‘First Impressions’ Zone Makeover Coming Soon
The new year promises good news for Kathy Altieri of Spokane.
After Bagpipes invited readers to suggest goals the community should set for 1998, Altieri responded with a letter deploring the condition of Browne and Division streets near the freeway on- and off-ramps.
Those places give Spokane visitors their first and last impressions of Spokane, said Altieri. Maintaining the streets better would help make those impressions positive, she said.
“The problems … consist of potholes, bumps, raised areas, etc.,” said Altieri. “Please, Spokane, take care of our ‘first impression’ so that visitors and Spokane citizens alike will have a good first impression as well as last.”
Guess what. The state Transportation Department plans to resurface both streets next summer, from Interstate 90 to the Spokane River, said department spokesman Al Gilson.
Like the interstate, on- and off-ramps are the state’s, not the city’s, responsibility. As for state highways within city boundaries - Division, for instance - the city performs the maintenance and bills the state, Gilson said.
He said the conditions Altieri noticed on Division are largely the result of sewer and water work that the city did earlier this year, knowing the state’s resurfacing work was planned for 1998.
Thanks to heavy truck traffic entering the freeway, said Gilson, “Browne gets bumpy on its own.”
A couple of other readers’ proposed goals - fewer litters and fewer lawyers - may not get as prompt a response as Altieri’s received.
“1998 would be great if everyone would spay and neuter their pets, and if every animal in the Humane Society, SpokAnimal and the county shelter could be adopted into a loving home,” said Kerry Masters of Liberty Lake.
Spokane native James A. Nelson said he’s proud of his home town just as it is. He singled out its “unsurpassed” physical beauty and said worsening social and crime conditions are the same as other communities experience.
“The only thing I would change,” he said, “would be to pass an ordinance limiting the amount of attorneys that are allowed to practice in this town.”
If you want to add your ideas to the list of community goals, send them to one of the numbers or addresses shown below.
, DataTimes MEMO: “Bagpipes” appears Tuesdays and Thursdays. To respond, call Cityline at 458-8800, category 9881, from a Touch-Tone phone; or send a fax to 459-5098 or e-mail to dougf@spokesman.com. You also can leave Doug Floyd a message at 459-5577, extension 5466.