Originally published Saturday, March 1, 1997

By MARK HIGGINS
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTER

Joan McBride, a 35-year resident, says she is uneasy about the city's future, given all the recent development. But like her neighbors, McBride says she is determined to fight to preserve the quality of life.

"We all have children, homes and a strong sense of community. This town is beautiful and it has a great deal to offer. It is worth fighting the good fight.

"We want a small town, with a human scale, pedestrian safety, a place where we feel comfortable and connected. It's hard to be connected if you walk downtown and can't even see the sun because it's behind some huge building," McBride says.

What Kirkland still has is a downtown worth walking to. While Bellevue built a great mall and skyscrapers, Kirkland kept its small-town appeal and enhanced it by creating more than two miles of shoreline parks.

It also has an airy new library next to downtown playfields, and its plan for a 400-seat performing arts center is back on track.

A walk around this boutique-lined town offers a peek at Kirkland's past and future. Restaurants rub shoulders with galleries, and construction cranes grind overhead, erecting yet another new batch of hillside condos.

"Cliff dwellers," sniff some residents.

Kirkland's patina has not all been polished off. It has a couple of old-style, beer-by-the-pitcher taverns where you can shoot pool for 25 cents and plug a juke box. Regulars turn up as early as 10 a.m. and after dark a younger mix of restaurant workers and locals fills The Central and Smokie Jo's.

"We have customers from construction workers to attorneys," says Marilyn Bolles, bartender and owner of The Central, a Kirkland fixture since 1936.

"The thing that is going to make Kirkland particularly attractive is its pedestrian orientation," Bolles says. "When the condos fill up, it will be wonderful because people will be able to walk downtown."

And that is what Kirkland's politicos and developers have worked at for years.Continued:

• Transformation from hamlet to urban village is under way
• 'Condo' is key word for city's future
• Blurring the lines between art and commerce
• Outside downtown, Kirkland wears many face
• Citizens are active in the community