Pia Hansen: Civic visions clash as groups lay claim to parking lot

On the north bank of the Spokane River, above Bridge Avenue, sits an unremarkable gravel parking lot. It’s between Monroe and Lincoln streets, easily accessed from the Post Street Bridge, and it’s called the Bosh lot.

Driving by you’d never guess it, but it’s a hot piece of property: The Upper Columbia United Tribes and a group of Spokane marketplace promoters have their eyes on the lot. The VFW and the Boy Scouts have their eyes on the designated Veterans Court, overlooking the river right below it.

The Bosh lot belongs to the Spokane Parks Department, but it’s currently operated by a private parking company.

“They run it until we figure out what to do with it,” says Taylor Bressler, division manager in charge of planning and development of parks here in River City, as he puts it.

My column today was intended to be a simple story about one proposed use of the Bosh lot: a Living History Cultural Center – called Snweymn – that the Upper Columbia United Tribes have developed plans for there.

The beautifully designed center includes museum halls, garden and exhibit areas, as well as indoor and outdoor demonstration areas, combined in a free-flowing structure that would become a hub for Native American cultural education.

Monday, I walk over there to get a feel for an area where I haven’t been since I counted homeless people underneath the bridges this winter.

Specifically, I go searching for Veterans Court, which essentially is an overlook right above the dam, to the east of the north end of the Monroe Street Bridge.

If the Living History Cultural Center is built as proposed, Veterans Court would be moved to a new plaza immediately west of Anthony’s restaurant, north of the Post Street Bridge.

“In honor of the 283 veterans who lost their lives in Beirut Oct. 23, 1983,” reads the homemade sheet-metal plaque that’s the only decoration at Veterans Court today.

And this is the point where my simple column turns complicated: Someone put a lot of heart into that plaque, so I decide to find out more about it.

I call the Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 51 and get past post Commander Mike Soth on the line.

He doesn’t know anything about the Beirut plaque, but he has a good use for Veterans Court:

“We are getting ready to approach the Parks Department about getting a bronze ‘soldiers cross’ to Spokane, and we’d like to put it there,” he says.

Also called a Battlefield Cross, this is the design formed when a dead soldier’s boots are ceremoniously placed together with his or her rifle sticking straight up, with the helmet on top.

“They have one in Yakima,” says Soth, adding that no fundraising has begun for the sculpture yet.

Bressler explains that, years ago, Veterans Court was intended as a place where all military memorials in Riverfront Park would be relocated, but then commotion broke out as some memorabilia was moved to the new Veterans Memorial Arena.

“There was all this politics going on at the time about what should go where, and in the middle of this uproar this guy showed up with this thing he made and hung it on the wall,” says Bressler about the Beirut plaque. “I mean, he called, and then two days later it was there.”

Any other sculptures or memorials in this particular area I should know about? I ask.

“You know about the Boy Scout Memorial, right?” says Bressler.

I ask gently if he’s kidding. No he’s not.

Considering the size of Riverfront Park it’s hard to believe that there’s yet another group out to put a sculpture in the same spot.

“Yes,” says Bressler, sounding contemplative, “it’s like that area has become the center of the universe.”

Dale Johnson is on the board of directors for the “Footsteps to the Future” Boy Scout sculpture project.

“We have approval through the City Council and the Parks Department to put the sculpture there,” he says. The bronze sculpture shows two Scouts, one pointing toward something and the other intently staring in the same direction.

“It would look like they are standing on the railing of the Monroe Street Bridge when you drive past,” Johnson explains. It comes with a $125,000 price, including a maintenance endowment, and Johnson says the Scouts have about half that money.

At this point I’m ready to go stand in the park and scream: “Does anybody else want to claim this as their special spot? Huh? Firefighters? 4-H? Blacksmiths?” but that’s a rather unproductive reporting method.

So I’ll try pleading instead: what are the chances we can figure this out peacefully?

The Upper Columbia United Tribes are one giant step ahead of everyone else. Though nothing is set in stone, they have a plan, and their project would generate revenue for the Parks Department. Including a Veterans Memorial and a Boy Scout sculpture in the plan for the larger area would bring us one step closer to being able to celebrate everyone’s heritage in one location. That may be a novel idea, but it’s a good one.

Oh, and if you are the one who made the Beirut plaque, please give me a call. I’d like to hear the story behind it.