Letters To The Editor

Fri., May 7, 1999

SPOKANE MATTERS

Speak up for ban on new billboards

Billboards represent serious visual pollution that detracts from the overall aesthetics of the entire Spokane area. As a concerned citizen, I ask you to take a long overdue stand against any new billboards being erected in Spokane County. I also ask for their eventual elimination through amortization, as has been successfully done in other U.S. cities. This would take years but would be well worth it and wouldn’t be at taxpayers’ expense.

I’ve not heard one citizen I’ve discussed this issue with say they favor billboards. Spokane needs to align with numerous states, counties and cities that already have bans in place. Olympia and Bellingham, as well as our neighboring county of Kootenai, Idaho, have bans on new billboards.

The Spokane County Planning Commission will hold a public hearing on May 13, 9 a.m., Public Works Building, 1026 West Broadway, 99260, to hear citizens’ comments about how they feel they are impacted by billboards. They are concerned with things such as blockage of scenic rural views, loss of property value, compromised driver safety (due to distracting signage) and the direction the citizens of Spokane want to take in terms of signage. Comments can be e-mailed to the planner/coordinator (sbjordahl@spokanecounty.org), or mailed to the above address care of Stacy Bjordahl.

Will people be able to see beyond the edge of the road in 10 years or will we let the billboard companies continue with their plans to cover our county roads in giant advertisements? Steve A. Whitacre Veradale

Let’s end the visual clutter

I would like to see a complete ban on all new billboards, and a time limit for removal imposed on existing billboards. I find this form of visual pollution offensive and an assault on the quality of life in our area.

I also support the next steps that need to be taken: creating signage code to reduce the visual clutter. This would make it easier to find a business. I support the long-term goal of harmonious blending of signage into the vistas of our city.

I overheard a woman in Coeur d’Alene saying Spokane wasn’t worth going into because it’s pretty ugly, with nothing much to see but a bunch of warehouse districts. I was appalled by these comments, but they are valid.

Cleaning up the visual clutter on Division, Sprague, Second and Third avenues, and Trent to the State Line should be included in our attempts to make Spokane County a visually attractive place to live or visit (not just Manito Park and the Rose Garden). I don’t want to see the spread of this visual pollution across Moran Prairie, around Liberty Lake or along any of the county’s other scenic corridors. We live in a region of great natural beauty but it won’t stay that way without our active attention. Terry Sturgill Spokane

THE ENVIRONMENT

Danger is all in EPA people’s minds

Why is the Environmental Protection Agency spending taxpayers’ money to test the river? They say it’s contaminated with lead and other bad things from the mines.

For three months every summer during the 1930s, my family, aunts, uncles and cousins camped on the Spokane River at Post Falls. We swam every day, ate the fish and even drank the river water. None of us ever got sick. My mother lived to be 101 years old. I have two brothers and a sister, all in their 80s and enjoying good health. My husband and I built our home on the river in the 1950s and raised our family there. My sister and one of my brothers have lived on the river for years. All our kids and grandkids and their friends swam in the river all their lives and have never been sick. Coeur d’Alene Lake is OK, too.

If the EPA gets in there and stirs up the river and lake bottom, then we will have a problem.

Jeanne Batson Spokane

Farmers must expect changes

The economic impact on wheat farmers who rely on the Snake River dam system for subsidized transport was not clearly shown in your articles. The typical farm family in your article has had a poor harvest in a poor market. At 40 bushels/acre, their yield is seven to 11 bushels below the recent yield in the affected counties, gaining $50,750-$79,750 additional income. The current price of $2.90 per bushel is below the 10 year average of $3.80. Yield and price variations have greater impact than the transportation subsidy, reported as nine to 35 cents per bushel.

And what of the impact on the land? New technology has allowed farmers to cultivate very marginal lands. If transportation were not subsidized, these lands might revert to grasslands. Although unused land is a travesty to some farmers, it is a boon for God’s creatures who do not eat or raise wheat. The government pays farmers $50 per acre per year for land set aside for habitat conservation.

