Gookin Outlines Priorities for Coeur d'Alene at Annual State of the City Breakfast

Coeur d'Alene Mayor Dan Gookin used the annual State of the City & County Breakfast at The Resort on Tuesday to deliver a pointed defense of local authority, calling out Boise lawmakers, taxpayer-funded gentrification at the Atlas Mill site, and decades of wage stagnation as the real drivers behind the city's affordability crisis.

More than 200 people gathered for the event, organized by the Coeur d'Alene Regional Chamber, where Gookin spoke alongside Kootenai County Commissioner Bruce Mattare and Caiti Bobbitt, who chairs the Chamber's Public Policy Committee.

With the legislative session underway in Boise, Gookin was direct about his frustration with state preemption. "They cannot govern Coeur d'Alene better than your mayor and city council, but they try," he said. His sharpest concern centered on proposed legislation that would strip the city's authority over short-term rentals. "Legislation is headed to the governor's desk right now that will strip us of this oversight," he said. "Doing so degrades the character and charm of our neighborhoods and the quality of life for our year-round residents. It is the position of the city that residential property should not be exploited for profit at the expense of your neighbors who also have rights."

On housing affordability, Gookin argued that City Hall's lever is narrow: removing regulatory hurdles to make development easier and cheaper for builders. But he placed the deeper blame elsewhere. "The problem isn't the price of housing but that wages in this country have been flat since we kicked out the unions," he said. "I'm not apologizing for union greed, which was a thing. But when workers were organized, worker pay increased proportionally to management."

He directed his most direct criticism at the Atlas Mill development, pointing to the economic gap between the project and the workers serving the room around him. "No one who just served you breakfast or parks your car or teaches your kids can afford to buy a house in the Atlas Mill site, but property tax dollars are going toward funding this development," Gookin said. "The gentrification underwritten by taxpayer dollars and supported by city government needs to stop."

For downtown, Gookin said his goals include preserving the area's character through possible building height restrictions and noise controls, while also pushing its boundaries beyond Sherman Avenue. "We need a wider, deeper downtown to provide interesting things to do for our visitors and for our year-round residents," he said. Longer term, he described an event center for sports and the performing arts as still in the discussion stage, while flagging a city arts and history foundation, modeled on the Coeur d'Alene Public Library Foundation, as a closer-to-reality possibility.

Mattare, meanwhile, highlighted transportation progress at the county level, pointing to the Coeur d'Alene Airport's new control tower, now staffed seven days a week from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. He said the tower improves safety and that air traffic controllers now reroute aircraft to avoid flying over homes.