First and foremost, the people of Spokane make us special. There is a deep undercurrent of community and camaraderie that influences nearly every aspect of life in Spokane. We support and lift up each other on a daily basis, constantly trying to improve the lives of those around us.

The heart of the Inland Northwest, Spokane is a flourishing city located on the banks of the Spokane River, which contains the largest urban waterfall in the United States. Known as the “Lilac City,” we were home to the 1974 World’s Fair, also known as Expo '74, the first environmentally themed World’s Fair. The site is now the crown jewel of our parks system, Riverfront Park.

The city has the perfect layout for a world-class transit system, with a street grid laid out during our early years, when streetcars dominated American transit. While the streetcars were unfortunately dismantled in the late 1930s, Spokane Transit Authority has carried their legacy, becoming one of the best mid-sized transit agencies in the country. The buildings of downtown Spokane are a mix of many prominent architectural styles, including Romanesque Revival, Art Deco and Modernist.

Spokane has had some high-profile legislative wins in recent years, including elimination of single-family zoning through its “Building Opportunity for All” ordinance, which legalized fourplexes citywide and encourages denser development near transit. The city has eliminated parking mandates for all uses and lifted height restrictions on new buildings in the downtown core.

In addition, Spokane Reimagined has worked in collaboration with city officials multiple times over the last few years to address the community’s needs. Shortly after our formation, Spokane Reimagined helped draft and advocate for the Janet Mann “Safe Streets Now” resolution, which legalizes and encourages the use of quick-build, adaptive designs to address traffic safety concerns. Named after a local community advocate who was killed by a hit-and-run driver in broad daylight, the resolution aims to get safety improvements out swiftly and study their impacts in real time.

We inspired and advocated for the 27 by 2027 Urban Mobility Network, a citywide grid of safe walking and biking routes using the quick-build infrastructure promoted by the “Safe Streets Now” resolution. We led a community advocacy effort in support of a commercial parking tax to incentivize redevelopment of underutilized and underappraised prime real estate.

Spokane Reimagined members have been appointed to the city’s Bicycle Advisory Board and Transportation Commission, as well as to Spokane Transit Authority’s Citizen Advisory Committee and Spokane Regional Transportation Council’s Equity Working Group.

In 2025, in response to a distinct shortage of bus stops with seating, Spokane Reimagined constructed 29 bus benches to commemorate the Week Without Driving, one for each of Spokane’s neighborhoods. In addition to securing a small grant from America Walks and Disability Rights Washington, we solicited donations of materials from family-owned Ziggy's Home Improvement and Ace Hardware, and collaborated with local artists to paint the benches.

The benches were distributed on National Good Neighbor Day, immediately before the Week Without Driving began. The benches have been extremely well received by the community, with Spokane Reimagined regularly fielding requests for new bench placements. Local high school On Track Academy has built and painted 10 additional benches, which Spokane Reimagined will distribute to locations chosen by students.

The people. From politicians and neighborhood leaders to small-business owners and students, we can see Spokane’s potential and strive to make it better on a daily basis. We want to be a part of that continuous improvement.

Spokane is a phenomenal place to live, work and play. A midsized city with a small-town feel, Spokane is big enough that advocates can have an outsized impact but small enough that advocacy does not feel overwhelming. It has a vibrant small-business community, neighborhoods with unique identities and one of the best transit systems in the country. Worker co-ops are commonplace, as are locally focused nonprofits. The arts community is tight-knit and supportive.

We love Spokane, and we want the world to see how wonderful it truly is.