Hudsucker Proxy (1994), and after production on their stoned caper comedy The Big Lebowski was delayed. (According to Todd Melby’s new book A Lot Can Happen in the Middle of Nowhere, which
exhaustively details the making of Fargo, the Coens also wrote the first draft of 2000’s O Brother, Where Art Thou? while they were revising this one.) Inspired by their upbringing in the Minneapolis suburbs, the Coens concocted a loopy, clockwork plot set in the sleepy small towns of their youth, where seemingly good people are capable of horrible things and the lily-white snow is stained with blood. Despite the title, most of the movie is set in Minnesota, where car salesman Jerry Lundegaard (William H. Macy, who’s never been better) is trying to claw his way out of debt. He hires two thugs — the weaselly, motormouthed Carl (Steve Buscemi) and the hulking, inarticulate Gaear (Peter Storemare) — to kidnap his wife (Kristen Rudrüd), knowing that his wealthy father-in-law (Harve Presnell) will cough up the ransom. Of course, things go horribly wrong (as they must in stories like this), and innocent people wind up dead. En-
FILM | SHORTS ter Marge Gunderson (McDormand), the police chief of Brainerd, Minnesota, who’s seven months pregnant and who turns out to be unexpectedly tenacious in her search for the killers. Fargo was the Coens’ sixth feature, and it represented the apotheosis of a career that had already become synonymous with the blending of seemingly incongruous tones and styles. They had dabbled in traditionally dark genres — the noirish thriller Blood Simple, the psychological parable Barton Fink, the eccentric gangland drama Miller’s Crossing — but imbued them all with queasy comedy, and even their zany farces (Raising Arizona, The Hudsucker Proxy) were populated by desperate and lonely people. Fargo lands somewhere in between. It’s gruesomely violent at times, but it also goes for big, broad laughs. Like their previous films, it’s precise in its consideration of time and place, filled with minor characters who suggest a more expansive universe. There’s the car buyer (Gary Houston) who’s the first person we see Jerry lie to, and who nearly bursts a blood vessel while trying to remain polite. The young women (Larissa Kokernot and Melissa Peterman) who sleep with Carl and Gaear and relay details of their sexual prowess to Marge. The bartender (Bain Boehlke) who humorously recalls an encounter with Carl while shoveling snow. Steve Park as Mike Yanagita, a former classmate of Marge’s who asks her to dinner under false pretenses. Many of these side characters are played for laughs, and Melby’s book delves into contemporaneous reports of Minnesotans being offended by their depiction in the film. But it’s clear that the comedy comes from a place of shrewd observation and cockeyed affection: After all, you can’t poke fun at a place unless you’re intimately familiar with it. Like so many crime plots, Fargo is a film about deception, but its innovation is in moving this kind of plot to a place known for downhome politesse. Jerry is lying to everyone. His hired goons are lying to each other. Mike Yanagita lies to Marge, selling her a sob story that turns out to be fake, and it’s his duplicity that leads her back to Jerry. The Coens themselves are lying to the audience: The movie opens with text claiming it’s based on a true story; it isn’t. The sole bastion of sincerity in the Coens’ bitter world is Marge Gunderson, who isn’t introduced until the 30-minute mark. We rarely see movies (especially thrillers) with heroes like her, and McDormand’s performance is one of the most adroit pieces of acting I’ve ever seen. She’s personable. She’s earnest. She’s as concerned about the gory details of the crimes as she is about the prices at the Radisson buffet. She and her husband, Norm (John Carroll Lynch), genuinely seem to love each other. And yet Marge is also a shrewd investigative mind — notice how her conjecture about the details of the crime turns out to be accurate — and we’re forced to reexamine our own assumptions about her character as she efficiently cracks the case. The Coens have been labeled as cynics and misanthropes, and have sometimes been criticized for erecting an emotional barrier between themselves and their characters. That may be true sometimes, but Fargo is almost a repudiation of cynicism. After all the death and all the deceit, the Coens leave us not with the criminals but with good ol’ Marge and Norm: He’s sold a painting to be featured on a postage stamp, she’s about to have their baby, they’re truly in love with each other, and it’s a beautiful day. n Fargo is available to rent on Amazon, Google Play and iTunes.