The dams and locks were created and are maintained by the government at no cost to farmers. We may have to end that subsidy, removing the Snake River dams to preserve the salmon that once thrived there. No system of subsidy that destroys a natural resource can survive for long. We need complete information to evaluate the changes that must come. Terrence V. Sawyer Spokane

Metals in the river, naturally

Re: “High level of metals in river” by Karen Dorn Steele (April 23).

The statement, “some of the samples obtained in the Spokane River by the U.S. Geological Survey show lead, zinc, arsenic and cadmium levels of hundreds of times higher than normal background levels” raises the question: So what?

Streams originating in highly mineralized mountains are unusual in the state of Washington, with the majority of rivers originating in the Cascade Range, which is not highly mineralized. If the USGS had a sample of Spokane River water taken by the Lewis and Clark expedition nearly 200 years ago, I suspect it would also show metals at above “normal background levels.”

Mining did not create the canyons of the Coeur d’Alene river system. These were created by natural erosion over many thousands of years, exposing the metallic ore bodies which must have been also eroded. And where, pray tell, would the erosion products go but down the river system we are evaluating today?

If we continue to label lead, zinc, cadmium, etc., as toxic materials and fail to recognize instead their value and necessity for our current standard of living, we possibly should reevaluate the mining industry. Should we possibly view the stalwart and courageous operators of such great mines and the Lucky Friday, the Morning and the Bunker-Hill as foresighted efforts to mitigate a natural toxic lode that, without the miners’ efforts, would have left remaining thousands of tons of “toxic metals” to eventually erode and pollute our valley? Don Dewar Opportunity

Natural capitalism the coming thing

Dirty water bodies and radioactive-transparent fish; toxic air, endocrine disrupters and bad genetic messaging, angry children; clearcutting forests, desertification, massive species extinctions; the systematic depletion of “natural capital,” eliminating the capacity to prove the most basic ingredients of life.

If this was the end of the story - the legacy of the industrial revolution, linear, rapacious, unbalanced - then we would certainly go the way of the dinosaurs faster than succeeding generations could pay us their debt of gratitude.

Fortunately, but for one movement, we are not doomed. It is the emergence of natural capitalism, paying tribute to cyclical, circular design systems, life-sustaining like the four seasons and mommy’s womb; product, plant and service systems which learn to imitate the life cycles that have evolved with divine precision for billions of years, not contradict them.

This is the exciting challenge of engineers, architects, entrepreneurs, teachers, administrators and everyone who cares to welcome the next industrial revolution with an expansive consciousness, loving all God’s children, here and overseas, now and seven generations to come, human and in all of nature’s diversity.

This movement is in our midst. Let more and more of us ask about it, figure our place in it and more effectively promote it. There is nothing more hopeful than the birth of dynamic, organic, learning organizations connected to the global financial machine, but no longer as cogs fine-tuning the status quo toward destruction, but now as transforming agents, weapons for restoration and justice. Doug DeMeo Spokane

EVENTS

People along Bloomsday route terrific

As I walked the last two miles of Bloomsday, I realized how much I appreciate the people who live along the race course. For the past 12 years I have been encouraged, entertained and applauded by strangers who have become nameless friends for a day. The Bloomsday experience would not be complete without the music, signs, cheering and smiles of these fellow participants.

My thanks go to everyone along the race course for making Bloomsday what it is - an experience I look forward to every year. Laura L. Jackson Chattaroy

ENTERTAINMENT

Substantially ‘N Sync

“Spice Boy phenomenon screams for substance,” shrieks “a mere 28 years young” writer Winda Benedetti (Region, April 27).

You want substance? I’ll show you substance!

