Spokane Newsletter
Thursday mornings · Always free
Spokane Newsletter is a free Spokane email newsletter that lands Thursday mornings. Local news, weekend events, city council decisions in plain English, new restaurants, family outings with real prices, local sports, and one piece of Spokane history. Written by a neighbor, not a news desk.
The same shape every week, so you always know where to look. Skim the bold, read the two that matter to you, get on with your Thursday.
What actually happened, a few sentences each — not a wire feed, not a retyped press release. If it changes your commute, your rent or your block, it is in here.
Everything worth leaving the house for, Friday through Sunday, with times, addresses and what it costs. Free things are marked free.
Council voted on something with a four-digit ordinance number. Here is what it means for your street, in the words you would use with a friend.
New restaurants, bakeries, breweries and shops — where they are, what they serve, and whether the line is worth it yet.
Family outings with honest cost flags: free, cheap, or bring your wallet. No pretending a $60 afternoon is a budget activity.
Gonzaga, the Chiefs, the Indians, and the high school games people are actually driving across town for. Scores if you missed them, schedules if you did not.
One piece of Spokane history a week. The 1909 carrousel, Expo ’74, the flour mills, the streetcar lines buried under the pavement you drive on.
Right now, keeping up with this town means a paywalled daily, four neighborhood groups, three station apps and a city website nobody can navigate. We read all of it. You read one email, Thursday, with your coffee. That is the whole arrangement.
Free forever, and it stays that way — local ads keep the lights on, not your credit card. We skip the national outrage cycle entirely. No takes, no team colors, no comment section. Just what happened and what it means for you.
Not Seattle news with a Spokane headline stapled to the top. Everything in here happens between Airway Heights and the state line — the South Hill, Hillyard, Browne’s Addition, the Valley, downtown. If it did not happen here, it does not run here.
Three sample entries, in the voice you would actually get. Looking for things to do in Spokane this weekend? That list lives on its own page and is rewritten every week.
City Hall, translated
Council changed the residential parking zones. Which blocks it touches, what a permit costs now, and the date it starts mattering to you.
This weekend
Friday through Sunday with start times, parking notes, and an honest line about which one is worth the drive if you only pick one.
Then and now
Charles Looff carved it for his daughter in 1909. It spent years boxed up in storage. How it ended up spinning on the riverbank downtown.
I live here. I read the council agendas, walk the neighborhoods, and eat at the new places early enough to tell you whether to wait a month.
I started this because I kept finding out about good things in my own city the week after they happened — and because the way local news is delivered now asks you to do an editor’s job before you are allowed to read anything.
So: one email, Thursday morning, five minutes, written the way I would tell you about it standing in line at the grocery store. If it is ever not worth those five minutes, the unsubscribe link is at the bottom of every issue and I will not chase you.
Written in Spokane, every week.
Nothing. It is a free weekly newsletter for Spokane, WA, and it stays free — no paywall, no premium tier, no trial that quietly turns into a charge. Local advertising pays for it.
Once a week, Thursday morning. That is it. No daily digest, no breaking-news alert at eleven at night, no “we noticed you have not opened” nagging.
Spokane and the ground around it: local news, weekend events, city council decisions explained in plain English, restaurant and business openings, family activities with honest prices, local sports, and one piece of city history. Spokane Valley, Cheney, Airway Heights and the North Side all count. Seattle does not.
About five minutes end to end. It is built to be skimmed — seven labeled sections in the same order every week, so you can read two and skip five without missing anything you needed.
One click, from the link at the bottom of any issue. No survey, no “are you sure”, no login. Your address is never sold or rented to anyone, before or after you leave.
Yes to both, and one address handles them: hello@spokanenewsletter.com. Local businesses get local rates. Tips are read by a person, and you do not have to be anyone official to send one.
Put your email in and it lands with your coffee. If it is not worth five minutes, one click gets you out.