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Author: Emerson Garfield

N. Monroe Vintage, Hearts and Flowers Family Event, Aug 24

N. Monroe Vintage, Hearts and Flowers Family Event, Aug 24

Several neighborhood businesses on North Monroe — including The Heart of Spokane, The Hub Tavern, Destiny Floral, TheRetroVixen, Blackwood Designs, Paint in my Hair, and Fabulous Finds — are holding a family-friendly event called North Monroe Vintage, Hearts and Flowers to help raise money for the Women’s and Children’s Free Restaurant.

It will take place on Friday, August 24 from noon to 6pm along the stretch between 2901 and 3036 N. Monroe [map].

The flyer for the North Monroe Vintage, Hearts & Flowers family event on Friday, August 24 from noon to 6pm.

The event centers around a canned food drive but will also feature face-painting, a small vintage fashion fun with al fresco modeling out on the sidewalks, barbecued hot dogs, and more. All they’re asking is a donation of two cans of food.

You’ll also have a chance to make a small donation in the form of a $3 raffle ticket. The prize is an original artwork donated by local artist Cecile G. Charles.

Beyond all that, it will be a great opportunity to browse the shops that help make North Monroe unique. There will be a few vintage cars and motorcycles, and the Spokane Humane Society will also be there with dogs and cats in need of a good home.

Someone from the Women’s and Children’s Free Restaurant will be on hand to answer questions about their organization. The WCFR is a great resource for many low-income families across Spokane and a huge supporter of our neighborhood.

Check out the Facebook page for the event to see who’s going. For more info about the fundraiser, get in touch with Cecile or Susan at (509) 443-4799 between 10am and 5pm, Mon-Fri.

New Sidewalks Along Madison

New Sidewalks Along Madison

Lest it seem that our neighborhood requests routinely fall on deaf ears or get nixed due to lack of available funding, allow us to draw your attention to Madison Street, where construction crews are currently putting in new sidewalks.

The channel has been dug for the new sidewalk.

We’re hoping that these sidewalks will ultimately run all the way down Madison to Emerson Park. This tends to be the principal route that families and older children take toward Emerson Park, and it will be better for both them and drivers if they no longer have to be on the road.


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Unfortunately, the construction crews had to cut down very old and distinctive black locust trees in at least one block to make way for the sidewalk. We hope these will be replaced with new street trees — with more added to the parking strip along the way where they’re lacking.

We’ll keep you updated with photos of the new sidewalk as installation progresses.

What’s next for Madison? A bike lane, maybe?

Neighborhood Potluck Wrap-up

Neighborhood Potluck Wrap-up

The Emerson-Garfield Neighborhood Potluck took place last night at Emerson Park. There was a great turnout of people from all over the neighborhood and a ton of food that included great dishes like quinoa salsa, English shortbread, Asian peanut noodles with tofu, and seafood salad (in addition to the free hot dogs, of course).

City councilwoman (and current state senate candidate) Nancy McLaughlin took part, as did former councilman Steve Corker. Downtown’s Main Market Co-op was also on hand to help spread the word about affordable local food. As part of the market’s contribution to the potluck, they brought along a giant bowl of the popular kale salad from the deli.

During the meeting portion of the event, all the attendees were given a chance to introduce themselves and talk about what they wanted for the neighborhood. Their suggestions included more bike lanes on the residential streets, better collaboration between local businesses and residents, steps to reduce crime (although a city police officer noted that Emerson-Garfield actually has one of the lowest neighborhood crime rates in Spokane this summer), and more community-wide activities.

We also discussed and voted on park improvements. Several new pieces of playground equipment — possibly including a seesaw, a merry-go-round, swings, and a slide — will replace the single unit in Emerson-Park, and both Emerson and Corbin Parks will get new electrical hook-ups for things like live music. Corbin Park will also have a new set of swings put in.

At the end of the evening, we got the chance to find out about something else that’s going on in the neighborhood — SpoFlow, which takes place every Wednesday night at Emerson Park [map] during the summer. It’s a fun live music jam session with yoga and hula hoopers.

Night Out Against Crime Wrap-up

Night Out Against Crime Wrap-up

At yesterday evening’s Night Out Against Crime event in Corbin Park, Pizza Rita raised $242 from merchandise sales and donations for COPS North Central. That’s not bad, considering that they were charging just 50¢ for large slices and pop — and they were selling the remaining whole large pizzas for just $3 (or two for $5!) at the end.

There was music by the Liverwurst Lads and Zach Hval, and later in the evening there were fire dancers from Visual Vortex. Brian Dickmann, owner of our neighborhood Pizza Rita, was on hand (along with plenty of his staff) to help run the evening and promote the many items that were available for auction — like a snowboard and vibrant Hawaiian shirts.

Night Out Against Crime, Aug 7

Night Out Against Crime, Aug 7

On Tuesday, August 7 (remember: that’s the evening before the Emerson-Garfield Neighborhood Picnic & Potluck) there will be a special fundraiser hosted by Pizza Rita on Indiana on behalf of the annual nationwide Night Out Against Crime. The event starts at 6pm and runs until 8pm at Corbin Park [map].

Pizza Rita will be selling slices of pizza and ice-cold pop for just 50¢. All proceeds from the pizza sales will benefit COPS North Central.

Pizza Rita on Indiana

A number of items will be for sale at the event through a silent auction. As with the pizza money, all auction money goes to our local COPS Shop. There will also be Live Music (Zach Hval and The Liverwurst Lads ) and Visual Vortex fire dancers.

Please remember that this is a cash only event — that goes for the auction as well as the pizza. Although there are some tables at the park, bring your own folding chairs and  picnic blankets (not to mention your appetite!). Parking is limited, too, so plan to walk or bike a few blocks instead of driving.

Questions? Contact Pizza Rita through their Facebook page or call Brian at 953-1486.

To mark the Night Out Against Crime you can also meet at your Block Watch captain’s home. But we have a feeling that cheap pizza in the park will be just a tiny bit more fun.