Residences, businesses offer glimpse of urban living

Saturday was a beautiful day.

Families looking to have a little fun hopped in the car and drove straight into Spokane.

They were headed downtown.

On a Saturday.

While the city center was the sweet spot for gathering in the past, the last few decades have brought a decline in interest. Once the workweek ended, the commuters cleared out, headed for the outskirts and didn’t make it back to town until Monday.

But that’s changing fast.

With the burgeoning interest in urban living and downtown development, a move that is really catching on in Spokane, more people are taking a second look at what the downtown area has to offer.

This weekend is the first Live it Up! event sponsored by the Downtown Spokane Partnership. Downtown residences, businesses and merchants are open to show off what the area has to offer.

On Saturday, standing in the middle of a loft in the Blue Chip development on Adams Street, Marilyn Toland looked around. “This reminds me of Seattle,” she said. “This is the kind of thing you see in bigger cities.”

Toland isn’t quite ready to take the plunge to urban living, but she sees the appeal.

“It would be nice to be closer to the things you like to do,” she said. “Places like the Opera House and restaurants.”

Kathleen Grier has lived in Sweden and Iran. Both are places where urban living is the norm.

“I’m glad to see this kind of lifestyle come to Spokane,” she said. “It’s time.”

Both women were participating in the Museum of Arts and Culture’s annual Mother’s Day Historic Home Tour. The tour piggybacked onto the Live it Up! event.

While Live it Up! is a free event, the MAC tour does require a ticket.

Betty Ann Steitman and Nan Mogensen, both urban dwellers, peeked into an open room at the downtown Montvale Hotel and then looked at their maps for the next stop on the tour.

Already sold on the benefits of leaving the suburbs or residential neighborhoods and moving into the heart of the city, Mogensen, a Riverpoint Village condominium resident, was enthusiastic.

Riverpoint Village is just east of downtown, adjacent to the Washington State Riverpoint Campus.

“You can’t beat it,” she said. “We’ve got everything the city has to offer, but we’ve also got the river and the Centennial Trail.”

Mogensen makes the point that one doesn’t have to lose that sense of belonging to a neighborhood when living downtown.

“I’ve got the best neighbors,” she said. “We all know each other, and we’ve got a real sense of community.”

Both the Live it Up! tour and the Mother’s Day Historic Home Tour will continue today.