Projects Rejuvenate Heart Of Spokane
Take a spring noon hour sometime soon, and stroll through downtown Spokane. You’ll see stirrings of something that’s been missing for years: Street life.
No, cynics, not loiterers. Shoppers. Sightseers. Office workers. Sidewalk superintendents. Picturesque trolleys. Cobblestone plazas dotted with ornate lampposts, benches, pedestrians. Busy restaurants.
The foot traffic is growing, in spite of the fact that the Wall Street plazas are still a construction zone.
At one end of this unfolding renaissance is Riverfront Park. At the other, the Spokane Transit Authority’s new downtown terminal.
The STA terminal opens in early summer. Within its sleek contours are features that promise to assist in the rebirth of downtown street life.
A grand staircase and wide double escalators sweep through a brilliantly skylit atrium, soon to be filled with plants and the sound of rushing water, downtown’s oldest symbol. A breathtaking sculpture by artist Ken Spiering - bronze cougars poised on a waterfall - will be the building’s centerpiece. There’s a circular, columned court for performing arts ensembles. A row of mall-like shops. A skybridge to a food court. Links to trolleys and the transit system. And, to keep it attractive, a police substation coupled with quarters for security guards.
Together, these features address powerfully the longstanding need to get pedestrians circulating between the skywalks and the sidewalks.
In addition, the terminal should remove parked buses from sections of Riverside where storefronts have gone vacant. Buses will swoop quickly in and out from the new facility; computerized signs will alert riders to incoming buses.
Unfortunately, cost overruns plagued the building’s construction. This raised questions about STA management a concern that remains pertinent as managers tackle the challenges of the facility’s operation. The chief operational challenge is security, to keep the facility free of trouble-making loiterers.
As with the rest of downtown, STA and its building are a work in progress. Downtown, efforts continue to organize a businessimprovement district. STA likewise awaits positive change: Freeholders propose to convert STA, now a separate entity insulated from the voters, into a department of a unified regional government, accountable to an elected executive and council. Both proposals offer better management.
Change is rugged. But as construction controversies fade, this year’s changes should continue to bring new life to the community’s core.
The following fields overflowed: CREDIT = John Webster/For the editorial board