Columbus Day may not be as big of a holiday as it once was: Fewer people have the day off with pay. There aren't any local parades. The weather's a bit nippy for picnics.

And then there's that whole legacy question about whether we should be celebrating an event that precipitated the decimation of many of the hemisphere's indigenous people.

But there's one reason to celebrate the whole "In 1492, Columbus sailed the ocean blue" thing.

It's a parking meter  holiday in downtown Spokane. This is no doubt to celebrate the day when the Nina, the Pinta and the Santa Maria arrived off that island in the Bahamas and the inhabitants allowed him to park the boats there for free as a way to encourage tourism and shopping, and because the automated meters couldn't read Columbus' debit card.

Or something like that. Anyway, park downtown for free if you can find a space on the street that isn't occupied by some downtown office worker who usually parks in Browne's Addition to avoid the meters.

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