There are several ways you can tell when someone is secure in the knowledge that our area is, warts and all, a pretty good place to live.

Here's one.

Let's say you are mailing a package to some faraway place. Or maybe picking one up sent from another part of the country.

If the counter clerk feels the need to say something like "I wouldn't want to live THERE," that person probably thinks Spokane is in some sort of livability competition and secretly realizes it is a contest the Lilac City will not always win.

But if the person says something nice about, say, Ohio or New Mexico, there's a good chance he or she recognizes that there are all kinds of people anywhere you go. By expressing interest in or gently praising your package's destination, he or she implies that your uncle or sister undoubtedly are fine people living good lives.

And it makes the case in a congenial manner that there are better ways to lift Spokane up than putting other places down.  

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