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Spokesman-Review
UKRAINIAN REFUGEES ARE BOUND FOR SPOKANE, BUT IT’S NOT CLEAR HOW MANY
Lawmakers call on State Department to let Ukrainian kids awaiting adoption come to U.S.
Most at board meeting praise SPS handling of safety issues
Health District data breach may have exposed medical information of more than 1,200 people
Traffic stop leads to discovery of thousands of fentanyl pills, meth, cash, stolen car, handgun
Wall St Journal
Rising Interest Rates Will Shift Housing’s Foundations
KREM
KXLY
Journal of Business
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Spokesman-Review
UKRAINIAN REFUGEES ARE BOUND FOR SPOKANE, BUT IT’S NOT CLEAR HOW MANY
By Colin Tiernan
THE SPOKESMAN-REVIEW
Ukrainian refugees are coming to Spokane.
It’s unclear when or how many. But once they land in the Inland Northwest, Spokane’s resettlement organizations will welcome them.
“We’re more than ready to roll up our sleeves and serve these people,” World Relief Spokane spokesman Justin Li said.
On Thursday, the White House announced America will accept 100,000 Ukrainian refugees. Ukrainians will immigrate to communities throughout the U.S., but Spokane is likely to become a hotspot. The Spokane area is already home to thousands of Eastern Europeans, and the largest percentage of them are Ukrainian Americans.
Many Ukrainians came to Spokane in the late 1980s and early 1990s, fleeing religious persecution in the Soviet Union. Others left in the mid- to late 1990s during the era of economic instability that followed the Soviet Union’s collapse. The migration never truly stopped – more than 6,500 Ukrainians have settled in Washington during the last decade.
President Joe Biden has said Ukrainians with family in the U.S. will arrive first, so it’s possible refugees will start arriving in Spokane relatively soon.
The Russian invasion has already turned 3.6 million Ukrainians into refugees and displaced millions more who are still in Ukraine.
The vast majority of Ukrainian refugees want to stay in Europe, hoping to return home as soon as the war ends.
But not all will be able to stay. Countries such as Poland, Moldova and Slovakia, where many refugees are currently living, can’t absorb them all.
“Our country is not ready to have all these people,” Polish Economic Institute Deputy Director Andrzej Kubisiak told The Spokesman- Review. Sarah Peterson, refugee coordinator for the Washington State Department of Social and Health Services, emphasized that refugee experts haven’t gotten any specific guidance from the federal government on how Ukrainian resettlement is going to work. There aren’t any determined numbers or timelines yet besides the 100,000 figure.
Peterson noted that even before agreeing to accept 100,000 Ukrainians, America and Washington have been welcoming more refugees of late. She explained that in the past decade, Washington has resettled 30,000 refugees through the Refugee Admissions Program. But following the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan, the Evergreen State has been bringing in far more people.
Between October and now, 3,000 Afghan refugees arrived in Washington. Having that many people arrive that quickly was unique, Peterson said. For comparison, 1,100 refugees came to Washington between Oct. 1, 2020, and Sept. 30, 2021.
Spokane’s been taking in more refugees, too. Li said that during the height of the Afghanistan crisis, World Relief was helping 30-40 refugees resettle in Spokane every week. The organization typically resettles 300-400 people in Spokane annually.
Li explained that, from a federal policy standpoint, the U.S. will be approaching Ukrainian and Afghan resettlement differently.
That’s largely because Ukrainian refugees, relatively speaking, aren’t in immediate danger the same way Afghans were.
For safety reasons, tens of thousands of Afghans came to the U.S. in a short period. They mostly arrived through a process known as “humanitarian parole” and haven’t received permanent refugee status. World Relief and other organizations are lobbying the federal government to pass a law that would provide Afghan refugees with a path to permanent residence.
Ukrainian refugees will probably arrive more slowly, Li said. He said he expects many to come to the U.S. under normal refugee status, although others will receive humanitarian parole or arrive through family reunification programs.
Formal resettlement organizations won’t be the only ones welcoming Ukrainian refugees with open arms.
Spokane’s Slavic churches started preparing weeks ago to help Ukrainian refugees resettle here.
