New Public Plaza by Spokane City Hall

New Public Plaza by Spokane City Hall


Here’s a heads up on downtown construction and road closures that was issued by City Hall on Friday:

A new public plaza is planned in the parking lot north of City Hall that will include seating and gathering space for events. In appreciation of the 125-year partnership between WWP/Avista and the people of Spokane, the newly developed City Hall Plaza will be a gift from Avista Corp. shareholders to the City of Spokane.

Work on City Hall Plaza will begin on Tuesday, July 23. The north parking lot will close permanently following the City Council meeting on Monday, July 22. Three handicapped spots will be moved to the lot on the southwest side of City Hall.

Improvements will also be made to Post Street, which will close for several weeks beginning in mid-September. The Post Street project will be finished in late fall.

Current parking options during construction:

  • Street parking will be available before work begins on Post Street and after it is finished.
  • River Park Square parking garage with skywalk accessibility to City Hall.

More information on the Huntington Park improvement is given in this Spokesman-Review story. Avista also blogged about it here.

Photos from the Emerson-Garfield Farmers’ Market Launch

Photos from the Emerson-Garfield Farmers’ Market Launch

Patrons at Pacific Produce booth.
Slicing a nectarine for sampling at the Pacific Produce booth.
Rachel’s handmade soaps at the Orange Thyme booth.
Rachel and Brian discuss her handmade soaps at the Orange Thyme booth.
Claire from the Vinegar Flats booth.
Jennifer de-stresses a patron at the Jennifer Michelle Massage booth.
Bev from Petunia’s Marketplace proudly displaying honey from her own apiary.
Pete explains his homemade rubs and spices at the SavorX booth.
Lauri can’t bag her bread fast enough at the Pleasant Prairie Farms booth.
Some of the homegrown veggies on offer at the Sweet Things booth.
Info leaflets on Sweet Things’ Trades of Hope.
Wild-caught, flash-frozen sockeye at the Old Harbor Sustainable Seafood booth.
The Scoop doing a brisk trade on an especially hot day.
Anne with her homegrown veggies at The Father’s Table.
Sunny and Jim at the JJ Goats booth.
Rocky River Soap Co’s gorgeous lineup of liquid castile soaps.
Rocky River Soaps — good for your skin, good for the environment.
Alie of Gluten Busters shows off their range of tantalizing gluten-free products.
Gluten Busters is proud of being gluten free.
Making friends at the Emerson-Garfield Farmers’ Market.
Climbing trees at the Emerson-Garfield Farmers’ Market.
Emerson-Garfield Neighborhood Council T-Shirts

Emerson-Garfield Neighborhood Council T-Shirts

It’s all going off.

As of today, we have brand new Emerson-Garfield Neighborhood Council T-shirts thanks to Pat Maguire. Pat’s an E-G resident and the owner of Spokane Valley Screen Printing. Totally unsolicited, he offered to make us T-shirts so that EGNC members and organizers can be better recognized at neighborhood events and strut their E-G pride.

EGNC T-shirt

The front bears the logo designed by former EGNC Chair Liorah Wichser (it won our neighborhood logo contest a few months back). On the back it reads “Emerson-Garfield Ambassador.”

Huge thanks to Pat for volunteering his services. The organizers will be proudly sporting these Ts at the Emerson-Garfield Farmers’ Market today. And depending on the response, we might be printing a variation of this T-shirt for general sale. Stay tuned.

Farmers’ Market Launch Today

Farmers’ Market Launch Today

EGFM sandwich boardWell, the big day is finally here. The Emerson Garfield Farmers’ Market launches today (Friday, July 19) at 3pm and will run until 7pm in the parking lot Knox Presbyterian Church (806 W. Knox) [map].

The buzz so far seems to be great. Yesterday we got a wonderful writeup in The Inlander‘s food newsletter, Entree, and this website saw some of its highest traffic ever. In the past 24 hours alone, we’ve added LyLo’s Teriyaki food truck and Orange Thyme to our full-season vendors.

Here are some highlights and important info:

  • We have approximately 16 vendors and food trucks taking part today, with the possibility of some last-minute additions. Even more are scheduled for next week (but let’s not get ahead of ourselves).
  • Today’s event isn’t just a one-off. It’s a weekly market that runs until October 18, and if it’s a success, it will continue next year too.
  • Remember that this is not the location that we announced back in May. It’s in the parking lot of Knox Presbyterian at the corner of Knox and Post. Look for the sandwich boards (pictured) when you’re heading north on Monroe, west on Indiana and south on Post.
  • The Party Palace on Division was fantastic enough to donate some balloons to decorate our sandwich boards. R&R Custom Color Lab on N. Monroe was kind enough to cut us a nice break on flyer printing, which was largely out-of-pocket.
  • Bri Musser designed our logo as well as our soon-to-be-printed tokens. If the market has slick branding, she’s the one to credit. Those tokens are being sponsored by Prime Lending and the interesting new episodic TV show Washington Grown, and we’re incredibly grateful for their generosity and support. Megan Kennedy and Melissa Parker were the dynamic duo that recruited those sponsors.
  • The Emerson-Garfield Farmers’ Market is a “sister” market of the West Central Marketplace. We got this off the ground in just 60 days because we were able to pool resources with Project HOPE, who have been instrumental in sorting out a lot of the back-end paperwork. That also means market tokens from one market will be valid at the other — which opens up your market shopping opportunities.
  • Knox Presbyterian has been a dream venue for a lot of reasons — not least their eagerness to make sure we had all the amenities a market would need. If you bump into one of their volunteers, thank them profusely.
  • Despite all our publicity, there are plenty of people who still won’t know about this new weekly event. Mention it to your friends, family and co-workers — tell ’em that there’s a convenient place to go on Friday afternoon/evening for some excellent fast food as well as some fresh, affordable weekend shopping. Spokane’s north side needs a little love.

And we’ll conclude there for now. See you at the market!

Roadworks in Emerson-Garfield

Roadworks in Emerson-Garfield

Say hello to your friendly neighborhood road construction crew (on Montgomery).

Montgomery Road CrewApparently they’re close to finishing here in Emerson-Garfield, but they only intend to do half of the western portion of Montgomery, Mansfield, Carlisle, Jackson and York this year. No one quite seems to know why.