She’s back in the news again

Rachel Dolezal fired from Arizona teaching job due to OnlyFans account

Sad story.

Spokane Bloomsday Run Historical Trend

Bloomsday is a unique to Spokane running event, open to the public.

Here is the historical participation, from a post made in 2015. In its peak years, the Bloomsday Run had about 60,000 participants.

Source: Spokane Bloomsday Run 2015 – Historical trend through 2015 | Spokane Economic And Demographic Data

The event did not run as an in-person event in 2020 and 2021 due to Covid-19 pandemic restrictions.

In 2022:

Bloomsday featured 24,119 in-person registrants and more than 5,000 virtual runners in 2022, according to the Bloomsday website. Neill said earlier this year 35,000 to 42,000 runners typically turn out for the event.

Changes in population demographics and other factors, and especially the pandemic, have seen a drop in participants.

Joint UW/Gonzaga Medical training building opens

Wednesday afternoon the navy blue of Gonzaga University and the purple of the University of Washington paired perfectly at the long-awaited grand opening of the new UW-GU Health Partnership building.

Source: Spokane Celebrates UW GU Facility | Gonzaga University

Gonzaga Again Ranked Among the Top 100 National Universities

With a relentless drive for academic excellence, Gonzaga University is ranked by U.S. News & World Report’s 2023 annual rankings in the top 100 National Universities for the fourth consecutive year, this year moving up and into the top 19% of schools in this category.

Source: Gonzaga Again Ranked Among the Top 100 National Universities by U.S. News & World Report | Gonzaga University

Joe Albi Stadium Demolition

The voters chose – overwhelmingly – in 2018 – to replace the Albi stadium at the current site.

But here we are today with the Albi stadium being demolished and the path forward to a replacement still unclear.

“Albi Stadium is a sore sight. The artificial turf has been stripped away, leaving a field of dirt covered by piles of concrete, rebar and aluminum. By fall, the entire site will be leveled, leaving only the memories of big concerts, Billy Graham’s crusade and hundreds of high school and college football games. And after that? No one is quite sure.”

Source: If these seats could talk: The demolition of Spokane’s Joe Albi Stadium has begun | The Spokesman-Review

In 2018, voters favored a new replacement at the Albi site, funded as part of a nearly 1/2 billion $ school bond measure. In 2020, the school board published design plans for a replacement Albi stadium at the Albi site.

Then in 2021, the school district ignored the 2018 vote and used a public survey saying the community wanted another sports plex downtown. The District partnered with Spokane Public Facilities District (PFD) to build a new stadium downtown to be operated by the PFD but with excess proceeds going to the school district.

This occurred after downtown business interests put pressure on the school district to locate the stadium, downtown. This change occurred after the school district had applied for building permits for the original Albi site. The arguments were that the downtown site was centrally located and there might be a possible partnership with a soccer league.

In the end, the reason for relocation is likely due to influence of downtown business interests. The largest landowner in downtown is the Cowles family, which publishes the local paper, runs a local TV station, owns blocks of retail and office space, and has other interests throughout the area. Other businesses also carry much weight in local government funding improvements downtown, and often not funding so much elsewhere. (For further entertainment, go look up and read about the original Spokane River Park Square parking garage fiasco!)

These decisions, like many of the recent past, relied on questionable economic models that project lots of money spent by outside visitors. These dodgy models (I have not looked at the one used for this project) made absurd assumptions, as documented on this blog. And then there were the nonsense models of the Spokane RPS parking garage!

Spokane Shock accused of financial missteps

The Spokane Shock will lose its home arena at 5 p.m. Wednesday unless team owner Sam Adams secures financial backing for a contract he previously signed with the Spokane Public Facilities District.

Source: Spokane Shock may lose home arena as owner’s financial dealings face scrutiny | The Spokesman-Review

The Spokesman-Review says there are questions about refunds for pandemic cancelations, missed payments to staff, and possible use of pandemic related Payroll Protection Program payments.

Spokane Shock has provided an “arena football” entertainment program in the Spokane Arena, for much of the past 15 years.

Update: Spokane Shock missed its financial payment obligations and has been terminated from the Indoor Football League. The team says it will now attempt to join a different league and fix its relationship with the PFD later. However, the news reports that the PFD says it has no intention to continue with the Shock for use of the Arena due to new information about past business dealings, failure to pay taxes and salaries, and bankruptcies.

Related: Providence hospital sued by the Washington Attorney General, accused of billing people who should not have been billed directly. The hospital chain denies it has done anything wrong.

