Emergency ordinance Jan. 11 would bury vision of SARP

With credit and apology to William Shakespeare….

Friends, neighbors, citizens of Spokane Valley:

If I may have a few moments of your time, I come to bury SARP, not to praise it. The squalor that we allow lives after us; the vision is often buried in its mire. So let it be with SARP. The noble City Council has told you SARP was too ambitious. If it were so, it was a grievous fault, and grievously has SARP presented itself.

Here, with the leave of the citizens and council (for it is an honorable council, as are all the citizens), I address the funeral of SARP. It became just to all and faithful in vision for our fair city. But council says it was ambitious, and council is honorable and just.

The vision saw many new businesses and new workers brought into our city, and to the benefit of whom? The vision of SARP was growth and prosperity. Was this too ambitious? Council has so said. Growth and prosperity should come from common souls, says council, and council is comprised of honorable and kind people.

When SARP was too ambitious, those of vision tempered it. When those who cried “unfair” were satisfied, even then the vision remained. Yet council says the vision was too ambitious, and council is honorable and just.

Even the gracious city to our west had a noble soul, King Cole, whose vision it was that took away the train yards and skid road and brought about the jewel Riverfront Park and the skywalks and the marvelous Expo that renewed and strengthened and revitalized the city. Where were those who cried “woe, woe, this vision is too ambitious?” Was it the strength of champion Cole that carried his vision for the entire city?

We have all seen Auto Row and the many good things that have been accomplished there. Yet, council seeks an emergency ordinance to allow a single business – yes, a single man – to replace the vision of SARP with an automobile agency outside of Auto Row; this agency to be placed in the middle of what could have been our city center. We know that council is honorable and just, but wants to discard the vision of growth and prosperity to the benefit of a single man.

I do not try to disprove council. SARP was not perfect. However, the vision of SARP sought to lift us up to a better place, that we might grow and prosper. O council! Have you fled to that dark side? Have we lost all reason, that we replace potential beauty and order with mediocrity? Without a vision, we have nowhere to go, nothing to which to turn. My heart mourns the vision that might have been.

For those who might still seek a glimmer of that vision for our city, on Jan. 11 council will bring forward the ordinance that will essentially dismantle SARP, that will end the vision of growth and prosperity for our city, that will benefit a single man. Our council eagerly awaits your expressions of delight and concern in this matter, for we know that our city council is just and honorable, and thinks only of the good of the people.

For those who have not been part of the vision, SARP is the Sprague/Appleway Revitalization Plan and references to “the city” are to the city of Spokane Valley. Don’t be one who says “I never knew.” Come to the council meeting at City Hall. Speak to the council of your support or your lack of support for this emergency ordinance that will take away our vision for a better future for all of us.