Check out Spokesman coverage of the recent ruling regarding the whitewater park project on the Spokane River. For more information about the project, visit the Friends of the Falls website.

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Tuesday, May 5, 2009
Kayaking Exhibition: 6pm
Dinner: 7:30-9:30pm
Bitterroot Lodge
21850 E. Bitterroot Lane
Liberty Lake

Enjoy a live demonstration of whitewater kayaking on the Spokane River and an evening with Gary Lacey, the designer of the Spokane Whitewater Park and, with 30 completed parks to his name, the nation’s foremost expert on community whitewater parks.

FREESTYLE KAYAKING
At 6pm, Gary will judge a freestyle “Hydrotherapy Session” on the Spokane River near Liberty Lake. Local kayakers will give you a taste of the action the Whitewater Park will bring to downtown Spokane. Admission is free for Friends of the Falls members; for non-members we suggest a $10 donation. The location will depend on river flows – check here for updates on location and logistics.

DINNER AT BITTERROOT LODGE
At 7:30 pm, join Gary Lacey and local paddlers at the Bitterroot Lodge in Liberty Lake’s River District for dinner, $25/plate, and enjoy complementary beverages. We’ll give a brief update on the Whitewater Park, and Gary will award prizes for the day’s kayak events. Proceeds benefit Friends of the Falls.

Dinner seating is limited. RSVP today to mail@friendsofthefalls.org. Join or renew your Friends of the Falls membership at our website by April 30 and dinner is on us!

Thanks to our event sponsors, Greenstone Homes, the Coeur d’Alene Brewing Company, and Mountain Gear.

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The Inlander emailed a couple weeks ago asking me to contribute “some big, stupid, revolutionary ideas that the Spokane area can — and should — implement in 2008.” Here’s what I sent back:

At the risk of being too policy oriented:
1. Adopt a comprehensive plan to reestablish the salmon run in the Spokane River–all the way to their historical spawning grounds at the base of the Monroe St. Bridge.
2. Implement a major Transit Oriented Development initiative–including light rail.
3. Abandon the North South Freeway project.

They must not have liked the last two ideas becuase they only interviewed me about the first one. (The salmon idea is one that I credit Brian Flett for giving me when I interviewed him for OTM‘s very first issue in 2004. Otherwise known as the issue that resurrected the downtown whitewater park from the dead.)

Now that I have thought about it more there’s one other idea I wish I would have shared. We need a way to capture more tourist dollars from Canada. Why not build a curling rink?

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