When I turned the corner from Lake St. onto Central Way the other day, I noticed the sign in the window of Patricia Rovzar’s gallery:

Congratulations to Patricia, Eric, and her staff for providing a wonderful space to view and buy art.  The Patricia Rovzar Gallery is a class act with a solid following as it celebrates its 15 year tenure in downtown Kirkland.

  For years, my husband and I would try to make it to Thursday night’s art walk.  It was a great community event with lots of people out and about, strolling through the art galleries.  The gallery owners would recognize us as “regulars.”  We’d run into our Kirkland neighbors.  It was fun and I miss it.  Art Walk is still here but on a much smaller scale these days, because there are fewer galleries.

Art Walk helped define the city of Kirkland.  It’s part of our identity.  People move to Kirkland because of its small town, unique feel, its great parks and waterfront,  its shops, restaurants, and galleries.

 Redmond is our technology king, Bellevue is the economic heart of the eastside, Issaquah has its Alps and salmon, and Woodinville its wineries.    People choose to live in all of these cities for many reasons, but often because of each city’s ambiance and reputation.  Kirkland’s downtown has always been known for its charming lakeside retail and arts scene.  

This article from The Seattle Times discusses changes in Kirkland.   We all know Kirkland is changing in many ways.  It’s important to become involved in Kirkland’s future.  Things are happening here, some good and some not so good.  We may see Hector’s torn down and a new complex built.  Parkplace will be torn down and changed into a huge development.   

 As I said, some of this is good, and some of this is not.  It’s important for people to get involved and make their opinions known.  There’s an open house at The Kirkland Performance Center on February 21st to talk about the proposed changes to Parkplace.  Personally, I am for growth and change, but not at the expense of our unique, small town quality. We need to be careful to not lose the soul of our city. It’s what makes us special and excites people about living here.