Community Building/Saranac

Please support Main Market!

Downtown Spokane's Main Market is at risk of closing, increasing food insecurity in the city's lowest income ZIP code This city loves its stickers. Peep a water bottle or guitar case and you're bound to see the Garbage Goat, Ribby the Redband Trout or...

A great time was had by all. Thanks Spokane Riverkeeper!

Hey All, This looks like an interesting FREE workshop which will be an overview of how a nonprofit organization (NPO) is developed and leads the participant into looking at their nonprofit’s lifecycle and determining organizational gaps and needs.

Offered on two different dates:

July 20: 12:00 to 2:00 pm
Registration link: https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZMvf-mpqz8tG9MAwqSrTLRB7x-6sGflMkhr

July 27: 5:30 to 7:30 pm
Registration link: https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZUrfuyrrjwvE9IKZA0AQiGcDSQLOyaBz6zZ



**Specialized Toolkits will be provided to all registered participants.



Cost: Free to community-based organizations serving the Eastern WA region

Good Morning Everyone!

The Community and Saranac Buildings will close at 1:00 pm this afternoon. Most of the businesses are open for now, but it's very messy downtown as you can see from this semi that just jackknifed across Browne a few minutes ago. Overall Warrin says if you can, work from home and if you don’t have a good snow car stay put.

Thanks everyone and stay warm out there, Katy

Look at this photogenic beauty! They flew into one of our neighbors' stores at Chosen Vintage! We connected them with Tina Penny Bird of Prey Rescue/Environmental Educator/Photographer extraordinaire who came down to take them to safety. All in a days work :)

Dear Friends,

It’s been another very heavy week of loss for our community. With each story about how Sandy Williams touched people's lives, the layers of grief settle over Spokane and the weight of realizing who we’ve lost, grows. I feel grateful for all the sharing and tributes because they help me know her a little better and appreciate all that she gave to so many people. I’ll add another layer and hope that eventually the heaviness we feel now, grounds us in the ultimate tribute to Sandy Williams: taking action towards creating the justice that she worked for every day.

On a sunny spring day at Indaba Coffee on Broadway, Sandy and I were laughing in line about how we accidentally came to a canceled meeting because we didn’t have time for reading email. It was the end of the month and Sandy was on a deadline but she said she needed a break so we sat for awhile chatting over our coffees. Eventually we landed on real estate and how communities need welcoming, physical spaces of their own to build connection. She told me that she'd had her eye on a building for the Black Lens for a few years. She wasn’t sure if it was structurally sound or if they’d be able to raise all the money, but it was in a perfect location, up for sale now, and she “had a good feeling about it.” This is the same intuitive strategy making that we try to do at the Community Building so I said I wanted to help. As we finished our drinks we pulled out our calendars and set up a time to tour this mystery building with some contractor/developer folks that I knew.

A week later, we walked through the building with the Black Lens Board and contractor friends visioning in the space. We oohed and ahed over the possibilities, the building definitely “had good bones.” Flash forward, after a whirlwind of fundraising and community organizing, our tour group from that spring sat around a rickety table in thick sweaters eating left over halloween candy and marveling that we were sitting in the future Carl Maxey Center. “It all happened so fast,” we said, “Yeah! It just came together so naturally!” “This is really needed for there to be this kind of community response…” Sandy sat quietly, like she usually did, waiting, watching, and enjoying the joy around the table. Then, when it was time, she gently called the meeting to order so we could talk about Phase II - Design…

But the CMC’s origin story was just a little more complicated than “it naturally came together.” I know now that by the time she accidentally bumped into me in at Indaba, Sandy had already lined up potential capital investments and other funding streams from the state, the city, and set up a fiscal sponsorship. We were talking about the final pieces of the puzzle that she’d had been working on for a few years. A few years. So casual and understated about the work she'd invested and yet, so critical….so Sandy.

Losing her is a physical blow. On a personal level I am broken hearted and on a community level we have lost a mother, daughter, partner, mentor, organizer, leader, facilitator, editor, and a friend. We at the Community Building send our love to Sandy’s mother Wilhelmenia, Daughter Renika, and brother, Rick and the rest of her family and friends. We send the same love to Pat Hick’s family and friends. We are so sorry for your loss.

As a community we can help see Sandy’s dream in the Carl Maxey Center continue to grow and thrive. We commit to her vision and will make a donation to the Carl Maxey Center. If you can, consider donating.

Thank you for the work you do to build justice, community vibrancy, racial equity, and sustainability for all.

With Love, Katy

Dear Friends,

As you may already know and if you haven’t heard already, we're so sorry to say that David Edwards passed away last week suddenly and unexpectedly. We are heartbroken. David was one of the founding community members at the Community Building and one of the main reasons this is such a welcoming place. He set the original tone of belonging, always welcoming people with a warm "Hello!” followed by a great big hug. He brought his whole self to this community as a loving father, grandfather, partner, friend, neighbor, and coach.

