Accident Proves Bikes, Skates Don’t Mix With Pedestrians

As I write this, Spokesman-Review advertising executive Janice Everhart remains in a coma at Deaconess Medical Center. Janice suffered a critical head injury a week ago when she was hit by a 17-year-old illegally riding his bike on a downtown Spokane sidewalk. The impact flipped Janice, causing her to hit her head on the street or sidewalk. She hasn’t regained consciousness. Janice’s freak accident proves again that bikes, skateboards and in-line skates don’t mix with pedestrians on busy sidewalks. In Coeur d’Alene, police are right to crack down on skaters attracted downtown by smooth sidewalks and deserve kudos for issuing warnings first. The word will spread quickly that Chief Dave Scates’ department means business. Maybe the preventive measure will spare another nice person like Janice from getting seriously injured and a remorseful teen from facing possible felony charges.

CdA neighbors right in fight for trees

Mayor Al Hassell is wrong when he says a 2.8-acre greenbelt of city land near Coeur d’Alene High School is too big to sit unused. Coeur d’Alene officials want to sell off the tree-lined triangle for a relative pittance. The neighbors rightfully are upset. I’m not a neighbor - just a Coeur d’Alene resident who enjoys seeing the pines each morning as I drive my son to school. Developers already have leveled acres of pine trees along Honeysuckle Avenue to make way for “progress.” The city should convert the small parcel between Honeysuckle and Fourth into a passive park for aesthetic purposes. Besides, city officials owe the neighborhood that much for transforming Kathleen Avenue into a major east-west arterial a few years ago. In doing so, they created a hazardous intersection at Honeysuckle and Kathleen and turned the eastern end of Kathleen into a speedway.

Small Potatoes

Kudos to Superintendent Dick Harris and the Post Falls School Board for developing a no-tolerance policy toward parents who disrupt classes as well as racism. … It’s nice to see Post Falls residents giving Black Bay Park on the Spokane River the TLC it deserves. With proper planning and development, the park can become a city treasure like Coeur d’Alene’s McEuen Field and Tubbs Hill. … Isn’t it a bit early for Ken Griffey Jr. to issue his annual threat to Mariner management that the team had better start winning or else he’s going to leave? Don’t the players have more to do with wins and losses than management in a small-market town? Aren’t you tired of hearing bazillionaire baseball players whine?

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