Spokane Becoming Seattle?

Dear Group, I like Seattle. There are a lot of good things going on over there. Do I like the traffic? Of course not. Is it more expensive than what I'd like? Of course. Is it my cup of tea? Well, as huge metropolitan areas go, I think Seattle is pretty nice. If the Spokane metropolitan area grows in population to become as huge as Seattle metro being like Seattle would be pretty good, (Truth is, I'd probably move to a smaller town, but that's just me.) So what sense does it make for Nadine Woodward (newly announced as a City of Spokane mayoral candidate) to say, "We're not Seattle, but we need to get a handle of the situation before we become a Seattle." She is fear-mongering, riffing on images of homeless camps offered on the nightly news. How do we know this?

"Seattle is Dying," offered with no contrasting view. is the sort of conservative polemic that apparently informs Ms. Woodward's worldview. Is "Seattle is Dying" biased? Is it pushing a point? This "documentary" offers repetitive scenes of trash, heaped shopping carts, and the tents of the homeless, accompanied by ominous music, plus interviews with selected homeowners, shopkeepers, policemen, one conservative Seattle City Council candidate, and two homeless people, clearly selected to fit the narrative. Conspicuously lacking are interviews with current city officials, social workers, drug treatment specialists, and no housing providers. They conclude Seattle has a drug crisis, not a homelessness crisis, in spite of the fact 7 out of ten of Seattle's homeless have no addiction issues. KOMO's solution for the problem of homelessness: incarceration and mandatory drug treatment. Here's the link if you have the time and stomach to watch a sad polemic on homelessness presenting Seattle as a city in crisis. Before you do, though, I strongly encourage you to watch this much shorter video on Facebook entitled, "The Reports of Seattle's Death are Greatly Exaggerated" KOMO, the producer of the "Seattle is Dying" excuse for a documentary is owned by Sinclair Broadcast Group, made famous by John Oliver in 2017 for requiring its local stations to parrot certain Republican propaganda. (Start at 2:00 minutes if you're short on time.) KOMO's documentary quickly got national play: Tucker Carlson of Fox News featured "Seattle is Dying" as an example of the general degradation of all "liberal run" cities. Nadine Woodward has found a bandwagon to jump on. Tonight, April 15, at 6:30PM at the Fairfield Inn on Argonne and Mission the "Republicans of Spokane County" are holding their April meeting. Part of the discussion is around "Seattle is Dying" and its meaning for Spokane and Spokane City Council. I urge you to click the link and read their blurb. Propaganda, well planted by a media giant like Sinclair, travels fast. Keep to the high ground, Jerry P.S. Eric Johnson, the "writer, producer, reporter" of "Seattle is Dying," is a Spokane native who attended East Valley High School. His early career was as a sports broadcaster. Mr. Johnson offered a lengthy rebuttal (buried on Facebook) to criticism leveled at him over the bias of his hour long KOMO video now making the rounds in conservative circles. This rebuttal is an interesting read. It reveals a man who clearly did some heartbreaking homework among drug addicts in Seattle. However, his writing tells us nothing of the biases that led him to the "law and order" solutions he offers from the soapbox of his documentary, nor does it shed light on his neglect of those already engaged with the problem of drug addiction or of the broader problem of homelessness. Like Trump, Mr. Johnson's "solutions" invite division, not collaboration.