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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Diamond Gets Rough-Edged Over The Years

‘Why has Diamond been allowed to have a monopoly on parking in this city?” a reader in Spokane asks.

Bess Hixson also wants to know how the parking giant can get away with charging $5 for a couple hours of parking across from the Opera House.

And with such prohibitive parking rates around Riverfront Park, how can shoppers at the public market in the park be expected to lug purchases back to their cars “when watermelons are in season.”

Good questions, all.

Actually, it only seems like they have a monopoly, though.

Everywhere you turn, a blue Diamond Parking sign stares you in the face.

But there are other parking lot operators in Spokane. Diamond, the oldest and one of the biggest in the nation, just overwhelms them.

It is true, however, that where cityowned parking lots are concerned, “Diamond does have a monopoly,” confirms Dave Perry.

“But,” says the senior real estate agent for the city, who is responsible for the cityowned lots leased out to private operators, “they got it by competitive bid.”

Last year, in the latest bidding on leases for the city’s four central core lots, says Perry, “they outbid everybody else.”

Says a competitor, “They have so much money they can do anything they want.”

He also agreed with Bess Hixson that Diamond’s rates are too stiff. “They seem to charge whatever they want and put ‘event’ signs up all the time,” she complained. “But $5 or even $4.50 is too much to be charged for an hour of parking.”

My source in the trade says, “She’s right - $4.50 or $5 is too much to pay in Spokane for an hour and a half at the opera (the parking charge for an “event” of whatever duration).

How can Diamond charge rates that high? Easy - they have cornered the market on the Riverfront Park perimeter.

Perry says the city needs a good rate of return from parking lot leases, but the City Council, in awarding contracts, also takes into account “the whole package,” including things like charging customers’ dead batteries for free in the winter.

“Little perks like that,” said Perry, “impress council members.”

In bidding contracts, said Perry, “Diamond is very competitive. They take calculated risks.”

Just who are these operators who control much of downtown Spokane?

They are the Diamond family of Seattle.

“The Diamonds are the classic immigrant success story,” says Perry.

Well, right now the classic family is feuding over management of a $30 million trust fund that owns 92 percent of the sprawling parking empire.

According to press dispatches, Dianne Diamond Foreman is suing her father, Joe Diamond, and brother, Joel, claiming her brother misappropriated “exhorbitant” sums of money for himself.

Joe Diamond, reigning patriarch, is an 88-year-old attorney and son of Russian immigrants.

A 1985 Associated Press story said of him: “Joe Diamond’s image with the motoring public isn’t exactly polished, but they know him: He’s the guy who makes them pay for parking in numerous lots throughout the Seattle and Spokane metropolitan areas.”

“They’re all afraid of him,” the AP story went on, quoting a friend of Diamond’s. “They think he’s a zillionaire.”

But, said the friend, for all his exterior toughness, Diamond is “a teddy bear.”

Diamond was quoted then as saying he didn’t know how much he was worth, except “many millions.”

At the time, Diamond operated 1,000 lots, including dozens in Spokane.

In the ‘60s and ‘70s, it seemed to me Diamond used to have even more lots in Spokane than now. Maybe it just seemed that way because a lot of old buildings were getting leveled downtown then, and practically every time one bit the dust, a Diamond Parking sign popped up on the rubble the next day.

Today, according to AP, the Diamond family operates 700 lots, including 200 in Seattle. I was unable to contact anyone with Diamond in Spokane willing to say how many they have here.

(The stock market will be closed Tuesday, and there will be no business section Wednesday. So, instead of this Wednesday as announced, the last half of a two-part column on targeting better jobs will appear next Wednesday).

, DataTimes MEMO: Associate Editor Frank Bartel’s column appears on Monday, Wednesday and Sunday.

Associate Editor Frank Bartel’s column appears on Monday, Wednesday and Sunday.