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STA Moving Forward Open House, Apr 10

STA Moving Forward Open House, Apr 10

The Spokane Transit Authority is holding a free, all-corridor — which pretty much includes everywhere there’s a major route — public open house on Wednesday, April 10 from 4:30 to 7pm at the Lincoln Center [map].

The STA will use this event to showcase its proposed changes to the corridors — and there are some big ones under consideration that will effect the public transportation near you. By all accounts, these changes will be positive and, if enacted in full, stand to put Spokane on a par with any respectable urban center.

The STA has already solicited small-group input via a Corridor Advisory Panel as well as wider feedback through localized public open houses, so the April 10 event ought to offer a great opportunity to learn how the STA is planning for the future of Spokane and slightly beyond.

April 10 STA Open House Flyer

Please note that the open house falls on the same evening as the Emerson-Garfield Neighborhood Council meeting. Fortunately, it was scheduled in a way that shouldn’t conflict with the meeting, which starts at the time when the open house officially ends. The EGNC encourages anyone who’s interested in the N. Monroe corridor to stop by the open house beforehand — because the STA’s proposed changes will impact our neighborhood’s business hub.

More details are available at stamovingforward.com.

Neighborhood Planning Meeting, April 4

Neighborhood Planning Meeting, April 4

Just a reminder to all those involved or interested that the next neighborhood planning meeting will take place tomorrow, April 4 at 6pm in the upper north room of the Corbin Center.

At the March meeting, there was some discussion of what exactly planning is. Some participants said that they understand that planning for our neighborhood is important, but that they don’t have enough knowledge to be able to participate in the ways that they believe are important. Therefore that discussion addressed the various layers of planning and some of the aspects that neighborhood planning was concerned, and bound with.

This month’s meeting will continue that conversation and work towards making some headway on the planing process itself. Oh, and there will be cookies.

March Neighborhood Council Meeting Recap

March Neighborhood Council Meeting Recap

[Ed. note: This is a condensed version of the official minutes, which are available for download here.]

The March Edition of the Emerson-Garfield Neighborhood Council came in like a lion at a couple of minutes after 7pm on March 13.

Chair Liorah Wichser started the meeting with a vote for a new logo for the Neighborhood Council. Three submissions had been submitted by three submittees, all of whom were present. A silent vote was taken and the winning logo was submitted by Liorah Wichser. It was a very fair vote and totally a coincidence that the Chair of the Committee has a name very similar to that of the the winning artist.

Thanks to Joe Snodgrass and Stan Burke for their artistic submissions. [Ed. note: All three logos will be featured in an upcoming post.]

Garbage Czar Karl Boldt spoke next and gave a report on the Neighborhood Clean-Up Day scheduled for Saturday, April 27 from 9am to 12:30pm. It will again be held in the parking lot of Faith Bible Church at 600 W Cora. There will be bins for garbage and clean green, just as in the past. In addition, there will be a recycling bin for metals of all kinds (other than radioactive) and an area for household hazardous waste. That means paint, chemicals and radioactive iridium 358. The Salvation Army will also be there to accept resellable items you would like to donate. [Ed. note: An upcoming post will have more information about Neighborhood Clean-Up Day.]

There will be a large furniture pick up scheduled for later in June. You need to register with Karl at (509) 325-3031.

Next was a brief update on the status of registering the group as a 501(c)(3) organization. Bylaws are being written up and a board of directors is going to be needed. The board will probably consist of 5 to 7 people and you can be one of them. Contact Liorah if you so desire.

Elections of new officers will be scheduled for next month. Liorah, E.J. and Stan are the nominating/railroading committee. Liorah has announced she is stepping down. E.J. has said he would like to become chair if no one else is so inclined, and Stan, your humble writer of minutes, will stay on for a fourth year if no one else wants the job, but he would also happily step aside. That means the vice chair and/or co-chair job is open and ready for someone like you. Contact anyone of the officers to submit yourself for electoral consideration.

The Corbin Senior Center has been buzzing with activity. The Luau was a great event. The 9th Movin’ & Groovin’ Fair was a happening event with 70 vendors, lots of great food and lots of people attending.

There will be a Pancake Breakfast on April 27 from 8:30 to 11am. Tickets are $7 per person and are available at the front desk or at the door the day of the event — so get some breakfast and then dump your garbage at the aforementioned Neighborhood Clean-Up.