Alex Kaprian, a Ukrainian American pastor at Pilgrim Slavic Baptist Church, explained earlier this month that more than 15 Slavic churches in Spokane have put together a resettlement committee.
“All churches should be ready to maybe host some families,” Kaprian said, explaining that churches and their congregations can help with housing, transportation, food and more.
Li reiterated that many in Spokane are eager to help.
“Ideally there’d be no refugees at all,” he said. “But given that there are millions of refugees from Ukraine, we’re ready.”
S-R reporters Orion Donovan-Smith and Eli Francovich contributed to this story. Colin Tiernan can be reached at (509) 459-5039 or at colint@spokesman. com.
Lawmakers call on State Department to let Ukrainian kids awaiting adoption come to U.S.
By Orion Donovan-Smith
THE SPOKESMAN-REVIEW
WASHINGTON – Hundreds of Ukrainian children already in the process of being adopted by American families are caught in limbo amid Russia’s invasion of their home country, according to members of Congress who want the State Department to let those children travel to the United States before their adoptions are completed.
In a letter to Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Tuesday, 73 House and Senate lawmakers asked the top U.S. diplomat to let the roughly 300 Ukrainian children already in the adoption process stay with U.S. host families, “based on the shared belief that every child deserves a safe, stable, and loving place to call home.”
“While we recognize that the adoption process should only be advanced where it is safe, ethical, and appropriate to do so, American families seeking to adopt or be host families for a Ukrainian child are eager to welcome these children into their home and provide the affection, stability, and safety all children deserve,” the lawmakers wrote.
The State Department, however, said in a statement the Ukrainian government has jurisdiction over Ukrainian children and has “expressed concern about moving children out of Europe at this point.”
“We understand that some U.S. citizens want to respond by offering to open their homes and adopt, foster, or host these children,” the department said. “However, the Ukrainian government has confirmed that it is not approving children to participate in host programs at this time. Instead, the Ukrainian government is taking measures to ensure the safety of children in neighboring countries.”
Some of those children are in Poland, where former Washington state Rep. Matt Shea has helped bring 62 Ukrainian kids from an orphanage in the besieged city of Mariupol. One of them is an 11-year-old boy who is in the process of being adopted by Melissa and Joe Nowicki, a couple in Rochester, N.Y.
Melissa Nowicki said her family, who already hosted Oleksii at their home for the month of December, is grateful for the support of the lawmakers, who include Washington Reps. Adam Smith, D-Bellevue; Jaime Herrera Beutler, R-Battle Ground; and Suzan DelBene, D-Medina.
“We’re hopeful that both the U.S. government and the Ukrainian government would see the benefit in the kids coming and spending this time with the families that they have created bonds with,” she said.
While she’s glad Oleksii is safe in hotel-style housing in Poland, Melissa Nowicki said that setting is less than ideal for children who have gone through the trauma of escaping a war.
“Kids belong in families,” she said. “And the families have gone through fairly extensive trainings already in order to adopt – trauma- based in a lot of cases – and I just think that it would be the best place for them to heal and grow and thrive.”
In their letter to Blinken, the lawmakers endorsed the idea that families like the Nowickis could provide important support to the Ukrainian kids and called on the Biden administration to work with Ukraine’s government to make an exception in cases like Oleksii’s.
“Many of these children may be appropriately given refuge in neighboring countries,” the lawmakers wrote. “However, we believe that in the unique circumstances where children already have established relationships withfamilies in the United States, it is appropriate to prioritize allowing these children to stay with host families to ensure the child’s safety and stability.”
The State Department said overseeing international adoptions is one of its most important roles, especially during war and other events that cause mass displacement, which raises the risk of children who are not orphans being separated from their parents.
“It can be extremely difficult in circumstances like the current conflict in Ukraine to determine whether children who appear to be orphans truly are eligible for intercountry adoption and immigration under U.S. laws,” the statement said. “Children may be temporarily separated from their parents or other family members during a conflict or natural disaster, and their parents may be looking for them.”
The United Nations High Commission for Refugees, in a March 7 statement, warned that mass displacement also increases the risk of human trafficking. The National Council for Adoption, a group that represents U.S. adoption workers, said in a Feb. 28 statement that while the desire to provide homes to displaced Ukrainian children is admirable, “this is not the appropriate time or context to be considering adoption by U.S. citizens,” with limited exceptions for cases where paperwork is already in place.
