Together Spokane: Northeast Spokane would see greatest parks investment under $440 million ballot measure

Talk to Councilman Michael Cathcart for any length of time about the northeast Spokane district he represents, and he will eventually bring up Minnehaha Park.

Downtown has Riverfront, the South Hill has Manito, western Spokane has the Finch Arboretum and both Palisades Park and Riverside State Park just outside of city limits. Northeast Spokane needs a crown jewel, Cathcart has long argued, and he believes Minnehaha can be that park.

The relatively large park is the entryway to the extensive trail network system of Beacon Hill, one of the largest stretches of open public land in city limits – and one of the only significant stretches in eastern Spokane. The park itself, though, largely consists of an aged baseball diamond, a minimal playground, and a small tennis court. Its most notable feature is a stone house built more than a century ago.

Northeast Spokane broadly has some of the city’s poorest neighborhoods and historically lacked the kind of public or private investment seen elsewhere in Spokane. That neglect shows in the region’s sparse, small and underdeveloped parks, but it does not have to be that way, Cathcart has long argued, often fiercely, as he did last year when a proposed parks levy was delayed for a second time.

“I think this is a mistake, and it will have a really negative impact on my district in particular,” Cathcart told his council colleagues in April. “If anyone has spent any time in the parks in northeast Spokane, it is embarrassing. It is the height of irresponsibility (to delay the levy).”

That need is reflected in the park improvements pitched in the Together Spokane $440 million tax ask on ballots this November, which if approved would overhaul three parks in the city, two of which are in Cathcart’s district, and build three new parks, one of which is at the northern tip of the district in Shiloh Hills.

These are among the 200-plus projects that would be addressed in Spokane Public Schools’ $200 million bond and city parks’ $240 million levy, which are separate measures on ballots this year but a joint campaign with many proposals that only work if both are approved.

Now that the parks levy is firmly placed on ballots already headed to voters’ mailboxes, Cathcart believes even tax-skeptical residents like himself should see the value in the parks levy this November.

“When you have such a dearth of park land, playgrounds that have not been invested in or really touched in 20 to 30 years, as is the case in Minnehaha – you’ve got boarded up play structures, bathrooms that aren’t accessible, that are broken…” he said at a September press conference. “As somebody who has been very skeptical of tax increases in the past, and has outright opposed some on the ballot … hopefully there is some weight to what I am advocating for in believing that this is a really good thing for my constituents.”

Like all of the major park proposals, Together Spokane campaigners emphasize that any final details will depend on what the neighborhoods want. But proposed upgrades to Minnehaha include a custom playground, a sport court (pickleball’s ever-rising popularity makes it impossible to call anything a tennis court these days), a splash pad and a new bathroom.

The Sharpley Harmon Park would be the other park in the area seeing a major renovation if the levy were approved. The current amenities are mostly functional – although it was for good reason that parks officials highlighting the need for better bathroom maintenance held their press conference at this park – but improvements are needed, Cathcart argued in September.

“This is a space that has been used for lots of activities, including the Hillyard Days Festival for many, many years, and so it’s really important that we have a good park that people can utilize and enjoy,” he said. “This, obviously, is going to include bathrooms in these parks that are accessible to folks year-round.”

Among the standard proposed improvements for the park, Together Spokane has also pledged to use some of the tax funds to build utility hookups at the site for future community events.

Finally, likely no neighborhood in the city lacks parks like Shiloh Hills. Aside from the aging Friendship Park – which would also see some improvements to its playground, restroom and sport facilities – the closest thing to open space most residents have is a massive patch of dirt and prairie grass off of Lincoln and Nevada owned by the Douglass family, the city’s largest landowner.

Unlike the other two proposed new parks in North Indian Trail and the Qualchan Hills, parks officials do not yet own the site of future park land in the neighborhood or have specific plans for where it will be, aside from prioritizing something north of Francis and east of Nevada. Together Spokane campaigners hope to acquire 5 to 10 acres for the future park.

While the region would see some of the most significant parks investments in the city, some area schools would also get a shot in the arm.

Garry Middle School is the only school in the area slated for major construction; others would receive a relatively small share of bond funding for maintenance projects around their schools.

The region would also see the addition of a new trades high school developed in partnership with Spokane Community Colleges. There, kids would graduate with a high school diploma and a two-year certificate from a trades program offered at the college.

Each high school would get a turf field nearby, as well as improvements to the light and sound systems in their auditoriums to make it easier for the public to use the space.

Plans for Garry are more extensive, though the details are flexible if the bond passes. The district intends to construct an L-shaped addition to the front of the school, which would house the front office and locker rooms.

The current main office in the 1970 school is situated in its core, requiring visitors to walk through a school hallway before checking in at the office, unlike most other schools in the district where visitors encounter the office before getting access to the rest of the school.

“If a visitor is cleared to go in, they have to walk a fairly long hallway corridor to get to the main office,” Superintendent Adam Swinyard said at a recent Rogers High School town hall. “Really, best practice is to have the main office right adjacent to your single point of entry for safety purposes.”

Locker rooms, currently in the basement, aren’t used during the school day, said principal Adam Oakley. Buried beneath the gym, it is not possible to supervise students there and teach gym class at the same time.

The school’s cafeteria would also see major updates, the space reconceptualized to be more open and naturally lit, aligned with other middle schools in the district. When designing Garry, officials referenced an internal study done before they built a slate of new middle schools under the 2018 bond.

“Kids were very specific about wanting open spaces to be able to engage with adults or other kids,” said Travis Schulhauser, executive director of facilities and planning with the district. “You’ll see in those buildings what we call a nutrition commons and a learning commons; they’re big open spaces with access to books and cafeteria time and socializing time, studying time.”

Plans are not set in stone until if and when the bond passes. Then, the school district will assemble a group to iron out specifics like a potential community room with services like laundry or space to meet with social workers.

Neighboring green space in Nevada Park can be seen from large windows in a stairwell in the school, from which Oakley can ponder what sort of renovations are in store there if the parks levy passes.

“Before and after school, our kids are playing out there,” Oakley said. “I’d love to have it still be utilized by the general public and us.”