Kennewick Real Estate Blog

Jesse Jackson was in Kennewick last night to give a speech in support of medical isotope technology, which is all fine and good. But check this out: In his speech about that topic, he apparently managed to slam the Tri-Cities as a whole.

He poked fun at the Tri-Cities, saying nobody just happens to pass through here, but he meant to come here. He described the community as being “in the middle of nowhere” and said there isn’t much else to do here than to think.

Say what??!! Nothing to do but think? Let’s see, just down at Columbia Park you can go jet skiiing, or feed the ducks, or maybe admire the bridge architecture, or go jogging or maybe take a leisurely stroll around the park.

In the summer, you can watch the Tri-Cities Water Follies boat races, check out the 4th of July fireworks over the Columbia River, or play at the water park.

So there you go, Jesse. That’s just stuff to do in Kennewick at Columbia Park. Don’t get me started on other parts of Kennewick, like the Tri-Cities Coliseum or the Columbia Center Mall or ………..

(quote taken from today’s Tri-City Herald)

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Replacing old stadiums and arenas with shiny, new facilities has long been a trend in big cities across the U.S. And wow … it seems like that trend may be hitting Kennewick soon.

According to today’s Tri-City Herald, the Kennewick city council is likely going to spend $250,000 to study expanding or replacing the Tri-Cities Coliseum (which is currently known as the Toyota Center thanks to advertising rights). And it’s not just a study that’s in the works. Mayor Jim Beaver and a couple council members already know what they want to do, and are talking like it could be a done deal:

“The answer is we’re going to spend $250,000. And I think we should build a new building on the north side of the area,” said Mayor Jim Beaver.

Councilmen Paul Parish and Jim Hempstead said they agree.

But the council’s formal decision won’t come until April 15 at a regular meeting when votes can be taken, said Bob Hammond, city manager.

Isn’t that interesting? The Tri-Cities Coliseum is an adequate building for basic purposes, but it’s nothing special — certainly not an attraction in any way.

In big cities, whenever talk of new arenas or stadiums comes up, it almost always involves big sums of public or tax monies. And that always leads to a vocal backlash against the plan. I notice this article makes no mention of who would pay for a new arena in Kennewick, and if it involves public dollars, I wonder if the backlash locally will be as loud as it is in bigger cities.

As warmer weather starts to arrive here in the Tri-Cities, I’ll be on the lookout for photo opportunities like the one you see up above in the “header” of this blog. I took that photo last July 4 along the banks of the Columbia River in Kennewick. Cari and I took the kids down to the river to watch the annual fireworks display over the river, and we enjoyed this sunset while waiting for the sky to get dark.

This reminds me of one thing that out-of-town friends and family often say when they see photos I’ve taken around the Tri-Cities area: We have a beautiful sky.

Amen to that.

Here’s a larger version of the photo, and you can click on it to go to Flickr and see what other people said about this one.