OPENING FILMS GODZILLA VS. KONG
Like Batman and Superman before them, cinema’s most famous giant ape and radioactive lizard duke it out while the world watches. Also streaming on HBO Max. (NW) Rated PG-13
Godzilla vs. Kong
THE UNHOLY
Another entry in the Sunday school horror genre, this one about deaf girl who is imbued with healing powers by the Virgin Mary. Other, more sinister events follow. (NW) Rated PG-13
NOW PLAYING BORAT SUBSEQUENT MOVIEFILM
The Kazakh TV journalist returns to America with his daughter in tow, encountering Mike Pence, Rudy Giuliani and the coronavirus. Also streaming on Amazon Prime. (NW) Rated R
CHAOS WALKING
Based on a series of YA sci-fi novels, two teenage misfits (Tom Holland and Daisy Ridley) find each other on a telepathic, mostly male planet on the brink of civil war. (NW) Rated PG-13
THE COURIER
Inspired by true events, Benedict Cumberbatch plays a London entrepreneur who becomes involved in Cold War intrigue and is soon in over his head. (NW) Rated PG-13
THE FATHER
Anthony Hopkins is earning raves as an aging widower slipping further into dementia, who refuses treatment from daughter Olivia Colman. (NW) Rated PG-13
JUDAS & THE BLACK MESSIAH
The true story of Black Panther visionary Fred Hampton (Daniel Kaluuya) and the FBI informant (Lakeith Stanfield) who infiltrated the organization in the late 1960s. (NW) Rated R
LONG WEEKEND
An old-school rom-com with fantasy trapplings, centering on a struggling writer whose chance encounter with a carefree woman changes his perception of the world. (NW) Rated R
THE MARKSMAN
Here’s yet another gritty Liam Neeson thriller, and this time he’s a rancher living on the U.S.-Mexico border who becomes protector of a Mexican boy running from a cartel. (NW) Rated PG-13
MINARI
Writer-director Lee Isaac Chung borrows from his own life in this delicate story of Korean immigrants who settle onto a rural Arkansas farm in the early ’80s. (NW) Rated PG-13
NEWS OF THE WORLD
From director Paul Greengrass, a Civil War
vet (Tom Hanks) is assigned to retrieve a White girl from a Native tribe and return her to her biological family. (NW) Rated PG-13
NOBODY
A new riff on the Death Wish formula, starring Bob Odenkirk as a meek suburban father who goes into full-on revenge mode after his family is attacked. (NW) Rated R
NOMADLAND
The most acclaimed film of the year, a fiction-documentary hybrid starring Frances McDormand as a widow who has embraced a nomadic existence. Also streaming on Hulu. (NW) Rated R
PROMISING YOUNG WOMAN
Carey Mulligan’s Oscar-nominated performance drives this pitch-black comedy about a self-imposed avenging angel who aims to take down predatory men. (NW) Rated R
RAYA & THE LAST DRAGON
The latest Disney animated feature, a multicultural fable that follows a teenage warrior’s hunt for the titular creature. Also streaming on Disney+. (NW) Rated PG
SIX MINUTES TO MIDNIGHT
A British spy poses as a teacher to infiltrate a Nazi-affiliated private school at the height of World War II. Eddie Izzard and Judi Dench star. (NW) Rated PG-13
TOM & JERRY
The beloved cartoon cat and mouse get their first mostly live-action feature, with the likes of Chloe Grace Moretz and Michael Pena as their human friends. Also streaming on HBO Max. (NW) Rated PG
THE VAULT
In this caper, a team of thieves plots to steal priceless artifacts from a Spanish bank while the country is distracted by the World Cup, and they have less than two hours to do it. (NW) Rated R
WONDER WOMAN 1984
This divisive sequel to the 2017 blockbuster brings Diana Prince into the era of Reaganomics and Day-Glo, where an ancient, wishfulfilling artifact threatens humanity. (NW) Rated PG-13 n
Film listings reflect showtimes at AMC River Park Square 20 (808 W. Main), Village Centre Cinemas in Wandermere (12622 N. Division) and Hayden Cinema (300 Senta Dr). All Regal Cinema chains, the Magic Lantern Theater and the Garland Theater remain temporarily closed.
