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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Block parties light up Cliff/Cannon, Logan neighborhoods

Representatives from Spokane COPS greet an early arrival at the Lower South Hill Block Party on Sept. 15, 2018. (Terence Vent / The Spokesman-Review)
By Terence Vent The Spokesman-Review

Despite going head-to-head against the Spokane County Interstate Fair, a pair of neighborhood block parties attracted throngs of enthusiastic revelers over the third weekend of September. The Lower South Hill and Logan Neighborhood block parties each attracted crowds in the thousands.

“We always plan for 1,800-2,000,” said Cliff/Cannon Neighborhood’s Patricia Hansen, head of the Lower South Hill block party committee, about the 12th annual event. “People usually come and go, but this year they came and stayed.”

Events and activities included a potluck, a raffle and silent auction; live music featuring the band Spare Change; a barbecue competition between the Spokane Police Department and Spokane County Sheriff’s Office; meet and greet with local election candidates; voter registration and a pot luck.

The Spokane Police Department won the barbecue cook-off with a teriyaki glaze. “The food was great on both of them,” Hansen said.

Both departments promised to do it again next year, but don’t expect them to share recipes. “Everybody had a secret sauce,” Hansen said.

“We really try to have something for everyone,” Hansen said.

There were over 20 presenters from the community and children’s activities included tables for face painting, straw art, pipe cleaner art, make-your-own slime and thank-you card creation.

While Western music flowed over the cobblestones from one end of the block, local office-seekers greeted the wandering crowd at the other end. Candidates, manning tables on each side of the street, faced a single long table in the center covered in birdhouses.

Birdhouses?

“Each year we try to do something so the candidates get to show their human sides,” Hansen said.

“For the politicians, we have some sort of competition,” said Bonnie Asien, a member of the planning committee for the past six years. “We’ve done a barbecue cook-off, we’ve done fashion shows, we’ve done all sorts of things.”

“This year our theme is neighborhood trees and urban forestry, so each politician had to design a birdhouse with their campaign materials,” Asien said.

University-neighborhood effort

The fourth annual Logan Neighborhood Block Party, a collaboration between Logan Neighborhood Council and Gonzaga University,

included presenters from Northeast Community Center, the Dance for Parkinson’s, Foley Center Library, Spokane Public Library, the Cincinnati Greenway and local restaurants, retailers and neighborhood groups.

Live music from Da Hooligans kept the crowd dancing Sept. 13 while children flocked to the mounted patrol horses, police cabs and fire trucks. Older kids filled the basketball courts and lined up for the corn hole games laid out in the parking lot.

The event was moved to the campus of the Fourth Memorial Church this year to give the event room to spread out. “I’m glad we had a good outcome with the change of location,” said Logan Neighborhood Council Chair Lauren Schubring. “We kind of worried about that.”

Mary Joan Hahn, GU’s director of community and public relations, reported new turnout highs for family, retirees and volunteers. “They served 1,300 meals, and there were others who came who just didn’t eat,” she said.

The Logan Neighborhood Council raffled off a gift certificate to a local business, exchanging tickets for likes on the council’s Facebook page.

“We are still trying to grow our Facebook presence,” Schubring said. “If a few of those ended up at a (neighborhood council) meeting, that would be great.”

Engagement and volunteerism were the event’s overriding themes. Hahn counted 82 Gonzaga student volunteers, while Schubring estimated that there were 150 total volunteers.

Whatever the count, Schubring was thrilled with the turnout. “We want neighbors and Gonzaga students to be able to connect,” said Schubring. “That’s always our main goal, to connect the neighborhood.”

Among the Gonzaga volunteers were 16 members of the Kennel Club and roughly 50 student-athletes. Hahn said that the Kennel Club ran the corn hole game while the student-athletes set up, tore down, manned the check-in tables and covered other assignments as needed.

Hahn said that Gonzaga’s student-athletes did more than 4,000 hours of volunteer work last year. “That’s just part of what they do, part of their ethic,” she said.

Estergard was one of the dozens of volunteers who handed out flyers for the upcoming Logan Family Meal on Oct. 9 at Logan Elementary School. Gonzaga’s Campus Kitchen organized the event as part of their ongoing efforts to battle hunger in Spokane.

“It’s a dual purpose,” said Campus Kitchen coordinator Emily Banick. “We know there is food insecurity within our neighborhood, so we would definitely like to alleviate that, but building community is also very important.”

Logan Elementary was a logical choice beyond its proximity to the Gonzaga campus. “They have, I think, the highest number of free and reduced lunches in the county,” said Banick.

Nancy MacKerrow, the founder of the Suzy Forest, was on hand at the Lower South Hill party as the de facto urban forestry czar. She extracted a promise from one member of each political party to plant a tree at noon on Election Day.

“It has nothing to do with winning or losing,” she said. “Even by running for office, you are serving your community; if you plant a tree, you can serve it for another hundred years.”