Unlike most employees, he doesn't even try to look busy.

Despite his less than laborious demeanor, Woody, the fortuitous feline that slumbers and lumbers his days away at The Wooden Spoon kitchen shop in Edmonds, is a fixture in the community, much like the store he inhabits.

"Woody loves the press," Cheryl Larabee, owner of The Wooden Spoon, said of her plump "watch" cat.

Larabee's store has been a mainstay in Edmonds for 34 years, and it's one of the many small, independently owned businesses that line the city's intermittently sleepy sidewalks. Edmonds residents say the friendly shops and smiling people give the city its small-town personality.

"The lifestyle in Edmonds is special," said Jim Wold, an agent with Windermere Real Estate and an Edmonds resident for 40 years. "With the water, the beach, the shops and restaurants, and the city services here, we joke that there wouldn't be any reason to leave town if we had a hardware store."

(Ace Hardware, which used to be down the street from The Wooden Spoon, closed.)

Starting point

Edmonds


This growing city, incorporated in 1890, is Snohomish County's oldest.

Population: 39,620

Schools: The Edmonds School District is Snohomish County's largest, serving 21,575 kindergarten through 12th-grade students in southern Snohomish County.

Housing: Of 17,610 homes, 11,669 (66.3 percent) are owner-occupied, 5,334 (30.3 percent) are occupied by renters, and 607 (3.5 percent) are vacant.

Nearby medical facilities: Stevens Memorial Hospital, Edmonds; Northwest Hospital and Medical Center, Seattle; and Group Health Lynnwood Medical Center, Lynnwood.

Shopping: Alderwood, Lynnwood; Edmonds summer market, downtown on Fifth Street from Main at the fountain to Bell and east up Bell Street around the Centennial Plaza, 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturdays from May through this month.

Public facilities: Frances Anderson Cultural and Leisure Center features a grass playfield, climbing rock, ballfields, gym, recreation-center programs and Thursday family concerts in summer. Edmonds has more than 325 acres of parks, more than 1,000 feet of waterfront shoreline, and 20,000 square feet of flower beds, all maintained by the Parks Department.

Staff researcher Miyoko Wolf

Ferry service is frequent between Edmonds and Kingston, making the city a natural starting point for trips to the Olympic Peninsula. In addition to the ferry, Edmonds offers grassy parks, public beaches, comfortable restaurants, offbeat boutiques and a vibrant and active arts community. The city hosts several events each year, including The Edmonds Arts Festival, The Taste of Edmonds and Edmonds in Bloom.

But behind the hanging flower baskets and dignified lampposts lurks a rapidly growing suburb. Incorporated in 1890, Edmonds, the oldest city in Snohomish County and 115 years removed from its mill-town infancy, is expanding faster than Woody's midsection.

"Initially, much of the earlier growth moved east of Seattle into areas like Bellevue," Wold said. "For a long time, Edmonds was overlooked, but things are changing now."

With a growing population — 39,620 as of 2004 — and a limited amount of land, that change is apparent in the landscape. Some major modifications are occurring on the waterfront; a new park should be completed this year; and plans are in the works for a new ferry terminal in an area that would become a transportation hub.

Commuter-train service runs between the city and Seattle. The former Puget Sound Christian College is being converted into a performing-arts and cultural center. Demographics in Edmonds are shifting as well.

"We're seeing an influx of young people into the area," Wold said. "Obviously they're interested in investing in schools, and the school system has improved as a result."

District graduation rates

The Edmonds School District graduation rate was 64.3 percent in 2002-2003, according to the Washington state Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction. That same year, Everett graduated 53 percent; Shoreline, 82.7 percent.

The real-estate market is bustling. Developers buy available land quickly to build residential properties. New buildings and remodeled ones are popping up all over the area.

The condominium market is especially active. Sales priced between $350,000 and $500,000 increased by 88 percent from 2004 to 2005, according to statistics from the Northwest Multiple Listing Service, which tracks home sales in more than a dozen counties in the state.

But Edmonds stalwarts like Larabee don't need numbers to tell them about the condominium boom.

In a strong wind, she could throw a spatula from the front of her store and hit the Gregory Condominiums, a complex of one- and two-bedroom units being built just south of her shop on Fifth Avenue South.

Meanwhile, on the hillside at the south end of town where old oil tanks once stood, Point Edwards is under construction. The project is a six-phase, 350-unit resort-style condominium community.

In February, residents began moving into units ranging from one-bedroom town homes in the mid-$300,000s to penthouses with panoramic views of Puget Sound for nearly $1.5 million.

The single-family home market in Edmonds is also healthy, with a few larger developments appearing in the area, including one 22-home development near Five Corners.

All the activity means little to Woody, who seems to have an aversion to movement.