Goodby Expo ‘74 … trashcans

Eighteen new “black, urban-style garbage cans” – each bearing the Downtown Spokane logo – have been popping up downtown as part of an effort to “freshen the look of our streetscapes,” according to a news release today from the Downtown Spokane Partnership . The Downtown Spokane Business Improvement District, a roughly 80-block area of downtown that receives taxes from businesses and property owners and is administered by the partnership, also bought 18 black planters that will be placed this month.

The revitalization effort will begin with the area between Wall and Stevens Streets and Riverside Avenue and Spokane Falls Boulevard, according to the release. Current terra cotta planters on Main Avenue will be placed elsewhere downtown “until a unified look is accomplished.”

“The BID Clean Team, with assistance from Security Ambassadors, have begun replacing the familiar 12 gallon, Expo ’74, cement receptacles, removed by the City’s sanitation department, with an updated, sleek, 30 gallon trash receptacle for a larger capacity,” the release says. (We’ll try to get a picture soon. Or, check out MetroSpokane’s post here .)

Special business district assessments raise more than $900,000 annually, according to DSP.

What’s your view on the new cans? What other improvements would freshen up downtown?