APRIL 1, 2021 INLANDER 29
REOPENING
Pressing
Play(Again) Slowly but surely, live music is coming back to Spokane venues BY NATHAN WEINBENDER
I
Lucas Brookbank Brown at the Red Room Lounge YOUNG KWAK PHOTO
30 INLANDER APRIL 1, 2021
t has been more than a year since the COVID-19 pandemic forced music venues to turn their signs to “closed,” since live music went almost entirely virtual and since most regular performers last played in front of a crowd in the same room. Although Spokane’s music scene is still pretty quiet heading into April, with most venues waiting for looser restrictions before reopening, a handful of musicians have started playing again and are testing out the limitations of live music in these final phases of reopening. The Red Room Lounge nightclub is one of many downtown venues that regularly hosted live music pre-pandemic, and it’s where local singer-songwriter Lucas Brookbank Brown hosted two popular weekly shows — a Monday night open mic showcase and a Wednesday night jam session. For the first time since last March, Brown is back on the Red Room stage, but in a slightly different format: He still fronts an in-house band on Wednesday evenings, and there’s still a loose and jammy feel with a revolving group of musicians joining him. But the audience members have to stay put, and the regular open mic shows are on hold for now. “Trying to do things in a safe and respectful way has a lot of challenges,” Brown says. “It’s definitely one major obstacle for places to try and have an environment where social distancing is encouraged. … Obviously, it feels great to be back and to feel the energy of people in a room. I think people have a renewed respect for the power of live music.” As has become the norm, that energy comes with caveats. Per Gov. Jay Inslee’s Phase 3 reopening guidelines, the groups attending these shows must be limited to 15 people (and come from no more than two separate households). Artists must perform at least 20 feet away from those socially distanced audiences, and the performances themselves can’t exceed three hours. In most cases, audience members aren’t allowed to move around while performances are happening. It’s admittedly difficult replicating the loose vibe of a pre-COVID concert with so many rules in place, but Brown says that Red Room’s spacious layout, which is currently allowing for 50 percent of its regular 200-person capacity, is ideal for a socially distanced show. “We have high ceilings, and we have a really high capacity. It’s a very open space,” Brown says. “Some places don’t have that advantage, so it’s still a big struggle.” Jason Perry is one of many full-time musicians who saw their calendars go blank beginning last March. Save for the occasional summertime show in Idaho and a regular hosting stint at Hayden’s Mad Bomber Brewing, 2020 was a bleak year as far as musical prospects in Spokane were concerned. Since Spokane County moved into Phase 3, Perry has had a new gig at Spokane’s Hidden Mother Brewery, performing with a rotating roster of friends and collaborators on Wednesday nights, followed by a weekly open mic on
Thursdays. In both instances, Perry says he has safety measures in place: Performers are encouraged to bring their own microphones, and he has plenty of alcohol disinfectant on hand. Even with the limited capacities and distancing measures in place, Perry says the response from musicstarved audiences has been “overwhelmingly positive.” “Imagine the look in somebody’s eyes when they thank you because they haven’t seen live music in a year,” he says. “The whole prospect of performing in general is pretty odd, even in the best of times. It’s just a couple other things to be mindful of, but the fundamental activity of just being vulnerable and expressing something — it’s all the same.” “The energy feels very positive,” Brown concurs. “Even with just a little bit of music back, it’s helping give people some hope, some kind of sense of a light at the end of the tunnel for the last year.” Livestreams and virtual concerts have been a go-to source of entertainment for both performers and music lovers in the last 12 months, and they may very well continue for some time. But Perry says there will always be a need for people to gather in person and experience live music, and it’s a relief to do it again, regardless of the restraints. “I think there’s a really significant human value to being in a space with people,” Perry says. “That’s why I do what I do, and have done it for many years. It’s one of the most beautiful things that I can experience on a regular basis, and [the pandemic] has definitely brought into clearer vision how staggeringly beautiful that is. We already knew it, but in losing it, I think we’re all a little bit more aware of it.” n Red Room Lounge, 521 W. Sprague, hosts live music on Wednesdays starting at 8 pm. The Hidden Mother Brewery, 1303 N. Washington, hosts Jason Perry on Wednesdays and open mic on Thursdays, both starting at 5 pm.
