…since I last wrote to y’all. First, thanx to the dozen or so who saw my lovely photo show last Saturday. It’ll be open again this Saturday, 1-4, at Nico Gallery, 619 Western Ave., Second Floor. After the show closes, I may try to put some of it online for print-sales purposes.

The previous Friday evening, I attended the annual birthday bash at the legendary Interbay-neighborhood live-work shack of hippie musician, videographer, and arts-entrepreneur Buddy Foley. The next day, the P-I mapped Foley’s landmark building right smack in the heart of a newly-announced strip mall development. The development would also knock out the Utilikilts office-showroom and a Vespa dealership. The resulting rising property values would threaten all the remaining industrial and arts spaces on the 15th Avenue NW strip between Queen Anne and Magnolia.

Interbay has quietly been one of those districts every city needs but which pro-development politicians see only as empty space waiting to be filled. It’s the only large area north of downtown and south of the Ship Canal that’s still providing manufacturing jobs, not to mention affordable space for certain fringe creative endeavors. We should be working to keep these areas as they are.