LILACS to those who make our neighborhoods so lovely at Christmas with their gorgeous Christmas lights. We’ve not warmed up to those tiny circulating stars or the lights that constantly blink, but we love the carefully trimmed outdoor house lights and the lights in the trees. Some people only like white, but we like the colors. Doesn’t it make a dark season a little more cheerful?

LEMONS to those who are using the presidential election as permission to express their bigotry and hatred toward minority groups. The permission from the president-elect was not granted nor implied. The incidents we’ve seen reported make us sad for our country if it is truly comprised of so many people who hate.

LILACS to the charity shelters in Spokane for staying open all winter long, instead of taking the homeless in on only the bone-chillingly coldest nights of the year. This is Spokane at its finest. This is us being the best we can be.

LILACS to developer Rob Brewster for buying and attempting to restore the beautiful McKinley School in East Central Spokane. If you’ve ever driven down Napa toward Trent or Sprague you can’t help but ogle that big, beautiful building and lament that the property is full of trucks and industrial equipment. If it becomes a brewery, shopping and gathering spot, it will be the icing on the cake in the transformation of that historic district, right on the heels of the pedestrian bridge that will connect it to the U-district. Brewster, the visionary who brought us the Holley Mason building, the Hutton, the Montvale Hotel and many others, got stung in the real estate collapse of 2008 and has been pursuing projects in Seattle. We are glad to have him back in his hometown.

LEMONS to the Spokane City Council for ticketing downtown shoppers who replug their meters. We do understand that downtown office workers shouldn’t be hogging the spaces and constantly replugging the meters because those meters need to be used by shoppers. But how many times have you been shopping and needed to go plug the meter for just a little more time? Yes, if you work downtown and plug the meters you are spending more than a parking space in a lot would cost, but most of those we know who plug meters come and go all day long, and once in a while do need to run out because they stayed a little longer than planned. This just makes criminals of people who live and shop downtown, and their money and patronage in shops should be respected, too.

LEMONS to the litterers at Riverside State Park (Bowl and Pitcher) who couldn’t exert the effort to walk 100 feet to the garbage cans and instead just tossed all their picnic litter out their window.

LILACS to one of our wonderful readers for picking up after them so that no one else had to see the unsightly trash.

LILACS to the road construction crew who appears to be finishing up downtown this year instead of holding their project over until spring. What we’ve seen so far on Monroe is looking good, and the businesses that are located around there are salivating for the return of their customer base. Let’s just hope not too many customers have permanently moved on. We know the delay of winter helped, but we think the construction crews just found a way to work faster, and for that we appreciate them.

LEMONADE to restaurants who are struggling with the raise in the minimum wage. Some are instituting automatic gratuities to their bills (not a practice we are crazy about) while others are simply raising their prices or cutting hours or other benefits. Others are cutting their advertising (ill-advised because it creates a downward spiral) and others are increasing their advertising, figuring they’ll make up for the new expense with increased volume (bravo), but in the end prices will likely increase all across the board, so those making the higher minimum wage will likely not see a real rise in their standard of living, which means that all that really happened is everything ratcheted up a bit.