LILACS to Spokane Artist Chris Bovey who helped save the historic Ming Wah sign on Third Avenue in downtown Spokane. He made a cool print of the sign when he first started his historic print design business and was distraught when a windstorm toppled the sign on April 9. It would have been prohibitively expensive for the owner of the restaurant to build a new one, but Chris’ GoFundMe campaign brought in more than  $15,000. Chris, let’s get lunch there soon—on me.

LILACS to Mayor Woodward for developing a great plan for the homeless in our city. Rather than propose the usual stopgap measures, she’s proposing permanent shelters, and she’s working with other local governments for a more comprehensive plan. She even abandoned her previous stance of mandatory jail time for those who refuse treatment. Some can, and do, recover from addiction, but it needs to be on their timetable, or it won’t work. We salute her for rolling up her sleeves and doing real work on this pressing issue. 

LEMONS to Kate Burke and other members of the Spokane City Council who want to discourage Sheriff Knezovich’s training of officers by Dave Grossman on “killology,” an unfortunate title, which prepares them for that moment when they must use deadly force. This is not a police brutality issue; it’s a police training issue. Even the staunchest critics of deadly force know that when the moment comes for that decision to be made, it’s better to have received training and to be decisive. When someone holding a gun won’t drop it, do you want to ponder the situation for minutes while the person with the gun is thinking in terms of seconds?

LILACS to the three public health advocates who are imploring the Spokane City Council to add fluoride to the city’s water. The council may be able to hold a simple council vote rather than hold another public vote, which last occurred 20 years ago and was close. Dentists say that they can tell which cities have fluoride in their water (and 75 percent do) by simply counting cavities. Spokane has notoriously poor oral health, and early oral health is a harbinger of adult oral health. Let’s join the modern world and save young families thousands in dental bills.

LEMONS to the school districts that aren’t giving parents and students a choice as to whether to attend school or do it from home. Offering onsite distance learning to students who will sit in classrooms in order to watch their teacher who is sitting at home seems ludicrous, although kudos to them for trying to help parents who struggle with daycare. At least one of our clients decided to close her business rather than coping with the demands of online learning. We do applaud the loaning of laptops to every student but wonder how they can afford it. And why not allow the distance learning to occur in the evening hours so parents, mostly who work in the daytime, could help out?

LILACS to the Kalispel Tribe for bidding to buy the Usk paper mill, which went out of business last June. The tribe maintains that they are the best owners for the land as they will be the best generational stewards of the 900-acre parcel. It would provide jobs for the tribe and others, and they have the funds and desire to properly create cultural interpretive sites on the land that most owners would simply fence off. 

LILACS to Spokane Fire Chief Brian Schaeffer, who has a great idea for reducing the wildfire fuel in Hangman Park by using goats to chomp all the vegetation and noxious weeds away. Happy goats, happy parks. Some of the steep hillsides are difficult to navigate, but goats love the challenge. If this works, they’ll bring the goats to other parks as well. This will give new meaning to the garbage eating goat in Riverfront Park. We may want to change our official city mammal from marmot to goat. We already have two businesses, at least, with “goat” in their name, and only one with “marmot,” so it seems the goats have it.