We were feeling angsty as the millennium drew to a close. First there was the ever-present problem of money. A January 1999 cover story lamented an overextended homebuilding industry with not enough homebuyers for all those new houses. A few months later, we were surely one of the few weekly newspapers ever to feature a cover image of a hearse — "If you think planning a wedding's expensive, check out the high cost of dying, p. 8." But by the start of the new millennium, we were feeling at least a little better. The world hadn't ended, nor had chaos ensued, as many had predicted. And in February 2000, the long-awaited Phantom of the Opera came to town for a 32-performance run, with projections of generating $10 million for the local economy.
IN THE NEWS
Imagine LIGHT RAIL connecting Spokane and Coeur d'Alene — a happy passenger could just hop on and enjoy a day at the lake! In our Sept. 28, 2000 issue, Pia K. Hansen (now Pia Hallenberg) reported just such a project was more than a dream: With $10 million in federal funding already approved, "If the voters support it, Spokane seems to have a lot going for a light rail system. With the right-of-way basically secured and federal money just waiting to be released, at least the project is off to a good start." Though the light rail project never materialized, on July 15, 2023, Spokane did celebrate the opening of the new Spokane City Line rapid bus transit route.
CULTURE
In the April 29, 1999 issue, we wrote about Andrew Sullivan stopping in at EWU to lecture on the meaning of, and need for, friendship. And we got an interview with none other than GLORIA STEINEM, who was headlining the annual Women Helping Women Luncheon. Inlander Associate Editor Amy Cannata asked Steinem if many young women had long since abandoned the fight for women's equality, believing that the war was already won by their mothers? "It's just because they haven't experienced it yet," Steinem presciently explained.
ON THE COVER
For the Feb. 2, 2000 issue, Ted S. McGregor Jr. wrote about "INDELIBLE MARKS." (Disclosure: I've been married — most happily! — to Ted since 1992.) The man of the title was Jimmy Marks, whose family sued the city of Spokane, eventually winning a $1.43 million dollar settlement related to a police raid of the Marks' home. The Marks, a Romani family, called the police raid "armed robbery" while the police pointed to evidence from 35 burglaries recovered at the scene. The case, and mostly the flamboyant Jimmy Marks himself, were documented in the movie, American Gypsy: A Stranger in Everybody's Land, with filmmaker Jasmine Dellal in town to present the film. (Things change — the term "gypsy" is now considered a slur, while Roma is preferred.)
LOCAL FOLKS
Our Aug. 24, 2000 issue celebrated silent film star Nell Shipman, aka THE LADY OF THE LAKE, who, for a time, turned her Priest Lake lodge into a silent film studio. Local historians Tony and Suzanne Bamonte wrote about Shipman's career as an actress, but also about how Shipman was so appalled at the film industry's treatment of animals that she ended up "essentially becoming the first animal rights activist in the United States." Tony Bamonte, a longtime friend of the Inlander and the subject of Tim Egan's Breaking Blue, died in July 2019.
