ENDING OUR RECENT VISIT to the formerly-scenic Kent Valley, we come across one recent attempt to create a public space in this heavily privatized stretch of suburbia, the Interurban and Green River trails.

These hiking-biking paths wander along disused railway corridors. One of them crosses the still-scenic Green River at a restored wooden bridge. Go far enough southward on the 15-mile Interurban Trail and you’ll eventually get to where it’s still the countryside.

The Great Wall Mall, south of Ikea in the greater Tukwila-Kent-Renton sprawl, is an undoubted godsend to the thousands of Asian-American families who’ve moved there in search of slightly-less-obscene housing prices. For a casual shopper from the city, however, it has little that you can’t find in greater variety/lower prices in Seattle’s International District.

An arrangement in black and white, courtesy of a black fridge on display at Albert Lee’s in the big-box superstore desertscape surrounding Southcenter.

Tukwila’s Family Fun Center, whilst not as expansive as the Wild Waves/Enchanted Village complex in Federal Way, is still prominent enough to get its own road signs. (As well as having go-karts, mini-golf, a climbing rock, a wooden-fence maze, water-cart racing, a video arcade, and the ever-familiar sights of screeching tots, sullen teens, and nerve-wracked parents.)

Question: What’s out of place in this picture of the franchised Bullwinkle’s restaurant at the Fun Center?

Answer: The Underdog Show wasn’t made by Rocky and Bullwinkle creators Jay Ward and Bill Scott. It simply had some of the same financial backers and merchandising contracts as the Ward shows.