‘Warrior mindset’ police training proliferated. Then, high-profile deaths put it under scrutiny.

Not good:

According to data obtained by The Post, police for the city of Spokane – a separate entity from the county sheriff’s office – shot 27 people from 2013 to 2019. For that period, Mapping Police Violence ranked Spokane as the city with the third-highest rate of police killings in the nation.

Source: ‘Warrior mindset’ police training proliferated. Then, high-profile deaths put it under scrutiny.

Followup from 2011: City gets funding for “City Line” bus service

The six mile route will be an electric bus that runs a fixed six mile route from west edge of downtown to Spokane Community College. Based on bus technology, this makes more sense than the far more expensive and inflexible light rail that was sought a decade ago (even two decades ago!)

Being Spokane, this $92 million investment is a bit of a subsidy to land owners in this corridor and especially in downtown. Spokane’s history is long associated with pouring money into downtown to benefit the central core’s landowners/businesses.

I just rode one of these fixed bus route lines in another city 2 days ago. The goal in that city was to create economic activity in the fading downtown and corridors leading into downtown. Drawbacks include that since it runs down the center of parts of the route, the city had to eliminate over 100 left turns for motorists, harming access to many small businesses. Construction of the system was plagued by failure to adhere to ADA requirements and significant quality issues with the electric battery powered buses purchased to run the system (they did not achieve the required range, and many had such serious defects they had to be sent back to the factory).

While convenient to use, it was not yet seeing a lot of passengers but we did enjoy using it ourselves. I can see the value of this fixed bus route concept – but with multiple goals – economic revitalization of dead zones, unproven battery powered buses, uncertain real world demand and both positive and negative impacts on local businesses – time will only tell if it is a benefit or boondoggle. We noticed that its an “honor system”. You buy your fare at a kiosk and board – no ever checks if you paid. Systems like this in some areas have become what some call “mobile homeless shelters”.

Let’s hope this works out well for Spokane. Again, this final design makes much more sense than the expensive light rail concepts of the recent past.

Spokane Better Business Bureau office shuts down

Based on personal experience with a consumer complaint, the BBB was a scam. They closed the complaint, falsely saying the complainant’s issue was resolved, without ever contacting the complainant. The complaint was pursued elsewhere and led not only to an insurance settlement but to changes in state regulations. The BBB (this was not the Spokane office) not only dropped the ball, they lied about it. And gave the offending business an “A” rating.

Based on experience with a small business, the BBB seemed primarily interested in shaking down businesses into becoming members and sending them money.  Presumably to get a better business rating. Others have said the BBB is a scam and does just that as those news reports from 2010 discussed. Our experience was before that date.

Better Business Bureau closes Spokane office

Spokane Mayor pitches Spokane as great alternative to Seattle for businesses and jobs

This is good – and it is a clear, effective message – Seattle is a bit of mess in terms of horrible traffic and exorbitant housing costs. Even better, its getting press coverage in Seattle 🙂 Spokane mayor seeking to lure jobs and residents to city

Updated – A Seattle Times columnist, however, strikes back and discusses the crime problem, low wages and insufficient research university presence to land high tech companies.

It’s 2018 and it’s still business as usual in Spokane

Despite an overwhelming verdict, the Spokane Public Schools board should ignore the results of Tuesday’s advisory vote on the location of a new football stadium and build it downtown anyway.

….

The stadium needs to go downtown. Period. We shouldn’t let a misinformed advisory vote impact a project that would positively affect the city and benefit the youth sporting community for the next 30 years.

Source: Dave Nichols: Board should ignore advisory vote, build stadium downtown | The Spokesman-Review

Democracy sucks, doesn’t it? If you don’t get what you want, then the voters are obviously stupid so the elite should just over rule those stupid peons.

Big downtown landowners deserve subsidy programs and every one knows they are so much smarter than you! The newspaper publisher is the largest landholder downtown but … oh never mind that!

Nothing has changed in Spokane. It’s still the same old powerful elite pulling the strings. This one is just so obvious and embarrassing.

Rachel Dolezal (Nkechi Diallo) back in the news

Many are searching for information about the unusual history of Rachel Dolezal who is back in the news again. You can find historical posts here.

 

 

Great news – EWU Expansion to U-District

Eastern Washington University plans to move three degree programs and around 1,000 students from its Cheney campus to a building along East Sprague Avenue.

Source: EWU plans major expansion into Spokane’s University District as anchor tenant of Avista’s planned 150,000-square-foot Catalyst building | The Spokesman-Review

EWU’s computer science and electrical engineering programs are likely to make the move. This is great news for Spokane, together with the previous opening of the WSU Elson S Floyd College of Medicine.

