City Mustn’t Let Momentum Slow
Momentum, the organization that brought a fading city to life, could not have chosen a better place to celebrate its successes, pass the torch to new leaders and then disappear.
Tuesday’s ceremony occurred at the Spokane Arena. Ten years ago, the Arena was only a dream. On its site squatted a concrete barn with peeling pink paint, uncomfortable seats and rusting pipes. That old Coliseum was an emblem of the city’s spirits. When Spokane’s young people grew up, they left town. Opportunity lay elsewhere. Businesses talked of packing up as well. Unemployment was high, naysaying was rampant and leadership was hard to find.
A handful of local business executives realized that if the people of this community did not step forward, take some chances and invest in a better future, no one else would do it for them. So, local business people by the dozens, and then the hundreds, began to meet, dream, plan, invest, change things.
Eventually, Momentum’s success turned heads far beyond Spokane’s borders. It would be easy, only 10 years later, to take this now-familiar story for granted. Easy - and dangerous. Because a community that takes its foot off the accelerator will find itself, sooner or later, rusting on the shoulder of the road.
Momentum’s achievements are significant. A booming convention trade. The Boeing factory and many other business additions. The Arena. The Centennial Trail. The Ag Trade Center. A new mission at Fairchild Air Force Base. The higher-education park at Riverpoint. New jobs. An unemployment rate that fell from 8.2 percent to 5.3 percent. Fresh leadership in government and business. And most important, an aggressive new spirit of hope and commitment, to counter the tired old habits of doubt and despair.
However, there is more to be done. One of Momentum’s goals - progress in the standings of average local income - remains on the agenda for new initiatives to pursue. Downtown, though it’s stirring with new investments, still waits at a crossroad leading either to economic vigor or to catastrophic decay. And local facilities, from roads to schools, require continual attention.
The progress can’t be allowed to stop. And as Momentum disappears, it won’t. The new “Focus 21” initiative aims to carry on, raising money throughout the business community, much as Momentum did, to achieve a set of measurable goals: the recruiting and retention of business, the enhancement of education and the implementation of a pro-business agenda in public affairs.
The work of community-building never ends. Some call this boosterism. Wiser voices call it commitment to the place we call home.
, DataTimes The following fields overflowed: CREDIT = John Webster For the editorial board