Letters for June 22

When Airbnbs replace neighbors, communities disappear

When my husband and I first visited Spokane, we loved that the city felt like a place where kids could have the childhood we grew up with: riding bikes, exploring the neighborhood, and feeling safe just being kids.

We bought a home and bonded with the families around us. When the house next door was listed for sale, we hoped it might bring another family into the fold. Instead, an out-of-town couple arrived in a luxury Audi Q8, announcing they purchased the house as an Airbnb investment.

Research shows that short-term rentals drive up housing costs, accelerate gentrification, and contribute to homelessness, issues already pressing in Spokane. Still, I stayed open-minded.

Then a truck dumped a 20-foot-long pile of gravel in front of my house without notice, marking the start of unpermitted, cheap construction by an unlicensed contractor preparing the house for Airbnb. Since then, additional city code violations have prevented our children from enjoying our street as they once did.

This is what it means to have an Airbnb next door: disruption and a steady erosion of community. We moved here to build a life among neighbors, not to live among a revolving door of strangers overseen by absentee investors and a tech platform, who view our neighborhood as a bank deposit.

I’m grateful Spokane now requires Airbnb permits, but that’s not enough. Like many cities, we should limit rental days or ban investor-owned short-term rentals in residential neighborhoods.

Chelsey Glasson

Spokane

‘No Kings’ rally?

So, Spokane had a “No Kings” rally. Or did it? Does the slogan mean, no single man should be able to issue decrees, issue orders flipping national policy 180 degrees, or make new law via executive order?

If so, are today’s protesters ignorant of what transpired over the past four years and how it was done, or are they hypocrites? Your king bad, my king good?

King Biden dismantled the border via decree. You did not democratically vote for that. Congress did not vote for that. No laws were passed. A single man did that. Biden with the stroke of a pen ordered ICE to stand down on the issue of deporting criminals and ordered them to load millions of illegals onto buses. With the stroke of a pen, King Biden ordered hundreds of thousands simply flown into the country under “emergency authorization.” The king halted all oil and gas leases on federal lands and made hundreds of other kingly decrees. Now Trump has the pen.

So the protests are not so much about “no king” as they are about “not your king.” I oppose all kings. I support the constitutionally prescribed manner of making law through vigorous debate and passage by congress. Will you put down the hypocrisy and join me to amend the constitution to take the pen away from both parties? If not, there is no choice but to use the pen today to reverse your king’s decrees and to accept the chaos of whiplash policy.

David Barnes

Sandpoint

No kings?

No kings? Where were you with your placard when our former governor, with the stroke of a pen, ordered your neighbor’s bar closed and put him out of business in March 2020? No kings? Where were you with your placard when he prohibited you and your family from visiting mom together in the hospital one last time? No kings? Where were you with your placard when, at her funeral, subject to criminal penalties if you disobeyed, it was forbidden to sing? No kings? Spare us your hypocrisy.

Connor Dinnison

Spokane

Comparing Trump and Ferguson

In her June 9 letter, Deann Decaire stated,“Trump is cutting taxes while Ferguson is raising taxes” and she asked, “Whom did you vote for?”

Trump did indeed cut income taxes, mostly for the super rich, but his massive tariffs are nothing but taxes we all are having to pay. Ferguson raised taxes but what choice did he have? More importantly, here are a few things Ferguson hasn’t done: unleash more than 1,500 violent insurrectionists on the U.S. Capitol, then pardon them and return them to society where many have committed more crimes (at least one was killed in a shootout with police); violate the Constitution; ignore judicial orders; cut funding for Medicare, nutrition programs, education, etc., while spending $45 million on a parade ostensibly to honor the Army, but which just happens to fall on his birthday – and at the same time cutting veterans programs. He has never referred to service members, veterans and those who died for this country as “suckers” and “losers.” So, who did you vote for?

Marjorie Greer

Spokane

Lime scooters are ruining downtown

I am not a business owner/operator anymore. However, Mr. McFarland points out what many Spokane cheerleaders want to avoid (“The downtown Spokane you love is at risk,” June 17). Whether drunk or drugged or zero desire to improve their lot, we, like many other cities, have a population that is ruining this city.

In my opinion there are other impediments. I’m not sure why the city decided to contract with Lime scooters. I can only assume it was to bring a younger demographic to the streets and sidewalks of the core. Here is another reality city leaders avoid. It’s a Friday evening in Spokane. Gone are the days of bumper-to-bumper traffic cruising and clogging our streets. Now as families, mom, dad, toddlers, babies in strollers, grandmas and grandpas attempt to enjoy our streets they have to deal with bands of youths popping wheelies, zigzagging on the sidewalks, with no controls whatsoever.

Are they contributing to our economy? No. Has scooter revenue helped the city’s coffers? Minimal. What it has done is replaced pedestrians from shopping with groups of scooter riders. Additionally, parking garages with their ramps are daily dealing with potentially dangerous situations when scooter riders think it’s a playground. And why aren’t people clogging our shops and streets? Duh.

Jim Bickel

Spokane

Spokane Arts should stay outside of city government

It was interesting to read that Mayor Brown was looking to move Spokane Arts back into city government. Was it for the health and well-being of the arts or was it purely for the admissions tax and a plan for a handpicked staff? One will never know, but the Spokane Arts Commission needs to continue to go it alone.

As the former CEO of Visit Spokane, I know firsthand how a city run program can kill something like the arts. The Spokane Arts Commission is justified in its concerns about future mayors who don’t agree with the importance of the arts in our community. According to the arts commission mission, “art builds culture and economies, fueling individual and community transformation.” I would agree.

Spokane is a unique place; the arts add tremendous value to that uniqueness. Becoming a department within city government would kill that spirit and mission, not to mention bringing a high level of uncertainty.

Harry Sladich

Spokane

Getting Baumgartner on the record

The Spokesman-Review is to be commended for getting Rep. Michael Baumgartner on the record, sort of, regarding the Israel-Iran conflict and potential direct U.S. involvement in the war. As has been noted by numerous letter writers in this section, he is nearly impossible to communicate with directly, even though he proudly crows that he is our voice in Congress. I guess you need to be a member of the media to get his attention.

Roger Haick

Loon Lake

Baumgartner needs refresh on Constitution

While it’s already clear that our rep talks about the danger of deficit while voting to increase it dramatically while also taking food and medical care from his constituents, now we see another glaring hypocrisy.

At his disastrous Spokane town hall, he repeatedly called himself a “Section 1 guy” referring to the separation of powers between legislative and executive.

Perhaps he should refresh himself on Section 8, Clause 11.

Dropping a 15-ton bunker buster on a foreign adversary is clearly an act of war, so to say it’s up to the president to make that call is a complete dereliction of duty on his part. One in a long and growing list.

Michael Stranger

Spokane