Missing Riverfront Park

Call me too nostalgic, but I believe the Riverfront Park “wizards” took a wonderfully different and iconic park with family fun for all ages and abilities and made it magically disappear!

Gone are the toddler caterpillar and baby bumper boat rides that I took my grandson on before he was even 2. Gone is the IMAX where stunning photography films on nature and space soaked beautifully into the brain of my daughter who has a severe form of autism. She also loved the dragon coaster, Ferris wheel, SR-2 “scream machine” and, especially, the tour train ride around the park. That never got old, and there are so few things she truly enjoys.

For my parents’ 60th anniversary, we took them on a train ride around the park. Families also enjoyed the games and mini-golf; and young people had great summer jobs. The Rotary Fountain is a blessing but there already was a winter ice-rink under the pavilion. Now we’re supposed to be dazzled by lights on the pavilion? Hopefully they last longer than the rusting dome topping the carousel echo-chamber!

Gone is the imagination that used to fill Riverfront Park. What’s left? Just another pretty park.

Robin Isherwood

Spokane