Nowicki said she understands the Ukrainian government’s concerns and intends to work with them to reunite with Oleksii.
“What I’m hoping is that the government would allow visas for the kids so that they could come and stay here while the war is going on in Ukraine,” she said. “We want to have the Ukrainian government know that we want to do this the way they want us to do it, so whatever rules they set, we intend to follow.
“We completely understand that although in our hearts and minds we love these kids as our own, we do not actually have the legal authority over them that the Ukrainian government does. So we really want to partner with them and we just really want to provide the best environment that we can for the children.”
Orion Donovan-Smith can be reached at (202) 853-2524 or at orionds@spokesman.com.
Ukrainian orphans are seen during a stopover in Warsaw, Poland, as they are en route to the U.K. on Monday. A U.K.based group, Dnipro Kids, is helping the nearly 50 children get refugee status in the U.K. until Russia’s war against Ukraine is over. They were supposed to fly on Monday but got stuck in Warsaw due to a paperwork issue.
Rental housing is increasingly taking a bigger bite out of Americans’ monthly income, squeezing households already grappling with sharply higher costs for gas, food and other essentials.
U.S. median rents climbed to $1,792 last month, an increase of 17.1% from a year earlier, according to data from Realtor.com. February marks the seventh straight month that median rents have risen annually.
Metropolitan areas in the Sunbelt continued to see among the biggest annual increases in median rent, reflecting heightened competition for housing and rising population. Miami led the 50 biggest metro areas with a 55.3% increase in rent last month.
The increased cost of renting comes as households face rising prices overall amid raging inflation. The consumer price index, a key gauge of inflation, jumped 7.9% in February from a year earlier, the sharpest spike since 1982.
Higher rents are increasingly pressuring household budgets. In February, rents made up 29.7% of the typical household income in the 50 largest U.S. metropolitan areas. That’s up from 25.3% a year earlier, according to Realtor.com.
Households paying more than 30% of their monthly income on housing costs are considered cost-burdened, under guidelines from the Department of Housing and Urban Development.
Most at board meeting praise SPS handling of safety issues
By Jim Allen
THE SPOKESMAN-REVIEW
Spokane Public Schools is facing an FBI investigation over security protocols, but it received mostly favorable comments Wednesday night for its handling of students’ social and academic welfare.
During a board meeting – the first since last summer with masks optional – staff presented an update of its school safety and services plan.
The PowerPoint presentation reviewed the district’s multiple tiered system of support, its procedure for handling behavioral and academic issues.
The review also covered the district’s approach “in response to parenting plans, custody, information sharing, mental health, discipline and harassment, intimidation and bullying.” The district noted that fewer students have faced “exclusion” – that is, expulsion or suspension for one day or more.
As the district has emphasized “restorative justice” in dealing with some behavioral issues, it’s unclear whether the district has changed the parameters for deciding what level of behavior merits exclusion.
The district pointed to its annual Panorama survey taken last October, which showed that students’ perception of overall safety has increased slightly this year.
“It’s important to listen to our kids,” Superintendent Adam Swinyard said.
All five board members praised the district’s efforts on school safety.
“We all agree that there is so much more work to be done and pairing it with our equity work, creating positive school environments,” board member Jenny Slagle said.
The presentation was made one week after Christian Parker, the FBI’s supervisory special agent in Spokane, sent an email to district building principals that the agency had received allegations of criminal activity occurring in Spokane schools, including “assaults, sexual assaults, threats of violence and drug use.”
The email from Parker referenced concerns by Spokane Police Chief Craig Meidl over whether district are “being permitted to exercise their professional judgment and comply with their mandatory reporting obligations” as they determine whether to contact law enforcement about potential crimes and safety concerns.
The pending investigation wasn’t brought up by board members of staff. It evoked some criticism, but mostly praise, for the district’s overall approach.
Wendy Cossette said she believes that student violence is escalating and is “very concerning.”
Referencing the FBI investigation, Cossette said that “it’s hard to believe that if there’s some smoke, that there isn’t fire.”
