It’s great to be with you this morning to celebrate the renaissance of Downtown Spokane, which has seen more development, more tourist traffic, more residential construction, more hospitality construction and more cultural growth in the past two years than in the previous two decades!

Just as current economic conditions point to ongoing prosperity for our region, current Downtown momentum points to ongoing Downtown vitality in the near term. This momentum has also laid the groundwork for even more extraordinary transformations–transformation that can make the city a model for civic life in the 21st century.

While most of the visible, tangible results have only begun to be seen in the past couple of years, they date back nearly a decade. Consider:

Only 10 years ago the community came together to create the Downtown Plan and establish a Business Improvement District. Since then, we have seen more than $3 billion in new construction and redevelopment. There are now more hotel rooms, more movie screens, more brand-name stores, more dining opportunities and more cultural opportunities Downtown than at any time in the city’s history. The streets are alive. The sidewalks DO NOT roll up at 5:00 p.m.–or even at 10 p.m. You now have to wait in line to get into a martini bar like Bistengo. But the wait’s okay because you look at the sights and think about Petula Clark; or, in the event you’ve just left a showing of "Dreamgirls" at AMC, you can sing along with Little Albert and the Tru-Tones:

Me and my baby going downtown
Me and my baby getting down tonight
Me and my baby going downtown
Me and my baby gonna check check check out the sights
We’re looking around (You’re telling us, sweet lady)
We’re looking around (Gonna have us a time tonight)
Check check checking it out
Check check checking it out

Most of us here this morning own or operate businesses in Downtown Spokane. I count myself among you–not only because of my role with The Spokesman-Review, but I also maintain a private office for my company, The Oxalis Group, located in the Great Western building. Oxalis has been a satisfied contributor to the BID since its inception. But my interest in the development and future of Downtown has little to do with the fact that I have a business here. Even if my business and home were located in different parts of town–even different parts of the county or in Post Falls, Rosalia or Chewelah–I would want Spokane’s central core be vibrant and prospering. Why? Because years of watching the life (and, too often, the death) of cities I’ve loved, I’ve become convinced that cities lack, or worse lose, a strong central core, they inevitably fail not only to support themselves but also fail to support the suburbs and exurbs around them.

Thriving central cities are critical to the preservation of regional prosperity–and thriving central business and cultural districts are critical to the preservation of thriving central cities. The economic identity of regions is largely tied to the identity of their central cities and the identity of those cities is determined, to great extent, by the strength and success of their downtowns.

The leadership for keeping downtowns strong can come from any of several economic sectors–from government, from retail, from residential development, entertainment development, hospitality development. Regardless of which sector kicks things off, once the leader’s vision becomes tangible, the other sectors are inspired and emboldened to follow suit. And so one type of development begets another and soon everyone begins to clean up, paint up, fix up, expand and build new properties. Not everyone shares in the initial vision–and, frankly, it’s not essential that they do. However, once the vision goes beyond talk and becomes concrete–almost everyone begins to grasp the benefits of getting on board. That’s how great downtowns–and cities–are built and it is how, when they wane, they find the energy and will to rejuvenate. This cycle of renewal is exemplified by what has happened in downtown Spokane and other great cities that have found the leadership to overcome inertia and create new, higher levels of vibrancy."

That even higher level is what I want to discuss with you this morning.

My usual role at briefings like this is to review the current state of the Spokane economy and offer my best guesses about what the year ahead will hold. This morning, I can summarize that forecast in a sentence: 2007 will be a year of ongoing prosperity for the city and the region, keeping pace with the state and out-performing the nation, with several more good years ahead of it. I mention this only because a strong economy will make it possible to achieve some of the Downtown dreams I’ll be reflecting upon this morning.

Having built up so much momentum already, we have a rare opportunity not only to maintain it and add incremental improvements, but to reach heights of achievement that previously have been unimaginable. To do so, however, will require further expansion of our vision (and, likely, our boundaries); it will require some new thinking about how we deal with the remaining "dark and lonely" spots that remain a haven for anti-social activity; it will require some changes in how we communicate among and between ourselves; and, it will require an evolution of development policy, accompanied by effective and consistent implementation and administration of zoning and building regulation. In my view, the key to this will be fewer variances for the mundane and reasonable variances for the truly visionary.

All of this will require investment, energy, vision and commitment, and DSP will likely–indeed, must necessarily–be the catalyst and champion for ongoing evolution.

There are six key messages I’d like to share with you this morning.

The first message is that the momentum Downtown must be maintained–even accelerated. We are only seeing the beginning of the possible. We are healthy and vibrant; we have an opportunity to be magnificent and world-leading.

