2004 was a year of confident growth

Two-thousand- four was a good year for the Spokane area, probably the best since 1974 and the Expo World’s Fair.

Employment increased in every Eastern Washington county except Asotin, where just 10 fewer residents had jobs in November compared with a year ago. In Idaho, every county from Benewah north reported more workers on payrolls than a year ago. Spokane and Kootenai counties added about 9,000 and 3,500 jobs, respectively. At the end of November, Spokane County’s unemployment rate was lower than that for all the United States, Washington, and King County. It’s a rare year when we hit that trifecta.

To turn a famous advertising slogan on its head, Jobs are Quality One for individuals and households assessing their well-being.

There has also been a surge in public and private investment. From subdivisions on the Rathdrum Prairie to downtown Spokane hotels, from schools to the Convention Center exhibit hall, investors and taxpayers have committed to tens of millions of dollars to new construction. And Spokane companies like ReliOn and Purcell Systems have attracted more millions from new backers. Much of that money came from outside the area, reinforcing the perception the community is on a roll.

The decision-making that went into every one of those hires, and each dollar of investment, reflects confidence in Spokane’s future. Jeff Zahir, Eastern Washington labor economist for the Employment Security Department, says employers he talks with who knew they needed more help did not want to make hires until they were sure this month’s new workers would not be next month’s pink slips. In 2003, they waited. In 2004, they hired.

“There’s sort of a relief,” he says, adding that the stronger national economy was also reassuring.

Spokane also received an unusual amount of national recognition in 2004: All-America City; renomination as a Top Seven Intelligent Communities, a worldwide competition; and selection as the site for the 2007 U.S. Figure-Skating Championships.

All these developments, as America’s favorite inmate would say, are a good thing.

There have been bad things, too. The bankruptcy of Metropolitan Mortgage and Securities Co. could potentially take $500 million out of the pockets and purses of mostly regional investors. Spokane’s hospitals have struggled with inadequate Medicare reimbursements and a tide of indigent patients. Budget pressures that are likely to increase in 2005 have curtailed government spending that, like it or not, is a major component of the local economy.

Those issues aside, there is plenty to celebrate, perhaps nothing so much as the strengthened alliances between area business and government leaders. Particularly in Spokane, the focus had been too much on the past, not the future. Freshman Mayor Jim West and the reconstituted City Council have restored confidence in local leadership. The proof: Voter passage of a $117 million bond issue to repair city streets. That would not have happened a few years ago.

Government, business, neighborhood and academic efforts towards creating a University District will be more far-reaching. With a strict timeline set by West moving the planning process forward, participants produced a comprehensive blueprint for the transformation of the area around the Riverpoint campus in a little more than six months. Fulfillment will not be an Expo-like effort completed within a few years, but the results could have a far greater impact on our economy than Riverfront Park, the fair’s legacy.

Most importantly, a growing academic center and associated high-tech and health care businesses can become the bank for the talent capital that will be to the 21st Century economy what money was to the 20th and land to the 19th.

More talent and enhanced skills will create the higher paying jobs that can close the wealth gap between Spokane and West Side communities.

The energy and prosperity generated by Expo 30 years ago proved all too brief. The event became an end in itself, and a decade later the economy was in a deep funk. There was no one development that will mark 2004 as a signal year for the Spokane-area economy, but it was a year when public and private leadership identified common goals, and a regained a long-lost confidence that goals are achievable.