Building Community East Sprague Folks Are Fighting Back

Sat., Feb. 28, 1998

By Rebecca Nappi rebeccan@spokesman.com (509) 459-5496

Neighbors still make jam for one another.

A high school student still practices her violin in the afternoons.

Firefighters still care for the children who gather at their station. Rosa Dimico, at age 81, still nourishes the roots that keep her in the family home. Hundreds of residents have refused to let the bad override the good of their neighborhood.

Hospitality, history, music, caring and commitment. The East Sprague neighborhood has it all. There is plenty of life and fight left.

On Sunday, a special section titled “Shadow over Sprague” appeared in this newspaper. It detailed the troubles plaguing one of Spokane’s oldest neighborhoods. It told of the drugs, the prostitution and the serial killer skulking around. It told of families who hide in their homes or have moved out.

But the articles and photographs also captured the rich texture of East Sprague Avenue. It’s still a place of vibrant businesses, a place to find antiques, imported Italian pasta and hard-to-find zippers for your down jackets. It is still a place that honors its Italian-American and African-American roots, and packs its churches on Sundays. So, the hope remains that East Sprague will work through its current troubles. The outward signs are good. More than 100 neighbors attended a meeting last week at East Central Community Center. The neighbors vented some anger about the drugs and the prostitution.

As resident Sylvia Malar once put it: “This is my neighborhood. I’ve lived here for 15 years. I’ll be damned if I’ll let anyone run me out of here.” Anger is a necessary first step to real change. The residents also vowed to meet regularly to talk through and work out concerns and solutions. The neighbors will need lots of help and support, from government officials, from the police, from other neighborhood groups that have fought back - and won.

They’ll need to invite everyone to discuss how to save the neighborhood, including the prostitutes, drug addicts and homeless some feel are behind the destruction of East Sprague.

“Community” and “neighborhood” are warm and fuzzy words but actually living in community as good neighbors is tough business. East Sprague residents deserve congratulations for attempting this hard work.

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