Letter for Jan. 13, 2026

Light rail transit is a public health investment we need

Spokane ranks 20th nationally in per capita transit ridership, despite being only the 98th-largest metro. The demand is apparent – what’s missing is vision.

Interstate 90 between Spokane and Spokane Valley is increasingly congested. The usual answer is more lanes, but that only brings temporary relief before they fill up again. Light rail offers reliable, scheduled service that breaks this cycle.

The infrastructure groundwork already exists. The North Spokane Corridor has space reserved for high-capacity transit, and the South Valley Corridor follows publicly owned railroad land from downtown to Liberty Lake. This means we don’t have to start from scratch. In fact, the Spokane Inland Rail Association has plans drawn up.

Washington law allows a $2 monthly employer tax specifically for high-capacity transit – it’s been on the books for years. Combined with federal grants and existing bonding authority, there’s a realistic funding path forward.

Portland and Salt Lake invested early in light rail and have seen decades of economic growth around their stations. Seattle delayed and now pays over $200 million per mile. Our original estimate came in around $17 million. Every year we wait, that gap widens.

Transportation access is a social determinant of health. People need reliable ways to reach work, medical appointments, and grocery stores. Not everyone can drive, and not everyone should have to. As a registered nurse and community advocate, I see what happens when people can’t get where they need to go. Better transit isn’t just infrastructure – it’s a public health investment.

Alexander J. Knox

Spokane

Baumgartner’s silence

Wow. Our congressman is still silent (or worse, supportive) on the increasingly crazy illegal actions of the Trump administration: premeditated murder of alleged drug smugglers in international waters; breaching international law to extract a suspected violator of U.S. law from Venezuela, killing dozens of people in the process; subsequently saying out loud that we are taking the oil from Venezuela, another incredibly illegal act of malice; threatening to “take Greenland,” a self-governing territory within the country of Denmark.

How is any of this seen as acceptable American policy?! Where is Mr. Baumgartner’s defense of the Constitution and international rule of law? I cannot say this loudly enough: we are all complicit in electing this sycophant to represent us. Shameful.

Jeffrey Ellingson

Liberty Lake

New START Treaty

Veterans For Peace Chapter 35 of Spokane in close association with Washington Physicians for Social Responsibility, have placed a billboard in our fair town to mobilize voters to understand the urgency of losing the New START, or Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty, that is set to expire In February – the last remaining agreement limiting U.S. and Russian nuclear weapons and to take action!

For more than 25 years, this treaty has helped reduce the risk of nuclear escalation through limits, transparency, and inspections. Its expiration would remove guardrails that have kept the world safer, increasing the chance of misunderstanding, arms racing, and catastrophic error.

This billboard is meant to spark awareness and encourage public dialogue at a moment when silence carries real risk.

Nuclear policy should not drift into the background. With the clock ticking on the expiration of New Start in February, now is the time for public attention and leadership.

Jim Burke

Spokane