where Coulter and Green sat, on the fourth floor of the Chase Bank building, the lighting is low and elegant in the entryway to Kiemle & Hagood, where a copy of the Wall Street Journal sits on the coffee table. The property management company oversees the Peyton Building on Post Street, where manager Alison Bantz has taken extra measures to respond to groups of people congregating on the sidewalks nearby. Adjusting her neat orange sweater, Bantz is careful with her words. “It’s not illegal to be homeless and I appreciate that. It’s not illegal to smoke and I understand that,” she says. “But I think the general business public wants to feel safe on the streets.” Bantz says large groups of smokers and loiterers began to congregate on the sidewalk outside the building, intimidating potential customers, when the nearby STA Plaza closed its smoking area last summer. (STA now says it plans to open a new one.) Despite state law outlawing smoking within 25 feet of a business entrance, lax enforcement has meant the law has had little impact. So the company spent $1,500 on a mosquito — a device that emits a high-pitched sound designed to be heard only by people younger than 30 after they stand near it for more than a few minutes — and about $15,000 since April on private security guards. Bantz says she didn’t renew the lease for the smoke shop that had occupied the building in another effort to curb the problem. With a vacancy in the building and at least one tenant, Career Path Services, accessed by people with disabilities, the measures were essential, she says. Bantz says she had trouble renting the vacant space, now home to the new bar the Volstead Act, because of the loitering. Among the building’s other tenants: Brews Bros Espresso, the police department’s new downtown precinct and a Cougar Crest Winery tasting room. “Nobody wants to sit inside tasting wine and — it was not an appealing sight looking out on that,” she says. The block is also the most direct path for people staying downtown to get to the area’s biggest retail center. “Our concept,” Bantz says, “is that as you come from those Davenport properties, [Post Street] should be the cleanest, nicest, most attractive entry to River Park Square.”
joyce
FIRST EVER, LIMITED EDITION RELEASE
4 Seasons Lake Coeur d’ Alene | 42” wide on Archival Paper | Limited Edition of only 50
Monroe St. Bridge | 48” wide, Stretched on Canvas
Before a small crowd of reporters and city staff last week, City Council President Ben Stuckart touted a group of city efforts he deemed the “Downtown Livability Initiative,” which is made largely of projects already in progress. Among them: a set of ordinances the council passed Monday; a plan to hire 25 new police officers, which the mayor proposed in his 2014 budget; a Downtown Spokane Partnership-led PR campaign to discourage people from giving money to panhandlers; and STA’s plans to reopen the smoking area. The city, Stuckart announced, will also turn streetlights on earlier and urge the federal government to fund youth outreach programs. Early next year, the DSP plans to hire a consultant to assess services available in downtown, deciding what’s successful and what’s not. DSP President Mark Richard sets the stakes: 1,300 business and property owners, 26,000 jobs and 15 percent of Spokane’s taxable retail sales happen downtown. The ultimate goal is to discourage both panhandling and outreach programs DSP sees as offering “handouts” instead of connections to services. (Some local shelters are also pushing back against panhandling by temporarily barring people they catch “flying a sign.”) “We’re not trying to move them on. We’re trying to move them into a life that’s better for themselves,” Richard says. “To me, this is way more more humane than a nonprofit that wants to hand them a tarp under the bridge and say, ‘God bless you. I love you, man. Go back under the bridge.’” The ordinances passed this week span issues in the downtown core. Changes strengthened rules prohibiting skateboards on downtown sidewalks and “unruly” behavior at the STA Plaza, including any “conduct that is inconsistent with [its] intended use and purpose,” and will allow the city to cite property owners who don’t remove graffiti from their buildings within 10 days of being notified. The other laws created new misdemeanor offenses for inter...continued on next page
Only 50 available
ben joyce’s commissions come in from around the world. Whether he’s showing in New York, San Francisco, Chicago, Las Vegas, or Spokane, he’s
Lake Pend Oreille
Hawaii
constantly creating personal pieces that connect directly with the viewer. Google has asked Ben to hang an annual 6 month exhibit at the Google Earth Headquarters. He just completed the artwork for 18 Transit Stations in Las Vegas. His drive is to connect the viewer with their Love of Place.
Artwork available for purchase at benjoyceart.com All Limited Edition Prints Hand Signed and Numbered
Spokane
You can see Ben’s work at the opening reception
Oct 4th | First Friday at Barrister Winery OCTOBER 3, 2013 INLANDER 25