Bright Venue On Road To Progress
What do the following facilities have in common: Spokane International Airport, Riverfront Park, the Ag Trade Center, the downtown public library, the Spokane Arena and the Spokane Transit Authority’s downtown Plaza?
Each one is a success. Each one attracted prolonged opposition from local naysayers. Not one of these projects is perfect. Each cost a lot of money. Each has been refined in response to criticism.
And each is a monument to the value of a tenaciously constructive approach in civic life.
While the success of most of these facilities is taken for granted now, the newest - STA’s Plaza - still sets a few teeth on edge.
Maybe that’s because downtown’s at a stressful fork in the road. Maybe that’s because the building has flaws. For instance, those catching buses on its south side - half of the users - must wait outside with a horde of smokers or risk missing their buses due to a lack of windows through which to watch for the buses.
And maybe it’s because buses are important to the less-affluent residents of this very low-income city. There has been a classist undertone to the criticism: Ewww, that building attracts the wrong kind of people - why did we build such a nice facility for them? As if the people who ride Mercedes-Benzes into town are the right kind.
In fact, those who use this building represent a fair cross section of the city, from troubled teens to frail senior citizens, from the developmentally disabled man who cheerfully shakes the hands of passers-by to the distinguished CPAs in suits.
A few of those users are troublemakers. It is to prevent them from ruining the facility for all that the building and its surroundings must be policed with untiring vigilance.
On the whole, however, it is time to recognize that while refinements are needed, the Plaza achieves designers’ goals and improves downtown. Bus ridership is increasing, a fact that relieves air pollution and traffic and increases friendly contract among members of the community who otherwise would not meet. There’s a stronger link between downtown’s street level and its skywalk level. There’s a safe, all-weather gathering place downtown, including a highly visible police substation. No longer do waiting buses and passengers clog several blocks of downtown.
And the Plaza is attractive. Cities need places of architectural beauty. Spokane has every right to some glossy-tile aspirations. Dirt-floor dreams and industrial-carpet utilitarianism are the stuff of mediocrity.
Right now, as Tuesday’s primary election nears, the Plaza is a timely reminder that progress comes through imperfect instruments. Naysaying’s a dead end. Spokane needs leaders who know how to build.
, DataTimes The following fields overflowed: CREDIT = John Webster/For the editorial board