The raw beauty of the Duwamish

Ok, you've never sent a postcard to Uncle Howie in St. Louis showing the grandeur of the Duwamish Corridor.

You've never stopped, breathless, at the sight of Alaska Copper Works in the November rain. You've never watched with a tingle as the sun disappears over Andy's Diner. How about porous concrete? How about new synthetics for highways and sidewalks? How about more glaziers to put in windows, more drywallers? More skilled jobs?

How about a round of applause for the Duwamish — a community and a toolbox for the region's booming economy.

The Duwamish industrial and commercial zone thrives with the rattle of trucks and the dust of labor. Not the prettiest part of the region, the crossroads of East Marginal Way and Highway 99 is really a crossroads of sweat, smarts and something worth saving.

One of the marvels of the city life is that there is so much the elites don't understand. The propulsion that is sending Seattle and Bellevue into the stratosphere of urban design and density begins here, on the rough ground of builders, designers, architects and laborers.

The Washington construction industry is in a hyperbolic boom, according to a leading economic newspaper that watches the pace of building. According to Marples Pacific Newsletter (Wednesday, Oct. 24, 2007), "The marvel ... isn't so much the record level of employment as the fact that an industry which has grown so much the past few years can still find people to fill available jobs."

Marples continues: "In the first nine months of 2007, Washington's construction industry added workers at the rate of almost 1,400 a month. In nine months, it hired almost as many — 12,300 — as in all of 2006."

Marples notes that right now, more than twice as many men and women work in industrial trades as do in aerospace in Washington state. "The construction boom in Washington is without precedent," the newsletter concludes.

We all knew it by the cranes, the road delays, the new houses and communities, the office towers and the ripped-up streets. Anticipating another million or so people arriving in the next 20 years, all looking for housing and jobs, can spur a region into its current building boom.

Under their personalized hard hats, students and apprentices at the Duwamish Center, an offshoot of South Seattle Community College, carry a slab of heavy material over to a concrete test site. The Western Washington Cement Masons Apprenticeship Committee gives them a chance to work into an opportunity that is not going to diminish much in the coming decade — it looks like the region is going to be pouring a lot of concrete.

Dean Pinky Dale of the college's training programs said a class of glaziers and glassworkers expanded from six apprentices to 23 nearly overnight. Unions, such as the Service Employees International Union, are actively seeking an accreditation program for home-care and nursing-home workers.

The Duwamish industrial zone is under the microscope of the city right now. Debates between the mayor and development interests and some alarms from small-business owners make this one of those quiet fights that could dramatically change the city. The Times' editorial opinion on the controversy, running Monday, attempts to dissect the arguments and the counterclaims.

But one thing is sure: The city would not be a working town without it. Duwamish is where the region goes when it stops talking and wants to get something done.

James F. Vesely's column appears Sunday on editorial pages of The Times. His e-mail address is: jvesely@seattletimes.com for a podcast Q&A with the author, go to Opinion at seattletimes.com