The second message is that our newly vibrant street life is still a fragile phenomenon and needs to be nurtured. A key to such nurturing is that remaining "dark and lonely" spots on the fringes of Downtown and in Riverfront Park must have light cast upon them and people inserted into them. The security issue is not simply a matter of surveillance and police presence, but of design. We need to consider the strategies employed years ago in New York City to reclaim Bryant Park. Among those steps: Opening vistas and sight-lines, adding lights, rearranging and/or adding footpaths, developing activities that invite good people to lesser used areas of the park and under-utilized areas on the fringes. While some video surveillance may also be required, the best solutions may involve relative simple engineering that leads to self-enforcement and, for some undesirable elements, self-banishment.

My third message: We need to provide new structures, new techniques and new technologies to our on-going dialogue on keeping Downtown strong. Having coped 10 years ago with the challenges of overcoming desperation, we are now having to avoid the pitfalls of coping with success. To reach the next level we need to utilize the power of technology to facilitate blind input and discussion through virtual forums, avatar-based advocacy, Delphi-type action/reaction exercises. Future plans will be better plans if they flow from exploration and examination, rather than debate, of ideas. They will be better if ideas arise instead of being imposed; and, if focus is kept on the merit of the idea per se, rather than the "who said" behind it.

A fourth point is that we need to encourage (and consider providing incentives for) cleanup, paint up and fix up projects–ranging from clearing painted crosswalks to rooftop gardens to new exterior paint jobs that enable all players to get into the act. If we want to reach a higher level of participatory development, one good next step is to finds ways to help dozens of smaller, less-prosperous businesses get into the action.

My fifth point involves transportation. We need to make it easier to get to Downtown–and once there to get around. And clearly we know how to do this, as STA demonstrated during the recent U.S. Figure Skating Championships. I heard more good things about STA during those eight days–and said more good things about STA during those eight days–than in the entire 27 years I’ve lived in Spokane. The drivers were friendly; the buses were clean and heavily utilized; the special bus stops were conveniently located. STA starred. We need to focus on how to make that happen all the time. Whether with fixed light rail or trolleys, we need to focus efforts on getting people around the city, not helping them GET OUT of the city. And that may expand some re-thinking of what Downtown is and how far it extends. In Portland, light rail links airport, Pioneer Square, and Lloyd Center. This would be like linking Downtown, Brown’s Addition and other shopping areas. The efficiency and convenience of Portland transit assures it is used by those who need to save time and it’s "fareless square" makes certain it serves the needs of the poor. That kind of thinking makes public transit work. It can work better here. STA seems to be pointing the way–and demonstrating it, as they did in January.

My sixth point is to repeat the first (I can’t say it often enough): The momentum that has been created Downtown must be maintained–even accelerated.

Conventional wisdom has long held that Spokane, as the self-proclaimed capital of a self-proclaimed empire, grew as a result of the riches that flowed to it from the countryside This view was consistent with a traditional view of cities throughout history; namely, that all roads lead to Rome, including the road to wealth. In our time, however, a different view has emerged from observers as diverse as Jane Jacobs, the late Canadian urban anthropologist; James A. Michener, the Pulitzer Prize-winning American novelist; Michael Hough, a contemporary landscape architect and theorist; and, William H. White, the well-known sociologist. It might be summed up by the phrase "all roads lead from Rome–particularly the road to riches." In this view, the city becomes the source, not the consumer, of wealth.

While Jacobs’ work fully develops the case for the role cities play in creating and sustaining wealth within their regions, Michener summed it up succinctly in a small volume of essays he wrote in 1976 about his hometown, Philadelphia.

“History," he wrote, "is mainly the account of what happened in the cities. There the power lay; there the wealth was controlled. The city was the center of government, the focus of intellectual and artistic leadership, and although all the food and much of the wealth was created in the country, what happened to it was determined by the cities. In rural areas there might be large monasteries, but the cardinals who dictated to them lived in the cities. Significantly, the records of history were compiled and kept in cities so that we see history through city eyes."

Michener’s essays, written in the year of the U.S. Bicentennial, were specific reflections on Philadelphia, but his observations remain as relevant today as they were then–and as relevant here as they were (and still are) there.

A city can choose, through action or inaction, to be merely a convenient dock on a river or stop on a highway, or it can be a driving force for regional development–the place that defines the region is serves. It can help shape regional culture or it can be a nondescript spot of land where a certain number of people just happen to live. Successful cities, unlike their failed or stillborn counterparts, find the will to define, shape and build. While any central city can provide the basics–banks, entertainment, shopping–successful regions are a product of central cities that do more than simply channel and convert wealth within their regions; they actually create wealth for it and attract wealth to it. It is arguable that the Inland Northwest prospers only when Spokane’s visions are big and its leaders energetic, and that it invariably stagnates when Spokane’s vision is myopic and its leadership lackluster. Indeed, the region’s economic success over the years has had as much–and perhaps more–to do with the ideas generated in Spokane as with the natural riches of the Inland Northwest.

