Recent Visit To Spokane Reveals Healthy, Changing City

My family and I left Spokane in 1984 for greener pastures and greater adventure, taking teenage daughters off to a new life in the San Francisco Bay Area. After several moves, we now reside in Stockton, Calif., where I am CEO of the Downtown Stockton Alliance (a downtown improvement district).

My wife and I recently visited Spokane for three days, just after the 4th of July. We saw a city of change and growth, far different from the smaller town that we left behind. A few observations are possibly worth sharing.

First, downtown Spokane seems poised for a strong rebound, with the new RiverPark Square, a sparkling new Nordstrom, a 20-screen cineplex, additional parking and a wealth of new retail specialty shops that would be the envy of many California downtowns.

The work of the Downtown Spokane Partnership, a dedicated City Council and business community - all united in maintaining a healthy City center, is evident. With the expanding Gonzaga University and Washington State campuses to the east, new hotels, the new Arena added to the many convention and visitor attractions - downtown seems ready to blossom anew.

While we lived in Spokane, we delighted in downtown’s strength following Expo ‘74. To see the city’s progress continuing to unfold and mature is gratifying.

During our recent visit we also traveled north. The expansion along Division - ever-growing toward Deer Park - is intriguing and a little chilling. Too often, I saw examples of the sprawl popularized throughout California, where once productive agriculture and forest land is rezoned, paved and developed into strip shopping centers or poorly planned tract housing - that may, indeed, become superfluous some years in the future as sprawl churns further outward.

I would hope that Spokane’s citizens and civic planners work to build from the city’s urban boundary inward, and continue to concentrate on polishing existing population centers and your wonderful downtown. Portland, and to some degree King County, are good examples where smart-growth, in-fill development and wise planning have paid huge dividends.

I also spent a fair share of my time reading The Spokesman-Review. I was struck by the quality and depth of local reporting on city, county and other matters of importance to the local citizenry. Spokanites should bless the fact that the Spokesman-Review is locally owned, edited and controlled. It is one of only a few such metropolitan dailies that aren’t mere shills for corporate barons milking profits at the expense of local news. That the Cowles family continues their day-to-day oversight of the paper and involvement in city-wide smart-growth policies is a real plus for Spokane. Their commitment and the involvement of the public should ensure Spokane’s continuing prosperity in the new century.

So, a tip of the hat to your All-America City!