Reserved For Imaginary Cabs Davenport Hotel’s Taxi And Loading Zone On Sprague Hasn’t Been Needed For A Decade

As drivers circle downtown blocks, jousting for parking spots, four prime slots along Sprague Avenue remain vacant, waiting for the Davenport Hotel to get busy again.

The slumbering giant hasn’t swarmed with taxis for more than a decade, but the city’s parking police still ticket cars parked in the hotel’s taxi and loading zones.

Pete Powell risked stopping there earlier this week. The sugar-craving Indian Trail man sped across Sprague Avenue and grabbed $15.15 of cinnamon rolls and muffins at Great Harvest bakery.

Five minutes later, he chatted with the woman writing him a $20 ticket - for obstructing the Davenport’s imaginary traffic.

Powell asked why the city still enforces the taxi zone, seeing how the hotel hadn’t been open for lodging for so long. She pointed at the taxi sign, Powell said, and told him she had to enforce the law.

Great Harvest manager Lauri Wilson said fellow Sprague businesses and customers routinely gripe about the lack of parking.

She also hears from people like Powell who gamble on the taxi spots and get burned. “I have never seen a taxi there,” she said.

Davenport taxi traffic picks up for some special events as the hotel’s renovations continue. But the taxi slots, and the loading zone, “Driver Must Remain in Car,” are usually empty.

“Sometimes we park there when we can’t find another stand,” said Bill Denison, chief dispatcher for Yellow Cab. “But we don’t have many drop-offs there.”

City transportation managers were puzzling Thursday over the taxi twilight zone.

“I knew it was there and not being used,” said Bruce Steele, department director.

Steele said he considered yanking the taxi signs over the years, but it never became a priority. He also noted the city happened to be sending a letter Thursday to the Davenport owner, informing him of the city’s plans to open the taxi and passenger strip for parking.

Steele said the letter was triggered by the Spokane Transit Authority’s Plaza nearing completion at Wall and Riverside. He refused to make the letter public until the Davenport owner sees it.

Powell, a part-time City Hall heckler, thinks the letter was crafted in response to calls from him and a reporter Thursday morning. “Why does it take a citizen to rattle the cages down there to get them to do something they should have done years ago?”

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Color Photo