Many Readers Were Able To Name That Problem

No names were mentioned Tuesday when Bagpipes invited readers to discuss rancor on the Spokane City Council.

Nevertheless, one came up when the responses began: Chris Anderson.

“It is comforting to have an official on the City Council that demonstrates the frustration that so many of us endure,” said Alan Letourneau of Spokane. “When we holler, nobody listens. When Chris Anderson hollers it seems to get a lot of attention.”

Other callers were less tolerant of the combative council encounters that frequently involve the outspoken Anderson.

“I don’t know why we can’t have truthfulness and frankness and still be nice to one another,” said Bonita Lawhead of Tekoa.

Added Mary Stone of Spokane: “The showboating is just trying to paralyze the governmental process and prove that someone is out to watch in the public’s interest while the rest of the people who maintain civility are theoretically somehow cheating or lying. We should not have to deal with that kind of rudeness and incivility.”

Property rights and mobile homes

Spokane County’s decision to allow manufactured and mobile homes in any zone drew contrasting reactions.

From Mary Benham of Spokane: “It is an insult to all who pay property tax and have invested in valuable property, built valuable homes, and maintained that property to the enhancement of the greater community to have a single-wide trailer of any vintage with no skirting placed directly next door. Is this a photo the Chamber of Commerce would use to advertise quality of life in Spokane?”

From Steve Davenport of Spokane, who happens to be a county planner: “It seems as though the people crying the loudest against allowing manufactured homes in neighborhoods are also the people crying the loudest for less government intervention and more personal property rights. Hey, people, if you don’t want a mobile home in your neighborhood, you should buy your neighbor’s lot.”

Let them eat oatmeal.

Prison inmates found little sympathy among Bagpipes readers.

“They should go into prison the first three months or so with no television and no privileges other than sitting in that cell,” said Nancy Parker of Walla Walla. “The privileges - television, the gym, family visitation and any food other than an oatmeal stew - should be earned by their own behavior.”

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