Rebecca Nappi: Night walk sheds light on an evolving downtown Spokane

Our night walk through downtown Spokane begins at 9 p.m. It is rainy, but not cold. There are eight of us, including Jerry Schwab, retreat director for our “Urban Plunge” at the House of Charity. We will spend 17 hours with Jerry. We will talk with the men and women who find food and company at House of Charity. We also will spend the night on the shelter’s conference room floor. But first, the night walk.

Jerry has been tracking the booming condo market in downtown Spokane. In other cities, when downtowns have been rediscovered, low-income folks have been displaced, the way indigenous people were run from their land when “civilization” arrived.

Spokane has a good track record of caring for its poor. So it might be able to build a vibrant city core where low-income folks live in community with middle- and upper-class folks. This is Jerry’s hope. He’s an idealist with a résumé of realism. He’s done outreach at the House of Charity for four years now.

We stop first at Avondale Court, 229 W. Second Ave. Vickie Ward, 44, lives in a one-room apartment here with her service dog, Candi. Vickie offers us miniature chocolate Easter eggs and cold root beer. We stand and sip the root beer. She urges us to sit, but the only space is on her bed.

Vickie gives us the rundown on the best, and the worst, low-income buildings downtown. She likes her building because each apartment has its own bathroom. We thank her for her hospitality and step back out into the night.

Next stop: Central United Methodist Church, 518 W. Third Ave. Across the alley from the church, we see a man sleeping under a pile of blankets.

Jerry tells us about the pioneering work done by church members who have formed relationships with street people. On Monday evenings, the church serves a sit-down dinner. You can eat free somewhere every day in downtown Spokane, thanks to churches, shelters and other programs. This is the generous spirit Jerry hopes is never gentrified out of existence here.

Our walk continues. Jerry points out places where half-million-dollar lofts are being built across the street from subsidized apartments. We spot the Wild Sage American Bistro, 916 W. Second Ave. Through the windows we watch friendly wait staff talk with women and men wearing evening-out clothes. Next door to the new bistro is the Women’s Hearth – a drop-in center for women in poverty and transition. These juxtapositions are everywhere now in downtown Spokane.

On West First Avenue, we walk into Ella’s Supper Club where jazz musicians entertain a Friday night crowd. A few weeks earlier, Jerry arranged for a House of Charity patron to play his blues and gospel music there.

On our way to the Davenport Hotel, we are panhandled. We are on a homeless-awareness retreat and yet none of us, including Jerry, hands over spare change. Later, Jerry tells us to always pay attention to the discomfort we feel when panhandled. It’s more about us than them.

We walk into the lobby of the Davenport Hotel. We are dressed in jeans, worn running shoes, ball caps. A hotel security guy eyes us warily. Jerry loves the beauty of this hotel. He celebrates downtown’s renaissance, because it has the potential to lift everyone up.

At 11, we walk back to the shelter along West Sprague Avenue. Music booms from several bars. Smokers and drinkers line the sidewalks.

For years, people lamented the deadness of Spokane streets at night. Now, panhandlers and martini drinkers, and everyone in between, share this downtown space. The night walk challenges us to envision a future where all here coexist – in urban peace, with mutual understanding.