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January 17, 2011 in City
With street project, Spokane pays tribute to King’s legacy
Yolanda Everette and members of the Spokane Community Gospel Choir sing “Lord, I love you more than anything” during the Martin Luther King Jr. Commemorative Celebration at the Holy Temple Church of God in Christ on Sunday evening.
(Full-size photo)
By the end of this year, a Spokane street will be named after Martin Luther King Jr. – after nearly a quarter century of attempts.
Last week, the Spokane City Council approved a $3.7 million construction contract with Spokane Rock Products to tear down old warehouses in the way of the new downtown street near Washington State University-Spokane and to build the first phase of what will be called Martin Luther King Jr. Way.
“This street is going to go through the heart of Spokane’s education district,” said Ivan Bush, who submitted the application to name the extension of Riverside Avenue east of Division Street after King. “That will go well with the principles that Dr. King believed in: Faith, family and education.”
The project will include a small park that’s meant to serve as a gateway into WSU-Spokane on the southeast corner of the new street and Division. It also will have a median that someday could accommodate light rail.
“It’s going to be a very special roadway,” said City Engineer Mike Taylor.
The project aims to divert traffic from Spokane Falls Boulevard, which is someday expected to be the central part of the campus. Next year the city plans to redesign the portion of Spokane Falls adjacent to the campus to make it more pedestrian-friendly and compatible with a college setting.
The first phase of Martin Luther King Jr. Way is only a few blocks long and will connect Riverside to Spokane Falls near the Schade Brewery building. Eventually, it will connect Riverside to Trent Avenue near the Union Gospel Mission.
There are about 900 streets named after King in the United States, said Derek Alderman, an East Carolina University geography professor who has studied the naming of streets after King. In Washington, cities that honor King with street names include Seattle, Tacoma and Yakima.
In an interview last week, Alderman said it’s encouraging to find a city naming a new street after King. He said leaders often make promises to name the next new road after King after proposals to rename an existing street run into opposition.
“Sometimes it takes forever and often people have forgotten about the promise,” Alderman said.
The road, which is an extension of Riverside Avenue, was first envisioned 20 or more years ago to help make room for the new campus and avoid having to rebuild the Trent Avenue bridge over the Spokane River, said City of Spokane Utilities Director Dave Mandyke. The bridge, just east of the campus, eventually was rebuilt, but the project remained a priority to reduce vehicle traffic through the university while preventing increased congestion at Trent and Hamilton.
Construction is expected to start in late February, if weather permits. Crews will have 140 days to complete the work, which is funded mostly with federal money.
Allen Battle, co-creator of LaunchPad INW, said King was his hero when he was growing up in the 1950s and 1960s. Finally having a street in Spokane named after King is a sign to visitors that Spokane is becoming “more progressive,” he said.
“Some people may see it as small. Some may see it as huge. I just think it’s a sign of moving in the right direction,” Battle said.
Bush, who is the co-chairman of the Martin Luther King Jr. Birthday Celebration Planning Committee, has advocated several other proposals to rename streets in Spokane after King. Those plans proved controversial and were rejected. The Riverside idea, however, was approved unanimously by the Spokane Plan Commission and Spokane City Council in 2009.
“I was extremely elated then,” said Bush, who watched the votes. “I’ll be even more elated when I see it.”
MAC faces angry crowd 
drywitt99 on January 17 at 6:12 a.m.
$3.7 million to honor Dr, King.
Okay right wing nut-jobs….start the ranting!!
Marksman on January 17 at 7:42 a.m.
Better to remain silent and be thought a fool, than speak up and remove all doubt, Fool!
Dazee on January 17 at 8:17 a.m.
Why not just make it slain leader week in the U.S.? I’ll bet those liberals would love to watch all of us just sitting around contemplating our murderous ways.
Those dang British don’t know a darn thing about being a society. When’s the last time someone took a shot at royalty? And the Canadians, don’t get me started on them. They own more guns per capita than the U.S. yet it seems their trees of liberty take a hankering to a different kind of watering.
Didn’t Expo harpie King Cole recently pass away? I watch a lot of Wheel of Fortune and this would be a great way to honor Merv Griffin, MLK Jr., and King Cole in one giant swoop of the before and after category: Dr. Martin Luther King Cole Causeway.
Coffee on January 17 at 9:10 a.m.
How many pot holes could be filled with that money. But no that would help the little people and not the elites.
Liberty_Bell on January 17 at 9:15 a.m.
Let Freedom Ring!
“..When the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir. This note was a promise that all men would be guaranteed the inalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness…”
Tea Party Specialist, Lincoln Memorial 1963!
509ifyourlucky on January 17 at 1:48 p.m.
The money could be better used for current road repair rather than wasted to name a road after what he did bad.
Dazzeetrader11 on January 17 at 2:25 p.m.
It’s cultural now. MLK had some nice ideas….very good Republican too. Message was self reliance and love of man and God. Dems corrupted his message….as usual.
spokanelaw on January 17 at 2:34 p.m.
The way this works is that the project is in process, and the new signs are added. This is a very small expense. A MLK way has been under “consideration” for too long. Congratulations to Spokane’s current Mayor and Council.
Shazamm on January 17 at 2:54 p.m.
Yawn…the libs are about 40 years late with this one. Political correctness is getting kind of old and worn.
cheddar on January 17 at 3:34 p.m.
