LEMONS to the Spokane Public School Board for rushing the vote on the downtown stadium.  When the Spokane Sports Commission proposed combining their already-planned Sportsplex with the stadium by making the Sportsplex just a bit bigger and saving taxpayers $20 million in the process, we thought it was worth a close look. It’s admirable that the school board wanted to follow the will of Spokane’s generous voters, who overwhelmingly approved the new school bonds, but we don’t think the public had a great idea of the options at the time of the vote; another vote would have been worthwhile. Haste makes waste. 

LILACS to Sharon Smith and Don Barbieri for donating the money to buy all those blue tents at “Camp Hope” that sat outside City Hall, and LILACS to the General Store for selling them at cost so more could be purchased. They’ve all been scattered now—the camp broken up, and other shelters opening—but that gracious act of charity is one of the great things about our city, which we see repeated over and over. Barbieri is right: they live a tough life, one which few of us would ever want to walk.

LEMONADE to the electricity regulators who decided that the company buying Avista was too encumbered with Canadian politics to give us steady and sure leadership. The regulators got it right: A foreign company at the whims of party leadership is no company to run our voltage. LILACS to the idea floated by some to set up a cooperative where we, the people, own our power company. That may be tilting at windmills, but it’s less scary than having a dictatorial leader play games with our watts.

LILACS to Tyson Sicilia, owner of the Observatory bar downtown, for forming an alliance with other bar owners, keeping the racist bully group the “Proud Boys” out of their taverns. Pubs have long been a bastion of “live and let live” behavior, but Sicilia believes there is no place for hate and discrimination in his tavern. We’ll proudly support his efforts and his tavern.  

LEMONS to stores for closing early, especially on weekends. We went to see an 8:30 movie and thought we’d kill time shopping at River Park Square. Other than Urban Outfitters, everyone shuttered their doors at the ridiculous hour of 8 p.m. In the summer, that’s practically late afternoon. Go to Seattle and things are hustling and bustling until midnight and beyond on weekends, but in sleepy Spokane, our downtown dies early. So do the shopping malls. But drive over to Ross, which stays open until 11p.m., and you’ll see a parking lot jammed with cars. It seems many people DO shop at night. And guess what: Amazon and the internet stay open 24/7. So if you want to compete with the web, we suggest hiring a couple employees to keep your business going for that late night crowd, at least on weekends.

LILACS to Goodwill for creating Hope Works, a program where they drive around looking for panhandlers and offer them $50 on the spot if they’ll do a couple hours of work, give them a ride to the social services they may need, and sometimes even find them a place to live. Apparently, they have no problem getting signups, proving that often the best way to help the disadvantaged is to give the money directly to them instead of into top-heavy bureaucracy.