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APRIL 1, 2021 INLANDER 31
WORDS SPEAKING CHANGE
Writer, organizer and educator Mahogany L. Browne is virtually visiting Washington State University as part of the English Department’s annual Visiting Writers Series. Browne serves as the interim executive director of Urban Word NYC and poetry coordinator at St. Francis College. Her work includes Chlorine Sky, Woke: A Young Poet’s Call to Justice, Black Girl Magic, Woke Baby and Kissing Caskets. She is currently finishing her first book of essays centered on mass incarceration and its impact on women and children. In addition to her literary works, Browne also founded Woke Baby Book Fair, a nationwide diversity literature campaign, and has been the recipient of fellowships from organizations such as Agnes Gund, Air Serenbe, Cave Canem, Poets House, Mellon Research and Raushcenberg. — SPENCER BROWN An Evening with Mahogany L. Browne • Wed, April 7 at 6 pm • Free • Online; details at english.wsu.edu/visiting-writers/
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32 INLANDER APRIL 1, 2021
COMMUNITY CONSIDER YOURSELF SPRUNG WORDS NEW PERSPECTIVES There’s no denying spring is officially on; temperatures are up, and I saw a happy, fat robin the size of a lunchbox the other day. Another sure sign? More outdoor markets popping up to give local farmers and foodies reason to get together and swap pandemic stories. Spokane Parks & Recreation is launching a spring market at Riverfront Park’s Pavilion April 7, and you’ll find food trucks (a rotation of four or five different ones each week, including the likes of Tacos Camargo, Kona Ice and Swell Coffee) and vendors like Side Hustle Syrups, Bombshell Sweets and C.M. Boxer Soapworks selling all manner of goodies. After a year of anything but normal, it’s going to feel pretty good to wander an outdoor market again. — DAN NAILEN Spring Market at the Pavilion • April 7-May 12, Wednesdays from 3-7 pm • Free • Riverfront Park • 507 N. Howard St. • riverfrontspokane.com
Brew a hot pot of coffee and join Spokane FāVS for the April edition of “Coffee Talk,” its monthly community forum to reflect on faith and ethics. As the next installment falls on Easter weekend, it reflects the theme of holidays and their role in various faith communities. An expert panel features three guest speakers: the Rev. Katy Shedlock, Himani Agrawal and Brian Siebeking. Shedlock is a Methodist minister in Spokane who co-pastors two churches, Audubon UMC and Creator’s Table. Agrawal is the cultural coordinator and treasurer of Spokane Hindu Temple and Cultural Center and a Spokane FāVS board member. Siebeking is a professor in the Gonzaga Religious Studies Department, an Orthodox Christian and a scholar of Islam. Through diverse panelists, the event aims to extend beyond just Christian holidays to include those of a variety of belief systems. — NATALIE RIETH Virtual Coffee Talk: The Role of Holidays in Different Faith Traditions • Sat, April 3 at 10 am • Free; preregistration required • Details at spokanefavs.com/coffee-talk/
I’d like to see a photo to represent each section with the section header of the photo (&Home, & Home..)
