Downtown at Christmas

This will be my 10th letter in 10 years about downtown at Christmas. I wasn’t going to write anything this year, but the TV news showed clips from the Saad shoe store fire of 1966. The downtown streets used to be lined with real trees. The clips showed a festive downtown.

I remember the days of every streetlight having a lighted display. Turning onto Riverside Avenue from Washington Street took a kid’s breath away. Christmas lights stretching for blocks, with bumper-to-bumper cars, and buses and the sidewalks crowded with shoppers. The University City, NorthTown and Shadle decorations were nothing compared with downtown’s.

Downtown was the destination to shop, look at the lights, walk by all the store window displays and get a bite to eat. Now, Riverside is dark and dreary, with few cars, and fewer people on the sidewalks. Main Street is only decorated from River Park Square to Macy’s; nothing compared to what it used to be.

Riverfront Park was nice this Christmas, but is not the downtown. In one of my letters, I suggested Riverside be converted to lanes in each direction with diagonal parking to encourage more shoppers year round. It falls on deaf ears.

Richard Trerise

Spokane