Downtown Residents, Firms May Form Council

More than 30 downtown merchants and residents met last Thursday to lay the groundwork for a neighborhood council, tentatively titled the West End Neighborhood.

Long considered the business core of the city, downtown Spokane also houses longtime residents who are hoping a council will give them a bigger voice in city policy.

“It’s the friendliest part of town,” said Letha Smith, who has lived downtown for more than 20 years, the past 12 in the Cathedral Apartments on West Sprague.

“Anywhere else, you’re just one of the crowd. So I’m very interested in bettering it. I get very upset when people criticize our downtown,” she said.

The proposed neighborhood boundaries would run along Riverside and Main on the north, Riverside and Sunset Boulevard on the west, Howard between Main and the north side of Second Avenue on the east, then along Interstate 90 from Howard to the viaduct on the south.

If approved, the West End Neighborhood likely would be the 11th neighborhood council in Spokane. Seven councils already are officially recognized by the city, and three more have passed bylaws and are awaiting final approval.

The purpose of the councils is to give community members a voice in city government.

Molly Myers, director of the city’s Office of Neighborhood Services, said the downtown community, with its mix of business and residential, is perfect for the program.

“You as a neighborhood fit this model better than any other at this point,” she told the group, which included representatives from banks, restaurants and retail shops.

Last week’s discussion focused on the diversity of the downtown area, with those present wondering if the council would be divided by two different agendas.

“The Arts District tends to be more business oriented, so it’s really important we have residents involved,” said Kim Pearman-Gillman, chair of the district, which spearheaded the project.

“This neighborhood could get very tied up in things like parking issues and not get to residential ones,” she told the group.

Some residents said they resent big business in their back yard.

“I don’t like having little things happen in my neighborhood because some national corporation wants it that way,” said one downtown resident.

But others said they liked what business brought to the area.

“I want to keep everything downtown,” said Smith. “When stores move out, it breaks my heart.”

The meeting was a chance to iron out boundaries for the neighborhood, with suggestions for carving out the area to the north of Sprague to make the neighborhood less business oriented. Others pointed out that this would exclude essential neighborhood fixtures such as the downtown library and post office.

While no plans were completed last Thursday, organizers say the strong support for the council is a good sign of things to come.

“We’ve had really good attendance and seen lots of residents and people who own businesses coming together,” said PearmanGillman.

“What we’ve heard at those meetings was that residents didn’t have an easy place to have a voice,” she said.

“We want to give them a chance to have some input in their community.”

, DataTimes MEMO: This sidebar appeared with the story: PANEL’S NEXT MEETING The committee will meet again from 5:30 to 7 p.m. next Thursday at the Rodeway Inn City Center to discuss proposed bylaws.