Retaining Wall On 37th Doubles As Magnet For Vehicles

Ah, the universe is filled with so many niggling questions.

Like, where do crop circles come from? Who put the bop in the bop-she-bop-she-bop?

Or when will Spokane City Councilman Chris “The Shameless Weasel” Anderson stop picking the public’s pocket and start earning his paycheck by showing up at council meetings?

Residents of one normally peaceful South Hill neighborhood have only one mystery that needs solving: Why do drivers keep crashing into the retaining wall at 1331 E. 37th?

“This is the Bermuda Triangle of Spokane,” claims Virginia Levitch, punctuating her observation with a hearty guffaw.

“I was dozing in bed the other night when all of a sudden - screeeech, KAPOW!”

For 26 years, Levitch has lived next door to Ground Zero: a modest white house with green trim on the northwest corner of 37th and Perry.

She’s witnessed the wreckage caused by dozens of westbound drivers who, for assorted nitwitted reasons, blow the stop sign across the street and careen into her neighbor’s retaining wall and yard.

The wall’s endless fall and rise has become something of a neighborhood legend. Discussion at Block Watch meetings invariably moves to speculation on when the wall will next come a-tumblin’ down.

The last impact happened 10 p.m. on Sept. 2.

An inattentive woman in a sedan ran the stop sign. She demolished the lovely $2,500 brick wall that was built in March to replace a log wall that was scattered like cordwood last winter.

“Obviously, I have to have a sense of humor about this, but I do get a little bitter,” says Steve, the current hapless homeowner at 1331 E. 37th.

“My friends are equally divided on what to do. Some want me to install a nice safe rubber barrier to cushion the blows. Others say I should show no mercy and put up iron spikes.”

I think building a moat would work.

Steve and his wife, Kathy, who don’t want their last name used, have seen the wall nailed three times in their three years of ownership. Two of the three drivers were drunk, says Steve, and not all of them had insurance.

Gary and Cynthia Cantrell owned the house before selling to Steve and Kathy in 1992. They were hit three times in just two years.

Three was also the magic number for Thomasene Lybbert, who owned the place before the Cantrells.

Lybbert’s biggest hit was a kid in a Volkswagen who scooted through the intersection one frosty morning. He creamed the wall so hard (Lybbert was using unforgiving lava rocks at the time) that the bug flew up into her yard and popped the engine out.

“I still have the pictures,” says Lybbert.

Nobody has yet been killed or maimed, but neighbors figure it’s a matter of time.

So does Bruce Steele, Spokane’s transportation director. He visited Ground Zero the other morning and says 37th Avenue becomes one of the most narrow, dangerous arterials in the city when it intersects with Perry.

The problem, he says, is that traffic has swelled to 10,000 cars a day. Plus, 37th takes a wicked dogleg at the intersection.

Steele has a couple of helpful ideas. He plans to trim some branches to make the stop sign more visible. He also wants to stick a reflective sign in front of the wall.

But the wreckage may continue until the intersection is improved as planned in the year 2001.

That’s good news. The bad news is widening the street will eat up a hefty chunk of Steve’s yard. In other words, it’s the perfect city solution: You’re hosed either way, pal.

Now that we’ve solved the mystery of the wall, let’s turn our attention to Councilman Weasel, er Anderson.

On Saturday, I had an actual Anderson sighting in a music store. The man who missed 13 council meetings to go moonlight with a movie studio grinned at me like a vacuum salesman. He pumped my hand and said something about how he wanted to slap a poster on my back.

So today, and until he actually slinks back to the council, I’m starting an Anderson Watch.

Maybe some of you have seen him, manning an elephant ear booth at the fair or skulking for bargains at Goodwill. What’s Anderson up to? Call me at 459-5432 to report all sightings. I’ll keep ya posted.

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Color Photo