Living Well in the
Inland Northwest
VISUAL ARTS TIME TO REFLECT
A trio of local female artists are showcasing their unique artistry in a group show opening at Terrain Gallery as part of April’s First Friday events. Though their preferred media vary, from textile art to painting, featured works by Rosemary Barile, Karen Mobley and Deb Sheldon share a common thread, having all been created since the start of the pandemic. Barile summarizes sentiments shared among the trio in her artist statement: “Like most artists I have been struggling to navigate the challenges of COVID over the past year. Canceled shows, closed galleries, anxiety, fear, panic and anger — so much anger. Early on it became clear that I needed to find a way forward for the sake of my mental health, to embrace this gift of time and solitude brought on by circumstances so beyond my control.” Stop by Rising Above if you’re seeking a moment of calm reflection and a sense of shared understanding. — CHEY SCOTT Rising Above: Art by Rosemary Barile, Karen Mobley and Deb Sheldon • April 2-May 1; gallery open Thu-Sat from 6-8 pm • Free • Terrain Gallery • 304 W. Pacific Ave. • terrainspokane.com
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MUSIC VIRTUAL ORCHESTRA
We may not be ready for big concerts quite yet, but that doesn’t mean we have to be totally deprived of music. The Spokane Symphony is launching a five-part virtual spring concert series called “Overtones: Connecting Art, Music and Science.” Each installment features a 90-minute orchestral performance as well as conversations between Symphony Director James Lowe and musicians, historians and other local experts. This weekend marks the premiere of the series’ first entry, which is focused on the concept of musical roots, exploring the folk traditions that inspired Polish, Czech and Scottish composers. Access to the entire on-demand series runs $100, but you can also purchase tickets for the individual concerts that drop every two weeks. This first production debuts at noon on Friday and will be available to view through May 28. — NATHAN WEINBENDER
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Spokane Symphony at Home • Fri, April 2 through Fri, May 28 • $25/show; $100/series • spokanesymphony.org
APRIL 1, 2021 INLANDER 33
understand how much you mean to this community and how much you mean to me. Your family is one that lifts my spirit, your ability to handle the hearts and condition of others with such delicacy and to bring so much joy into every moment is something precious to me. Thank you for helping my cause with good intentions and for being a pillar in the community I love and pray for. Only the best for the best. Xoxo
CHEERS
I SAW YOU DOWNTOWN STADIUM = SPOKANE’S FUTURE The future is downtown, NOT Joe Albi. If you want to be part of the discussion let your voice be heard at spokaneschools.org/stadiumTE The current discussion is bombarded by old farts who can’t parallel park downtown and actually attended that Joe Albi rock concert in the ‘80s. Let’s get a pro soccer team and boost our economy! Timbers & Sounders we’re coming for you! PEKING NORTH I saw you, Tuesday March 24, at the Peking North. You, striking hazel eyes, dark chocolate skin and ginormous traps. Me, waiting for you to spend the rest of your life with me. Hey, gators don’t sweat. BROWNE’S ADDITION ROSAUERS Red flannel, black beanie. You got into a work van. Pretty sure you saw me too..flannel pants, boots, black jacket. COVID-safe coffee sometime? DEB AND GARY (WITH A TOP HAT) You’re often the ones sacrificing space, time and privacy to see others are cared for and warm. You and the gestures of kindness you give are exactly what provides those you help the healing they need in order to reclaim the joy and love in their lives. I am not sure you
BROWNE’S ADDITION BEAUTIFIER “Cheers, to the lovely lady I see at least a couple times a week, walking her sweet little dog, and also picking up refuse all along your walk. You make the neighborhood a much nicer-looking place. Thank you! “ KENDALL YARDS HO-HUM COLORS Didn’t know whether to use “cheers” or “jeers” because I like seeing everything about Kendall Yards across the river except for the boring building colors. However I and many of my neighbors think that the paint colors that were chosen for the buildings and one of the apartment buildings don’t do Kendall Yards justice. The side of one building facing south looks like a brown barn and the other colors on two of the buildings are painted gray with the uglyist dull “taupe.” So knowing that we don’t have anything to say about the colors that are chosen, we are asking the developer to PLEASE choose brighter colors on the new buildings so that Kendall Yards will be more appealing. PINK BUG Thank you to the driver of pink classic Volkswagen Bug — you have a ski rack that frequently had skis on it and used to park on Riverside in Browne’s. Just want you to know that your car put many smiles on my face during my pandemic walks. I KNOW YOU READ THESE I know you read these because you send me photos of the ones you think are funny. I joke that some are from me, but this one really is. I love you — all ways, always.
