downtown photos (Spokane, Yakima, Kennewick: sales, condo, hotel)

[puerco]

I've never seen any photos of these cities' downtowns. Do they not have downtowns? Are they just sprawling subdivisions? I've always just skirted the edge of the Tri-cities when driving to Spokane but didn't see anything resembling a central city skyline.

[skinem]

There isn't a central city skyline as there isn't a central city---you do have three downtowns, but, they resemble three small-town downtowns...

[puerco]

Thanks. So is any one city considered 'the main city' of the three? What are their populations?

[M3 Mitch]

Well, I don't know the populations off the top of my head, but Kennewick seems to have the best business climate, that's where the Mall is, Richland is more residential, Pasco more industrial.

Richland, as you probably know, started out as a Hanford town, you got a job at Hanford, you got a house in Richland to go with it. And it still has a lot of nuclear workers.

All 3 cities have better and worse parts, some have relatively cheap parts of town that are OK, parts of Pasco and Kennewick are a bit rough.

[j_k_k]

Originally Posted by puerco

Thanks. So is any one city considered 'the main city' of the three? What are their populations?

They're all pretty close in population now; you can find the numbers on the research side of this site. None is really the main city. Pasco has the TRAC, bus/train station, baseball stadium and airport. Kennewick has the mall, fairgrounds, boat races and hockey rink. Richland has the best hospital and probably best schools, most architectural nostalgia (lot of atomic age construction still stands) and hosts numerous outdoor festivals. None of them has a downtown worthy of mention, although Kennewick sweats and strains over it like an old guy who just ate two pounds of Tillamook sharp cheddar. Doesn't help. It's full of tattoo parlors and bars and several rather great businesses that have been there so long they probably sold office supplies, lawn mowers and hardware to the Native Americans. And probably got along great with them because of their fair pricing and great service.

Ethnically speaking, Pasco has the most melanin, Richland the least. I personally think Kennewick's government is the stupidest and most obviously corrupt, but that's because I live there and I'm admittedly not very familiar with the others. Perhaps their citizens feel exactly the same. None of the cities are particularly well thought out from a standpoint of getting around. However, except at certain specific times, there also isn't much traffic. So while you do have to go way around to get where you want to, you can usually do that without having a road rage.

The great thing about this area is that no one much bugs anyone about anything, and nearly everyone is very polite. It is a good place to be different, because as long as you don't wash people's faces in your differences, the vast majority will not give a rip how you live your life. And looking like I look, and believing the things I believe (in short, I believe most people around here are wrong about most things most of the time), I really value that. So I refrain from washing their faces in it (that's why this is a good venting ground), treat people courteously, and no one bugs me. That should not be underrated as a virtue, especially given the way they bomb abortion clinics in my home state (for example).

Speaking of my home state, those Phelps scum (who are NOT from my home state; they just infest it) beings came out here to do their flag-stomping, religion-insulting routine for a Marine's memorial service a couple years back, and in so doing provided a great example of why I like Tri-Cities. There were five Phelpscum. Blocking the funeral party completely from their view had to be two thousand highly eclectic Tri-Citians: bikers, atheists, Unitarians, pagans, Baptists, Mormons, whites, Hispanics, blacks, Asians, old war vets, young war vets, teens, grannies, straights, gays and more. Every stripe of the population. We may not all agree on much, but we all agree that people who drive 1700 miles to try and offend a fallen Marine's family deserve to be shown that we won't just stay home and say it's not our problem. I was really proud of where I live that day. It may be wrong on many things, but it was right as rain on that one.

[skinem]

Good description and pretty accurate, j_k_k, and apparently I have to spread some rep points.

I saw a duplicate of your Phelps experience there in Huntsville, AL. ALL kinds showed up to screen that group off from the family of a slain soldier. It was a good thing to see. The only ones that paid them any attention were the media and a few police keeping an eye on things.

[j_k_k]

Originally Posted by skinem

I saw a duplicate of your Phelps experience there in Huntsville, AL. ALL kinds showed up to screen that group off from the family of a slain soldier. It was a good thing to see. The only ones that paid them any attention were the media and a few police keeping an eye on things.

I had to represent in a KU t-shirt. Those people do not represent Kansas. Even the abortion clinic bombing types don't like them. But it really doesn't surprise me that it worked just the same in Huntsville. I'd expect the same in Berkeley or Greenbelt or anywhere in between.

Their gig is to try and provoke a media-worthy reaction so they can seem relevant beyond the inevitable local news coverage. They want a story on CNN with them being trampled and beaten. When it was evident to them that stomping on the US flag wasn't going to provoke that, they gave up. It really has nothing to do with the event at hand for them; they just want someone to take a whack at them so they can whine and sue.

[tcres]

Kennewick: 65,860
Pasco: 52,647
Richland: 38,708

The lack of a "real" downtown is my biggest complaint of the Tri-Cities. Most cities that are much smaller then this area as a whole have much larger, interesting downtown areas.

In my parents childhood downtown Kennewick/Pasco was were you went to shop. That's where the department stores were before the mall. Now most of them consist of bars as mentioned previously. I think if it weren't for the bars most of them would be in worse shape. Pasco seems to have a more active downtown but its mostly hispanic orientated and I do not go there much except for special events, such as the farmers market or fiery food festival.

Driving North/South on 395 has to encourage the worst impression possible of the Tri-Cities. Dilapidated mobile home parks on both sides of the river definitely don't help. Besides that all you see is the typical big box retailers... Wal-Mart is one of the first things you notice when entering Kennewick... ugh. I really hope the Southridge area is developed in a more tasteful fashion.

I've never really understood the concentration of manufactured home sales on that stretch of 395 either. Why are they all right there? That has to be all of the show lots in the Tri-Cities, I've never seen one elsewhere.

The only tall buildings you really see in the area are grain elevators. I think the tallest buildings in all three cities only reach six stories. Maybe one or two of the federal/hanford related in Richland are seven but I'm not sure. A eight story condo project under construction in Richland was scrapped and is now going to be a hotel/office building. Kadlec Hospital is six stories now but they plan to build up to ten stories in the next couple years I believe.

One of the things I miss about living in a larger city the most is the downtown/skyscrapers. I would love to see this area build up and preserve more of the natural land.

[Alaskan Mutt]

When I lived in the area about 26 years ago downtown Richland pretty much consisted of a large strip mall. Pasco actually had a downtown area. Was not much. Back around the early 80's I seem to remember Pasco trying to revitalize their downtown area. One business did a very good job upgrading the exterior of their building and upgrading the sidewalk area. The city councle gave them recognition for their efforts. There was a huge uproar over this. Seems the business was a XXX rated theater.

[j_k_k]

Originally Posted by Alaskan Mutt

When I lived in the area about 26 years ago downtown Richland pretty much consisted of a large strip mall.

Still does...at least north of the Yakima. What has occurred is that Richland (bounded on three sides by the Columbia, Hanford and West Richland) has grown south toward I-82. Huge tracts of pretty recent construction out there. West Richland has gone nuts, though the bridge over the Yakima still has the DISMOUNT AND LEAD HORSES sign. The latest building craziness is West Pasco; you wouldn't recognize Road 68. And hang tight, because the next one will be along 395 going south from 27th. One of these days that WSP station will be like a community precinct rather than an isolated police post.

One good thing about this area is that if it wants to expand, it just has to acquire more desert. That's why I've always thought we needed a real, full-dress four-year university not tied to any other: Southern Washington University. It's not like you couldn't find enough desert to build it on.