Nicholas Deshais

NEWHALEM, Washington – Around every turn, the sentinel mountains of the North Cascades grow bigger and taunt me. Mount Despair.

There’s a house across the street from Wisconsinburger. And kitty-corner to it. And behind it. The restaurant – known for its wide selection of mustards and deep-fried cheese curds – is ensconced in its East Central neighborhood.

ROCKPORT, Wash. – That didn’t take long. About 7 miles after I pulled away from the Anacortes Ferry Terminal, I met Kris Lytton, a legislator in the state House who represents the area.

Spokane’s Under the Freeway skate park is all pavement and out of the way. That’s why it’s perfect for skaters, who like all the hard ramps and walls, a half-acre concrete room where they can make all the ruckus they want in any weather that comes.

A proposal to use city funds to pay for more than $300,000 in environmental cleanup at the Davenport Grand Hotel was shot down this week by Spokane City Council members, who argued that doing so would be unconstitutional and set a bad precedent for other polluted properties the city has previously owned. Mayor David Condon, who made an informal commitment for the soil remediation to Walt Worthy, the hotel’s developer and owner, said the city could still be responsible for any polluted soil on the land because the city is in the “chain of custody” for the property. He added that the Worthy hotel mitigation was part of his administration’s larger effort to clean up developable lands across the city.

The city of Spokane got another big infusion of federal funding toward its effort to clean and redevelop industrial land in the Hillyard area, a former railyard that has sat polluted and nearly abandoned for 50 years. Two U.S. Environmental Protection Agency grants totaling $400,000 were awarded to the city Thursday for petroleum and hazardous substance testing in an area known the Yard, a 500-acre site in northeast Spokane. The city and the Northeast Public Development Authority are attempting to redevelop it into a new heavy and light industrial center.

A proposal to permanently close two blocks of South Madison Street in downtown Spokane has led the Larry H. Miller auto dealership company into another struggle at City Hall, where City Council members temporarily halted the street closures after hearing stiff opposition to the plan last week. About $30 million in renovations are expected for the six-block campus, including new buildings, more lots and a refurbished Lexus dealership, which is nearly complete. The campus plan already has undergone changes in response to the company’s proposals to demolish multiple historic structures and construct a parking lot stretching from Monroe to Jefferson streets.

Iconic. Tremendous treasure. The heart of an entire region. Superlatives were not lacking Tuesday as the city named the three finalists who will compete to determine the overall look and feel of Spokane’s Riverfront Park.

Supporters call it iconic and necessary, detractors use terms unfit for print, but the University District bicycle and pedestrian bridge inched closer to construction Monday as the Spokane City Council approved spending nearly $1.7 million to purchase 20 parcels of land. With the land acquisition, city and university district officials now wait for the state Legislature to make a decision on the final $8.8 million needed to build a 120-foot-tall cable-stayed arch bridge.

For many years in Spokane’s early history as a city, the Howard Street bridges were the only way to get across the Spokane River, not counting wading, swimming or taking a ferry. Traffic first crossed the three bridges in 1881, and for much of the following century vehicles traveled from the river’s north bank and over the islands before finally crossing under the tall trestles of the elevated Union Pacific rail lines and into downtown Spokane. Factories surrounded the traffic, milling lumber, wheat and power in what is now Riverfront Park.

A fir tree can absorb almost 300 gallons of water per year. An ash tree takes care of about 100 gallons. Dogwoods only take in about 26 gallons. For the city of Spokane, all these thirsty trees – and dozens more varieties – play an important role in keeping the Spokane River free of pollutants.

Marchers took to the streets of the nation’s cities Wednesday evening in support of a $15 an hour minimum wage, following a similar if much smaller rally in Spokane earlier in the day. About 25 people gathered outside of the Fred Meyer store in the East Central Neighborhood of Spokane at 9 a.m. The rally lasted just a few minutes before demonstrators boarded a Seattle-bound bus, where people from around the state gathered for a larger protest.