Letters for March 20, 2024
Opera continues on smaller scale
The Inland Northwest Opera promotes appreciation of opera now, though circumstances outlined in the article (“The end of an aria?” March 10) required scaling back operations. Losing the main production is substantial. However, all is not lost: The board is reassessing the community desires in terms of unamplified soprano/alto/tenor/bass vocal arts combined with a story, a moral and mechanical wizardry, which defines Opera. Many communities struggle with supporting large opera companies. For example, the Metropolitan Opera has borrowed $70 million from its endowment, and other companies have shortened their seasons, or folded altogether.
INO’s continues stewardship over remaining funds, to focus on favored, smaller productions. How that plays out remains a product of listening to those who desire opera in Spokane and North Idaho. The Opera Truck has been favored consistently and remains supported. We will survey the desire for small performances presented by our talented local artists. Finally, we can progress to education and larger productions. That requires hearing from our community, and we are listening. We are re-examining what we have, and our goals.
The INO board’s desire to deliver opera performances remains intact. We are aware that we will not solve the current problem if we don’t address its root cause. This requires time and a grounded conviction. Best efforts will be made, as resources allow, to continue forward. We are not finished! To wit:
“Rumors of my death are greatly exaggerated” – Mark Twain
William E. Heaton
INO board Member
Spokane
Don’t pave paradise
As a 25-year resident of the Five Mile neighborhood, my garden teams with songbirds, bees, butterflies, quail, mourning doves, yellow finch, hummingbirds and wildlife visits of deer, squirrels and occasional moose–a 20-year creation.
Yet less than two city blocks from our home, a 48-apartment complex on 2 acres with 75 cars is proposed. Bulldozers scraping wildflower meadows for bees and hummingbirds, rocky crags supporting skink lizards, removing trees destroying bird nests and endangered big-eared bats\owls’ habitats permanently altering the Five Mile ecosystem.
This 2-acre site is unfit and ill-equipped for a 48-unit development. Threatening wildlife, wilderness plants and trees and traffic generated by more than 75 cars through our single-family residential area, it is poorly designed. With minimal infrastructure planning: traffic increase, no buses, or crosswalks for the 30 mph (actually about 45-50 mph) on Five Mile Road and slower response by strained Five Mile emergency services with minimal police, fire station and ambulance.
Limited water supply, aging sewage systems and basalt with limited water drainage plague this project. The proposed asphalt parking areas will not be able to absorb water runoff after storms. The construction process with noise, dust, blasting and heavy equipment work will drive away even more wildlife and birds.
As the seventy’s hit song “Big Yellow Taxi” expresses: “Don’t it always seem to go that you don’t know what you’ve got ‘til it’s gone. They paved paradise and put up a parking lot.” Stop this project now.
Julie Moyer
Spokane
Big inkwells to fill
In his farewell to readers (“So long, and thanks for reading,” March 15), Shawn Vestal recounts how writing for The Spokesman-Review was the dream of many small-town journalists 25 years ago. The paper “punched way above its weight,” he said. When I formed the same high opinion of the paper soon after moving here in 2016, it was largely because of Vestal himself. His thorough reporting and superb opinion pieces would have been at home in newspapers serving much larger markets.
The Spokesman-Review will continue to have a lot going for it, including other fine writers, wide coverage and stimulating features. But Vestal is already sorely missed. I hope a worthy successor is found.
Brian Keeling
Spokane