Letters for Jan. 23, 2022
Downtown stadium causing more problems
When all the pressure to move the stadium from the Albi site to the downtown location, everything was on the front page of the paper. There was plenty of parking even though they didn’t have enough for a capacity crowd at the Arena. Now add 5,000 more seats for the Podium and 5.000 more for the stadium and we are talking 20,000 people if all venues fill up. The existing parking was about 7,000 spaces, half of that will be gone when the new stadium is built, so now we are talking 3,500 spaces for a potential 20,000 people. Can you see the problem?
On Jan. 13, buried on the second page of the third section of the paper is a small article stating how the Public Facilities District (aka the city) just realized they don’t have enough parking and are going to spend $5 million of our money to buy Value Village and turn it into parking (“Public Facilities District buying property to offset parking losses”). This still won’t be enough parking, so anyone living or working around the Arena, be prepared. Your property or home or business could be the next casualty of the lies told to Spokane Public Schools and the voters to get them to move the stadium.
Let’s see if the stadium lives up to all the hype and the city lives up to the promises given to Spokane schools that all their events will take priority, oh and lots of free parking for school events.
Steve Butt
Spokane
World Relief hiring policy
The recent coverage of the staff hiring policies of World Relief seem to miss the primary issue. Do religious organizations have the freedom to determine whom they hire according to their own belief system, or do they not? The answer would seem simple. The Constitution says the government may make no laws prohibiting the free exercise of religion. So – why the outrage over religious organizations who resist hiring gay staff members?
What we see here is the clash of two world views. What is seldom discussed in the media is the current cultures’ “post-modern” world view. This is the perspective that all beliefs are culturally based. When the culture changes, beliefs change. No problem. Traditional – now conservative – Christianity, however, is based on the belief that God, revealed in Scripture, has created absolute moral and ethical laws true for all times and all cultures.
The fundamental issue now is whether in the United States people have the right to hold different world views. Since all religions have views of sexuality, limiting who you hire on grounds of sexual behavior would seem hardly controversial. Is it discrimination? Of course, but that is religion. Being part of any faith, means believing in certain ideas and not others.
The question is, why are religious based groups such as World Relief condemned for following their beliefs? If you don’t like what a group believes, don’t support them. But why should those outside think they have a right to judge them by their personal values?
James Becker
Spokane
Loopholes are meant to be closed
It’s no secret that the wealthy and powerful have a bad habit of bending the rules to work for them. Unfortunately for the rest of us, this usually means we are left with the short end of the stick.
In this case, the short end of the stick is represented by a county that continues to sprawl into rural nature and farmland that has no business being developed. This land is offered up to businesses that, by the guidelines of Washington state’s Growth Management Act, should not be expanded into. Though legal review of the deal to expand may be underway, and eventually rejected per the law, by the time it is rejected, the deal is set in stone. Thus, the loophole is exploited, so that regardless of the result of the hearing, the company walks away with themselves grandfathered into owning the land.
This is a loophole that our very own county commissioners of Spokane have a long track record of exploiting. Offering land to businesses that do not belong there, and saddling us taxpayers with the burden of supporting that misguided expansion.
Luckily for us, the Washington Legislature is debating and reviewing a bill that would close this loophole this year! SB 5042 would put an end to this nonsense. So please, contact your representative, and ask them to support passage of SB 5042, so we can close this loophole once and for all, as all loopholes should be.
Trenton Miller
Spokane
Busing dilemma has easy solution
Perhaps it is time for one taxpayer-funded organization (Spokane Public Schools) to partner with another taxpayer-funded organization (Spokane Transit Authority). District 81 has spent $10-13 million per year for the past five years to contract with Durham to transport students to and from schools. During the pandemic, they have struggled to have enough drivers for all routes. I have not heard of STA struggling with having enough drivers.
That money could increase STA revenue by 10% while using buses, vans and STA drivers to transport those students. The smaller vehicles could be used to drop students at park and ride locations and/or bus stops where they could ride full size STA buses to school. I would recommend that the schools be responsible for transporting students for extracurricular activities. This could be easy money for STA for nine months of work.
Rich Zywiak
Spokane
COVID’s silver lining
Every day we hear about COVID-19 numbers and fights over masks and vaccines. We have lost more than 800,000 American lives to COVID, and many families have been devastated. My heart aches for them and for all the health care workers who care for them.
The silver lining is that COVID has caused us all to take a break, reset and to think about what’s important in life. Many people have rethought their jobs. Do we live to work or work to live? Some have looked for new jobs, others have started online businesses, still others have retired. Due to the shutdown, some people have had a vacation for the first time. Because of the stimulus packages, people who lived paycheck to paycheck were able to pay bills and maybe save a little for the first time.
I have really enjoyed reading Cindy Hval’s articles about people’s COVID projects.
Being quarantined had many turning to creative interests and projects they longed to do but never had time for. Everything from restoring family treasures, creating beautiful things, building she sheds to writing books were presented.
We have had a lot more family time in bubbles to play games and do things together. We have learned new ways to connect with family and friends via Zoom. We have learned how important personal contact is and value it when we get it.
Importantly, we got to look at how we want to live our lives.
Libby Laughary
Spokane
A little misinformation goes a long way
Sue Lani Madsen, once again you take a little fact, mix it with a lot of fiction, and pass it off as a public service. Unfortunately, the far right eats this up as gospel. If you really looked at the law instead of spreading falsehoods, you will see that the quarantine you discuss was about sexual diseases being spread knowingly, and if so that “person” could be quarantined – with an appeal process available before a judge (judicial branch). Here is what happens from reckless words.
Using some of the same misinformation that Madsen used in her column, Joey Gibson of Patriot Prayer, one of the many protesters at a State Board of Health meeting, urged other protesters to start showing up at the homes of local public health officials who are planning to create “concentration camps.” He said demonstrators “should not commit any acts of violence – we’re not at ‘that point’ right now.” Hmm.. What will be the tipping point before misinformation spread by you cause zealots to reach “That Point”?
Pat Presley
Spokane
End of the single-family home?
I just returned from a monthlong visit to Zurich, Switzerland. Just about everyone there lives in an apartment. Only the very rich live in a single-family home. After that experience, I hope the bill proposed by Washington State Senator Jessica Bateman does not pass. That bill would allow apartments to be built in zones currently limited to single-family homes. Even in Zurich, the single-family homes were in a zone where there were no apartments.
The apartments in Zurich are large, with three bedrooms and a balcony. But there is no yard where children can play by themselves or with neighbors and, of course, there is no gardening.
Switzerland has a lack of land but we do not. Quality of life should be important to citizens of Spokane. I was very happy to return to my house and garden!
Joan A. McLean
Spokane