Russell Neff echoed that comment, stating that the FBI doesn’t get involved unless “there’s something to look at.”
“It appears as though the board is not putting the safety and security of students and staff in a posture of excellence. It appears the school board is putting staff in an uncomfortable position to not report crimes that include theft, drugs and violence,” Neff said.
Most comments, however, praised the district.
Amy McColm praised the board for being “supportive of restorative practices” and praised the district for “sticking to the research.”
She also characterized Meidl’s letter as “blatantly political.”
Molly Merkle, a mother of two students, one with a disability, said she worried about Meidl’s letter because disabled students are “most likely to come into contact with law enforcement.”
Katie Sutch, a parent advocate with Arc of Spokane, said the district needs to do a better job of reducing disproportionality – that is, higher rates of exclusion of students of color, those with disabilities and other groups.
Sutch also charged that Spokane Police Department has a long history of “pointed discrimination” toward marginalized groups.
“The police department has no business being in our schools,” Sutch said. Jim Allen can be reached at (509) 459-5437 or by email at jima@spokesman. com.
Health District data breach may have exposed medical information of more than 1,200 people
By Arielle Dreher
THE SPOKESMAN-REVIEW
The Spokane Regional Health District announced a data breach that may have allowed hackers to see the health information, including medications, medical conditions and test results, for more than 1,200 people.
On Feb. 24, a phishing email opened by a district employee may have exposed health data to hackers to view, although an internal investigation of the breach found that no documents were opened, accessed or downloaded.
The disclosure may have exposed the information of 1,260 individuals from two departments in the district, which were not identified.
The phishing attempt is the second such breach in just three months at the district. In December, a similar breach exposed the health information of more than 1,000 SRHD clients.
The district was in the midst of implementing employee training to identify and avoid phishing emails when this most recent breach happened.
All of the clients whose information may have been exposed in the breach have been notified via letter and text message by the health district, said spokeswoman Kelli Hawkins.
She said the district is in the midst of rolling out Drip 7, a mandatory fourpart cybersecurity training for employees that focuses on how to recognize phishing attempts.
This breach and the previous one were due to a phishing attempt through an email opened by an employee.
Hawkins said that, as a result, efforts to increase security are focused on staff education at the district.
“We’re focusing on our staff; our staff are our first line of defense,” Hawkins said.
The breach did not compromise clients’ financial information or their Social Security numbers, but the district has asked those whose data might have been viewed to keep a close watch on their bank accounts and health insurance plans just in case.
The health district says its IT team is continuously updating its security and testing as well.
In 2021, there was a record number of data breaches reported to the attorney general’s office, with data breach notices sent to 6.3 million Washington residents and 280 data breaches reported.
While businesses are the primary target for these attacks, in 2021, there were 35 health care organizations impacted by breaches, according to the attorney general’s report. Arielle Dreher can be reached at (509) 459-5467 or at arielled@spokesman. com.
Traffic stop leads to discovery of thousands of fentanyl pills, meth, cash, stolen car, handgun
By Garrett Cabeza
THE SPOKESMAN-REVIEW
Spokane police discovered thousands of suspected fentanyl pills and a “significant amount” of methamphetamine while also recovering a stolen car and gun during a traffic stop Tuesday morning on East Sprague Avenue.
Dustin P. Besaw, 30, was arrested on suspicion of possession of a controlled substance with intent to deliver, possession of a stolen vehicle, possession of a stolen firearm, unlawful possession of a firearm, making a false statement and resisting arrest, according to a Spokane Police Department news release. He also had an outstanding felony warrant.
An officer saw a Cadillac CTS almost strike another vehicle while making a turn around 8:30a.m. Tuesday in the area of 3900 E. Sprague Ave., police said. The officer noticed the Cadillac did not have a license plate and that a similar vehicle had recently been reported stolen.
The Cadillac pulled into the garage of a residence on the 4000 block of East Pacific Avenue and two occupants got out, the release said.
Besaw provided a false name when the officer asked Besaw to identify himself in the driveway, police said. The officer tried to detain Besaw when he reportedly fled. The officer eventually caught and detained Besaw after a short foot pursuit through a couple of yards.