You say the words and I’m there. Call me when it’s over. THANK YOU VOLUNTEERS AT THE ARENA I want to try to thank everyone that was involved with COVID-19 vaccination shots at the Spokane Arena. From the time we left the house, parked
“
has more street smarts. As “intellectual elites” they strip, flay and contort the law to suit their end. At your 1st meeting if u see Gonzaga hardware affixed, run! CA is good, as is U of I. If lawyer selection is school-based you will most certainly greet excellent fortune. Note: I represent myself and whilst stunning
perhaps the person is too close to said “store”? Hmmmmm. Nevertheless, the idiotic submission made a few of us laugh. We’re also sure that the person who wrote the criticism of the “shopper” has a GREAT job! Neverthless, we’re inclined to go with the more intelligent original thinking. Dear SRHD:
Your car put many smiles on my face during my pandemic walks.
the car and walked in to get our shots, it was a flawless appointment. They had folks stationed in the parking lot, on the way in, various locations inside and while you waited the 20 minutes after the shot. We got our 2nd shots on the 25th of this month, and both shots would not have been possible without the outstanding volunteer support Spokane got from those who volunteered to help. Our hats are off to you, and we offer our humble thank-you for a job well done.
JEERS REPLY TO “WHO’S WRONG?” Who’s wrong? No jeers, just tears... for a downtown bartender who struggled to hide a year’s worth of despair, financial hardship, and disappointment behind a stoic COVID mask of frustration. No jeers, just tears... for someone who walked into a downtown bar/restaurant just to grab an Inlander... too busy, too harried, perhaps running too late or too broke for anything more. It’s free after all... because of all the business advertising that supports it. You ask who was right? I ask who was blind. HEARTLESS IN SPOKAN Gonzaga University trained lawyers are selfserving jurist ****** inept automatons. On the East Coast, the common man
the crowd is fun time after time, they have constructed a towering kangaroo court. Thank God is right: (Adv’d = J.D. Me = B.S. Dear T. Wallace, As you step into court we serve under heraldic moonlight.) This tournament, and horror of Gonzaga will not soon rest. REQUEST DENIED Jeers to mental health outreach. A woman was shot and killed in the lobby of the county jail. Earlier in the day, officers were called to her motel room due to a disturbance call. Officers requested a Crisis Response Specialist but, according to the Spokesman-Review, “the request was denied.” Shame on you. Why is it impossible to get a mental health response team to respond to a mental health crises? My friend experienced this 2 years ago. Where’s the accountability? RE: JUNKY STORE ON SPRAGUE SHOPPER Was there ever a time in which people who submitted items to the Cheers/Jeers section were intelligent? Reading the previous post “Junky Store on Sprague Shopper,” it sure seems like a lot of assumptions were made regarding voting preferences, economic status, and living arrangements. Many good schools exist in the area. Perhaps the person who wrote that could take a few courses. It sure seems like a sensitive nerve was hit. We wonder if
JEERS Jeers to the lowlife that stole my blue sun. And therapies and painted beer bottle from my trees in my yard from loved ones gone and cannot replace get a Life. And Your own stuff. Also jeers to city trying to shove downtown stadium down our throats that was voted against — never vote for school bonds again. Need new city council who doesn’t want to fluoridate our water and ruin our city. n
THIS WEEK'S ANSWERS S A S H A A S P
O B I
SOUND OFF
1. Visit Inlander.com/isawyou by 3 pm Monday. 2. Pick a category (I Saw You, You Saw Me, Cheers or Jeers). 3. Provide basic info: your name and email (so we know you’re real). 4. To connect via I Saw You, provide a non-identifying email to be included with your submission — like “petals327@yahoo.com,” not “j.smith@comcast.net.”
34 INLANDER APRIL 1, 2021
”
Please investigate and then Close them down! Close them down! Close them Down! Close them Down! I think I know the junky store. It’s close to downtown in the middle of old Hookerville. What a moron!
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NOTE: I Saw You/Cheers & Jeers is for adults 18 or older. The Inlander reserves the right to edit or reject any posting at any time at its sole discretion and assumes no responsibility for the content.
LEGALIZATION
To Each Their Own States continue to chart their own path with pot BY WILL MAUPIN
C
annabis continues to have a blurry legal status in the United States. Over the past week that’s been as clear as ever with some states, like our own, treating it one way while others struggle to decide whether they’re ready to view it as legal in the first place. Here’s a look at the varying states of legality within our country.
REGULATION NEEDED
On Saturday, March 27, lawmakers in New York came to an agreement that will bring the Empire State into the legal recreational cannabis club.
