“It’s the next neighborhood where pop shows up”: Spokane leaders seek investment in East Central

The city council passed a long-awaited resolution formalizing a framework for revitalizing the diverse but historically neglected neighborhood.

SPOKANE, Washington. – Spokane City Council announced its intention to invest in the East 5th Avenue area by resolution on Monday evening. This is the final step in trying to revitalize the long-neglected East Central neighborhood.

East Central started out as a promising neighborhood early in Spokane’s history, but a series of events caused permanent damage. First, the decline of certain industries. Then redlining and housing segregation.

“They made it where mostly … blacks had nowhere to stay but East Central,” said Michael Brown, who owns the Fresh Soul restaurant on 5th Avenue and runs the Spokane Eastside Reunion Association . “The other areas were priced for us.”

Then the construction of the I-90 freeway cut right through the neighborhood, destroying hundreds of homes and much of Liberty Park.

“And then, when the community was just beginning to age and there was this divestment in East Central, along with that low-income crime label,” said Spokane City Councilor Betsy Wilkerson.

Neighbors say it’s long gone to take the community’s promise and start investing.

“We’re the forgotten neighborhood,” said Brown.

“If you go through there … there’s like a new energy in East Central,” said Wilkerson. “And for the first time in a long time, it gets a little love.”

On Monday evening, the city council unanimously passed a five-year resolution setting out the priorities for the revitalization. This includes recapturing and highlighting the sense of identity in the neighborhood.

“We really want an identifier for the neighborhood [that says] “Welcome to East 5th,” said Wilkerson.

The resolution also sets the goal of creating a thriving business corridor through the kind of street image enhancements that other parts of Spokane have seen.

“Like this side, we have a brand new sidewalk. I’d love to see that on both sides of the street,” Brown said. “We want to be just like the Perry District, Kendall Yards.”

“There’s no official bike route in East Central,” said Wilkerson. “We want to make it walkable and accessible for children and senior citizens.”

Another goal is to make affordable housing easier to build and help current homeowners make improvements without causing the kind of gentrification that long-time residents of the area could cost.

The resolution is a start, but everyone agrees that real action and real money must follow.

“I’ve seen people do a lot of it,” Brown said, making a speaking gesture with his hand. “And that’s what I’m fed up with. I want to see how something gets behind the conversation.”

“The next step is to get dedicated resources. That gives us the foundation,” said Wilkerson. “Nothing happens overnight in government. It can be slow. But we are there.”

“It’s the closest neighborhood that pop,” she said.