Corbin and Emerson-Garfield will be holding a yard sale on May 11. The Corbin Golf Scramble will be at Indian Canyon on June 21 and sponsored by Pine Ridge Alzheimer’s Care Center.

The Neighborhood Planning Committee is still suffering from a woeful lack of attendance. Committee Chair Jay Cousins and one other person were at the last meeting. If you want a say in the future of how the neighborhood looks, the meetings are held on the first Thursday of the month at Corbin Senior Center. The next meeting is Thursday April 4 at 6pm. You should go.

Lt. Dean Sprague informed the group of the latest trends in crime in the neighborhood over the last month. There is all kinds of information available at www.spokanecops.org.

The Community Assembly met recently and discussed the stormwater/sewer project and heard a speech from the mayor.

In neighborhood news, Eline Helm is spearheading a Concert in the Park Series. Nothing is scheduled yet but this effort is underway and Eline would love more involvement.

Community Development rep Sara Kimball was not available but sent an update on sidewalks. Priorities are being organized for the 29 areas of concern. Not all areas will be addressed this year as funds (as always) are limited. The new swings in Corbin Park are in and two new horseshoe pits will be installed in the area of the old swing set. The new play equipment for Emerson Park has arrived and will be installed in late April.

The committee chose to recommend cross walks in the area of the Safeway store as the priority for our traffic calming projects.

With that, the meeting was adjourned at 9:12pm.

Quality of Life vs. Quick Buck

Quality of Life vs. Quick Buck

One week ago, the Spokane County commissioners opted to gobble up another 6,000 acres of surrounding countryside to build more cookie-cutter homes and strip malls. Their expansion of the urban growth area (UGA) could end up costing taxpayers an additional $64 million. Developers and big-box stores are the ones who most stand to benefit.

Map of UGA expansion. Borrowed with the best of intentions from the Inlander's blog post.
Map of UGA expansion. Borrowed with the best of intentions from the Inlander’s blog post.

In his recent column titled “Growth vote unsupported by the math,” the Spokesman-Review‘s Shawn Vestal outlines some of the opposition to the UGA vote as well as the commissioners’ less-than-forthright approach to its actual costs:

The question of whether to expand the county’s growth boundary — whether to sprawl expensively or grow in a more concentrated, smarter fashion — has been an interesting case. Against the objections of everyone from Spokane Mayor David Condon to state growth officials to activist groups, county commissioners Al French, Todd Mielke and Shelly O’Quinn [have] voted unanimously to sprawl.

He references a less euphemistic blog post by Daniel Walters at the Inlander, “Spokane County really screwed up its Urban Growth Area math,” which in turn references a Spokesman news article on the subject.

This decision is something that will affect us at both the city and neighborhood levels.

Sprawl makes us more reliant on cars (thereby increasing traffic and pollution), creates more vacant retail stores and homes near the city center (a surefire way to speed neighborhood collapse), and costs more in taxpayer money in the long run (the additional infrastructure is expensive to build and maintain, and big-box stores draw more money away from the community than they put in). The arguments in favor of sprawl are hard to find — we’d welcome any in the comments.

One of the reasons people proudly cite for living in Spokane is its easy access to green spaces: “Just a 30-minute drive and you’re in the forest!” Urban sprawl beats nature further back, which means that 30-minute drive will eventually become an hour. With the commissioners’ approach to the UGA, over time that clever “Near Nature, Near Perfect” tourist slogan will simply become: “Near Wal-Mart.”

Materials for the Mar 13 EGNC Meeting

Materials for the Mar 13 EGNC Meeting

The next Emerson-Garfield Neighborhood Council Meeting will take place this Wednesday (March 13). As usual, it will start at 7pm and be held at the Corbin Senior Center.

You can get the materials (agenda, minutes for approval) on the Downloads page, or just download them here:

Some of the big agenda items include:

  • Announcement of traffic-calming voting results
  • Updates to the city’s Comprehensive Plan
  • Neighborhood spring cleanup
  • Updates to the city’s Comprehensive Plan
  • Review of submissions and voting on the neighborhood logo
  • Timing of election of new officers
  • COPS and planning committee reports
  • Nonprofit formation news

We hope to see you there!