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The Garbage Goat is a metal sculpture in Spokane, Washington's Riverfront Park. It was created by Paula Mary Turnbull, a local artist known as the "welding nun", for Expo '74, the city's 1974 world's fair. The sculpture features an internal vacuum mechanism allowing the goat to "eat" trash held close to its mouth. It is also known as the Garbage-Eating Goat; the sculpture does not have a known official name, though Turnbull originally referred to the goat as "Billy".The Garbage Goat has become an iconic part of Spokane culture and one of its most popular tourist attractions. It has inspired a cult following, a "secret goat culture" in the city, and a series of goat-themed businesses. The debut of the Garbage Goat at Expo '74 was met with protests from dairy goat farmers, who objected to the sculpture as perpetuating the stereotype that goats are reputed to eat anything.

Upper Falls Power Plant is a hydroelectric power plant and dam complex on the Spokane River located in Downtown Spokane, Washington. The facility is located on the Upper Spokane Falls in Riverfront Park where the river splits into three branches around snxw meneɂ (formerly known as Canada Island) and Havermale Island. The power plant was completed in 1922 by Washington Water Power and is still operated by the company's successor, Avista.

The Spokane City Hall Building is a historic building in Spokane, Washington. It was designed by German-born architect Julius Zittel, and built in 1912. It was used as Spokane's city hall until 1982, when it was replaced with new offices in a former Montgomery Ward department store. The old city hall was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on February 21, 1985.

The Parkade Plaza—also known locally as The Parkade—is an 11-level public parking garage Spokane, Washington. It was built for $3.5 million in 1967 by Sceva Construction Company, with concrete furnished by the Acme Concrete Company. The structure was built to accommodate one thousand automobiles and achieved its record capacity on December 22, 1969, with 3878 cars, well beyond the 1967 capacity needs. The architect for the project was Warren C. Heylman, who was also responsible for other notable works in and around Spokane including the Spokane Regional Health Building, the Riverfalls Tower Apartments, the original terminal of the Spokane International Airport, and the public library in Colfax, Washington. The Parkade is notable for its connection to the Spokane skywalks and won an award for 'excellence in use of concrete' in 1968 that was presented directly to Warren C. Heylman.

Riverfront Park, branded as Riverfront Spokane, is a public urban park in downtown Spokane, Washington that is owned and operated by the Spokane Parks & Recreation Department. The 100-acre (40 ha) park is situated along the Spokane River and encompasses the Upper Spokane Falls, which is the second largest urban waterfall in the United States. The site of the park and the surrounding falls were a Native American gathering place, which had a number of fishing camps near the base of the falls. The first American settlers came in 1871, establishing a claim and building a sawmill near the falls that would later be purchased by James N. Glover, who was aware of the water power potential of the falls and that the Northern Pacific Railroad Company had received a government charter to build a main line through the area. By the late 19th century, much of the area along the Spokane Falls had become industrialized with sawmills and flour mills, utilizing the fast-moving Spokane River and Spokane Falls for its hydropower. Flumes and waterwheels were used to mechanically drive sawmills and flour mills located along the river. To satisfy the growing demand for electricity and modernize the city, the Washington Water Power company constructed a timber dam (replaced in 1974) on the river at the Lower Falls in 1890 and another dam on the Upper Falls in 1922. These operating hydroelectric facilities on the falls from the park's industrial past are among the sights of interest in Riverfront Park. Located on the site of a former railyard, the park site's potential as a showcase for the Spokane Falls was recognized as early as 1908, but it would be another 64 years before those visions could be realized. Downtown Spokane, including what is now Riverfront Park was a hub for passenger and freight rail transport and remained that way for several decades. In 1972, the active railyards were removed, and the area around the Spokane Falls reclaimed, when construction commenced on an urban renewal project that built a fairground to host the upcoming environmentally-themed Expo '74 World's fair. Post-fair plans for the site which hosted the fair from May 4 to November 3, 1974, called for the preservation of the site as a legacy of Expo '74 and converting it into an urban park after the fair's conclusion. After several years of work to convert the site, Riverfront Park was officially opened in 1978. Several of its most recognizable buildings such as the U.S. Pavilion, Spokane Convention Center, and First Interstate Center for the Arts remain from Expo '74 as legacy pieces. The park is also home to historic features such as the Great Northern clock tower and Looff Carrousel; other sites of interest near the park include the River Park Square mall, Mobius Science Center, and The Podium sportplex. The park sees over three million visitors annually and has a Spokane Visitor Information Center at 620 W. Spokane Falls Boulevard with maps and information on local attractions, history, and tours.

