By MARK HIGGINS
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTER

It is as if the community stopped investing in its own retail core. To call downtown North Bend an eyesore would be harsh, but it looks like it was decorated by the last grunge band to leave Seattle.

Its faded Bavarian motif was liberally applied to building fronts in 1970 in an attempt to emulate Leavenworth's kitschy "alpine" architecture. It is time for it to come off, some residents say.

When Interstate 90 opened in 1978, downtown North Bend was dealt a knockout punch. New retail stores and fast-food restaurants, including an outlet mall, began to sprout near the interstate. The traffic and commerce that once flowed through town slowed to a trickle.

"That made a big impact," says Pat Cokewell, owner of North Bend's venerable Mar T Cafe. "Then, the fast-food restaurants started showing up out by the freeway."

The drivers that chow down at the ubiquitous "golden arches" next to I-90 miss out on North Bend's signature cherry pie.

North Bend and the Mar T Cafe got lucky with the creation of David Lynch's 1990 TV drama, "Twin Peaks," which featured dwarfs, bad dreams, meatloaf, hot coffee and cherry pie.

The series, which quickly ran short of anything approaching a plot, nonetheless generated a cult following that lives on through internationally syndicated reruns.

A tour group from Iceland showed up at the Mar T just last month, Cokewell says. Another from Japan is coming this month. Organizers for that group ordered lunches of meatloaf and cherry pie ahead of time.

The Mar T sells about 80 cherry pies a month, down from a peak of 100 pies a weekend when the TV show was really hot, Cokewell says.

Despite the occasional tour group, North Bend's 15 minutes of fame are over, and the question of what to do about downtown has returned like the swallows of San Juan Capistrano.

Mayor Joan Simpson, who came to North Bend 15 years ago via Arizona, California and Idaho, appointed an economic development commission headed by Art Skolnik, a consultant, former Metro transit official and historic preservationist.

Simpson says the commission's charge is straightforward: "We have to get people off the freeway, and we need to give them a reason to come downtown. We haven't found our niche for downtown."

Simpson says she favors a plan adopted several years ago by the city that called for a more pedestrian-oriented downtown with wide sidewalks, landscaping, benches, trails and speciality shops.

North Bend's merchants support such ideas, but redevelopment plans come and go with each new political regime without anything ever getting done, notes Don Oster, owner of D&M Auto.

"What we have now is a poor retail mix and a poor parking situation," Oster says. "There are a lot of boarded-up buildings.

"We are in a difficult, awkward moment out here. I would hate to see the downtown core die away to nothing or turn to junk shops," he says.

John Glazier, who owns a couple of downtown lots, says many North Bend businesses are "barely hanging on."

North Bend's dilemma is not altogether different from the one Seattle faced several years ago, he says.

Seattle's downtown is on the rise because it has some key retail anchors, and the city willingly invested in a new parking garage next to the new Nordstrom store, Glazier says.

"A lot can be done with the (North Bend) downtown area, but it will take some real encouragement on the city's behalf to accomplish it. It has to be a big player in revitalizing downtown, just like Seattle was.

"It only happens if everybody works together."

Skolnik, who will lead North Bend's effort, promises to run a "very exciting commission."

One idea is to do more to sell North Bend as a recreational mecca where people can come to ski, kayak, mountain climb, mountain bike and fish, Skolnik says.

Mount Si attracts hundreds of hikers a month, and nearby Little Si is becoming a destination for rock climbers of all abilities.

"The revitalization of downtown is very high on everyone's list," Skolnik says. So is creating jobs "that help the people of the community stay local so they don't have to commute into other cities."

Skolnik himself commutes to Seattle regularly, as does his wife, University of Washington professor and sociologist Pepper Schwartz.