When Sandy Williams began looking for a building to house the Carl Maxey Center, she was intentional in picking a space along Fifth Avenue in Spokane’s East Central Neighborhood. East Central is one of the largest neighborhoods in Spokane, and the 5th Avenue corridor has long been a gathering place, a vibrant heart of the community that has historically been amongst the most diverse in Spokane. Featuring historic churches, community-based organizations, and long-standing businesses, beloved by community members, but not without its own struggles.
Sandy was intentional about being part of the “heart,” building solutions, and addressing the concerns of neighborhood residents and Black community members from within the neighborhood.
Many of the struggles community members continue to face today can be attributed to historic policies, including redlining, racial covenants, and displacement due to the purchase of and destruction of homes for the completion of the I-90 highway in the 60’s and again with the North South Corridor set to be completed in 2030. In 2023, the Carl Maxey Center’s 5th Avenue Forward initiative received a grant from the Community Connectors Program to join a cohort addressing community reconnection in 15 cities across the country with similar histories of disruption, underinvestment, and divisive infrastructure in communities of color.
Our community, luckily, has completed an important step, championed by Sandy. The passing of SB5853 creates a pathway for the redevelopment of surplus land purchased by WSDOT. To learn more about SB5853 and what it means for East Central, visit the 5th Avenue Forward website at 5thavenueforward.org.
Over the summer, our work continued with a community-driven study of our local sidewalk infrastructure, connecting with East Central residents to share their experiences and top priorities via a quick survey and an open house co-hosted by CMC, the 5th Avenue Forward team, and the City of Spokane’s ReFive planning project team.
Our goal is to be a resource that helps people know about and engage with opportunities when they are available, and to inform their top priorities or concerns. If you work, live, play, or pray in the East Central Neighborhood, if your family once called East Central home, if you frequently visit businesses or organizations along 5th avenue, and especially if you are a resident of East Central – we need your voice to influence the plans and reinvestment coming to the neighborhood in the next decade. Some changes may take years to fulfill, which can be frustrating; after all, our neighborhood deserves safety, well-being, and investment now, but if we never start the work, our children will be doing and saying the same. Your engagement now begins the investment in the next generations.
To learn more, visit the 5th Avenue Forward website at 5thavenueforward.org. Be sure to check out the “Get Connected” page, which lists upcoming events and engagement opportunities. Fill out the form at the bottom of the page to stay connected and to be part of the reinvestment.