The vehicle was confirmed to be stolen, and the garage Besaw pulled the car into was a stranger’s, the release said. During the subsequent search, police found a loaded stolen handgun, the drugs and over $11,000.
Besaw has five felony convictions, including assault, burglary and drug possession, officers said. He remained in the Spokane County Jail as of Thursday afternoon with a $75,000 bond.
Spokane police seized fentanyl, methamphetamine and over $11,000 during a traffic stop Tuesday on East Sprague Avenue. A stolen car and a stolen gun were recovered. Dustin Besaw, 30, was booked into the Spokane County Jail on multiple charges.
COURTESY OF SPOKANE POLICE DEPARTMENT
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Wall St Journal
By Justin Lahart and Laura Forman Updated March 24, 2022 11:45 am ET
This is the sixth column in a Heard on the Street series about the end of zero interest rates.
Rising interest rates will stagger the housing market. Don’t expect it to go down for the count, though.
Mortgage rates have been very low for a very long time. Even though they have risen significantly over the past year as the pandemic has loosened its grip and inflation has picked up, the average rate on a 30-year mortgage has risen from 3.2% to just 4.4% over the past year, according to Freddie Mac. That compares with what had been a historically low average of 4.1% during the decade before the pandemic struck and 6.7% in the decade before the 2008-09 financial crisis.
The persistence of low mortgage rates has reshaped people’s perceptions of what is a reasonable price to pay for a house. Consider: The monthly payment on a 30-year mortgage for $500,000 carrying a 6.7% rate is $3,226, but it is $2,176 at 3.25%, which CoreLogic estimates that as of January was the median rate on outstanding mortgages. The difference helps explain why home prices have been able to rise so much without killing demand. As of December, U.S. home prices were 31% higher than two years earlier, according to the Federal Housing Finance Agency.
The decline in mortgage rates during the pandemic set off a refinancing surge that dramatically lowered payments for many homeowners. A significant increase in mortgage rates would lead to two big problems for the housing market: First, it would make it harder for people hoping to buy their first homes at current prices; and second, it would make it difficult for existing homeowners now paying low rates to move because moving would mean giving up a lower interest rate for a higher one. Some will keep their homes much longer than planned, denting businesses that rely on housing turnover. The faster rates go up, the more it will hurt.
Economic conditions are already less than ideal for home buying. The Fannie Mae Home Purchase Sentiment Index fell in January to its lowest level since May 2020. Mortgage rates aren’t the only factor at play right now in housing, though. Many members of the large millennial generation were slow to step into homeownership, in part as a result of the setbacks they experienced following the 2008-09 financial crisis.
Despite the high and increasing financial hurdles, they are finally taking the plunge. The pandemic has reshaped attitudes about owning a home, while high savings and a strong job market are giving people the wherewithal to buy. It isn’t as if the housing market hasn’t weathered a significant increase in rates before. In the 1970s mortgage rates doubled. And yet, over the decade ended in 1979, the number of total homes rose by 25%—then the result of a boomer push for homeownership.
But with higher rates, the prices people are willing to pay for homes could come under pressure. While it is rare for prices to fall nationally—the housing bust that helped precipitate the 2008-2009 financial crisis was a rare exception—there have been periods when prices haven’t kept up with inflation, which in effect made homes more affordable over time.
Three Reasons Why the Red-Hot Housing Market Could Cool in 2022
Three Reasons Why the Red-Hot Housing Market Could Cool in 2022
U.S. home prices hit an all-time high in 2021, but those increases are expected to slow in 2022 thanks to a number of economic factors. Here’s what’s driving the housing market and what that could mean for prospective buyers and sellers. Photo: George Frey/Bloomberg News
The search for affordability could create shifts in what types of homes people buy and where they buy them. Some of these shifts are already under way. Existing-home sales in February were down 8.3% in the West from a year earlier, according to the National Association of Realtors, but up 3% in the South. where the median home price was nearly $200,000 less. Demand for homes in the more-affordable exurbs was picking up even before the pandemic hit and has continued to swell given more-flexible work arrangements.
