Negotiate Fair Price, That All May Benefit Higher Purpose Community Wise Enough To Save Its Heritage.

Stand on the high south bank of the Spokane falls and look east, where the bright spring sun spills its warmth on a thundering gorge. Humans have gathered here from earliest times. To catch fish and dry them in tree branches. To build cabins, sawmills, dams, railroads, a city. And to stand in awe as time races past - an entire winter’s snow, returning from Idaho’s mountains to the Pacific.

When Native American poet Sherman Alexie stood in this spot, seeing with the eyes of the region’s first peoples, he wrote these words, now carved there in polished granite: “Look at the falls now, if you can see beyond all the concrete the white man has built here. Look at all of this, and tell me that concrete ever equals love. … These falls are that place where ghosts of salmon jump.”

To a white man’s vision, there still is beauty here. But in a building that rises near the edge of the falls, its windows speckled with the spray, the question is whether the city can afford to save this spectacle.

What is “the city?” Is it only a building, where people meet to bicker and scheme about budgets, lawsuits and construction projects? Or might the city have a higher purpose? If it does, that purpose was forgotten several years ago, when City Hall turned down an opportunity to buy the land that overlooks the falls and make it a park so the beauty could be saved. The purpose was forgotten when officials of the Spokane Public Library planned their building with panoramic windows above the gorge but failed to allocate money to buy the riverbank and secure the view. The purpose was forgotten when Steve and Leslie Ronald, who own the steep bank, set out to erect a tall building that would wall off the light and hide the falls. The purpose was forgotten when a jury, assigned to set a price at last for city purchase of the Ronalds’ land, was not allowed to hear evidence that the steep slope would make construction so expensive the land’s commercial value is poor.

Now, there is one more opportunity for the city to buy the land and save the gorge. But not at the ridiculous $2 million price set by that ill-informed jury. The city and the Ronalds should negotiate a settlement. One that would fulfill the city’s highest purpose, as a community wise enough to save its heritage - the place of beauty where ghosts of salmon should be able to jump in the light, so the Children of the Sun can see them.

, DataTimes MEMO: For opposing view, see headline: Condemnation not fair or justified

The following fields overflowed: SUPCAT = COLUMN, EDITORIAL - From both sides CREDIT = John Webster For the editorial board