Let me briefly list some examples of Spokane leadership over the past 100 years:

• The first example dates back many years. In 1918, the seed of an idea was planted in Spokane and promoted relentlessly for years thereafter until it ultimately resulted in the Columbia Basin project, the massive irrigation project that turned desert to farmland and transformed regional life. The drive to water the desert was promulgated by Spokane business leaders. They traveled the region making converts and building political strength. They paid to promote nationally in major newspapers and magazines. They championed it in every possible political and business forum. Spokane leaders even went so far as to commission the builder of the Panama Canal to do a feasibility study and lend the concept his imprimatur.

It took the Great Depression and President Roosevelt’s New Deal to eventually make the dream a reality–and in a different manner than was originally conceived by Spokane business folks–but Spokane’s efforts were critical in creating and propagating the dream. Creating and propagating dreams–crafting visions, harnessing the power of collective imagination, making ideas concrete–these are the catalytic contributions great cities make to civilizations. Spokane has contributed many such ideas over the years, including the spawning and financing of regional networks of rails and roads; the development of regional media; the staging of a World’s Fair. The tradition continues today with visions of a regional freight network that would link existing air, rail, road, water, and port capacity into an efficient system to facilitate North-South cross-border trade and speed regional goods to markets in Canada, Mexico and Asia. Additional visions involve transformational urban planning initiatives and "big science" projects in molecular biology and shock physics.

• A second example: In 1925, recognizing that no city could be taken seriously unless it had a least one world-class artist in its midst, a group of civic leaders pitched in to invite America’s leading poet–who would also become the father of film criticism–to be its guest, putting him up for a time at the still young Davenport Hotel. Vachel Lindsay’s stay in the city was not an entirely happy one, but he stayed for five years and made important contributions to civic thought. He noted the uniqueness of Spokane’s geography, certain European qualities in its setting and architecture, some flaws in the way it conducted civic dialogue and some strengths in the New Localism of its arts community. Lindsay was the first of many significant artists and thinkers who have "adopted" (or been adopted by) Spokane in subsequent years. One of them [Gunther Schuller] is even conducting musical performances this weekend.

• A third and obvious example of Spokane creating regional prosperity is Expo ’74. Certainly no event in Spokane’s modern history has been more discussed, analyzed and touted as an example of the city’s "can do" spirit. Expo’s contributions to the city are well known: rail yards transformed into green space, a river revitalized, a falls reclaimed, a downtown rebuilt, a legacy of civic buildings, massive national publicity (including a commemorative postage stamp!), world-wide news coverage, and a planning model for staging countless smaller events–some successful, others not–that continues to inform civic achievement. Expo ’74, however, did more than boost Spokane alone. If Expo ’74 confirmed that Spokane was special, it followed that it must be in a special region. Expo embedded awareness of entire Inland Northwest into the national consciousness. It contributed to a spike in regional population growth and, simultaneously, it created broader interest in regional initiatives to protect the environment, redevelop fading regional downtowns, celebrate regional history and foster regional pride. Expo provided an example for smaller cities and towns to follow in spirit.

• A fourth example: Only a dozen or so years ago, a group of upstart young coaches decided and fought for the idea that a team in a little-known and much disrespected basketball conference could be contender in the NCAA tournament–playing with the best teams in the nation. Echoing a scene from the movie "Hoosiers," these coaches–led by Don Monson and Mark Few–were content to the most respected among the disrespected. Where was it written that Gonzaga should be satisfied with year-in-year-out, slightly better than breakeven seasons. Why should they be satisfied with only an occasional conference win in a conference whose initials often got confused with those of others. Why couldn’t Gonzaga instead, transform itself first into a Middle Major and then a Major Major basketball team.

The result: These days even 18 wins looks like a BAD year! What has been good for Gonzaga has been good for Spokane: national television coverage, a new arena, an improvement in academic recruiting and play before full-house audiences in places like Key Arena and Madison Square Garden. Everywhere they go–win or lose–the Zags are goodwill ambassadors for their school and our city–and they’ve taught the nation how to properly pronounce the names of both!

• A fifth and very recent example: The work that led not only to record-setting levels of ticket sales to the U.S. Figure Skating Championships, but to construction records for work at the Convention Center, Davenport Tower and the airport, among others. Thank you, Toby Steward. Thank you, Barbara Beddor. And thanks to the City of Spokane, Walt and Karen and the Airport Authority and to all of you who have worked so hard to show how this community can not only pull these things off–but pull them off in grand style! We looked great–and all America noticed.

• And, finally, Spokane’s regional leadership has been demonstrated in the vision that has inspired Downtown over the last 10 years, starting with many of you getting together to work on the Downtown Plan. Even as things continue to develop just consider the following:

• A dying shopping center has been reborn–and opened new opportunities for regional shoppers.

