Double whammy

By Brendan Kelty Naples
Reader Contributor

I was dismayed reading in the March 13 edition the Reader about the current financial troubles at the James E. Russell Sports Center at Travers Park due to lower than expected revenues. I was not a proponent of the facility being built at that particular location. As with any civic outcome that doesn’t go my way, I hoped for the best, and that several user groups in addition to pickleballers would buff out membership and a wider spectrum of Sandpointians would benefit from this narrowly focused facility. 

My reservations seem to have proved correct, unfortunately. At the expense of quality green space and playground, a shelter popular for gatherings, the Baldy Mountain vista from Pine Street and predictability for sluggers using Travers ball fields, we now behold a monolithic, underutilized “drain on city resources,” as Mayor Jeremy Grimm described it. 

Change is hard and is to be expected, and a new playground has been built. The fact remains, however, that the public loses further access to the thing that eliminated the green space, as the city reduces open hours to cut operating costs and stop the bleeding. Are we now entombing 40,000 square feet of formerly free-use public park? Double whammy.

The interior of the James E. Russell Sports Center before it opened to the public in December 2024. Courtesy photo.

This reminds me of another scenario, when the University of Idaho Extension on North Boyer Avenue was sold for development. Remember the multi-use land between North Boyer and Sand Creek? Anybody could bask in an outdoor, urban getaway, just a couple minutes from downtown and connected to the wider area via multiple paved trails.

Here was an idyllic and accessible mosaic of poplar grove, fields and stream-side forest. Sadly, it was sold to the highest bidder. Standard practice, really. But, one got the impression the city didn’t fight hard enough to acquire this land for its citizens. 

Maybe that’s unfair. It was, after all, too expensive. But looking back (hindsight being 20/20) that was the pre-COVID real estate market — cheap by today’s standards. And, wasn’t the sale of this land just four years after the city passed a multi-million dollar levy to overhaul War Memorial Field? As a wise man says, “Where there’s a will, there’s a way.”

The city’s 2018 Master Plan for this property was admirable in its proposed scenarios, which all included large publicly-accessible green spaces in addition to thoughtful development: residences, storefronts and, yes, an indoor recreation facility. Alas, it wasn’t meant to be. Now hark! “Base Camp,” a beacon of Post Falls-style sprawl. What a loss to the community. 

Where was the breakdown between visionary city planning coupled with extensive public engagement, and dogged, no-holds-barred real estate acquisition on behalf of everyday Sandpoint residents?

Spare us the subterfuge that the development provides much needed low-cost housing inventory. A trip to Zillow shows $650,000-$900,000 listings — hardly the price point targeted by first-time home owners, the middle class or service industry workers, groups so important to a balanced, thriving community where median income is $67,800.

City leaders, average people need a victory. You’ve planned a wonderful city, but it seems that unless a person has several million bucks and a penchant for post-colonial, neo-modern, asymmetrical, rustic chic mountain condominium architecture then they don’t have a voice in what happens around here. 

What’s next, a members-only jet ski timeshare marina at Third Street Pier? A Topgolf driving range at Hickory Park? Fee-based canopy zipline tours at the Native Plant Arboretum? You do not want to see members of the Kinnikinnick Native Plant Society when they’re mad. 

We need places for moms to stroll and pups to run. Where little tykes can go on nature walks and look for Sasquatch. Where adventure-seekers cannonball into the lake from public land, burn off energy, gather. Please reprioritize public-use open spaces. The equation’s simple: more open spaces, not less of them. 

Admittedly, the sale of UI Extension land was a separate issue and the university had the right to sell to a buyer of their choice. And no offense to pickleballers and those staged at “Base Camp” in preparation for their next expedition to Eichardt’s. There were complexities and years of debate, which led to current outcomes. However, on net balance in the public-access-to-open-space ledger, we are in the red. Two cherished green spaces have slipped away to the highest bidders within the past decade. 

Whether those bidders were acting philanthropically or commercially, and it should be said within their rights, residents have forever lost use of prime generational community land. 

City of Sandpoint, please remember to advocate — dare I say fight — for the rest of us and not solely for special interests with lots of cash.

Brendan Kelty Naples is a varsity armchair quarterback and local songster.