The Great Divide: Reaction Don’t Settle For Second-Rate Status

Say Seattle and you think West Coast sophistication. Say Missoula and vibrant college town comes to mind. Say Boise and you picture a city of entrepreneurial possibilities.

Say Spokane and what do you think? The image is fuzzy. Maybe a great place to raise a family. But maybe a great place to be broke. This figure says it all: 45 percent of the work force in Spokane County employed in retail and service jobs makes $14,000 a year, on average.

“The Great Divide” series, about the differences between the Seattle area and the Spokane area, concludes today in the newspaper. Men and women in the arts, education, social services, government, labor and human rights wrote essays addressing some of the challenges pointed out in the series.

Spokane has much higher rates of poverty and welfare dependency, a plethora of low-paying jobs and a reluctance to take risks to grow and change. But the news was not all bleak. We don’t have Seattle’s traffic problems. People care a lot here and give their time and money to good causes. It is still a fairly sane place to raise a child.

The series, however, points out many ways Spokane needs to change and grow.

We need higher-paying jobs. That, above all, would solve many problems. We also need state legislators to fight for capital improvement projects for the city and county. In the series, a few of our legislators admitted feeling “uncomfortable ” fighting for projects. West Side legislators feel none of that discomfort. That’s why they have two new stadiums, a third runway at the airport and downtown redevelopment money.

We also need leaders of vision in all levels of government. And we need fewer people who bicker, bicker, bicker and pick, pick, pick at any project that threatens to make Spokane a better place to live. “We should be looking at how we can make things happen, instead of how we can stop them,” said Philip Kuharski, a recently retired business executive.

Many great projects are on the verge of becoming vibrant reality. The Davenport Hotel remodeling. Downtown redevelopment. The community center at Mirabeau Point. But the projects will take unity and shared vision, not infighting.

Spokane is not Seattle, and it should never strive to be. But we do need to adopt some bigger-city strategies. Big plans. Big projects. Big dreams and big dreamers.

One Seattle resident nicknamed Spokane “The Can.” It was not meant as a compliment. Perhaps if we stop thinking, acting and dreaming like a second-rate community, we can use the nickname in a different way.

“Spokane: The community that can.” Now, that’s a reputation worth fighting for.

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