The low number of available homes for sale—in February there were only enough existing homes on the market for 1.7 months of sales compared with an already-low 3.1 months two years earlier—should continue to provide a good backdrop for home builders. But they might benefit from focusing more of their efforts on building smaller homes in more-affordable areas—especially if more people who already own their homes are forced to ditch the low mortgage rates they have locked in. After decades of growth, the average square footage of new single-family homes sold in the U.S. started easing in 2015, according to the Commerce Department.
Higher interest rates might not lead people to give up on their dreams of owning a home, but they could lower expectations on what kind of home that is.
Write to Justin Lahart at justin.lahart@wsj.com and Laura Forman at laura.forman@wsj.com
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KREM
OLYMPIA, Wash. — Job postings could soon require salary information in the state of Washington.
The bill, which would require most job postings to include salary information as well as other details, is awaiting the signature of Gov. Jay Inslee.
Under SB 7691, a range of hourly wages or annual salaries must be part of the job listings for all businesses with more than 15 employees.
Benefit information would also have to be posted.
It would be possible for job applicants to negotiate salaries higher than the posted amounts and there are no guidelines on how wide of a range must be offered.
Lobbyists representing large and small businesses told lawmakers the new requirements would be hard on business owners.
"This bill would be a tremendous burden on small businesses trying to recover from the pandemic, even in normal times,” said Jim King, representing the Independent Business Association.
"We're always looking for the unintended consequences or the shoe to drop later," said Charlotte Clary with Ice Chips Candy.
Bill sponsor, Sen. Emily Randall, D-Bremerton, said the move would make it easier for women and people of color, to negotiate better starting salaries.
"This bill is a continuation of our work as leaders in pay equity," said Randall.
"White men get rewarded for aggressively negotiating, whereas women of color can be punished for doing the same thing," said Nonprofit founder Vu Le.
The bill is currently on Inslee's desk and he is expected to sign it. If signed into law, the requirements would go into effect on January 1, 2023.
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KXLY
Posted: March 24, 2022 4:37 PM Updated: March 24, 2022 8:30 PM by Vanessa Perez, Melissa Luck
SPOKANE, Wash.– The Spokane Police Department says car thefts are up nearly 90-percent over the past year.
Spokane Police released a report from March 19 that said so far in 2021, 378 cars have been stolen. During that same timeframe in 2021, 199 cars had been taken.
The neighborhood that saw the biggest increase was the Neva-Wood neighborhood, which extends from Division Street east to Crestline and from North Foothills to the North Division Y.
This year there have already been 71 cars taken from that area. Last year, that number was 25. Every area of the city has seen a rise in car thefts so far this year.
There are obvious ways to prevent you from becoming the next victim. Make sure to not leave any valuables in your car. Although it might be tempting you don’t want to leave your car running in your driveway or the street while you wait for it to warm up.
SPD said crime is a complex issue.
“There’s a lot of different factors. There’s been a lot of discussion about legislative changes, and the impact that certainly is a possible factor but there’s a variety of other factors as well,” Spokane Police Department’s public information officer Nick Briggs said.
Briggs said factors such as police reform laws. The pandemic also might be one of them, but Briggs says we won’t know the true impacts on crime statistics until years to come.
SPD says the economic climate, and population growth have also played a role.
“Vehicle theft is a property crime but it’s one that greatly affects people’s lives when somebody’s car is stolen people aren’t able to get to work. Sometimes people’s tools of the trade aren’t there. This is a significant hinder to people’s ability to conduct their life and something that we take seriously and that we’re going to continue to adapt and develop ways to try to combat this problem with the help of this community,” Briggs said.
Across the U.S., police have reported a rise in car thefts as gas prices reach record levels.
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Note: This next article was added after the original post went out.
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Journal of Business
Virginia Thomas
Commercial property crime is up in the downtown core, and property owners say they’re increasing protection measures.
According to data from the Spokane Police Department’s crime report statistics, commercial burglary reports increased nearly 127% in the downtown precinct since 2015, to a total of 118 incidents reported in 2021.
Citywide, commercial burglary reports have decreased by about 6% in the same period.
The weekly report includes data on some reported property crimes, such as burglary, arson, and larceny. Other crimes, such as violent acts and vandalism, however, aren’t included in the report.
