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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Spokane Must Decide Which Path To Follow

Ron Wells, developer of historic buildings and real estate, invited folks over to his newest project this week: Steam Plant Square.

You know the place. The old Spokane central steam heating building downtown, with its twin 200-foot high smokestacks, is hard to miss as you drive through the city’s core. It’s still an old steam plant inside, complete with boilers, pipe, wire cages, painted over glass from World War II.

Here is a prediction: By the year 2000 Steam Plant Square will be one of the coolest, neatest, must-stops in the city. “If Planet Hollywood wanted to sign a lease for it tomorrow, I’d do it,” Wells said at a before-the-restoration open house.

Somebody will sign. The old steam plant fits ideally into the profile of successful American cities of the future: Historic, interesting, fun.

The idea of recycling a 70-year-old steam plant into a 21st century hot spot represents the kind of thinking some of the best urban planning minds in America say is urgently needed in Spokane.

“When I come to Spokane I am struck by the incredible opportunity here to take the value and residue of an earlier generation’s care and optimism, and turn it into something remarkable for the future,” said Dan Solomon, founder of Solomon, Inc., a San Francisco urban design firm.

Added Don Rypkema, founder of the Washington D.C.-based Real Estate Services group: “Spokane is one of the real sleeper cities of America. You have great quality of life, but it is fragile right now. You have a chance to remake your urban area into one of the finest in the nation.”

And Jim Kunstler, author of “The Geography of Nowhere,” said this about Spokane’s struggle to revive its urban core. “Suburban sprawl is over in this country. We can’t afford the services. Every city will be redeveloped and yours is poised for that.”

The three urban experts came to Spokane a few days before Ron Wells hosted the open house. They came as part of Eastern Washington University’s well-conceived Public Affairs Symposium. The topic of this year’s sixth annual symposium was “Spokane and Its Prospects for Metropolitan Revitalization.” It could not have been more pertinent.

The basic livability of urban Spokane for the next few decades is being decided right now in the following ways:

A major downtown redevelopment project for the retail core including Nordstrom, The Bon and dozens of other businesses will be built or will fall short in the next 18 months.

Housing stock in Spokane neighborhoods on both sides of the Spokane River must be updated now, or the close-in neighborhoods will slip over the edge into urban slums.

Growth boundaries being debated by city and county government either will be drawn to keep Spokane from sprawling out in a service-intensive, decentralized way, or be loosened to allow sprawl to continue, draining the city’s core.

These issues will play out against a population increase of 50,000 in the next decade. Residents new and old could find one of the best-preserved, imaginatively renovated urban core in the nation. Or we could be living in a place where the vitality and excitement of urban Spokane will have dissipated into a jumbled mess of carbon monoxide and gated communities.

The experts who visited EWU forewarned Spokane of that unhappy possibility.

“The public sector (city/county government) in your city simply doesn’t know how to do urban design,” said author Kunstler. “You’re trying to bring berms, bark and mulch from the suburbs and transplant it into the city. The hotels you have built at the corner of Spokane Falls and Division are schlock.”

Dan Solomon’s critique of recent urban develop was no less pointed. “The wonderful riverfront park walkway you have created extends about 18 inches into the city’s core. Properties even two blocks away from the river are cut off. It’s like you have built a Berlin wall of parking lots between the river and the potential urban housing and urban development nearby.”

The experts on the future of urban America didn’t tour the old steam plant. But they would have spoken encouraging words about that project and other efforts to use the historic strengths of downtown as a magnet. Do more of this, they would say. Rewrite codes and tax laws to reward development of historic buildings in the Davenport Arts District. Seek out residential housing developments and find a way to bring 2,000 more middle income residents into the core.

Make the science center happen, expand the Centennial Trail and encourage the software generation to start up businesses downtown. These steps would help Spokane match up with the thriving West Coast cities of the 21st century.

So in some ways, the old steam plant stands as a metaphor.

One view of the plant says it is an eyesore, a relic of times gone by. Another view says the plant is a symbol for what the refurbished, imaginative future of Spokane could be. Something unusual, something fun, something that takes the best of what we were and builds something better still.

Decide which way you are going Spokane. The time is now.

, DataTimes MEMO: Chris Peck is the Editor of The Spokesman-Review. His column appears each Sunday on Perspective.

Chris Peck is the Editor of The Spokesman-Review. His column appears each Sunday on Perspective.