Four the future - December 19

Today: Mobius moving, Downtown improving, parking editorial, and another auto-pedestrian victim (or two)

• Science center won’t be in Riverfront Park
  Source: Spokesman, 091219
  Summary: Mobius will be building the science center in phases and is looking for a building to put it in. Spokane Park Board members on both sides of the recent contract dispute with Mobius think it's a good idea.
  Opinion: There is a serious disconnect between Riverfront Park and its northern neighbors. There needs to be a transitional use of some kind, and it needs to be capable of drawing crowds. I encourage the park board to look for ways to increase the number of activity spaces (not mere open space, there is plenty of that) in Riverfront Park.


• Spokane primed for more growth
  Source: Spokesman, 091219
  Summary: Daniel Iacofano is a principal at MIG, Inc., and helped work on the downtown Spokane plans of 1999 and 2008. In this opinion piece, he says that great progress has been made in terms of retail, the convention center, University District, arts and entertainment, the north bank, and housing. He also says much more can be done.
  Opinion: It is true, things have changed, but Spokane hasn't always grasped for its best options. But, with the new majority in the city council, things like complete streets and moving parking away from ground level will improve the downtown experience, and make more room available to retail. Add a regional rail system, and watch downtown launch a renaissance not only for itself, but at each station along the way.


• Editorial: Parking lot blight merits ban while study done
  Source: Spokesman, 091220
  Summary: In this Spokesman-Review editorial, the editorial staff says that the surface parking ban shouldn't be considered permanent, as there is a Downtown Spokane Partnership parking study due next year. However, they state that they do not want a "barren downtown that offers abundant places to park but little to entice anyone to go there." They note that there are conflicting values with this topic: property rights and the free market versus the character of a downtown.
  Opinion: This is a classic tragedy of the anticommons situation. For those businesses that are downtown, it's important that they have a vibrant downtown environment, but individual property owners can't count on others respecting that. As a consequence, they take the most profitable course assuming that no one else will support them enough to make the cooperative (and more highly profitable) alternative work. The only way to earn the requisite faith is to have a strong and enforceable vision for downtown Spokane. Make it different from all other areas in the region. Make its streets complete and focused on economic activity rather than throughput. Yes, some property owners will not be able to do what they want. (If they want suburbia, there's plenty of that just a mile in nearly any direction.) But in the end, they will profit more and so will the community because everyone knows what to expect and can integrate that into their more profitable plans. Oh, and one other thing: the argument between surface parking and structured parking is not volume, it's location. Parking should be distributed throughout the downtown but not on the surface (except on the street--there's a reason for that), Surface lot parking defeats the purpose of a downtown: putting places close enough together to be walkable. Surface lot parking makes walking distances greater, while parking off-grade doesn't.


• Region in brief: Victim, driver in fatal crash ID’d
  Source: Spokesman, 091220
  Summary: The seventh auto-pedestrian victim was identified. Stephen W. Shockley and his dog were struck and dragged under a minivan after attempting to cross Francis.
  Opinion: The very first step of planning is identifying a problem. Anyone see a problem here that planning can pursue? Now's a good time for people to familiarize themselves with the complete streets movement. By the way--the dog was also a victim. That would be the eighth.