Stage, music festival proposed to honor Som Jordan

When three potential names for the plaza next to Spokane City Hall were recommended to the City Council last month, Isamu (Som) Jordan’s name wasn’t included.

City Council President Ben Stuckart put Jordan’s name on the list anyway, saying the swell of support for Jordan on social media convinced him that Jordan, a local musician and former Spokesman-Review writer who died last year, should be honored. Stuckart eventually proposed naming a stage and annual music festival after Jordan, and the council unanimously supported the idea.

“There was a huge amount of support. Hundreds of people posted on Facebook,” Stuckart said. “There was a rally for him in the plaza. It was a groundswell.”

After Stuckart told Jordan’s widow, Rachel Jordan, about his plans for the stage and music festival last week, she went back to the online community that rallied for Jordan and told them of the news on Facebook. Her post quickly garnered more than 600 “likes” and almost 60 comments, all supportive of the idea.

Stuckart said he’s already been approached by four promoters to run the music festival.

Aside from the Jordan memorials, the City Council voted to name the plaza the Spokane Tribal Gathering Place accompanied by the phrase, “The Place Where Salmon is Prepared,” written in Salish, the region’s native tongue. As part of a resolution to formalize the plaza’s name, the council also sought ways to honor King Cole and John Moyer, as recommended by the city’s Plan Commission.

Cole is best remembered as the father of Expo ’74. According to “The Fair and the Falls,” the definitive history of the world’s fair, Cole was a “promoter, visionary, manager, and senior statesman” who devoted a decade of his life to “getting rid of the damn trestles,” as he said, and uncovering the falls. He died in 2010.

The council pledged to work with the Park Board to create a memorial named after Cole in Riverfront Park.

Moyer, who died earlier this year at the age of 92, was a local physician who delivered thousands of babies during his 30-year career. He also served in the state Legislature as a Republican in the 1980s and ’90s. Most influential for his inclusion was Moyer’s role in helping to prevent the construction of the Lincoln Street Bridge and his co-founding of the organization Friends of the Falls.

For Moyer, the council recommended renaming the Post Street Bridge the John Moyer Memorial Bridge.

Leroy Eadie, head of the city’s parks department, told the council that all of the recommendations could be “easily accomplished.”

He noted that if the stage were in the new plaza, it would only be temporary.

“The Pavilion will probably have a permanent stage,” Eadie said, referring to upgrades that will come from the recently passed Riverfront Park bond. “So that’s a possibility.”