Letters To The Editor
MEAN STREETS
City a perennial loser in pothole wars
After growing up and living in Spokane for the first 30 years of my life, then being gone 30 years, I returned to find that some things never change. The potholes in the roads are still deep enough to half bury my automobile.
I had the misfortune to drive on Empire east of Division, on Nevada, Ash and Garland, to name a few. I realize you had a hard winter. However, so did the rest of the Pacific Northwest.
Shame on you, Spokane. Didn’t you pass bond levies for better roads a few years back?
I pay extreme taxes on gas and license tabs on my car, truck, RV and trailer, and this is for only one household. It’s a good thing I’m not living in Spokane any more or I’d be jumping up and down on someone’s desk.
If your city fathers want outside business and visitors, I suggest you get busy. There are other streets in Spokane besides Division.
Thank you for letting me vent while I get my wheels realigned. Phyllis Bohannon Sadler Cashmere, Wash.
Bond failed due to lack of trust
In regard to Spokane Transit Authority’s unwillingness to help finance Spokane’s street repairs and Councilman Mike Brewer’s comment, “If the people of the city of Spokane really wanted their streets fixed they would have voted for the bond issue”:
If STA’s finance manager was in charge of city finances, taxpayers probably would have passed the bond issue, if needed. However, past performance has shown city government to be unreliable, irresponsible and selfserving when spending taxpayers’ money.
Had this bond been approved, city managers would have said, one-third of the way through paving, that they had run out of bond money and that no more streets could be paved. We then would have learned that bond money had been given to other departments, used to send people to out-of-state conferences, etc.
I’m surprised that someone has to spell it out to Brewer as to why the street bond issue didn’t pass. Taxpayers and voters don’t trust our city government with our money. This won’t change until we see responsible spending and no more pilfering of our tax dollars.
It’s completely irresponsible for the city and STA to not be able to come to an agreement on this. The toll buses take on the streets is much greater than the toll the average taxpayer takes. STA will pay one way or the other the other being damage the streets do to STA vehicles.
The city has a responsibility to the taxpayers to explore every legal avenue to find money for city maintenance, including road resurfacing. Kim Utke Spokane
We live with results of bad decisions
Opinion editor John Webster’s March 3 editorial concerning the Spokane Transit Authority surplus missed the point.
That surplus should not be directed at fixing potholes. It should be directed at either better mass transit or serious transportation planning. The city’s streets are a mess, that’s very evident, but people should ask themselves why. It may have been poor planning and budgeting by city officials that led to deferred maintenance.
The city is trying to do too much with a limited tax base. It should get back to providing a secure infrastructure.
An example of poor planning is the Hamilton-Nevada arterial. The massive apartment complexes north of Francis on Nevada have no way to funnel their traffic into the city. Now we have serious air pollution and traffic jams from the freeway to NorthPointe on Hamilton and Nevada.
The city also wants to build a new mega million dollar maintenance facility with public works funds at the corner of Foothills Drive and Hamilton, right in the center of all this congestion. This doesn’t make sense since it will aggravate the traffic and air pollution in the area and deplete the city budget even further. It might make more sense to fix potholes with these resources than build a new centralized maintenance facility, the need for which is questionable.
I suggest using common financial sense. Go back to basics and quit trying to loot the only agency (STA) that could assist in traffic management and hopefully help keep our air clean. Anthony Davis Spokane
City gives business the business
Big brother! Whose interest does the Spokane City Council think it serves when it decides to gobble up whatever piece of prime real estate it would like?
Regarding the latest incident, the Salty’s property; now the council says the Clinkerdagger deal wasn’t final. Final? Why else would Clinkerdagger run big announcement ads and plan a remodeling of the site? I guess nothing’s final when city government can jump in late in a deal to set up another strip of grass with a nice view.