Chris Batten is chairman of the Downtown Spokane Partnership, which oversees downtown’s Business Improvement District, among other activities. Batten also is a principal at RenCorp Realty LLC, a property management company based downtown.
Batten says he and others downtown have noted an increase in some types of property crime, such as graffiti and broken storefronts.
“Fewer and fewer of them get reported,” Batten says. “The level of frustration is to a point where people don’t think it’s going to do them any good to report it. What can they do? They can make a report, and hopefully it’ll get added to a statistic—because that’s probably about as much as is going to happen.”
Gordon Hester, president and CEO of commercial real estate company Kiemle Hagood, which is based downtown, says an act of vandalism occurs at one of Kiemle Hagood’s 300-plus Spokane and Coeur d’Alene properties nearly weekly.
“People are going into the common bathrooms in our buildings and pull- ing sinks off walls, breaking mirrors, things like that,” Hester says.
In response to the increase in commercial property crimes in downtown Spokane, he says Kiemle Hagood has locked all common bathrooms in its buildings and has increased its downtown security guard team.
“We’ve hired two more guards in the downtown area,” Hester says. “That adds to the two or three (guards) we already had there. There are about eight big buildings we manage downtown, and the guards work between the different buildings.”
Kadra Deuber is owner of Little Noodle, a restaurant at 713 W. Garland, about 2 1/2 miles north of downtown Spokane. Deuber says she believes commercial property crime downtown is spreading.
“I hear it’s just making its way north,” Deuber says. “People are coming up from downtown.”
Little Noodle was burglarized in the early morning hours of March 8. A rock was thrown through the glass of the restaurant’s front door, and a till, a safe, and a book of checks were stolen, while other items, including an iPad, were damaged beyond repair. Between cash stolen and property damaged, Little Noodle’s loss is estimated at $4,100.
Deuber says she reviewed security camera footage of the incident.
“It seems to be around 4:30 or 5 in the morning, there’s a lot of foot traffic,” Deuber says.
Deuber alleges she knows who the perpetrator is.
“We got camera footage. We know who did it,” Deuber says.
Deuber says she’s turned over identifying information to law enforcement, but officers haven’t found the opportunity to arrest the person.
In the meantime, Deuber says she’s working to make the neighborhood safer.
“I’m in the process of trying to get the whole neighborhood to chip in to do GoJoe Patrol … so they can start patrolling the whole area,” Deuber says. “We’re also trying to get a grant to get the lights put back in the trees so it’s a more lit-up neighborhood.”
Deuber says the break-in is affecting Little Noodle’s payroll, as she’s increased staffing. The restaurant now has seven employees.
“I can’t have just one person here, for safety issues,” Deuber says. “We’re almost fully staffed for a slower time of the year, and that’s really rough. I have to have at least two people on, three for the night crew.”
A public safety survey commissioned by Downtown Spokane Partnership conducted in November 2021 reached 1,267 downtown Business Improvement District ratepayers and DSP newsletter subscribers resulting in a response rate of about 30%, says DSP interim CEO Andrew Rolwes.
About half of respondents said that their response to increased security concerns included reducing building access, while 39% increased exterior lighting or installed new or additional security cameras, and 28% reported hiring additional private security.
Of the respondents, four out of five said that they experienced at least one crime per month. However, only a third said they report crimes at least 50% of the time, and 19% said they almost never report crimes to law enforcement.
Batten says property crime is a systemic issue.
“The system itself doesn’t seem to be working,” Batten says. “It’s not one piece. It’s just that the pieces aren’t working well together.”
Drawing people back to downtown offices and events is a key piece of decreasing crime, Batten asserts.
“We’re expecting that people will come downtown, that we’re turning the corner,” he says. “We just haven’t quite gotten there yet, and until we do, we have a vacuum.”
Batten and Rolwes, as well as a representative of Kiemle Hagood, were among 30 who attended a March 18 meeting led by Spokane County Sheriff Ozzie Knezovich, the purpose of which was to examine the causes of and potential solutions to crime in the county.
The meeting included local commercial and private property developers, owners, and managers, DSP board members, and community members. Additional meetings are to take place each Friday at the Spokane County Human Resources Learning Center, on the courthouse campus north of the Spokane River.
“We need everybody in the same room,” Batten says.