Bloglander

Welcome to this week's edition of City Hall Eyeball, your favorite blog concerning the machinations of government.

Some stuff happened at last night's Spokane City Council meeting, which I don't really want to get into.

First, let's talk about Doug Clark's ass. Not to get off topic or anything, but he brought it up, after all, in today's Spokesman-Review. As part of his rambling about something or other, he took on local cyclists and made an enemy, it seems, of one outspoken elected bicycle rider.

His "column" is mainly about keeping bike lanes off of Second Avenue — I think. He begins his digression by telling us how he used to ride bikes and why that makes his opinion worthy of consideration.

"I’d still be riding, too. But unfortunately the bicycle-seat industry failed to keep pace with my ass," he wrote. "The point is that I’m still very sympathetic to the bicycling mentality. It’s just that I’m even more in tune with the gas-guzzling Spokane driver mentality."

So funny! So's the part about Portlanders being half-vegans and how downtown cyclists are "inconsiderate punks and felons who think it's cool to ride their bikes ON THE SIDEWALKS!"

Watch out, ass-man! Coming through!

Seriously, though, this last Clark quote was enough to raise the ire of Spokane City Councilman Jon Snyder.

"Is it too much to ask that when someone gets on a bike they aren’t painted with the broadest strokes of cycling’s worse scofflaws?" Snyder wrote on his blog this morning, obviously fuming at Clark's missive.

One thing Snyder didn't point out was Clark's opinion that there should be no bike lanes or sidewalk-riding. My solution? Flying bicycles.

Moving on, this afternoon the Spokane County commissioners will talk cash, yo. They'll ponder spending $180,000 to maintain climate control at both the jail and one of their golf courses. Let it be known that the men and women of the jail live in cells with no open windows, and might need some HVAC. And the golfers who stand out in the open smoking cigars might not.

And the commissioners will accept a "Federal grant to STOP violence against women." I've never had an agenda yell at me before, but the caps were all theirs.

Finally, the Spokane Valley City Council will engage in a study session today at 6 pm, talking to local heavyweights such as Susan Winchell, boss-lady at the county's Boundary Review Board; Kathy McClung, who will give a breakdown on Sprague/Appleway Revitalization Plan; and Mayor Tom Towey, who rules.

Happy Guvment-ing!