My granddaughter, Christina Uhl, unable to attend the Sunday evening performance of “boy-toy singers” ‘N Sync because she is rehabilitating from grievous injuries suffered in an auto-pedestrian encounter, was feeling morose Sunday afternoon. However, these “teen pop sensations” brightened her day by appearing, unannounced - sans media, sans publicity - at her St. Luke’s room. They came bearing gifts - autographed picture, their latest CD, a teddy bear - and spent many minutes focusing solely on 14-year-old Christina, taking time from their busy schedules to soften a “teeny-bopper” disappointment. They laughed, told jokes, discussed her injuries, posed for pictures with her and showed themselves to be wholesome, caring, concerned and totally unassuming young men. We senior citizens call that substance! Bob Gariepy Spokane

Group really entertained - get it?

Lighten up, Winda Benedetti!

I found your review rude, condescending and insulting to the millions of ‘N Sync fans.

You didn’t have to be a raging hormonal adolescent to enjoy the ‘N Sync concert Sunday night. I’m over the age of 20 (times two!) who went with my daughter and friends and ended up enjoying myself almost as much as the girls did. Perhaps you are in the wrong business, if you can’t enjoy an act for what it is - pure entertainment. Isn’t that the definition of pop concert? They promised good fun, their hallmark dancing and music. They delivered beautifully. I was impressed by the show these boys put on.

Just what did you expect, deep social commentary? We’ve had enough of reality and social commentary recently, thank you. A screaming, sold-out Spokane Arena can’t be all wrong. Don’t brush off as trite and put down what you don’t understand. Kay A. Meracle Spokane

Negative opinions unwanted

Winda Benedetti’s review of the ‘N Sync concert I thought was unfair. Obviously Benedetti is too old to appreciate ‘N Sync’s appeal to the younger generation. It’s one thing to critique a band but her total put-down and sarcasm to the point of making fun of them just made me want to puke.

If she had done her homework on ‘N Sync, she would have found out that these five guys have been involved in music for many years. ‘N Sync is a cleancut, wholesome group of guys who provide pure entertainment for our age group of kids. With so many negative bands out there like Marilyn Manson and Hole, it’s refreshing to have a band like ‘N Sync to provide role models for kids today.

And in case Benedetti didn’t notice, there were several moms and dads there who must have still had their blinders on who seemed to be enjoying the concert.

Benedetti should learn what my parents taught me: If you don’t have anything nice to say about somebody, don’t say anything at all. Kim J. Allen Spokane

Review sure brought concept home

My heartfelt thanks go to Spokesman-Review music critic Winda Benedetti for her description of ‘N Sync band members as boys-toys (April 27). So descriptive and respectful. I hope my 14-year-old daughter, who reads the paper regularly, picked up on that.

It’s not that she hasn’t heard the term before from her friends at school, but the impact is so much greater when it comes from a real live female journalist. We all know how important it is for our young girls to have role models as they develop their world view. J. Andy James Colville, Wash.

Speak for yourself, Benedetti

Re: Winda Benedetti’s assertion that age is a criterion for enjoying the group, ‘N Sync. Her assessment, “Spice Boy phenomenon screams for substance,” (April 27) may be applicable to her but not for all of us.

If things had worked out for my daughter (age 34), my two granddaughters (14 and 12) and myself (56), we would have enjoyed attending the recent ‘N Sync concert at the Spokane Arena.

Perhaps the excessive screaming by the fans might better have been lowered a decibel, according to those who were present, but the clean and fun harmony blend of this group describes their musical as well as individual lifestyles - and that is their substance.

Would that this kind of music be encouraged over the mind-distorting noise put out by so many other groups.

On a positive note, ‘N Sync closes the generation gap and brings together people who simply enjoy goodness in sound.

Jazz is my music by choice. Great standards are indeed just that. True country is good. Classical is nice. Gospel inspires. New Age is intriguing. Rock ‘n’ roll is catchy. Certainly, Benedetti can see that age really is no barrier to music appreciation in its various forms. Connie Pomeroy Spokane

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