Let’S End Bickering And Start Building

On a bright spring morning in 1873, James Glover rode his horse over the foothills of the Spokane Valley and there, spread before him, lay the future:

“It was as lovely a day as I ever saw,” he wrote in his reminiscences. “The beautiful view that revealed itself to my eyes was more entrancing than I had ever beheld. The valley, filled with sunflowers, looked like a field of gold. I was charmed with the entire country.”

He rode west. On the banks of the thundering falls, he swung down from his horse and looked over the beginnings of a pioneer town. It consisted, he wrote later, “of half a dozen board and log cabins, with a little shed that housed a sawmill.”

What the place needed, he decided, was a store.

Instantly, a lawyer appeared, and handed him a summons. “Where,” the lawyer demanded, “are your permits, your environmental impact statements, your … (urk!) …”

Glover threw the lawyer into the river, rolled up his sleeves and laid the foundations for the city of Spokane.

True story.

All but the part about the lawyer.

Leaders and builders always have kept our region moving forward. The bickerers are a more recent phenomenon.

Bickerers sound like leaders because they always have a better idea. Don’t build it here, build it there. Don’t spend it on this, spend it on that. Don’t do it this way, do it that way. Bickerers rarely invest. Bickerers stand on the sidewalks outside the construction sites of life, pointing fingers, throwing rocks, and talking a lot.

But a community’s health depends on those who take a constructive approach to life, instead. From now to November, Spokane residents will hear a campaign of disinformation and divisiveness, attacking people and proposals who would continue the century-old process of building our community.

One likely proposal for the fall elections is to build a convention center as well as some major new facilities in the Valley. Another is to improve and expand parks, all around the city. The third is to replace older Fire Department trucks and facilities.

The bickering campaign will go something like this: The parks proposal would neglect the neighborhoods … The city should spend money on streets instead of a convention center … It is greedy to spend money downtown, virtuous to spend money elsewhere …

In truth, most of the parks proposal would benefit the neighborhoods, fixing playgrounds, pools, tennis courts and picnic spots in dozens of locations. In truth, the state dollars that make the convention center affordable cannot be shifted to roads. In fact, the city already is engaged in aggressive street repairs, with more state road dollars on the way. Finally, while downtown investments like the Ag Trade Center, the Arena, Riverfront Park and the Convention Center give Spokane a stronger heart, area leaders also are pushing significant investments in the fairgrounds, in Mirabeau Point and in neighborhood parks from Indian Trail to Comstock.

Healthy cities don’t bicker, they build, everywhere, with a happy heart and an eye on the future. As we have done, since 1873.