Has potential but does not live up to it.
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4/26/2023
Lived here all of my life. I've visited enough cities to understand that Spokane could be so much better, but it falls short in many ways. Its car-oriented development has really ruined the city in my opinion. Everyone complains about the road quality here, but it lacks for several reasons, which I will describe later. There are five and six car lane roads in DOWNTOWN, the most "pedestrian friendly" area of the city. There are hardly any useful bike lanes here. 99% of bike lanes here are unprotected, narrow, and make no sense. There's one out by the airport, which is only accessible by highway and starts like four miles after the highway exit. Most bike lanes are really just lanes shared with cars, and they just have a bicycle symbol painted on them on the pavement. Public transit has been so neglected and the public opinion on it here is so awful that small upgrades are seen as huge milestones. We don't even have dedicated bus lanes anywhere in the city yet. Suffice to say, you'll rely on your car, heavily, and between gas, insurance, and parking, you'll be spending a lot of money on your car if you want to do stuff around here.
There is a lot of cool stuff to do, and the food scene has gotten significantly better within the last five years. Good pizza used to be Pizza Hut, now it has to be scratch-made dough and woodfired if that business wants to make money. The coffee scene around here is better than every city I've visited, even Seattle. If you work downtown, you have an option on nearly every block. There are even great coffee shops in the suburbs. There are also plenty of activities, ranging from paintball, go-karting, golf, and the parks. But again, many of these are car-oriented so if you can't afford one or don't want to own one for moral reasons, or you simply live in an apartment that doesn't offer parking, you are only going to be able to do food/drink.
Extending on that, this is an outdoorsman's paradise. Plenty of skiing, fishing, hunting, hiking, dirt biking, camping, all within day-trip distance. We also get a large contrast in weather, ranging from single digit temps and a couple feet of snow, to heat so blistering that you want to move to the Tundra to escape it. We even had "90 days over 90" one summer.
So let me explain why Spokane's car-oriented development is so harmful to the city, and why it's much worse than other cities, even San Diego. About 30% of downtown's land is just surface parking, and it's only 60% capacity during peak times (according to a city survey and KXLY news article). This poor land use is why Spokane was one of the most overvalued housing markets for a few years when the housing market exploded. Downtown can feel so lifeless in some areas. Many residents also feel unsafe because these parking lots give spots for homeless to hang around. Although the homeless problem here is bad, they haven't been too problematic in my experience compared to other cities, and most of the population here used to be normal residents until they got priced out during the housing crisis. I regularly park my car on the street downtown and have never had a break-in.
The excessive car-oriented development has also led to increased traffic. By adding more lanes, we've essentially induced demand, and travel times got worse, like it always does. Not only that, there are so many roads around here that keeping up with maintenance is impossible. There are constant road closures that the public complains about, and it only gets worse because of the chemicals used to treat ice during the winter, and the amount of people that use studded tires. Also the sheer volume and weight of the cars ruins them faster.
There is no diversity in Spokane's development. There are no pedestrian streets, you cannot safely bike, taking the bus is a stupid idea due to infrequent service and you'll have to walk 10-15 minutes to reach your destination after because stops can be very spread out at times. You don't really think about that until you go to another place and see a whole street closed off for outdoor dining, and you see how vibrant it is. Walla Walla does a better job at this and is a smaller town southeast of Spokane. It also forces you to be isolated - you can't really have one-too-many beers and bike home, you have to drive or Uber. You can't really walk along very many strips and go shopping like you can in other cities because so many good shops are so spread out.
Overall:
Food 7/10. Great beer, some cultural options lacking, most places are great.
Entertainment 6/10. Big enough to get some big name artists. Minor-league games are also fun and affordable.
Urban design 3/10. Downtown is as good as it gets and is comparable to suburban business districts in CA.
Culture 5/10. Super white, diverse political spectrum. Most people here live isolated lives.
Transit 7/10 for US, 3/10 compared to EU.
Affordability 8/10. Used to be affordable enough to rent a 1 bdr on min wage, not anymore. Coffee is $5-6, pints are $8, burger at decent restaurant is $25.
General infrastructure 8/10. Has everything you need, from big hospitals to an airport. Needs a commuter train going from east-west into Idaho though.
Outdoors 10/10, you cannot get better than Spokane.
Hunter | Spokane, WA