SPOKANE, Wash. — For more than a decade, Robert Hetner has made the downtown corner of Spokane Falls Boulevard and Howard his home for slinging hotdogs and meeting new faces.
"I meet people from around the entire world here in Spokane, everywhere from Russia through Australia," Hetner said. "I've met people from South America, every country you can imagine."
But, he also knows downtown has some issues.
"Is there homelessness? Are there kids? Yes," Hetner said. "I wish there was not, but that's a lot to ask for."
But with the summer months here, the city of Spokane is hoping to do something about those issues. Spokane Mayor Nadine Woodward announced Thursday morning the new Safe Spokane summer initiative.
"This initiative gets our house ready for guests this summer," Woodward said.
According to Mayor Woodward, the plan has several parts, including regularly cleaning up under viaducts and the downtown gateways off of I-90 and sending out the Homeless Outreach Team more often.
They mayor also says they're relaunching the city's "Give Real Change" initiative, which asks people to donate the change they would've given to panhandlers to service organizations and nonprofits instead.
Other parts of the new plan also include:
- Establishing a high-utilizer initiative to address people who repeatedly commit misdemeanor offenses through more robust cases seeking tougher penalties.
- Conducting a roving special retail theft emphasis with downtown retailers to prevent shoplifting.
- Introducing virtual Municipal Court appearances as a pilot program at the Trent Resource and Assistance Center to reduce the failure to appear rate and help system users clear up minor court obligations and meet procedural obligations.
- Conducting regular special drug emphasis operations to re-establish the expectation that drug possession and use are illegal.
- Conducting regular proactive special abatement emphasis in hot-spot areas around gateways and viaducts.
- Beginning the building of a Municipal Drug Court as a service connector to get individuals into treatment.
Spokane Police Chief Craig Meidl also spoke about the changes made in the department to address safety, including changing up staffing to double the number of officers assigned downtown.
Chief Meidl says last year they had about 12 officers assigned. Now it's around 24.
"Additionally, with the warmer weather, you're going to see our officers on bikes and on foot patrol virtually every single day making contact with the community, with visitors, with business owners as well," Meidl said.
While the "Safe Spokane Summer" plan is just getting started, Hetner hopes it'll have an impact since he says keeping downtown safe is incredibly important.
"This is the revenue center. This park and these hotels generate tourism and millions and millions of dollars," Hetner said. "As soon as a tourist doesn't feel safe, we lose a lot of business."
Also, one of Woodward's opponents in the race for mayor, Lisa Brown, released her own plan to improve safety downtown. If elected, she would focus on four key areas to improve safety. They include:
- Improving funding for the Spokane police and fire departments
- Expanding services for people in crisis
- Improving community partnerships for more effective prevention programs
- Building a navigation center for people experiencing homelessness
To read Brown's full statement, click here.
Watch the full presentation on the initiative below:
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