A wide field of candidates has stepped forward to represent Northwest Spokane on the Spokane City Council.

Scolding an elected official just doesn’t quite feel the same over Webex.

The Chronicle was predicting that the jitneys (private cars or vans) would now be allowed to undercut the streetcars by charging only a nickel. This would put Spokane’s financially strapped streetcar system in an even bigger bind.

With the immediate pressures of the COVID-19 pandemic slowly receding, city officials are focusing on a long-term plans for homeless services in Spokane.

Brewer, a lifelong Spokane resident, served stints on the Spokane City Council, Spokane Plan Commission, Spokane County Air Pollution Control Authority and Spokane Transit Authority. Later in life, he became a booster for his neighborhood, founding the Hillyard Heritage Museum Society. 

Utility customers can check an interactive map on the city’s website to see whether they are on the “week A” or “week B” schedule. The city also mailed notices directly to customers that indicate during which week their recycling will be collected.

City staff finalized the details of a long-awaited legislative proposal last week that would set parking rates between $0.50 and $3 per hour in downtown Spokane, depending on the demand for spaces in that area.

The city could incentivize reductions with rewards, like a rebate on utility bills. Or, it could take a firmer approach by raising rates on prodigious water users and implementing mandatory irrigation standards on new development. The city's Water Resource Collaboration Group is looking to cut consumption by 25%. 

Current regulations offer the Spokane City Council and Spokane County Board of Commissioners a potential path to holding some in-person meetings, but it remains narrow and unlikely.

As was the case during state and federal campaigns last year, candidates for city office are planning virtual events while weighing the risks of what were once staples of election season, such as knocking on residents’ doors.

Steve Salvatori was diagnosed last year with leukemia and placed on a clinical trial drug intended to defeat the cancer. That treatment hasn't taken, and while Salvatori is receiving chemotherapy in Florida, a 67th birthday in July feels like an outside possibility.

The Gonzaga Law School and Washington State University graduate has served two years as a court commissioner and has 17 years of experience in the legal system in Washington state. She was nominated by Mayor Nadine Woodward and confirmed by the Spokane City Council last week. 

For about two hours on Jan. 14, as winds whipped mercilessly and tossed down trees across Spokane, there was not a single fire department crew left to respond to emergencies.

Spokane City Council will still be doing business virtually to start 2021, but the new year will bring the return of an old pillar of its meetings – open forum.

A new Spokane Municipal Community Court branch in the East Central Neighborhood is an evolution in the reformation of the city’s criminal justice system, but one Spokane City Council member has questioned whether a community center and neighborhood pillar is the right home for it.

The Spokane City Council agreed Monday to contribute $1.1 million toward a new facility that will, in lieu of jail, treat people with mental health and substance abuse disorders who are arrested for low-level crimes.

Spokane City Council members largely agreed Monday on what federal policy changes Congress should enact, but one stood out.

Mark Wiener vividly remembers the Great Portland Fluoride Battle of 2013.

The Spokane City Council is barreling toward an initial vote on fluoridating the city’s water supply this week, but before it does so, those for and against the plan will be given an opportunity to offer their input.