In every major city I’ve been to, in all corners of the country, there is usually a MLK-named road or school. Almost invariably, these are in the worst parts of town.
Too bad, because the great legacy of MLK’s attributes (equality, peace, God, and honor) is completely tarnished and wasted on the places named after him..
Here’s hoping Spokane’s MLK district doesn’t end up like NYC’s, LA’s, San Fran’s, Newark’s, Seattle’s, Portland’s, or Miami’s.
ourworldinruins on January 17 at 3:40 p.m.
And Spokane will make this street from play-doh and pay 15 times what other cities pay to complete the project and it will take 5 times longer to finish. Geez, I just cant wait!
Dazzeetrader11 on January 17 at 4:20 p.m.
Daisy hopes that street is a big tourist attraction! lolol…
Students should be in school today to learn about everyone’s hero…not out having a free holiday for fun and mischief. Serious man MLK…those little nubbins ought to be finding out why this day exists. Put them in school of churches.
greenlibertarian on January 17 at 4:25 p.m.
MLK, Jr. was most certainly not a Republican, though his father was until about 1960, when MLK, Sr spoke with JFK, the presidential candidate, about getting Martin, Jr. released from jail.
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“King (Jr.) observed the rightward turn of the Republican Party in 1964, the intense anti-government polices of Goldwater, and the Radical Right presence at the GOP convention. “It was both unfortunate and disastrous that the Republican Party nominated Barry Goldwater as its candidate for President of the United States,” lamented King. “In foreign policy Mr. Goldwater advocated a narrow nationalism, a crippling isolationism, and a trigger-happy attitude that could plunge the whole world into the dark abyss of annihilation.”
“On the urgent issue of civil rights, Senator Goldwater represented a philosophy that was morally indefensible and socially suicidal. While not himself a racist, Mr. Goldwater articulated a philosophy which gave aid and comfort to the racist. His candidacy and philosophy would serve as an umbrella under which extremists of all stripes would stand.
In the light of these facts and because of my love for America, I had no alternative but to urge every Negro and white person of goodwill to vote against Mr. Goldwater and to withdraw support from any Republican candidate that did not publicly disassociate himself from Senator Goldwater and his philosophy.”
-MLK,Jr.
http://usreligion.blogspot.com/2010/08/martin-luther-king-on-barry-goldwater.html
Dazzeetrader11 on January 17 at 4:56 p.m.
http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=16500#
Dazzeetrader11 on January 17 at 5:00 p.m.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Luther_King,_Sr.
Dazzeetrader11 on January 17 at 5:04 p.m.
http://wiki.answers.com/Q/Was_Dr_Martin_Luther_King_a_registered_Republican
misjustice on January 17 at 5:24 p.m.
Ha, Daisy, the neocons have conned ya!
Wiki can be edited by anyone…and trolls are paid to scrub sites of info they find inconvenient. Just ask $arahPac. Her minions tried to scrub the cross hairs map from the interwebs but they couldn’t scrub sites which they don’t have authorization to edit…
But by all means, continue to morph the good Dr.’s politics to suit your needs. Hey, Texas will even assist ya; afterall they are busy rewriting the history books…LOL!
; )
Dazzeetrader11 on January 17 at 6:11 p.m.
Facts in e vidence beyond dispute must bother the left. Pubs freedthe slaves like good Christians would… while Dems tried to continue to subjugate them. Looks like MLK Sr and jr didn’t forget.
Kinda waters down your party doesn’t it;)?
misjustice on January 17 at 6:47 p.m.
I’ll give ya that one, Daisy old gal. But what have the “Pubs” done for former slaves since the 1860s?
School integration? Nope.
Civil rights? Nope.
Voting rights? Nope.
True equality? Not so much.
Oh, I remember now; Faux Noise hired Juan Williams and the RNC had that Michael Steele guy.
P.S. Just repeating that MLKJr. was a “Pub” doesn’t make it so.
__Dan__ on January 17 at 9:58 p.m.
Getting back to the subject of the new street…why are we spending all that tax money now, and the additional funds it will take for susequent phases of the project, when all levels of government are crying the budget blues? IT JUST DOESN’T MAKE SENSE!
drywitt99 on January 17 at 10:39 p.m.
WOW!
You teabaggers exceeded my expectations!!
And Daisy….citing Wikipedia….REALLY???
What….was your Magic 8 Ball broken???
drywitt99 on January 17 at 11:20 p.m.
In all fairness….a word we liberals embrace……and a word with which conservatives are unfamiliar……northern Republicans were true partners in the passage of the 1964 Civil Rights Act.
In the House 94% of northern Democrats voted in favor of the legislation. And 85% of northern Republicans did also.
In the Senate 98% of northern Democrats voted yes. 84% of
northern Democrats did likewise.
That landmark legislation was TRULY BI-PARTISAN in nature.
The Party of Lincoln did itself proud.
The true divide between good and evil was NOT partisan….is WAS regional.
In the House only 7% of southern Democrats voted in favor of the legislation. All 10 southern Republicans voted no.
In the Senate only 5% of southern Democrats voted yes. The sole southern Republican voted no.
Imagine…. only 10 southern Republicans in the House. Only 1 in the Senate.
Ahhh…..those WERE the good old days!!