The blog is not coming back to life but this is important. May also update some charts for 2018.

Spokane Airport and PFD Chart Updates

I was asked to update some charts (this blog is not coming back to life but I may update some additional charts too).

Spokane International Airport and Felts Field Usage Trends

Passenger usage has been a flat line for 30 years. When passenger counts went up from 2003 to 2007, the Airport and local officials said passenger counts were a proxy for the local economy. A larger post on airport trends through 2014, including links to data sources, is here.

The next chart measures take offs and landings at Felts Field.

Data: US Bureau of Transportation Statistics, FAA

Spokane PFD Facilities Trend

Data: Spokane PFD and Community Indicators of Spokane.

Since the economic depression in Spokane, the PFD’s attendance has rebounded but remains below the 2010, 2007 and 2001 peaks. A regression line drawn from 2001 to the present is a slight downwards trend.

Through 2015 end of year:

Reminder: The PFD conducted local economic impact studies for 2007 and 2010 and claimed these two years were representative of every year. 2007 and 2010 are represented by the two large spikes in the orange curve above; history shows they were not representative of the PFD’s normal impact on the Spokane economy.

How Many Events at the Spokane Arena Required the 2012 Seat Expansion?

In 2012, the Spokane PFD went to voters with a campaign to expand the Spokane Arena, saying the NCAA would require 12,000 “sellable” seats to hold future NCAA events at the Arena. The then 12,000 seat arena did not have enough seats to have 12,000 “sellable” seats (many seats are used by media, bands, cheer teams and others and were not “sellable”). The expansion led to a total of 12,638 potential seats in it largest seating configuration.

After the election was held, the NCAA reset the seating requirement  down to 10,000 “sellable” seats. The PFD kept this quiet and local media hid this change for months. See NCAA reduces seating requirements; Spokane PFD’s Arena expansion no longer required.

But at least the Arena would have more seats to fill at other events, they said.

How many events in 2015 filled the new seating capacity?

Zero.

Source: 2015 Year End Report, page 52 (published by the Spokane PFD).

In 2014, a state high school basketball tournament exceeded 13,000 attendance, but this is not individual game attendance for two reasons:

1. The maximum seating capacity for the Arena, when configured for basketball, is 12,210. The maximum seating for any configuration is 12,638.
2. They combined attendance of multiple games played on the same day at the Arena (which is how the PFD typically presents attendance figures). Old event schedules indicate there were 3 to 8 games played each day of the tournaments. Thus, the Arena did not reach the new full capacity.

Related old posts:

• Spokane Memorial Arena Attendance
• Spokane Public Facilities District (PFD) Attendance  Trend Through 2013
• If you like your PFD, you can keep your PFD
• If you want to improve something, measure it
• Spokane Convention Center Expansion by the Numbers
• Did Spokane see a spike in tourism related jobs? (No!)
• Can you spot the Convention Center bump in local employment (No!)
• Spokesman-Review Propaganda about the Convention Center

EXCLUSIVE: They can publish a Mohammed cartoon, but not these charts

Free speech, sensitivity clash in media outlets – Spokesman.com – Jan. 15, 2015.

The Spokesman-Review published an image of Mohammed (also known as Muhammad) that offends many, with editor Gary Graham saying

“The cover illustration itself is a significant news development and I believe we have an obligation to our readers to let them see it for themselves and form their own opinions about it.”

The “Mohammed” charts of Spokane: the charts that must not be seen!

The Spokesman-Review believes it is not important for readers to form their own opinions about the airport and Public Facilities District usage trends.

Click on any chart for the full size version. See previous posts on this blog for additional information, sources, other confirmations of the data, and the raw data

Propaganda

“In this sense, propaganda serves as a corollary to censorship, in which the same purpose is achieved, not by filling people’s heads with false information, but by preventing people from knowing true information. What sets propaganda apart from other forms of advocacy is the willingness of the propagandist to change people’s understanding through deception and confusion, rather than persuasion and understanding.” SourceWatch.

The Spokesman-Review has demonstrated its inability to report on important local issues by “preventing people from knowing true information” – the definition of a propaganda outlet.

Local media completely missed – and in fact, enabled – Rachel Dolezal’s long term deceptions – a story better reported in the national and UK press than local Spokane media which has reached a new low since then. Under the circumstances, Spokane and Rachel Dolezal were a match made in, well, the scam and fraud capitol of America. Update Sep 2015: The nonsense just goes on and on.

