Comments

1
Since they failed to enumerate any reasons of concern beyond the provincial for someone visiting their fair town for any possible reason, in going to chalk this up to Rachel Dolezal or someone disgusted by Seattle's LIBERAL AGENDA.

Thanks you butts, but many of us have been planning a trip to the east side of the state anyway, and there's NOTHING YOU CAN DO ABOUT IT.

I'm going to steal your favorite booth at the Thrifty Scotsman, buy all the tschotchkies at Boo Radley's so you can't have any, flagrantly eat pizza and burgers at the best Dicks in the state, and take up all the space in the Baby bar with my city-slicker boots.

You can't stop the teeming masses of thise who would politely enjoy the quiet majesty of the garbage eating goat! We're going to upturn your routine by being polite and friendly and chatting with locals and your world will be thrown to the forces of chaos.

Seeya!
2
@1 I assume their concerned that The Stranger will simply mock Spokane and their inhabitants, Waiting for Guffman style, as you have done here.
3
*they're
4
It's cool how they put the male arts/music editor's name in front of the female editor-in-goddamn-chief's name in their "letter to the editor." smh
5
I don't buy it. I'd hazard a guess that a plurality of Spokane citizens would read the Spokane edition with great interest.
7
First item in The Inlander's version of SLOG's version of "The Morning News:
The View from the Westside

The Stranger sent a team of writers to Spokane to tell its Seattle readers something that many of us here already know: Spokane, contrary to some popular opinion, is OK. Our literary scene is "blooming," our record store scene is "booming," our food scene is growing, and a city councilwoman doubles as "The Weed Queen." There's also this hard-hitting interview in which Ijeoma Oluo, a black woman, interviews former Inlander columnist Rachel Dolezal, a white woman who identifies as black. Give it a read.
8
They must be jealous of Seattle's junkie shantytowns and literal shit as far as the eye can see.
9
@6 - Spokane never was and never will be that. Obviously, you've never been there.
10
Having gone to conventions in Spokane, I can assure its residents it will take much more than a handful of Stranger puff pieces to get me to return. You'd have to pay me.
11
I'm gonna smoke crack in front of your house. And set up my tent too.
12
Yeah, the letter-writer should really think about providing a reason. What harm? Otherwise, despite my previously having absolutely zero desire to move to Spokane, this letter actually made me think maybe there is something there worth the move.
13
Why would the Stranger even want to do a feature on Spokane?
14
Without Spokane where would our tweeker gay boys get their meth from? I mean Kent can only supply so much.
15
@13 Because people are fleeing en-masse (myself included) from Seattle's sky-high price of living, draconian commutes, and many other issues, and often are landing in Spokane (myself included). Spokane will be shockingly refreshing to anyone who hasn't visited the city in the last 4-5 years, if ever.
15
Suddenly a Spokane Issue sounds very interesting.
16
What harm? Does the letter writer think being named in The Stranger will lead to being targeted by racist militias or that it'll make them seem less legit with the hipsters or what?
17
Truth is no city has figured out how to transition through growth well. A big city has problems with affordable housing, cost of living, traffic, etc. People begin to look around and see a neighboring city with none of the problems. So people move there. As the new city grows, rents rise but wages don't, so affordable housing means sprawling low density housing on the outskirts. That works for a while, until traffic becomes a nightmare, at which point the urban core needs high density housing. But the urban core still has the infrastructure and zoning for the low density / pre-growth era of the city, and the people already there will NIMBY the shit out of anything that changes the "character" of their neighborhood.
So the city gets bigger, problems just keep getting worse, and then people notice a neighboring city with none of the problems ...
18
@2: Mocking some crotchety asshole isn't at all the same as mocking the area.

Spokane is O-K.
19
I will actually be doing all those things and unironically enjoy them.
20
@15 (the first one)

And it's bad for our community that you are forced to leave. But what is the purpose? If it's to update Seattle readers on the lives of former residents, then shouldn't we be getting occasional updates from Dominic Holden and Megan Seling, too? Or is the purpose to help us determine where to move when the housing situation​ drives us out?
21
leave spokompton alone okay!!!
22
Growing up I heard people constantly sneering about how Californians were coming and ruining everything. Meanwhile, one of the only kids in school who treated me with basic human decency had just moved up from Southern California. (At least when I told my Dad that he shut up about Californians, at least around me.)

Pretentious, smug NIMBYism. "We're too cool for the likes of you". I hate it in all its forms, but especially the ones that pretend to be progressive.
23
That's not creepy at all. Not al all.
24
Not to mention a little too late. Been and gone, mofos.
25
@21 It's "Spokentucky."
26
@25 - it is, in fact, Spokompton. Or Spotucky. Or Spokanistan. Or Spoklahoma. Or Spokan't. Or sometimes Spokatropolis.
27
The pumpkin waffles at Boots Bakery were pretty damn good. Not move-to-Spokane good, but good.
28
I left Seattle for the East coast in 2009, under bittersweet circumstances, and then boomeranged to Spokane shortly thereafter. Landing in Spokane in 2010 was anything but a triumph; it was a move of desperation, pure and simple.

The weird thing is that over time, I have felt less and less stuck in Spokane, and Spokane has become more and more familiar to my Seattle palette. In the past few recent years, I've discovered I'm not marooned here, but that I'm here by choice with pleasant offerings and short lines to the best spots. It's like I've been A-listed...it's like knowing how to order off the secret menu. I'm happy with it.

29
@18 Well, erm, um, making fun of a crochety asshole is one thing, but I don't see a single person's name in your post @1. It must be some kind of oversight of course, I'm sure you would never make broad assumptions about if someone should be mocked or not simply by where they live.
30
*Nods approvingly*

That'll do Spokane. That'll do.
31
Any follow up? Did the Stranger ask them for their reasons, and the "actual harm" that could/would be done? Inquirious Minds Want to Gno!
32
haha sweetie ..."My grandparents have lived here since the 1940s, and I moved here to be with them". Let's be honest: No one *ever* moves to be with their grandparents—except someone who expects them to kick it soon & inherit their house. Good on you, I hope your masquerade works.
33
@32 - I've found that using superlatives in any argument ("always", "never", "no one", "everyone", etc.) usually leads to either 1) being wrong, or 2) unnecessarily heightening tension in the discussion, often putting someone on the defensive ("you NEVER wash the dishes...!"), and I try to avoid them.
34
Uh oh. Now them coloreds is gonna come ruin Spokane.
35
Spokane is so weird. So weird. I don't doubt that they want to hide their shame. Whenever this issue goes out, please interview Lucas Werner for it.
36
@29: "I'm sure you would never make broad assumptions about if someone should be mocked or not simply by where they live."

I have friends there and my spouse grew up in the area.

I specifically addressed @1 to the author(s) of this dumb screed. If it's actually more than one person versus an idiot and sockpuppets, which is just as plausible. Thanks for your concern for the letter writer, though I doubt they need your instruction on how best to be a patronizingly unfriendly dillweed.

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