One of the most stressful moments of Jon Snyder’s career, he claims, was answering questions for the Inlander. In 2009, this paper subjected every candidate for the City Council to a Spokane trivia quiz. On camera.
Snyder did pretty well. The Spokane native gave 32 of 33 correct answers. He only missed one point on the prompt, “Name the six public high schools in District 81.”
(He listed Lewis and Clark, Ferris, Rogers, Shadle, and North Central, but he forgot Havermale, an alternative high school that was rebranded the Community School in 2012.)
Snyder won his election and went on to represent District 2 on the council for six years. Some of his favorite projects were getting the University District Gateway Bridge built and getting public buses “triple racks” so they could carry three bikes on the front, instead of the typical one or two.
Snyder was used to being out and about in Spokane. Before serving on the council, Snyder founded Out There magazine, a monthly publication dedicated to exploring Spokane by bike, ski, paddle and foot.
At the end of 2015, Snyder was tapped to be the outdoor recreation and economic development policy adviser to then-Gov. Jay Inslee. The role, with an accompanying grant program, was newly created by the Legislature and one of the first of its kind in the country.
In Olympia, Snyder was involved in plenty of initiatives but was specifically instrumental in increasing K-12 students’ access to outdoor education. He wanted to expose students to the types of jobs available in conservation and recreation. He is a founding member of the Confluence of States, a bipartisan collaboration between 18 states to grow outdoor recreation and transform conservation into a driver of economic growth.
But as of last week, Snyder is back home in Spokane. He’s the newly appointed director of transportation and sustainability, a creative addition to Mayor Lisa Brown’s administration. Brown rearranged her Cabinet to create the position without adding to the budget.
Last Friday, the Inlander interviewed Snyder again. But this time we only asked him questions about his new role, and there were no cameras involved. His responses have been edited for clarity and length.
INLANDER: It seems like you’re really passionate about outdoor recreation, development and conservation. What does that have to do with transportation?
SNYDER: I like to say that when you have a sidewalk, a trail or a bike lane, it is always both transportation and recreation — just like our roads are. If I’m getting in my car to go see a movie, is that transportation or is that recreation? I don’t think we should think of our transit any differently. They’re always going to be dual use.
When I moved back here in 2001 after living in Denver for quite some time, plus San Francisco and a few other places, I had knee surgery on both knees. My doctor said, “You gotta bike.” So I started biking a lot more. I fell in with a bunch of friends that were doing a lot of biking. I got really interested in public policy because public policy governs a lot of the infrastructure we are making for biking. There was a big scene here in Spokane that was growing around cycling. One of the reasons I ran for City Council in 2009 was on a platform of biking, walking, transit and sustainability.
What changes have you seen in Spokane since 2009?
A lot of good ones. I mean, I compare it to Tacoma, and I feel like we’re doing a lot more than Tacoma is. I’m glad to see that we’ve got our first protected bike lanes, which we never had. The U-District Bridge is finished. We have a bicycle priority network. You know, Spokane Transit Authority … it’s just going gangbusters. They’re one of the best midsize transit agencies in the country, as far as I’m concerned.
I think it feels like Spokane has rebounded better from COVID than other parts of the state. I come downtown, and I just really enjoy being downtown. When I’m in [City Hall], it’s in-person meetings. You get annoyed waiting for the elevator because people are working in this building. Those people are hanging out downtown, spending [money] downtown. To me, that feels different than a lot of the westside cities that I’ve been in for the last few years.
You’ve done a lot with bike infrastructure. How do you feel about e-bikes?
E-bikes are the future. I don’t have one, but my wife does, and it helps us ride together more. Especially in a town like Spokane, they flatten hills and shorten distances. The prices continue to come down, the technology is getting better, and they offer an enormous opportunity to replace car trips if we can create the environment where people feel safe and are safe.
How do cars fit into your dream of Spokane transportation?
When you say it that way, I’m tempted to respond, “Well, my dream is that I could own a ’67 Toronado,” which is one of my favorite cars of all time.
So you don’t hate cars?
No, no! When I was in college, I bought my girlfriend’s grandmother’s 1961 Series 62 Cadillac coupe. Loved it. I love a good American car just as much as anyone. But the problem is, they are a tax on people when we have generated decades and decades of policy like we have right now. For example, Spokane has some of the poorest zip codes in the state. There’s a real mix of incomes here. If you force every adult in the household to own a car in order to get educated or go to their place of employment, it’s like putting a $10,000 tax on everyone. If we can put them on the bus, if they can ride an e-bike, if they can walk, we’re giving them a raise.
