Posted on 01/15/2005 3:02:05 PM PST by Horatio Gates
SPOKANE, Wash. (AP) — Gay activists in this staid Eastern Washington city are planning to create a neighborhood of gay-oriented homes, businesses and nightlife, which religious conservatives complain will be at odds with Spokane's family-oriented culture.
A gay district would signal that Spokane is tolerant and progressive, proponents contend, the type of community that can attract the so-called "creative class" that will build the economy of tomorrow.
"We're talking about an actual physical part of town we would like to establish as a gay district," said Marvin Reguindin, owner of a Spokane graphic design firm, who envisions an area similar to the Castro district of San Francisco or Capitol Hill in Seattle.
Community Impact Spokane, a network of evangelical Christians, is appalled.
"A gay Mecca is not what we'd like to see Spokane marketed as," said Penny Lancaster, director of the group. "I'd rather see us promoted as a conservative, family oriented community without any reference to sexual orientation."
Too late, some say.
"There is a very large gay population here," said Bonnie Aspen, a business owner who arrived with her partner two years ago to escape the congestion of the San Francisco Bay area.
Even though they face little discrimination, gays stay under the radar, said Aspen, a member of the Inland Northwest Business Alliance, an association of gay and gay-friendly businesses that is pushing the idea.
"Visibility equals freedom," Aspen said. "Invisibility we have dealt with all our life."
She predicted a gay district will exist within the next year or two.
Spokane is some 90 percent white, and a gay district will promote the notion that such a community can still be tolerant and have diversity, Aspen said.
The idea arises out of the theories of Richard Florida, an economist whose 2002 book "The Rise of the Creative Class" contends that the economy of the future will be created by the 38 million workers who toil in "creative" industries.
Florida, a Carnegie Mellon University professor, said members of the creative class consider recreation, culture and ethnic diversity, including a large population of gays, as central to where they live. Places like New York, Boston, San Francisco and Seattle have those qualities. Places like Spokane generally do not.
After Florida spoke here a couple of years ago, Spokane civic leaders embraced many of his ideas. They have pushed hard to create a university district and several arts districts near downtown.
Tom Reese, an economic development officer for Spokane, said city government is not exactly pushing the notion of a gay district, but they don't oppose it either.
"It is our desire to create an environment where diversity and different interests and lifestyles of all types can flourish," Reese said.
No public funds will be used to create the district, which is dependent on developers, Aspen said. No location has been announced.
With about 200,000 residents, the city has little history of gay activism, other than an effort a few years ago that added homosexuals as a protected class to its human rights ordinance.
Spokane — which in trendy Seattle is shorthand for tragically unhip — has long been dominated by conservative politics that stem from its history as a mining and farming center. But it also has a large core of Democrats who push for social justice, and libertarians who share the West's live-and-let-live philosophy.
Most of all the city identifies itself as a good place to raise a family. A gay district clashes with that image, opponents contend.
"We are a family-friendly, traditional-values community," said former Mayor John Talbott.
Opponents fear a gay district will attract sexual predators who prey on gays, plus lead to increased crime, drug use and other social ills, Walton Mize, bishop of the Christ Holy Sanctified Church, said.
"Most people don't know about the underbelly of it," Mize said. "It's a culture based upon sex."
Aspen rejected the notion that a gay district will bring social problems to Spokane.
"I can't see why they think they will have more of that than is already here," Aspen said.
Spokane already has a gay newspaper, Stonewall News Northwest, and some businesses that cater to gay residents. It has had an openly gay member of the City Council.
But creating a district is still important, Reguindin said.
"It would help youth struggling with their sexuality to realize they don't have to go away to a big city to be gay. You can be gay right here in Spokane," Reguindin said.
Farand Gunnels, local representative for the Pride Foundation, a Seattle-based group that gives grants to support the gay community, wondered if there were enough gay residents in Spokane to support such a district.
The INBA is also preparing to launch a "visibility campaign," in which businesses will be asked to display signs in their windows proclaiming their support for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people.
"We'll know where we will be welcome and patronize those businesses," Aspen said. "We've had a very positive reaction from the business community."
Gay customers will be able to leave special cards at businesses they patronize, to let the owners know they were there, Aspen said.
"It will give Spokane an idea of the economic impact gay people have," Aspen said.
Was that an intended pun?
Gosh, even my fingers have a sense of humor...LMAO
Have any of these people trying to re-design the city to conform to the supposed standards of the so-called "creative class" read a word of Hayek or Jane Jacobs? Aren't they aware of the failure of such programs in Europe in the past century? Attempts at re-engineering cities along ideological lines have always failed and these attempts at redistricting Spokane and altering its financial priorites are a recipie for disaster.
If it's OK with Sigmund, I'd like to call it a Snardian classic...
It's called Stonewall and you can find it (if you want to read it) in stands next to the other freebie weekly newspaper, The Inlander and a new one, Out There (which I though was another gay publication [snicker] until I picked it up and realized it's an outdoor sports rag.
Spokane did have a history of mining and farming, and farming is still important, and it had other industries, but now its really world known for its excellant heart institute ......
We're a golfers paradise, have five quality ski resorts within a 90 minute drive, five major lakes within 90 minutes as well as hunting and fishing heaven.
Now if I can only stop the county from plowing me in...
I understand it as an attempt by the Chamber of Commerce to cater to the "gay consumer" that some in the "arts community" feel we are missing out on because of the perception that Spokane is not "gay friendly".
I would prefer that our community, as well as our state, be perceived as "business friendly" before it begins to cater to "special interest groups."
This article is an oldie from mid-January, but somehow I missed it. Just now heard on the local AM news station that Spokane has gained international attention in two European publications as a result of this proposal. Just frickin' great.
Unbelievable. This faction of the gay community just can't stand to be anywhere but in the spotlight. . . "Visibility equals freedom," Aspen said. "Invisibility we have dealt with all our life." They can't stand it that others may not acknowledge or even recognize that they are gay. And how self-serving of them to think that they need their own residential community when they admit that "they face little discrimination" in Spokane. They even want to force business owners to put signs in their store windows professing their tolerance and acceptance of gays. They just can't get enough attention, can they? By forming their own residential community, they actually segregate themselves from the rest of the population. That sounds like a really good way to promote tolerance and acceptance (sarcasm intended). I think there was a Civil Rights Movement that ended racial segregation precisely because segregation does not promote tolerance or acceptance. But of course, it isn't acceptance that they want in this case, it is power.
Very good point. When it comes to militant gays, they lie when they claim their desire for legal marriage is a desire for equality. They don't want equal rights, they want special rights.
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