Northeast Spokane: the next Uptown?

A retired IBM systems architect, former U.S. Air Force logistics expert and Washington State University urban design professor have drafted a futuristic proposal for Francis Avenue between Division and Market streets that features an underground trolley connecting a mixture of industry, shops and homes.

The goal, they say, is a community attractive to retirees coming to Spokane not only to enjoy its natural and cultural amenities, but also to start new careers.

“Wouldn’t you like to come to a city that wants to put you to work?” asks J.R. Sloan, a “retired” lieutenant colonel now on his fifth career.

He says baby boomers are just too dynamic a generation to stop working for long. And employers are realizing they still need the skills boomers bring to the workplace. A neighborhood that provides convenient connections between their homes, their jobs and services would help draw them to Spokane, he says.

The University District and the medical facilities around Holy Family Hospital would be important assets.

Sloan, a self-described military brat whose childhood and career took him all over the country, calls Spokane “the ultimate retirement place.” Although somewhat familiar with the city — he was commissioned at Fairchild Air Force Base — he learned much more as a VISTA volunteer for the Spokane Neighborhood Economic Development Alliance.

“The Northeast is going to be the new axis of Spokane,” Sloan says, when Francis connects with the North-South Freeway.

Mickey Thompson agrees. He wrote the proposal for what he calls the Uptown Business Corridor. The Northeast quadrant of Spokane — everything north of the Spokane River and east of Division — generates 60 percent of the city’s revenue, but gets short shrift from officials.

“When are we going to feed the goose that lays the golden egg?” asks Thompson. “Anybody who is downtown is getting all the attention.”

Like Sloan, Thompson, 68, traveled widely as an engineering manager at IBM, but his roots run deep in Spokane. His father ran the downtown J.J. Newberry Store where the Bank of Whitman is building its new headquarters. But the development ongoing or proposed for the downtown area will not begin to accommodate all the growth expected in Spokane County over the next 20 years, he says.

If the population does indeed increase by 200,000, Thompson says, the city will probably absorb about half that number. Kendall Yards, Marshall Chesrown’s proposed development on the river’s north bank, will house just 2,400.

The Uptown Business Corridor, by comparison, could handle as many as 80,000. But to make that possible, the area must become more pedestrian-friendly. Hence, the below-ground trolley, which not only would transport residents east and west, it also would provide a safe way to get across the bustling street. Expensive? Yes, but Thompson estimates the community would get several times the return on its investment compared with the light-rail system proposed for the Spokane Valley.

Much of the expense of transforming East Francis, he notes, would be borne by the state because it will extend State Route 291 from Division to Market when the North-South Freeway interconnection is finished.

Thompson chairs the Nevada-Lidgerwood Neighborhood Council. He says interest in council activities is low because the area does not have enough of the middle-class residents who tend to be most involved in their communities. A reconceived East Francis would pull more wealth into a mostly low-income area, he says.

Thompson says putting together his draft allowed him to scratch an itch to get involved in urban planning. He has been encouraged by presentations made to Kiwanis, the Rotary and other community-service groups, but has gotten little feedback from city or county officials.

Bob Scarfo, the third plan advocate, says there is only a small window of opportunity for Spokane to capture the retiree bulge. Millions have indicated they will move one more time before settling down permanently. They will decide where they will resettle within the next decade.

He may not buy into every aspect of Thompson’s plan, but Scarfo says the mixture of business and residential elements epitomizes the new urbanism finally reshaping the downtown area.

“Interconnectivity of people builds the social capital that builds communities,” says Scarfo, who teaches landscape architecture at WSU’s Spokane campus. Thompson and Sloan refer to him as the “wannabe retiree,” he notes.

Thompson’s Uptown Business Corridor may have too much wannabe to it, but ask yourself if this makes less sense as an urban-planning vision than, say, a Wal-Mart proposal to put a store on South Regal.