Huckleberries Online

Forbes: Spokane Is US ‘Scam Capital’

Posted by DFO

May 7, 2009 2:32 p.m. • 13 comments

And Forbes magazine, apparently unimpressed with the official “Near nature, near perfect” city slogan in Spokane, today pronounced the Lilac City the “Scam Capital of America.” From writer William Barrett’s story: Welcome to Spokane, Wash., a metropolitan object lesson in what can befall the unwary when rugged individualism is revered and consumers unsuspecting. The story paints the city as a sort of freewheeling frontier town. And I suspect it has city leaders doubling up on their blood-pressure medication this morning/Rich Roesler, Eye On Olympia.

Question: OK, those of us who live on the North Idaho side of the state line know that our communities are nicer than Spokane. But … “Scam Capital of America”? C’mon. What do you think Spokane should be known for?

13 comments on this post so far. Add yours!

toadman on May 07 at 2:38 p.m.
Hey Spokane! Gullible much?

I don’t know, I still like the term “Spokannibus” for Spokane, and SpoMeth Valley for our near neighbor to the East.
JeanieSpokane on May 07 at 2:46 p.m.
Not to mention the dual moniker Twilight Zone/Felony Flats in my neck of the woods, lower northwest side - just up from the ill-fated Kendall Yards development that isn’t developing, and just a few blocks further south is the shell of Metropolitan Mortgage (many thanks to Carl Sandifur, Jr.) So now we are the Scum, I mean, Scam Capital of the United States. Right next door to the beautiful and pristine Coeur d’Alene. Our name is mud.
Cis on May 07 at 2:52 p.m.
Spokane Scam Capital? My thoughts of scams is Florida… that is where all the phone calls, on my caller id. come from. Especially the your car warrenty is running out scam.
nic on May 07 at 3:36 p.m.
Heh… in ‘05 the AP stated that “The Spokane area seems awash in pedophiles.” Now it’s the scam capital of the world. Perfect. Noce to know we have such a large group of chimos and con-artists in the local demographic.
Kage_Mann on May 07 at 4:03 p.m.
Thank Gawd, alot of us live in North Idaho.Spokane also, has all
the pimps and prostitutes.Houses of ill repute still abound there.
In Idaho here were as clean as fresh mountain spring water. ;-)
toadman on May 07 at 4:09 p.m.
Ah yes.. Kage, so true. In fact, there are even some in North Idaho that feel North Idahoans should be as pure as the driven snow….genetically, you understand..

;-)

Still, I’ve always heard that Spokane is a great place for pedophiles and murderers to hide out from the law…because they blend in with the local populace so well.

You all realize, that the guy who directed the film Blue Velvet, Mulholland Drive, and indeed, the freaky television show Twin Peaks, spent his formative childhood years right here in Spokane. Volumes spoken.. volumes I say..

;-)
jreighley on May 07 at 4:23 p.m.
We had our share of Serial murderers and child murders a few years ago, but thankfully that has fallen off..

I think Spokane was the Diploma mill capital of the world for a time. so I don’t think Forbes is too far off..

Spokane should have always been famous for it’s potholes, but since Jim West, I think 10 years of road construction should do the trick.
lbbnjsharpe on May 07 at 4:24 p.m.
Consider the source of the scum article and one can definitely rest easy tonight in good ol Spokakuu.

BUT, we definitely are up to the challenge to incorporate more “local” digital diversity in our lives. The top down sh*t & lack of deep reporting could get old real quick.
And how bout the fresh smell of the lilacs out back.

Nice…

Bill
zelda on May 07 at 4:59 p.m.
Near nature, near perverts.
Fishwife on May 07 at 11:08 p.m.
The Forbes piece is an interesting read..

“Maybe not helping is the century-old economic dominance of the Cowles clan, whose fourth generation runs, among many other things, the only daily newspaper and business weekly, a radio station and the NBC TV affiliate. The parking garage financial scandal, which ended when the city bought out the complaining bondholders without any single party’s admission of wrongdoing, was a Cowles project.”

OUCH 11
Fishwife on May 07 at 11:08 p.m.
Make that OUCH !!
spokelooneh on May 08 at 10:06 a.m.
And then there’s that serious gang problem in Spokane, which always escalates into hard core violence in the summer.

“Summertime in the 509”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UplY22Ppl-M

h/t Accidental Rabbit Trails
hmoffsuite on May 08 at 10:12 a.m.
Remember when the then Chief of Police, Terry Mangan, warned Spokanites that gangs were coming to town and should be dealt with at the outset? Many years ago. All the PC folks objected because they thought he was trying to conduct racial profiling. So, they wouldn’t let him become aggressive in dealing with them. Bad mistake. He was right.

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D.F. Oliveria is a columnist and blogger for The Spokesman-Review. Huckleberries Online was judged the best 2008 Idaho newspaper blog by the Idaho Press Club. And the best 2007 news blog in the Pacific Northwest by the Society for Professional Journalist. Print Huckleberries is a past winner of the Herb Caen Memorial Column contest by the National Association of Newspaper Columnists. The Readership Institute of Northwestern University cited this blog as a good example of online community journalism.