In Washington, cannabis is legal to the point that growers need to deal with regulation from the state’s Liquor and Cannabis Board as well as the state’s Department of Agriculture. Last week, Washington’s Department of Agriculture announced updates to the list of pesticides approved for use on cannabis crops. ...continued on next page
APRIL 1, 2021 INLANDER 35
GREEN ZONE | LEGALIZATION
GREEN ZONE
“TO EACH THEIR OWN,” CONTINUED... Overall, the state has approved 355 different products that fall under the umbrella of pesticide. That number is smaller than it used to be. Last week’s changes included the addition of 16 new pesticides to the approved list and the removal of 27 others. The state did not explain why those specific pesticides were approved or removed. Growers can continue to use the no-longer-approved pesticides if they purchased them before the change.
LEGALIZATION IMMINENT
BE AWARE: Marijuana is legal for adults 21 and older under Washington State law (e.g., RCW 69.50, RCW 69.51A, HB0001 Initiative 502 and Senate Bill 5052). State law does not preempt federal law; possessing, using, distributing and selling marijuana remains illegal under federal law. In Washington state, consuming marijuana in public, driving while under the influence of marijuana and transporting marijuana across state lines are all illegal. Marijuana has intoxicating effects; there may be health risks associated with its consumption, and it may be habit-forming. It can also impair concentration, coordination and judgment. Do not operate a vehicle or machinery under the influence of this drug. Keep out of reach of children. For more information, consult the Washington State Liquor and Cannabis Board at www.liq.wa.gov.
36 INLANDER APRIL 1, 2021
On Saturday, March 27, lawmakers in New York came to an agreement that will bring the Empire State into the legal recreational cannabis club. With a Democratic majority in its Legislature and a Democratic governor, one of the bluest states left without a legal market is expected to go green as early as this week, according to reporting from the Associated Press. The legislation in New York sets up a foundation for a legal market, but it won’t immediately open one. Rather, it would immediately legalize possession and expunge records of past convictions for marijuana offenses that no longer would be criminalized. The state would then follow an approach similar to Washington’s in establishing a cannabis board along with rules and regulations for their legal market.
LEGALIZATION POSSIBLE
The day before New York’s news broke, New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham called legislators into a special session to consider recreational cannabis. As is the case in New York, Democrats control the Legislature and governor’s mansion in New Mexico. That doesn’t mean the Land of Enchantment is on the precipice of opening a legal market, though. Grisham called the special session negotiations stalled at the end of the regular legislative session in late March. n
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Advice Goddess GAWKING TALL
AMY ALKON
I really appreciate the science you laid out showing that men instinctively look at women, even if they really love the woman they’re with. Maybe I should stop feeling a tad bad about looking at beautiful women and enjoying beauty? After all, my wife and I have been married 26 years, and I’ve never even kissed anyone else during that time. Admittedly, I’ve sometimes wanted to, and I’ve had opportunities. Thanks for a perspective that brings in science and isn’t the usual man-bashing that’s out there. —Male Reader
Your eyes probably go many places without your body robotically following suit like at a buffet when you ogle the chocolate cake and baby doughnuts while duti— fully piling a plate with raw broccoli and fat-free dip. Fortunately, broccoli rarely retaliates by sobbing, calling you a pig, and making you sleep in your car for three days. Evolutionary psychologist David Buss tells a story about a married guy who emailed him after reading his book “The Evolution of Desire,” which lays out scientific evidence supporting evolutionary theories about human mating psychology. Buss gets heat for the book from those whose beliefs it upends — those who cling to the idea that men and women are largely identical in basic sexual psychology — and he admits, “Some of what I discovered about human mating is not nice.” The man conceded that “maybe some people worry that men’s desire for sexual variety will give men an excuse for cheating.” But, he said, learning about it helped him stay faithful. Buss said the man had previously interpreted his attraction to various women he encountered “as indications that maybe he didn’t love his wife any more. But after reading my book, he realized, ‘Oh, that’s my evolved desire for sexual variety; it doesn’t mean that I don’t love my wife.’” The man’s revelation reflects what Buss sees as “two separate evolved systems”: one for love and one for lust. “We become attracted to other people even if we’re in a loving mating relationship and fully in love with our partner.” In other words, no, you shouldn’t feel bad about eyeballing the ladies. Focus on how much you love your wife and how, despite MMO — means, motive, and opportunity — looking has yet to give way to a need, upon arriving home, to sit in your car feverishly working the hand sanitizer in hopes of getting the glitter-flecked spray tanner off your pants.
