By MARK HIGGINS
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTER

Little town by lake is a laid-back, 'do-it-yourself' community

Despite its petite size and the lack of any commercial base, Beaux Arts is a town. It incorporated in 1954, a year after Bellevue incorporated.

"I think they wanted to keep Bellevue out of here," says Hickey, who moved to Beaux Arts in 1973. Bellevue borders Beaux Arts on three sides.

The town of 288 residents doesn't have a City Hall, fire department or dog catcher -- and never will. It does have a town marshal, Dan Owens, but he is a volunteer, doesn't pack a sidearm and is not empowered to arrest anyone.

Public safety is not the concern it is in Capitol Hill or Crossroads, but Beaux Arts' bill for county police service will go up this year: too many false alarms on home security systems.

Beaux Arts even has its own water well and tank, but it doesn't have the money to add cavity-fighting fluoride. Parents are supposed to take care of that on their own.

"It's a do-it-yourself community. We have two work parties a year to help clean up . . . and we're not in debt. Everyone pitches in," Hickey says.

The town elects a mayor and five council members, who meet the second Tuesday of the month at members' homes. Cats and dogs wander in and out of the living room meetings with impunity, and coffee, tea and snacks are usually offered.

Major controversies, such as a proposed new house, occasionally warrant a special public hearing. Those are held at a nearby school.

Even Beaux Arts' streets are non-conformist. The hamlet is laced with 10-foot-wide ribbons so narrow residents have their own code of conduct. "Everyone knows exactly where to pull over, and what the courtesies are and who gets to go first," McCorriston says.

Like Hunts Point, Yarrow Point and Medina, Beaux Arts is lily white. It was the only town in King County in 1990 that was virtually 100 percent white. Only one Beaux Arts resident was a minority -- a person of Asian descent.

By comparison, Bellevue's population was 13 percent minority in 1990, while Seattle's was about 25 percent.

Beaux Arts is also affluent. Though some residents are on fixed incomes, "villagers" have a median family income of more than $88,000 a year, the census found. Today, it's probably closer to $100,000. Countywide, only Clyde Hill ($90,700) and Hunts Point ($115,233) had higher median family incomes than Beaux Arts. Seattle's median family income was around $40,000 and Bellevue's was $54,261.

Continued:

• 'The Village' is a throwback to an earlier time
• Privacy is a communal value here