SATURDAY NIGHT WAS A BRIGHT NIGHT in Seattle’s unsung but rockin’ Georgetown neighborhood. Our fellow ex-Stranger hanger-on, illustrator-cartoonist-graphic designer Kathryn Rathke, unveiled a community-promo neon sign she’d designed.

The thing was funded by a Seattle Arts Commission grant for a public artwork that would service a community need. In Georgetown’s case, the need is to have its very existence acknowledged, as a residential outpost surrounded by industry and heavy transportation. The project took some two years to execute, what with bureaucratic “process,” legal tie-ups involving the building’s owner and lessee, design submissions and re-submissions, etc.

But finally it all came together, and is mounted on the south side (facing a freeway on-ramp) of the building housing All City Coffee, the Nine Pound Hammer bar, and the occasionally-active Jem Studios Georgetown and Twilight Theater.

The shushing lady atop the image might be referring to the Boeing Field air traffic, or to Georgetown’s forgotten-neighborhood status. The sign’s middle tier includes some of the area’s spectacular old architecture, including the classic Hat & Boots gas station (still slated to be moved and renovated as part of a park).

As a mariachi band played and the donated keg of Manny’s Georgetown Ale emptied, revelers rejoiced in their new civic symbol. Georgetown still lacks a grocery store, a library, and City Hall’s attention. But at least it has a new mark of pride.