His laughter and joy is a gift we will always treasure. Our hearts go out to his children Kita, Chris, and Devione, his grandchildren, his partner Patty, and the rest of his family and many friends.

There will be a celebration of life for David on Tuesday, Aug. 30. at 4 pm at the Hennessy Funeral Home (1315 N. Pines Rd. Spokane Valley). Afterwards there will be a reception in the Community Building Lobby starting at 6:00 pm. Please join us in celebrating David.

With love,

Katy, Warrin, Joe, Jim and all the Community Building Staff

We are so happy to see our spaces being used to celebrate one another again! 😍

For lease: Community Building, 3rd Floor corner office, room for 3 desks, $750 per month. Must be a non-profit!

[email protected]

Tonight! In the Community Building Lobby!

Spokane artist's river paintings to be featured at a First Friday exhibit L.R. Montgomery says he has painted pictures of the Spokane River most days during the pandemic.

We sent this letter today to Spokane City Leadership urging them to find lasting solutions for Spokane's Homelessness issues.

Cc: Mayor Woodward, City Manager Johnnie Perkins, Mayoral cabinet members Brian Coddington, Eric Finch, and Steven MacDonald, and Spokane City Council

Dear Spokane City Leadership

The Community Building is located on the east end of Main Street at the edge of downtown. In the over twenty years that we have been here, our maintenance and janitorial crew has worked very hard to keep our buildings welcoming. In addition to keeping the insides and outsides clean, we fix locks, w**d, shovel snow, and greet community members and partners on our block.

In 2016, we saw a huge increase in the number of our homeless neighbors as well as people suffering from addiction. Our bathrooms and common areas, which in the past had seldom been misused, became areas where people regularly bathed and used drugs, and we regularly found human excrement in the alleys and doorways of the buildings. Occasionally the situations were dangerous, oftentimes desperate, sometimes both. By 2017, our staff was at capacity so, for the first time we created a position focused on safety and security.

We describe all this for two reasons. First, to share the real costs of this homelessness crisis to our businesses downtown. Hiring a new person is expensive and it is frustrating to feel as though we had to find our own solution when we should be facing the issue together as a city. The second reason is to show that this issue has been brewing for a very long time. Yet every winter in recent years, the City seems to suffer from collective amnesia, as every winter there is not enough shelter for our homeless community.

For example, on Sunday, Jan. 9th the City closed the emergency warming shelter at the Spokane Convention Center because of events that were scheduled, which is understandable. What is not understandable is that there was not another shelter opened. The following night temperatures dropped to 18 degrees and people were forced outside!? Then to make matters even worse, the day after the shelter closed, we watched the regular Monday sweep occur under the bridge on Browne Street. In a moment when there was not enough shelter our City chose to kick people out of their camp. It wasn’t right.

The homelessness crisis was in full swing long before the City began looking for the 20K square foot building that met all the other requirements: outside a business district and school/day care facility, etc. As you know there were people sleeping outside in the cold back in 2017, 2018, 2019, and 2020, in effect, long before the real estate market took off and made this even harder.

We know this is a very tough and complicated issue. But as City Leadership, it is your job to get creative and change this dynamic. If there are no buildings that meet your requirements, change your requirements. Consider multiple smaller buildings which would have less impact on neighborhoods. Consider hotels. Get innovative with the resources and the budget that the City Council has allotted to this issue. Ask for help. But please stop saying that your hands are tied. There is more than one solution based on a building that does not exist in this market. Please stop putting off the issue for another winter.

Again, we know that this is tremendously complicated however we also trust you to find something better. Please do something now so that people don't face another 18 degree night with no shelter and another winter with no plan. Thank you for your work on this and we will keep working to help however we can.

Sincerely,

The Community Building Staff:

Aung Zaw

Austen White

Cameron Finley

Dana Oxford

Jill Herrera

Jim Sheehan

Joe Sheehan

Jonathan Abramson

Justin Curtis

Katy Sheehan

Rebecca Mack

Shelly Baker

Todd Fell

Warrin Bazile

Join us for a [socially-distanced] celebration!

Please RSVP through eventbrite so we have enough food!

Community Building Book Launch Party! BOOK LAUNCH PARTY !

Just in time for the holidays! ;)

One-Block Revolution: 20 Years of Community Building | latahbooks Praise for One-Block Revolution:​"This fascinating book puts Spokane on the progressive map. Cities across the country should envy a street given over to nonprofit causes, health food, and leading-edge entertainments. Twenty contributors outline the altruisms they could undertake thanks to the ben...