When Journal editor Linn Parish asked me to contribute to our Visions special edition, the first thing to come to mind for me was an old quote from columnist George Will. He said, “The future has a way of arriving unannounced.”

The quip is relevant, because to ponder Spokane’s future, we must first pause to think about the arguably stunning realities that have already arrived—realities that some of us who have been around awhile never dreamed would be part of our future.

Who would have thought even a couple decades ago, for instance, that Spokane would be producing more medical school graduates than does Seattle? Would we have envisioned then that we would construct on the north bank of downtown both a world-class indoor track-and-field facility and a football and professional soccer stadium about three years apart? And alas, could we have truthfully predicted that we would see congestion stop traffic on Interstate 90 at rush hour, or that we would have shortages of housing and labor, or that homelessness would become such a divisive problem here?

As a Spokane native, I couldn’t have imagined a lively life-sciences college campus on the scab rock land just east of the Expo 74 grounds I had strolled, or the wonderful park that took the place of the gritty rail lines and industrial buildings once on those grounds.

So, predicting Spokane’s future is ripe with folly, given our community’s ability to do what often isn’t easy to imagine.

But let me speculate, wishfully, starting with our downtown core.

After decades of pre-pandemic work to grow foot traffic on nights and weekends—attracted by a foodie environment, cultural entertainment, and experiential shopping—business and city leaders will work in the future to mitigate the weekday dearth of office workers who went home and stayed there when the term “remote work” took hold.

Offices will invite back more of their workers, even if only in a hybrid experience. Tech companies from afar will set up smaller downtown office environments where their growing remote Spokane staff can spend time collaborating face to face, something that will increasingly be missed by all hybrid workforces. 

Meanwhile, some of the vacant office space those workers fled will be converted to additional market-rate housing, which also will bolster both work-day and after-hours foot traffic. Such re-development efforts might also be enhanced when the Washington Legislature finally gets off its hands and figures out how to solve the condo liability issues that has restricted that much-needed option in our housing ecosystem.

With more people living and working downtown, more services will come, including grocery stores, hardware stores, pharmacies, and the like. A virtuous circle of development will occur.

And Spokane’s core won’t be the only neighborhood to experience this. With investment and political will, it will be replicated in other centers of activity, enhancing already growing districts such as Garland, South Perry, East Sprague, and the University District. And yes, a similar picture will emerge in Spokane Valley, giving that now maturing city the downtown core it deserves.

Much of this will depend on our community coming together on three important fronts: economic development strategy, education/workforce development, and a culture in which all population groups can prosper together.

Let’s start with economic development.

First, we must agree on its definition. Is it recruiting new industries and employers to the community? Is it helping those already here grow? Is it creating an environment in which entrepreneurial ventures can be launched? Is it ensuring a business climate that is conducive to growth? Is it educating and training enough workers? Is it building the infrastructure and worker housing needed for growth?

The answer is yes, to all.  Economic development is a complex endeavor. Arguing over which element deserves more of our attention takes our attention away from the greater goal.

The same can be said of our economic development organizations, which now range from PDAs to chambers to EDOs, DMOs, BIDs, PFDs, and likely a few other acronyms. Learning to celebrate each of their differences, focusing on clarity of role, and encouraging each to endeavor to lift the others up all are critical for reaching those goals. 

So, too, is our community’s success in finding sustainable, community-wide economic development funding, likely from public sources, to leverage the already generous support such organizations get from private investment.

With that support, our future will see more of the already blossoming progress in key industries such as life sciences, advanced manufacturing, and aerospace, which are the building blocks for growth in our lagging per-capita and household income levels. 

Similarly, they will help us bolster our startups ecosystem, which already has found its legs here, and is a more important factor in economic growth than we give it credit for, especially considering the success the Puget Sound economy enjoys with many home-grown—rather than recruited—large employers. 

Baked into that is the notion that it is arguably more important to attract and retain smart people than it is to attract garden variety industry. That also is a virtuous circle, because smart people like to be around smart people, and smart entrepreneurs and research scientists are without doubt a catalyst for growth.

I mention income levels because within our stats lie the roots of our biggest challenges. 

Poverty is more than just a social ill. Poverty equates to lack of opportunity. It results in populations that don’t get the education or training they need and thus don’t become part of a workforce here that isn’t keeping up with demand.  It results in populations that lack adequate health care and become financial burdens on providers and social safety nets. 

And, yes, it results in homelessness, addiction, poor mental health, and crime.

Our community’s future vitality will depend on ensuring that all populations rise together. Think of them as threads in a fabric; if some are worn or unravel, the fabric itself won’t be durable or attractive.

Education is fundamental to easing poverty, so the proud efforts of our school systems and colleges here will become even more important, as will efforts like Launch Northwest, aimed at ensuring all young people get the education or training they need to move forward in their careers.

It’s appropriate to mention education in that way because it is not a quick fix, but rather a longitudinal voyage. So, too, are investments that provide long-term improvement on the addiction, mental-health, and abuse fronts, all of which will lead to vital and productive humans.

People are at the center of our future. All people.

I say it often among my friends, but I will repeat it here. I have never been more optimistic about Spokane’s future, based on who I know we are and who are following in our footsteps. It’s a pretty great view from here.

Paul Read is the publisher of the Journal of Business.