Spokane

Of all the things a citizen should reasonably expect from her city, the “quiet enjoyment and protection of her civil rights and liberties” (so phrased by the great English jurist William Blackstone) is certainly foremost. Linda Biel, a citizen and business owner in the city of Spokane, is being denied that. Like most citizens of Spokane, when Linda pursues her dreams life in the city gets better. She pays taxes, creates jobs, provides desirable services, improves and expands her business in response to the community, and engages helpfully with her neighbors. Linda’s dream is good: She loves beauty and wellness, and long-imagined building and operating her own sophisticated downtown spa. She worked hard over many years, studying business and mathematics Read More ›

A Tour Through Downtown Spokane’s leaders are denying it’s out of control. Left-wing corporate media members in this city are too compromised or weak to show the truth. That’s why Pete Serrano and I visited some of the worst parts of downtown this past weekend to see for ourselves. This is not just an affordable housing crisis. This chaos is being fueled by drug addiction, mental illness, and broken relationships. The only ones benefitting are people working in the homeless industrial complex who want more taxpayer dollars to maintain their grift. The current plan is not working. Fentanyl Addiction Making matters worse, Tranq fentanyl is all over the streets of Spokane. Housing First Does Not Work Then you have out-of-touch Read More ›

“Housing First” remains a massive policy failure. Homeless in Spokane are being given free taxpayer subsidized housing, but zero requirements to go into addiction treatment or job training. So they end up back on the streets to get high because they have nothing better to do all day. Rinse and repeat. Listen to this guy describe the scene outside Catholic Charities buildings. Drug dealers are preying on addicts at all hours of the day. When will local politicians address this madness? Spokane is now officially the Seattle of Eastern Washington. Pete Serrano is on a listening tour so he can work with addicts to break this cycle.

Tranq fentanyl is all over the streets of Spokane, Washington. This is a horror show of human suffering and neglect. Attorney General candidate Pete Serrano and I went into the underbelly of downtown over the weekend and witnessed one of the worst drug scenes in the entire state. Local mainstream media is weak and will never show the human suffering and neglect because it’s not “brand safe.” They can’t sell diaper ads next to someone overdosing on fentanyl. In turn, none of the woke elected officials in this city are being held accountable for their failed public policies. They’re more concerned about prosecuting teens who allegedly scuffed up an LGBTQ Pride crosswalk earlier this year. What’s happening in Eastern Washington Read More ›

“I wish it was still going on,” Justice Andino tells me at Camp Hope in Spokane, Washington. “I liked it here.” Andino and his wife Tracy were the last two people to exit one of the largest homeless encampments Washington has ever seen. Andino holds back tears as he speaks. After living at Camp Hope for over a year, Andino says he will miss the community, the people, and the sense of safety. “I felt like the people gave a sh*t about you, you know?” Andino and his wife are moving on and into a new apartment, and he says his tears are tears of joy. Organizers claimed that more than 600 people lived at Camp Hope at its peak. Read More ›

Post Mortem in Spokane On Friday, “Camp Hope” shut down for good. At one point, organizers claimed more than 600 homeless people lived on this piece of WSDOT (@wsdot_east) property in the East Central neighborhood. After 18 months, more than half ended up in shelters or housing options that made sense for them. But officials say a few hundred likely ended up back on the city’s streets for various reasons. I spent the weekend trying to understand what worked and didn’t work. Camp Hope organizers say determining all that is going to take some time but everyone’s progress is being tracked. And some are saying this could be a model for sanctioned encampments. As for the state of the city, Read More ›

(The Center Square) – The 2023 point-in-time count numbers show a significant increase for individuals and families without a permanent abode in Spokane, though a large encampment had been drawing down at the time. According to the 2022 Annual Homeless Assessment Report to Congress released earlier this year, “homelessness in Washington state increased 10% overall from 2020 to 2022,” and the Spokane Regional numbers over that same time period are a significant increase on that percentage. The 2023 data, presented during Thursday’s Spokane City Council Study Session, shows 2,390 people from 2,136 households were counted as homeless this year. This is a significant increase compared to the 2022 numbers showing 1,757 people from 1,513 households, a rise of 36% and 41% for Read More ›

Chatter in Spokane @SheriffOzzie wants to move ahead sometime in November and clear out “Camp Hope.” But there is intel indicating FAR LEFT activists/ANTIFA could DISRUPT sweep. What a mess. Meanwhile Sheriff says he’s working back channels, hoping for orderly transition. Ozzie Unfiltered At today’s presser in #Spokane, @SheriffOzzie went off on local MEDIA and blamed “bureaucrats” for “Camp Hope.” A coalition of biz owners and neighbors want massive encampment removed before THANKSGIVING. Everyone Getting Put on Blast @SheriffOzzie clarified and said when he referenced “bureaucrats,” he was talking about @WSDOT_East and @WAStateCommerce. He also says Olympia cannot solve #Spokane‘s problems. Basically, just get out of the way and let us do our jobs. Business and Neighbor Coalition They are Read More ›