S-R lies low despite high figures
Reporters fail to check up on Walker's parking estimates

Jim Camden
Staff writer

When the city and the owners of River Park Square began discussing a public-private partnership to renovate the mall, editors of The Spokesman-Review considered it a major business story.

But not a major political story.

Reporters initially covered the size and cost of the proposed renovation and some of the evolving details of a possible agreement between the city and affiliates of Cowles Publishing Co., the owner of the newspaper.

But The Spokesman-Review reporters, as well as other members of the news media and the public, were not present for discussions between city staff and agents of the developer. While closed meetings would be standard for a private business deal, public agencies would be more restricted by open meetings laws.

The newspaper did not independently check the figures of the Walker parking study or test the proposed parking rates of $1.50 an hour until early 2000. When it did, reporters quickly discovered that Walker overestimated the average cost of parking in Spokane in 1996.

When the project was delayed and a decision was made to open a partially completed mall in mid-1999, reporters did not go back to the developers, city officials or Walker to ask about the possible loss of parking revenue that would create.

But mainly, reporters didn't apply what they knew was a basic fact of downtown parking in Spokane -- that local residents hate to pay for parking so much that they'll walk several blocks to a cheaper 10-hour parking meter or as much as a half-mile to park free in Browne's Addition or west of the north end of the Monroe Street Bridge.

How do they know that? Because they do it, too.

Jim Camden can be reached at (509) 459-5461 or by e-mail at jimc@spokesman.com.

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