By JACK HOPKINS
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTER

Symbolizing the community's belief in itself is the 84-year-old Mount Baker Community Club House, which stands behind what is now the Baker's Beach Cafe. The club remains the neighborhood's foremost symbol of that strength.

Like Mount Baker, the club house has withstood time and change. Restored with pride after an arson fire blew off the roof in 1992, it remains the gathering place for neighbors when community concerns arise. And it is the focal point of an organization that has the skills and wherewithal to get things done.

Jackson Schmidt, the current community club president, noted that Norm Rice was president of the organization before his foray into city politics landed him a two-term stint as Seattle mayor.

And he tells a story indicative of the club's clout within the downtown Seattle power structure.

Schmidt and then-Mayor Rice were sitting together at a civic function, Schmidt recalls. Rice was saying how as community club president he got more phone calls at home at night than he ever did as mayor.

Schmidt told Rice how a woman, a longtime Mount Baker resident, called him at home and said: "Mr. Schmidt, I saw a rat. What are you going to do about it?"

"What did you tell her?" Rice asked Schmidt.

"I told her to call the mayor."