What is a director of transportation?
It’s been a trend for the last few years where transportation has sometimes split out from public works so there can be a focus on more purely transportation efforts. So right now, that’s being determined. We’re going to have all sorts of discussions internally on how best to do that.
But ultimately, I think the mayor wanted to do some things differently. There’s lots of great people doing great things. But how can we do more in the face of climate change? In the face of a younger generation that is getting their driver’s license later, who wants to live in urban areas, who likes taking transit, likes biking? How are we serving the next generation of Spokanites?
Are there cities that you look to for inspiration or for things that you want to bring into Spokane?
You can look just across the mountains — the city of Redmond has got some great things that they’re working on. Redmond, Sammamish, Lakewood, some of those midsized cities have gone an entire year without a traffic fatality. Now, they’re smaller than us, and they’re set up differently, but that’s something that I want to bring here — seeing how we can reduce the amount of fatalities and serious injuries for all traffic users in Spokane.
But then if you want to expand that scope outside the United States, I’ve traveled to Japan and Belgium, and I led a traffic safety delegation to Finland a little over a year ago. Helsinki, which is about the size of Seattle, has recently gone an entire year without a single traffic fatality, which is something I don’t think Seattle has ever done. We wanted to figure out how they did what they did. In public service, I always say you steal and borrow good ideas wherever you can find them.
How do you get to work most days?
Today, I walked. Yesterday, I rode my bike because I needed to go to Gonzaga for a meeting. I hadn’t snowbiked in a while, and that was kind of fun, although I’m out of shape and it felt like I ran Bloomsday just to get from Peaceful Valley to Gonzaga. But it can be tricky, because when you’re in the slippery snow, you have to really balance. But it was nice because the city of Spokane has plowed all their portions of the Centennial Trail, and they were nice and clear. Gonzaga had, too. But there were some spots in between that weren’t [plowed].
We’ve talked about bikes extensively, but as far as other types of public transit, are you as optimistic and enthusiastic about those?
Absolutely. I really like that we have a strong Lime presence here — I think that’s been really good and very helpful to the transportation system. The City Line is amazing. I’m very excited about the double-decker buses to Eastern, the East/West [bus rapid transit] route to the Valley and East Sprague. And the Division [bus rapid transit] is just going to be great.
Bikes, buses, BRT — these can dig up some pretty negative emotions from people. Do you know why?
I don’t. I mean, I think in America right now, there’s this sense that if a public service doesn’t directly benefit me, then, like, why does it exist? It’s the age-old thing of like, ‘Well, my kids are grown, so why should I vote for the school bond anymore?’ or, ‘I don’t go to the park anymore or don’t use the library, so why should I support those things?’ I think when you get to transit, people sometimes forget how crucial transit is to a well-run city. Our transportation system would collapse tomorrow if we lost all STA services. There is no way that our roads or our parking would have the capacity. The amount of cars we would need — I don’t even know where they would come from to replace all the trips that STA does. It would literally grind to a halt.
I don’t think people realize that even if they don’t use transit, they may be going to a restaurant where all their servers are using transit. They may go into a grocery store where people are using that to get to work. They may have businesses themselves where their employees depend on it. It’s just one of those things that keeps the city functioning. There’s just no great city in the world that doesn’t have great public transit.
When will be the point where you feel like ‘OK, we did it: Spokane has a great transit system?’
I feel like it’s great now. But this kind of civic policy is more like a great marriage than it is a Super Bowl. You win the Super Bowl, it’s done, it’s over. But a good marriage is years and years of relationship building, compromise, courage and empathy. City services are an ongoing thing. So when I think about what we are doing and what we need to do, I think more about evolution. How can we accelerate the evolution of some of the things we’re doing?
I have known the mayor for a number of years. I have great respect for her ability to lead a large organization through changes and improvements. I’ve seen her do it in other places. That’s one of the reasons I was interested in coming here. So, it sounds like a big dodge to your question, but it’s ongoing. There’s not really a point where it really stops. But what I would really immediately like to see is us bend the curve on some of our safety issues. To trend down on fatalities and serious injuries is really key.
