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LAST WEEK, IN our conference room strewn with pizza boxes, half-filled coffee mugs, campaign literature, piles of research, political yard signs and tiny airplane bottles of tequila, our staff came together as the "Ministry of Truth" to discuss the election and how we will individually vote on Nov. 7. (See Page 19.) We agreed on the mother of all issues facing Spokane: the River Park Square parking garage. We devote this edition to that topic. We see this problem as the symbol for why wages suck and why the divide remains so wide between the super-wealthy and those struggling to make a living.
So, I repeat: in a one-paper town, there is an inherent conflict of interest for the Cowles family to own the daily paper and to simultaneously construct a public-private partnership that nets them around $10 million in profit, no matter the tax base they claim it will bring. Especially if the deal was made by "emergency ordinance," without public vote, and without much scrutiny by that same daily paper and its large staff of investigative reporters. (Who hasn't noticed the Spokesman's editorializing on the project?) This is not personal. This is a matter of public business. And don't think it doesn't affect you and our entire region. It does. Our 2001 city budget will be short by around $2 million because we're supporting River Park Square. Property taxes will probably rise, and most...
