Friends of the Falls seek honorary name, recall 1990s fight to stop Lincoln Street bridge

Friends of the Falls asked a Spokane City Council subcommittee on June 15 to place an honorary plaque on the Lincoln Street Bridge recognizing the volunteer group’s role in protecting the Lower Falls from a proposed vehicular bridge in the late 1990s.

The group’s representative, Rick Hastings, traced the group's work from its founding around 1997 through a long planning process and said the organization pivoted from opposing the bridge to promoting the river and public access. “The river itself … was the best salesperson for the potential of that of it,” Hastings said.

Why it matters: The Friends of the Falls say their grassroots campaign changed city policy and helped produce a strategic master plan for the gorge that led to parks and trail projects now in place. The group asked for an honorary recognition — a plaque or interpretive sign — rather than a formal renaming, a proposal that some council members said should follow the city’s honorary-naming procedures.

Hastings outlined the group’s work: convening experts in 1997, securing a $250,000 state grant to underwrite the 2005 strategic master plan, and participating in projects that led to Huntington Park improvements, the Gathering Place Plaza, the Red Band Park boat launch and the recent Gorge Loop Trail. He credited volunteer research and legal work that helped defeat a shoreline permit for the proposed bridge; he said the Department of Ecology denied the permit, a ruling later upheld by the hearings board, and that, on Feb. 15, 2000, the City Council voted 7–0 to kill the Lincoln Street Bridge project.

Council discussion focused on process. Several council members asked how the Friends had been invited to apply for an honorary name and whether outreach had been broad enough. Marlene, a city director present at the meeting, said the idea had been “swirling out there” for years and that the mayor and public works staff had been involved in outreach. Council President Wilkerson noted the proposal appears to be an honorary designation rather than a formal renaming and compared the process to the city’s existing honorary road-naming procedure. One councilmember reminded colleagues that the city’s honorary naming lasts four years unless the council acts otherwise.

Next steps: Friends of the Falls said they plan to work with Parks staff to locate a plaque or interpretive signage and to hold a celebration once placement is approved. Councilmembers suggested the group follow the city’s formal honorary naming process if council wishes to treat the bridge the same as other honorary designations.

Ending: Hastings said the Friends had merged remaining funds in 2016 with the Spokane River Forum to continue river advocacy; the group requested recognition that would explain how citizen action shaped the gorge’s long-term planning.