What has ailed Spokane for the long term is now quite apparent.

There is no longer much purpose for this blog.  The problems are apparent: lies, the liars that tell them (see this blog for a long list of tall tales, lies and local myths and exaggerations), deception, fraud, and the propaganda industry that enables this culture (and the latest set of lies).  No one gives a shit that everyone here lies all the time. Indeed, bull shit is the area’s leading economic output.

That is the end of the story. Our questions have been answered.

From “The X Report”, good bye.

Continue on to re-read our final words reprinted from an earlier post.

EXCLUSIVE: No correlation between Convention Center and Airport usage

The Convention Center is said to be an economic driver that brings in outside visitors to Spokane, and this is the justification for continually expanding the facilities.  In just a few years, the PFD will seek additional taxes to expand again.

Does this economic driver work? Here is a comparison of airport usage versus convention center usage. Visually, there is no correlation; statistically, the R-squared value of the correlation is 1.6% (meaning zilch correlation).

If the Convention Center brings in outside visitors, they do not arrive by air or the number is so insignificant as to have no impact.

The air passenger data was scaled to a similar range to the Convention Center attendance for the purpose of comparison. In the chart above, the Y-axis shows convention center attendance; multiply by 10 for the air passenger number.

There is no correlation with jobs, either.

The top 2 largest events account for more than 25% of all usage:

• Bloomsday, 47,346 people
• PNQ Volleyball, 44,461 people

Outside of those two events, the remaining events average less than 700 people per day, the rest of the year. 

The Convention Center was just expanded so it can accommodate large events. Unfortunately, for a facility designed to accommodate up to 6,500 people, actual utilization is closer to 10% of best case, most of the year.

Spokane Convention Center Usage By Month

Spokane Arena By Month

For many months, the facility is almost unused.

Spokane INB Performing Arts Center

The INB Performing Arts Center is barely used for several months of the year.

All charts come from the SpokanePFD.org web site and the 2014 end of year annual report produced by the Spokane PFD.

Keep this in mind when in 2 or 3 more years, the Spokane PFD comes asking for more money for yet another expansion of their empty facilities.

Hoopfest Ironman

EXCLUSIVE: Spokane Public Facilities District (PFD) Attendance thru 2014

The following charts show the attendance trend through the end of 2014 for Spokane PFD facilities.

The upward growth at the right of the combined “all facilities” attendance is due almost entirely to a sharp upwards trend at the Convention Center in 2014. Combined facilities attendance trend still remains slightly down over the 15 year period since 2000.

The Convention Center experienced its first significant increase in attendance in a decade. Two events accounted for nearly 30% of all usage during the entire year. (Most of the year, the facility is used sparsely with small meetings of 100 or so people each day.)

This increase occurred prior to the completion of the third expansion of the Convention Center facilities, which opened in early 2015.  After more than a dozen years of flat to downward usage, and three taxpayer funded expansion projects, the CC has broken through its past “no growth” ceiling.

The above charts have never appeared in any Spokane media outlets – the attendance figures are intended to be top secret, apparently. All data comes from the Spokane PFD.

EXCLUSIVE: Spokane Airport Passenger usage charts, updated to 2015

Data through April 2015. Chart extrapolates the first 4 months to the full year for 2015.

With a slight growth in air passenger traffic, annual air passenger total usage is now roughly the same (corrected) still below 1995 and about the same as the year 2000.  Overall passenger use of the airport has been essentially flat for two full decades.

If recent growth continues, air passenger levels may reach the 2007 peak in about 2018 or 2019.

Hoopfest

 

 

Spokane versus King County Employment/Unemployment: A Tale of 2 Counties

Spokane County Employment

Spokane County has  caught up to the pre-depression peak

Spokane has an unusual “saw tooth” pattern in its employment chart. Oddly, as shown on this blog in the past, the labor force miraculously resizes in direct proportion to employment so the unemployment rate stays fairly steady.

King County Employment

King County has exceeded the pre-depression peak by 7%

Spokane County Unemployment

6.3%

King County Unemployment

3.7%

All psychiatrists at Sacred Heart, resign.

All of the psychiatric doctors at Sacred Heart Medical Center have turned in their resignations.

Sacred Heart provides (provided) critical in-patient psychiatric services in the Spokane area.

A comment to the story (unverified) says other psychiatrists in the area have also resigned from at least one other facility. No specific reason has been given for these resignations; several comments to the story note that except for the Inlander, local media has ignored these resignations yet this is potentially a serious crisis for the Spokane region.