What our city needs is leaders who encourage and support businesses that are valued by our community and its visitors. These council people are burning bridges faster than they build them. Dennis D. Magner Spokane
WASHINGTON STATE
Gun safety bill way off target
I’m concerned about Initiative 676, as reported in “Plan would require handgun owners to get safety license” (Feb. 25).
I agree there are people who need instruction on proper gun handling, but Initiative 676 would only prosecute responsible people. Requiring people who legally own or carry a gun to take a gun handling class won’t solve the problem of accidental deaths of children and teens.
According to the Washington state Department of Health Center for Health Statistics in Olympia, 17 people died of accidents involving guns in 1995. Fourteen were in their own homes and three were in public. Compare that to the staggering number of suicides and homicides committed in the same year - 461 suicides and 173 homicides committed using a gun or explosive device.
Making that comparison, our problems appear to be in the lack of respect in our society for life, not accidental deaths related to firearms.
Solving the problem of our children and teens dying from gun-related accidents is a matter of teaching them gun safety and awareness before it’s too late. If parents won’t take the responsibility to teach their children, maybe our schools should.
Legal gun owners aren’t the people who should be targeted for the problems. Our concern should be educating our children when they’re young to respect and properly handle firearms. We should also be concerned about people who illegally buy and carry firearms. Anne C. Newton Chattaroy
Anti-stadium attitudes cavalier
In response to Charles McCollim’s “Football heroes, even zeros, come first” (Letters, Feb. 20) and the rest of you who think keeping the Seahawks is not good money sense:
First, if the Seahawks had finished the last season 13-3 and made it deep into the playoffs, there wouldn’t be one argument over the stadium issue. McCollim and the rest of you whining bandwagon fans would have their wallets wide open to build a new stadium.
Second, I’m no economist, but it seems to me you’ve got 45 players all making, say, a $1 million a year, and dozens of staff, coaches, trainers, office workers and management all making above average livable wages. All living, raising families, buying expensive cars, sending their kids to private schools. And every one of them paying state and local taxes.
How about the trickle-down effect when Ken Behring moves the team south? The hundreds of vendors, souvenir shops, the army of people who clean the Kingdome and surrounding area, the local restaurants, shops, the parking fees collected and every taxable dollar spent in the area on Sunday afternoon gone south. Then there’s the ungodly amount of money you’ll be dying to spend down the road, trying to coax a team back into town.
We should be thankful Paul Allen is willing to spend hundreds of millions of his own money to keep the team. I’ll be first in line to pay my share and more. Ron Smith Spokane
Bridge closing managed badly
Thanks to the woman who wrote about the closure of the bridge at Bowl and Pitcher. I wonder why more people have not spoken up about this? I would like to have some questions answered about it, too. The closure is a surprise, without any warning or previous discussion.
What’s going on? Brooke Higgins Spokane
IN THE PAPER
Martial arts depiction a low blow
It’s sad that The Spokesman-Review went to the effort to promote a cultural diversity writing contest to bolster community bonds, then printed staff cartoonist Milt Priggee’s Feb. 26 cartoon depicting Gov. Gary Locke as a martial artist.
I thought the point of the diversity contest was to tear down the stereotypes that have oft plagued minorities.
As an Asian-American, I’ve had countless assumptions presumed about me fueled by stereotypes. Stereotypes such as all Asians know martial arts, are good at math, have cameras draped around their necks, pray to Buddha, personally killed your relative in a foreign war and look alike have no place in our society.
Would it be any less offensive if our esteemed governor were a Mexican-American dressed as a toreador “bull fighting” an elephant or if he were an African-American dressed as a Zulu warrior spearing the elephant?
One has to be subject to this racism all their lives to truly understand the humiliation, pain and anger it can cause. This can be devastatingly damaging during the formative years of childhood.
It’s too bad that in his quest to depict Locke championing the gay community, Priggee chose to use a tired stereotype. Even if Locke does know martial arts, it’s still inappropriate. Only if Locke frequently and publicly espoused and demonstrated his martial arts prowess would the depiction be apropos. Tadashi Osborne Spokane
Columnist distorts church’s way
The Feb. 22 William Mattox Jr. column is an illogical piece headed by even more simplistic summaries that do a disservice to an adequate discussion of today’s medical ethics debate and to the Episcopal Church.