• A decaying hotel restored beyond its original splendor and expanded hugely to accommodate the traffic it attracts. And wonderful boutique hotels like the Montvale and Lusso have sprung up add a wonderful diversity for urban visitors.

• From two theatres on the fringes of Downtown, to those two plus at least four others offering live music and entertainment, plus a comedy club.

• From a couple of New Year’s Eve events at local hotels, to First Night performances everywhere.

• From the "Boone Street Barn" and Ag Trade Center to The Arena, The Convention Center, the INB Performing Arts Center, The Big Easy, The Bing Crosby and–very soon–the spectacular new home of the Spokane Symphony, the Fox.

And, these are just some of the most obvious projects. One only has to look at the several projects by Conover-Bond, the re-do of the Lincoln Building, the Steam Plant, the new bank buildings–everywhere the cranes have flown and continue flying. And each of these projects serves the region–not just Downtown.

And still in the wings is the biggest, most significant residential project of them all–Kendall Yards, which offers the possibility of carrying Spokane to the highest of new heights in terms of quality, urban living. And, please, let’s not return to the kind of beggar-thy-neighbor, zero-sum thinking that has kept our tax rolls too low for too long. Tax-increment financing is not "welfare for the rich." It is a proven investment tool that used wisely will accrue to the benefit of every citizen of this community. Every citizen!

In the past decade we have created in Downtown Spokane what Patrick Geddes once described as a "eutopia." That’s E-U-T-O-P-I-A and it’s not be confused with Sir Thomas More’s "Utopia." Utopia, with a "u" means, "no place." Eutopia, with an EU, means "good place." With a little thought, a little self-examination and much more communication, we will never return to "no place" and go from being a "good place" to an even better one!

I want to close my remarks this morning with some additional thoughts from James Michener. His essays deal with a number of issues, but his thoughts on th

e role of arts seem especially relevant to the spirit of this morning’s meeting.

Michener believed the creative and cultural aspects of cities were the most critical elements of urban success. On the need to maintain cultural services, he wrote:

"I have always been more impressed by the cultural services of [Philadelphia] than by its marketing facilities; therefore, if it is proved that the city cannot hold its own against the suburban shopping center, this does not mean the end of the city, for its major function can still be performed…The greatness of a city after its concentration of power lies in its museums, its universities, its opera, its orchestra, its baseball and football teams, its myriad cultural and recreational facilities which no rural area can provide. To diminish these is to destroy the rationale of the city…A city should provide growing minds with such memories."

And, Michener noted, that having a great cultural past doesn’t necessarily create an exciting cultural future, he noted the need for cities to have fun, and to encourage and development imagination. He called it "inviting new imagination." On this topic he argued that, "A city ought to do daring and sometimes even silly things, for they excite the imagination and produce other creativity in areas least expected."

As we continue to examine the forces that have created this place, we must continue to develop the forces that will recreate it and assure its ongoing role as the "heart of the heart" of this great region in which we live.

Thank you for having me with you today and thanks for all you do to make and keep our city a great place to live, work and do business.

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Copyright 2007 by Shaun O’L. Higgins. Permission to quote for media-coverage within 15 business days of the date of the presentation is hereby granted to representatives of the news media. For all other and later uses, written permission is required. To request permission, please contact Julie Read, New Media Ventures, Inc., P.O. Box 2160, Spokane, WA 99201.

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James A. Michener quotes from The Quality of Life by James A. Michener, with illustrations by James Wyeth, Philadelphia: Girard Bank, 1976.

The speaker wishes to gratefully acknowledge the seminal thoughts and influence of the writings of Jane Jacobs on the views express herein. Readers interested in exploring Jacobs’ work are directed to The Death and Life of American Cities, New York: Random House, reissue, 2002; and, in particular, Cities and the Wealth of Nations, Random House, 1984.

Shaun O’L. Higgins is Director of Sales and Marketing for The Spokesman-Review and President and Chief Operating Officer of New Media Ventures, Inc., a subsidiary of Cowles Company. He is the author or co-author of 10 books on a wide range of topics, including four on Spokane: Review Tower, Measuring Spokane, Vachel Lindsay: Troubadour in the Wildflower City, and the forthcoming Measuring Spokane for the 21st Century. For more than 20 years he has presented annual economic forecasts to audiences in Spokane, Coeur d’Alene and Lewiston, Idaho. Higgins spent 18 years as a newspaper reporter and editor before joining the commercial side of The Spokesman-Review. Among many community involvements, he is a past Chairman of the Spokane Economic Development Council and currently serves on the Mayor’s Economic Forecasting Committee and the board of the Northwest Museum of Arts and Culture.