Collaboration is Transforming Our Schools and Parks – It Can Also Solve Our Biggest Crisis

Note//tomorrow’s walk departs City Hall 5AM

This morning’s 5 AM downtown walk was filled with conversations—not just about what we see, but also about what a collaborative solution could look like. As we walked, I reflected on a powerful example of a collaboration in action that would be presented to the community later in the day: Spokane Parks and Recreation and Spokane Public Schools are bringing a slate of more than 200 transformational community projects to the November ballot.

What’s most remarkable about the proposal isn’t the number and scale of these amazing projects—it’s how they’re making it happen. By working closely, creatively, and urgently together, they have dramatically lowered the cost of these projects to under $8 per month for a median-priced home. And by leveraging their remarkable 2018 partnership model, they’re delivering 30+ more projects than they could have if they had worked separately in their silos!

This is an astounding masterclass in how collaboration can dramatically amplify impact while lowering costs.

So Why Hasn’t This Same Level of Collaboration Been Used to Tackle Spokane’s Biggest Crisis?

I’m noticing that the same leaders who enthusiastically support the Parks/Schools partnership haven’t yet found a way to collaborate on Spokane’s human health and safety crisis—a crisis that has plagued our city for many years.

As I walked, reflecting on these thoughts and surveying the suffering and blight impacting downtown, I began to realize more fully that our community is facing an entirely new and unprecedented mix of challenges—all happening at the same time:

• Fentanyl and industrial meth addiction devastating lives and growing our chronically homeless population
• Post-pandemic economic and social effects still unfolding
• Skyrocketing housing costs and other costs of living

Any one of these problems would present a serious challenge to any city. All three at once? That’s a next-level crisis.

There is no established playbook for all of this. Even the leaders who understand that collaboration is key seem unsure how to apply it in this uniquely complex landscape.  Moreover, no single jurisdiction has the tools to tackle this crisis alone. Too often, when leaders reach into their toolbox for solutions, they don’t have the right tools or funding—and the ones they actually need are sitting in another jurisdiction’s toolbox. 

But just as Parks and Schools found a way forward by finding new ways to partner and by breaking through traditional silos, we must do the same for Spokane’s health and safety crisis. Collaboration isn’t just a nice-to-have here — it’s the only way forward.  With that in mind, only one question remains: do we have the urgency and creativity necessary to collaborate at the level this crisis demands? 

A few hours after the walk, I attended the community rollout event for the Schools/Parks proposal. Throughout the event, many of our elected and civic leaders stepped forward and energetically praised the value of collaboration and the hard work it took to build such an outstanding proposal.

Listening to all of this, I walked out feeling inspired and with a renewed sense of hope.  If these are the same leaders who strongly support an innovative, cost-saving, and transformational partnership between Parks and Schools, then they absolutely have the ability and determination to forge new kinds of partnerships that save lives, protect our businesses, and safeguard Spokane’s future.

Spokane County Just Drew the Line: No More Camping & Blocked Public Spaces – Time for Real Solutions

Spokane County’s Bold Step Towards Truly Addressing Our Health and Safety Crisis

This week, Spokane County Commissioners unanimously voted to expand the public camping ban to all unincorporated areas. This decisive action marks an important—and compassionate—shift away from ineffective triage measures like sanctioned camping and toward real, regional solutions for chronic homelessness, addiction, and mental health.

A Failed System & the Need for Real, Collaborative Solutions

The City of Spokane must follow the County’s lead. Public camping is not a solution—it’s a symptom of a system that is failing both the unhoused and the community at large. Cities that have made real progress haven’t expanded public camping.  Instead, they focused on real, long-term solutions that address the root causes of homelessness. Spokane must do the same.

House Bill 1380 Threatens Local Solutions

Washington’s HB 1380 poses a direct threat to Spokane’s ability to find real and effective solutions to our health and safety crisis. If passed, it would override local authority and potentially reverse the County’s recent action expanding the public camping ban to all unincorporated areas.

HB 1380 would override Spokane’s voter-approved Proposition 1 (75% approval), which prohibited sitting and lying in certain public areas under specific conditions.   Despite Spokane voters having already spoken strongly in support of common-sense public space regulations, this bill threatens to nullify their decision and impose a performative triage policy that takes makes it more difficult to find real solutions.

We will continue to oppose HB 1380 and provide updates on its legislative status.  We will also share information on how you and others can also voice your position if the bill moves forward.