It really is stunning what Facebook can do. This was the most recent status update on a fan page called Spokane Aquarium:
“Getting closer to the 2,000th fan for the Spokane Aquarium in less than three weeks. Who will be the lucky 2000th?”
The aquarium concept is an informal proposal to the former YMCA building that has received little press. As the deadline approaches for spending Conservation Futures funds to tear down ($5.4 million of taxpayer money, thank you very much) and create an open space or re-develop the property, our elected officials are relatively silent on the idea as well.

Image courtesy of MetroSpokane.
A rally for the aquarium at Riverfront Park on March 27th hopes to create something substantive. It starts at 9:35am in front of C.I. Shenangians, then “fish heads” are planning to march to the old Y to let people know “We Want An Aquarium, And We Want It Now!”
By the time I finished writing this post, Spokane Aquarium had gained five new fans, inching closer to that lucky number. But the number of guests attending the rally: only 16. What does this arms length, self-promotion actually accomplish? That remains to be seen. Meanwhile the aquarium mania is mostly just fun and games without any detailed proposal to build financial support for the project.
A Spokane Aquarium is a big, beautiful idea and an admirable expression to the loss of faith of an anti-democratic process that got the old Y building ensnared in a financial nightmare. Yet the time spent on the page only makes the solution more elusive when a real community event is met with despondence. All it takes is a swift click of the mouse, after all.
- You can become a fan of the Spokane Aquarium and/or attend the rally here.
- There’s also an Inland Northwest Aquarium Society, but their site has not been updated in a year.
Tags: Identity Crisis · Political Surprise · Spokane Pride5 Comments