The Episcopal Church has always moved slowly to new positions after thoroughly studying all sides of an issue. Understanding is reached on the basis of Scripture, tradition and reason. As a result, the Episcopal position has changed on slavery, divorce and the ordination of women.
Scientific developments in medicine raise difficult questions. To what extent should life be artificially prolonged? Is the determining factor quantity or quality? To what extent should pain be eased? A large percentage of the total medical bill in the United States is spent on the last few days of life. How much of this is conscionable in the face of other types of suffering that go uncared for? I fail to see why the faithful have to be presented a choice between spiritual comfort and medical care. Christian belief in a God who enters into human suffering is not a call to masochism.
For a church that doesn’t take a simplistic approach to life, a 54-page study inviting reasoned discussion makes more sense than does insisting on hard-line positions that fit medical conditions of 100 years ago.
The fact that David Larson, an Episcopalian, is engaging in one aspect of the discussion is no reason to pillory a church that has thoughtful members with other points of view that weren’t mentioned.
Why not give this issue the attention it deserves? Carolyn Terry Spokane
GOVERNMENT AND POLITICS
Keep effective child care food program
I am very concerned about federal cuts to the child care food program and what those cuts will mean to me, my children and children in our community.
The child care food program is a federal program that helps provide nutritious meals to children in day care. The child care food program helps keep child care costs down, provides an incentive for licensing, increases the monitoring capacity for child care and gives young children the food they need for growth.
Without this program, fewer providers will be licensed. That will lead to nutrition and safety standards going down. There will be no quarterly monitoring by program sponsors.
This monitoring is very important because they monitor not only the child care food program but also detect and report suspected abuse, unsafe situations and unsanitary conditions.
Our state and local elected officials should work to make sure cuts to the child care food program do not harm children in our community.
These officials ought to step up to the plate and make new financial investments in this program to ensure that child care in our community remains safe and affordable, and that families can go to work with peace of mind. Barbara Benson Spokane
Put it to Clinton, straight
Is it not time that President Clinton be asked the same question that brought down Sen. Joe McCarthy: “Sir, have you no shame?” K.A. Olson Spokane
Clinton overstepped bounds
The phrase, “my house is your house,” or “mi casa su casa,” is quite common but one uttered only to close friends or relatives.
President Clinton says the White House overnights and kaffeeklatsches were nothing more than his inviting friends to their home as a gesture of good will for the kindness shown during his campaigns.
The “my house is your house” concept requires that it be your house. As I see it, we elected Clinton to do some work for us and have provided him temporary living quarters.
Our contract with him does not allow him to sublet a portion of those quarters for such overnights to raise money for his re-election. We are fair people. Had we meant those quarters to be used for campaign fund raising, we would have set up a fair and equitable schedule for that purpose.
We might have allocated all presidential candidates equal access to the Lincoln and other rooms for fund raising. Might have been a bit of a scheduling problem, but manageable. Ken Van Buskirk Spokane
Clinton’s an enterprising president
I’m glad to see that President Bill Clinton is finally doing something honest and lucrative in the White House. Running a bed and breakfast shows initiative in the right direction. He could really clean up if he were to hold a garage sale. Waldo Larson Laclede
Transgressions not worst going on
Give me a break on all the hypocrisy surrounding White House coffee klatches and sleep-overs.
If “selling” the Lincoln bedroom will cheapen our history, then what are corporate greed, environmental degradation, moral decay and the decline of the family doing? We all need to accept responsibility for these.
If ol’ Honest Abe is rolling in his grave, it’s not because someone slept in his room. Why don’t you big-shot whiners get off your behinds and do something constructive for a change, maybe work for a real campaign reform. Tim Greaney Moscow