MEET JOE BLANK SCREEN
I’m a woman in my late 20s. The guy I’m seeing is “not a phone person” and hates texting. Our time together is wonderful. However, he rarely texts except to make plans. I am used to frequent contact throughout the day via text with boyfriends. My friends say he should be texting every day, multiple times a day. I’m worried his lack of texts signals a lack of interest. — Disturbed Technology was supposed to set us free, not dial back our personal autonomy to that of my late hamster. I didn’t have control over much when I was 8, but I loved how at any moment, I could go all kiddie Mussolini, pull Squeaky out of his cage, and make him turn tricks (uh...do somersaults on a pencil). A smartphone makes constant communication possible; “it doesn’t mandate it,” I wrote in “Good Manners for Nice People Who Sometimes Say F*ck.” Your friends’ daily texting quotas aside, what might it mean that your boyfriend doesn’t spend his entire day texting you? Um...he has a job? He prefers to communicate in spokenword form, ideally in person? (See “not a phone person.”) Frankly, maybe he’s on to something, considering that so many text-versations, beyond the constant attentionhijacking, are basically conversational iceberg lettuce, amounting to: “I’m still alive!” “Yep, still alive here, too. LOL. LOL. LOL.” Chances are your guy shows he cares in a number of ways. Take stock of those. Still feel a little underloved? Consider “the dependency paradox.” Social psychologist Brooke Feeney, who coined the term, finds that in romantic relationships, the more an insecure partner sees they can count on the other to be responsive to their appeals for love and comforting, the less needy and clingy they end up being. (Ultimately, through repeated dependence comes independence.) You might ask him to be more cuddly-touchy-affectionate with you, which, Feeney finds, helps insecure partners calm down and enjoy their relationship. Assuming he cares about you (as “Our time together is wonderful” suggests), it’s a relationship “task” he should enjoy. And though you’re used to texts from a boyfriend, demanding texts from a man who hates texting is to be avoided. It makes a girlfriend seem less like a girlfriend and more like Mussolini with boobs and a phone seem less like a phone and more like a cattle prod that delivers dings, cat memes, and throw-up-face emojis. n ©2021, Amy Alkon, all rights reserved. • Got a problem? Write Amy Alkon, 171 Pier Ave, #280, Santa Monica, CA 90405 or email AdviceAmy@aol.com (www.advicegoddess.com)
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35. 17 of Laila Ali’s wins, for short 44 37. Not just “a” 39. “____ we there yet?” 48 40. Trunk item 41. Mongolian shelter 50 51 52 53 46. “Heavens!” 47. “Sorta” 57 58 48. “Cool” amount 50. Lightweight boxer? 63 51. Response to “Who’s there?” 66 52. Run 53. What a lenient judge 69 may show 55. Mythical creature seen “WHY YOU” on old Bhutanese stamps 56. Thing with three feet 29. Risqué 30. First name of the first man in space 57. Like some traditions 58. Bananagrams piece 31. Panache 59. Kimono sash 32. Reptile seen in hieroglyphics 60. Cartoonist Chast 33. High-priced Japanese beef 61. Petting ____ 34. Avis competitor 40
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1. Jerk 6. One may be pulled out of a bed 10. Questlove hairdo 14. E’en if 15. Dance that men often do shirtless 16. Think ahead 17. Lip-puckering, as kraut 18. Mineral plentiful in kale 19. Dracula accessory 20. South Korean debut of 1985 23. Go ____ 24. Traditional source of material for a sherpa’s coat 25. Ginger ____ 27. “____ Explain Things to Me” (Rebecca Solnit book) 28. Admit defeat 32. Up 35. “____ she blows!” 36. Key near Ctrl 38. Capital that lies about 15 miles from the body of water for
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