What About The Bus Plaza?

Some officials at the Spokane Transit Authority think bad weather eventually will force bus riders inside STA’s new downtown Plaza.

Some believe it’s smokers who account for congestion on sidewalks outside the $20.6 million building.

Whatever factors are at play, officials seem surprised that so many patrons choose to stand outside near the curb rather than inside the temperature-controlled building where television monitors apprise them of buses’ arrivals and departures.

So, bus riders, what’s the story with all this curbside congestion? Have you waited for your bus on the sidewalk so long that you just can’t break the habit? Do you want to be at the front of the line to protect yourself from having to stand on a crowded bus? Or don’t you trust the transit folks to give you enough warning to get outside once your bus is ready to load?

Come on now, as Connie Chung would say, just between us: Why are you so disinterested in the Plaza’s interior? And what advice (other than cloud-seeding) can you give STA officials if they want to make their building more appealing to patrons?

Share your thoughts by noon Wednesday (see phone, fax and e-mail information below) so they can be included in Thursday’s responses.

Running for office or running for cover?

Campaign ‘95 officially is under way. Candidates formally filed last week for dozens of offices which will be on this fall’s ballot in Spokane County.

This will be the first chance to see whether voters who gave Congress an enema last fall are in a similarly purging mood at the local level.

One thing the ‘94 election showed is that voters have their own sense of the issues, regardless of what the candidates are discussing.

For several weeks now, “Bagpipes” has been collecting your thoughts about what those issues should be this fall and what qualifications you look for in candidates. Time is shorter than you think. Share your opinions, and we’ll pass them along both to the readers and to the candidates.

Review question

When Thomas Jefferson mentioned the press, whose freedom he championed so tirelessly, he frequently described it as “licentious.”

He once wrote: “Error may be safely tolerated where truth is left free to combat it.”

What do you suppose he meant?

, DataTimes MEMO: “Bagpipes” appears Tuesdays and Thursdays. To respond to issues raised on Tuesdays: Call 458-8800, category 9881, from a Touch-Tone phone, or send a fax to 459-5098 or e-mail to celh27b@prodigy.com. Representative replies appear Thursdays. You also can leave Doug Floyd a message at 459-5577, extension 5466.