Spokane is very geographically stratified by class. It is possible for middle and upper class people to live, shop, send their kids to school, play soccer, eat out, etc. with very little contact with the working and underclasses other than passing through their neighborhoods on the way to the mall. Charter: What role can Gonzaga
play in the Spokane community in helping close the class gap? Dr. B: GU is one of the region’s
largest employers. It provides Spokane with hundreds of living wage jobs, many with tuition benefits for employees. That is a huge boon to middle class Spokane. Our students also patronize local businesses and health care providers and pay rents to local landlords (and, unfortunately, slumlords). So many Spokane families’ livelihoods depend on GU. Does it close the “class gap”? No, but it does keep many, many Spokane middle class families in the middle class. Charter: What do you believe is
people? These categories overlap. Do you mean interactions between the working poor and the better off ? If so, this is a tall order as the whole world is organized around niche markets today and residential segregation ensures that the two groups have little to do with one another. I like to start by tipping my barista every time I get a coffee; by acknowledging the humanity of people waiting on me, by making small talk with the person checking my groceries, grooming my dog, serving my burrito, making my pita at the Pita Pit. I thought about that the other day when I was at the Pita Pit. I thought about the college age girls making my sandwich and the sandwiches of hundreds of GU students their same age who are better dressed, have better haircuts, and have straight teeth, iPads and cars, and meal plans provided by their parents. It must be really hard to wait on such people everyday for $8/hr with no real prospect for “moving up” the socio-economic hierarchy.
the most effective way to bridge Charter: As a professor of Politithe gap between the working and cal Science, what role do you bemiddle classes? lieve the government/public sector has in a class-based society? Dr. B: I’m not sure what you mean by “bridge the gap”. Do Dr. B: The government/public you mean foster interactions be- sector plays a huge role. It protween working and middle class vides jobs to millions of people
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