Where We Live: One Side of the Equation

I wrote in “the active concept is easy to articulate: Sustainability is what you get when your household, city, state, and nation all plan, legislate and act as if they were entirely alone and had to be 100% self-sufficient.

That means Shoreline or Lake Forest Park will have to do everything in their power to produce all their own energy, food, building materials, fuel, vehicles, clothing, and everything else, AND process for reuse every bit of its energy and material wastes within the city limits. See? As if it were a closed system. Account for every input and every output.”

Well then, what do we make? We sell many things, but what do we actually manufacture? I won’t attest to the green credentials of these firms, but they show what we can do.

According to the City of Shoreline website in “Employment Demographics” and “Business & Employment Reports” there are 48 “manufacturing” firms in the city. There are 1,135 “production” workers listed in Shoreline, but it’s unclear whether they are working in Shoreline or simply live in Shoreline. City-data.com says 13 percent of our firms but less than 3 percent of jobs are “manufacturing."

There’s West Coast Industries, a Westminster Triangle manufacturer of aerospace parts with a worldwide reputation. Shoreline Sign and Awning is pretty self-explanatory. Tamer Laboratories in North City makes a variety of products from food additives to mud removal mixtures and is featured on Wellness.com. Brown’s Coffee roasts great beans in North City. Polar Fusion LLC makes well-reputed ear warmers for snowmobilers and the like. Trscol Bath LLC and Excaliber Mobile Manufacturing are located in the Ballinger neighborhood. I do find it strange how difficult it is to find manufacturers here in Shoreline/Lake Forest Park and how few of these have websites.

In Lake Forest Park City-data.com says 10 percent of the companies and well under 5 percent of jobs (because manufacturing is lumped in with sales reps, wholesale, and services) are manufacturing. I found Capstone Mfg LLC, makers of TC Ceramics liquid ceramic insulation coatings. Leviton Mfg Co. Inc. is listed with a Lake Forest Park address in one source, but a Bothell address in another. If it’s ours it’s a big deal, a major player in electrical and electronic products, but with those stated employment numbers I doubt it.

A couple months ago,  intended to better connect US manufacturers and community colleges, and Shoreline CC is right in the middle of it - yet another thing they’re doing right.

So, the upshot? As much as we’ve produced in the past- lumber products, a wide variety of agriculture, smithing and other small-scale manufacture - we don’t make a lot now. Obviously we’ve changed. We’re a suburb, wall-to-wall with houses and roads, but I’m convinced we could do a great deal more. Shoreline offers various incentives for companies in certain commercial areas.

Perhaps the cities need Departments of Agriculture. If a plot of land can grow a lawn it can easily grow something useful and/or edible. If there were a break on property taxes for land in food production, any homeowner could take advantage by setting aside a specific area. I could see the growth of a new job type: the contract farmer. Few of us have the knowledge or time to truly farm, but a person with the skill could agree to do all the farming for a number of small plots in a neighborhood in exchange for either a small fee or a portion of the crop, or maybe the homeowner could just take the tax break and the farmer take the crop. The farmer makes money from selling the results in our farmers’ markets or sells it to a processor for canning. Many small, local canneries might spring up to fill the need.

I’m certain I’m missing a lot. There must be dozens of cottage industries here, making everything from jam to baby clothes, but as hard as I’ve looked they’re not leaping out. I hope all those making things here in Shoreline/Lake Forest Park will get in touch with me and use Patch.com.’s Marketplace feature. Advertise with us if you want. Part of our function is to let residents know what is going on here, and local businesses are a vital part of that.