Garry Park Progress Proposal For A City Operations Complex Has Sparked A Conflict In Neighborhood Where Several Generations Have Made Their Homes

Rusting railroad lines criss-cross corners of the Garry Park neighborhood like stained lace.

Long-forgotten lumber yards, where logs once floated in ponds waiting their turn through the saw, linger like ghosts.

Jim Santorsola glances across the weed-infested fields and still sees the pond where a schoolmate decided to take a swim on a sweltering summer day years ago. The boy dipped below the logs and never surfaced.

“Drowned,” Santorsola said.

The North Side neighborhood rests between the Spokane River and Trent Avenue. Sandwiched between Hillyard and East Central neighborhoods, Garry Park is struggling to survive, and it’s winning.

“Over the last few years it seems there has been more identity as a community and more involvement,” said Marlys Page, a school liaison at Stevens Elementary.

Light industry has sprouted where the lumber yards once sprawled. The crime rate is low and revitalization is coming to the area’s older homes.

Garry Park is a community development neighborhood, so it receives state and federal money for improvement projects. In December, residents also joined the growing number of neighborhood councils.

Once, organizers were thrilled with five neighbors at a meeting. Recently, more than 30 neighbors crowded into the library for a regular monthly meeting held at the school.

There were no hot issues. Discussions included funding for the neighborhood’s two-year-old Outreach Center, traffic problems at the elementary school and the handling of an upcoming neighborhood cleanup day.

“There’s no politics in that neighborhood, just generations of people who have lived there and want to get the job done,” said Arlee Peterson, who owns several rental properties in the neighborhood.

But now, there is controversy to consider. Garry Park is likely the future home of the city’s multi-faceted operations complex. The city recently decided to buy the old Long Lake Lumber Yard on East Mallon for $5 million. If built, the complex will repair and refuel all city vehicles, including cars, motorcycles, snowplows and garbage trucks.

The proposal sharply divided the neighborhood. Some saw the city facility as an opportunity to have a say in how the 15-block vacant field develops.

Opponents said it will just bring more traffic, noise and pollution to the neighborhood.

Residents have worked closely with city officials, finding solutions to their worries while paving the way for the complex.

“People are pulling together,” said Page. “They are becoming more noticeable and more vocal.”

Garry Park has a long history as a working-class neighborhood, with generations of families filling jobs with the railroad, lumberyards or meat-packing plant. Small family-owned groceries marked every corner.

For many, the neighborhood is a chance to own a first house, a stepping stone to a better neighborhood or just a stop on the way to somewhere else.

The residents are mostly poor and transient. The community is saturated with low-income housing and rentals.

In earlier days, the neighborhood was a link in the chain of Italian communities reaching from Sprague to Minnehaha. Now, it includes African-Americans, Russians, Laotians and Bosnians.

Munchkin Market, Piccolo’s and Jax are neighborhood gathering places, offering day-to-day supplies and the latest neighborhood news.

Piccolo’s, opened 13 years ago by Vince Piccolo, includes a selection of fresh produce, a delicatessen, cafe and imported Italian treats.

“The neighborhood is our backbone,” said manager Jack Green.

The store was built a half-century ago by Bill Tombari, Sr. as a pharmacy, soda fountain and general mercantile. On the day of the store’s grand opening, the streets were closed off because of the crowds.

On the other corner, where Munchkin Market now stands, Bob Tombari ran a grocery store.

Terry Tombari, vice president of Tombari Properties, grew up in the neighborhood. Some of his family still lives there.

He recalled Chief Garry Park as a favorite meeting place for the neighborhood kids.

“We always had a great time in the park, there were a lot of neighborhood kids,” he said. The park on East Mission was named in 1932 in honor of Chief Spokane Garry; a statue of the chief sits in the front of the park. The chief’s fingers, broken off over the years, were recently replaced by the neighborhood group.

If Mission Avenue is the neighborhood’s main arterial, East Boone Street is its weary heart.

Foley’s service station has been a fixture on Boone since 1925. Owner Jim Santorsola has lived in the neighborhood his entire 68 years. He said he’s moved five times - always on the same block.

Like most children in the neighborhood, Santorsola attended Stevens school, the hub of the community since it was originally built in 1908.

The old brick building was demolished in 1994 when the new school opened next door. The 650 students enrolled this year create a snapshot of the families who live in the neighborhood.

Fifty percent of the students who started school in September will move away by June. Eighty percent of the student body is eligible for free-and reduced-price lunches.

“Parents of many of the kids follow race track work,” said Sherril Pierson, who works at the school. Some of the students will attend three or four schools over the course of a year, she said.

But others who spent their school days at Stevens built memories that have lasted a lifetime.

The playground was always open for kickball and football. Sandlot baseball games sprang up spontaneously when youngsters gathered.

Spokane Superior Court Judge Salvatore Cozza grew up in the neighborhood. He credits a third grade teacher, Virginia Goldman, with sparking his passion for learning.

The judge’s parents still live in the neighborhood.

He visited the old brick school just before it was torn down, his memories sparked by the creaking wood floors in the hallway.

“It seemed so big when we were little kids,” he said. When he visited as a grown man it seemed much smaller.

Joann Hagen works at the school as an assistant in the learning support center. Her family lives in Garry Park, but she moved away. Now she’s thinking about coming back.

“This is the only school I wanted my kids to attend,” said Hagen. “I’d come back to this neighborhood, to be near my family, near the school.”