Secret Deal : The Story Behind the River Park Square Garage

by Tim Connor

How could anything as boring as a downtown parking garage erupt like a political Mt. St. Helens in the heart of Washington’s second largest city? Secret Deal, Tim Connor’s exhaustive investigation of the River Park Square "public/private" partnership, takes readers on a guided tour into the volcano. It shines a light on the high-pressure deals, the misguided "compromises," and the empty promises that created the cover for the multimillion dollar public subsidy of the Cowles family’s River Park Square mall. It also exposes—as no other piece of journalism ever has—the extent to which the community health of Spokane is influenced by Cowles media interests. Anyone concerned with the future of the Inland Northwest’s hub city will find this book invaluable as a permanent reference. Beyond that, those interested in the broader questions of the vulnerability of municipal fiscal health to the sharp dealing of private developers and their lawyers, as well as the role of an independent media in protecting the public interest, will discover a rare glimpse in these pages. Most readers will probably agree that Secret Deal addresses a subject that begs for much more state and national scrutiny, and no small amount of local soul-searching.

120 pages, Paperback

First published November 6, 2000