Hoopfest is an annual outdoor 3-on-3 basketball tournament held in Downtown Spokane, Washington. It is the largest event of its kind in the world. In 2011 the event drew 27,876 players on 7,046 teams. It began in 1989 with 2,009 players on 512 teams, and has grown to over 6,700 participant teams. It is estimated that around 175,000 fans visited the event in both 2010 and 2011 (and likely for many years before, although estimates had not been observed for previous years), meaning that the total number of people at Hoopfest could be measured at around 200,000 including players, fans, and volunteers. This number nearly equals Spokane's 2010 Census population of 208,000.Hoopfest is not just a basketball event, as there is often live music being played in Riverfront Park, along with merchandisers and various food tents. A very wide range of players are allowed to play, as the only requirement is that players must be entering at least the third grade in the fall following Hoopfest. A few men in their seventies have participated in Hoopfest. Matching uniforms are very common among the male and female high school divisions, and some teams have taken it as far as to wear Halloween costumes.

The Kemp & Hebert Building, also known as the Liberty Furniture Store, is a historic four-story building in Spokane, Washington. It was designed by Alfred Jones in the Classical Revival style, and built in 1908 as a store for Kemp & Hebert, a dry goods company co-founded by Spokane businessmen Charles J. Kemp and Henry H. Hebert in 1892. It has been listed on the National Register of Historic Places since July 1, 1994.

The U.S. Bank Building, previously the Old National Bank Building, is a high-rise in Spokane, Washington, United States. Having been completed in 1910, it was the first skyscraper in the Inland Northwest. At 219 ft (67 m) tall, the building was the tallest in the state of Washington from 1910 to 1911, when it was surpassed by the Key Bank Center in Tacoma—which itself was far surpassed by Seattle's Smith Tower in 1914. It remained the tallest building in Spokane, until the 1929 completion of the Paulsen Medical and Dental Building, located across the street.

The Spokane bombing attempt occurred on January 17, 2011, when a radio-controlled shaped-charge pipe bomb was found and defused in Spokane, Washington, along the route of that year's Martin Luther King Jr. memorial march. On March 9, 2011, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) arrested Kevin William Harpham, 36, of Addy, Washington, a white supremacist who acted alone (a "lone wolf"). On December 20, 2011, he was sentenced to 32 years in prison for the attempted bombing.

The First Interstate Center for the Arts is a 2,609-seat theater and entertainment venue in Spokane, Washington. It is located in Downtown Spokane along the south bank of the Spokane River adjacent to the Spokane Convention Center. The facility is owned and operated by the Spokane Public Facilities District.

River Park Square is a shopping mall and entertainment complex in Spokane, Washington. The shopping center was originally opened in 1974. Following years of decline, the center was redeveloped in 1999 using public and private funds in an effort to revitalize downtown Spokane. The mall, still privately owned by Cowles Company, is anchored by Nordstrom and contains an outpost of AMC Theatres.

Downtown Spokane or Riverside is the central business district of Spokane, Washington. The Riverside neighborhood is roughly bounded by I-90 to the south, Division Street to the east, Monroe Street to the west and Boone Avenue to the north. The topography of Downtown Spokane is mostly flat except for areas downstream of the Spokane Falls which are located in a canyon; the elevation is approximately 1,900 feet (580 m) above sea level. Located at a traditional Native American gathering place at the Spokane Falls, American settlement was established in 1871. Most of Spokane's notable buildings, historic landmarks, and high rises are in the Riverside neighborhood and the downtown commercial district, where many of the buildings were rebuilt after the Great Fire of 1889 in the Romanesque Revival style by architect Kirtland Kelsey Cutter. After experiencing periods of decline from Post-war suburbanization, the most recent following Expo '74, the neighborhood has become revitalized after the completion of the River Park Square Mall in 1999, which has become the most prominent shopping center in the city. The chief attraction of downtown Spokane is Riverfront Park, a 100-acre (0.40 km2) park just north Spokane's downtown core, it was created after Expo '74 and occupies the same site. The park hosts some of Spokane's largest events. The neighborhood is also the center of Spokane's governmental, hospitality, convention, and cultural facilities. Mass transportation throughout downtown and the Spokane area is provided by the Spokane Transit Authority (STA) which has its STA Plaza central hub in the city center and Amtrak's Empire Builder and Greyhound operate out of the Spokane Intermodal Center. Spokane's city streets use a grid plan that is oriented to the four cardinal directions with its origin point on the east end of downtown. Sprague Avenue splits the city into North and South and Division Street divides the city into East and West. Interstate 90 (I-90) runs east–west from Seattle, through downtown Spokane, and eastward through Spokane Valley, Liberty Lake, and onward to Coeur d'Alene and then Missoula.