Ben Stuckart, City Council President, 509.625.6258
Friday, September 27, 2013 at 11:10 a.m.
Spokane Council Members held a press conference this morning with downtown business owners and The Downtown Spokane Partnership Executive Director Mark Richard to talk about improving safety in the downtown core.
“While overall crime is downtown there have been some high-profile incidents and there are a group of younger people causing issues, and we need to confront this issue head on,” said Ben Stuckart, City Council President.
The press conference highlighted increased law enforcement support, investment in infrastructure and funding for programs that will change downtown’s economic activity and vitality.
“It is going to take a team effort and the Downtown Spokane Partnership is glad to be partnering with the City Council and administration to improve our image and confront issues collaboratively.” said Mark Richard
City Council members worked together the past three weeks to create a blueprint for downtown moving forward as the economic engine for the region. Business owners were enthusiastic about measures to give law enforcement additional tools to address public nuisance issues and addressing long term challenges that have plagued the downtown core.
“I work downtown and have seen some of the problems get worse in the last few years. I am glad to see all of our community partners step up to address these issues,” said Doug Durham of Wells Fargo bank.
The City Council has given themselves 90 days to implement 10 specific actions that would remediate business owners and visitor complaints about safety and revitalization concerns.
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