Louie Raffloer of the Black Dog Forge has been in the center of Belltown's various creative scenes since the "Classic Era of Belltown Art" in the 80s and he's still going strong.

We reminisced about "The Golden Age of the Speakeasy" (1996-2000) when the alley behind the BDF was active with all kinds of people coming to and from the back entrance to the old Speakeasy Cafe and also the old Rendezvous. "It was vibrant, with the Dead Baby Bike people, and F.U.C.C. pirate radio, the artists lofts upstairs, the musicians." This of course was already after the "Blacksmith's Ball Era" (1992-1996) when the BDF threw legendarily wild formal halloween costume parties.

Seattle photographer Mark Van S. took a series of large format polaroids of the partygoers during those years. Louie showed me the valuable collection and I was surprised to find a photo of myself with what appears to be a prositute holding my head down onto an anvil. Sweet times.

During the "Classic Era of Belltown Art" (1984-92) legendary creative geniuses like Art Chantry, Steve Fisk, Arthur Aubrey, Carl Smool, Buster Simpson, Amanda Fin, Stephen Jesse Bernstein and Ashleigh, to name a few, were drawn by the neighborhoods cheap rents and prime downtown location. In 1984 Louie moved from New York City into the infamous SCUD building (1984-96) on Western Avenue, commonly called the "Jello Mold Building" because of exterior artwork by Diane Sukovathy. When SCUD and the Cyclops Cafe were relocated to build condos, some folks started a short lived "save the jello mold building" campaign.

"Ridiculous," Louie said. "We had 12 good years with a really good deal on rent. I had no separation anxiety over having to relocate."

The neighborhood has changed radically since then and the SCUD folks have long since moved on, but Louie's not bitter about the new clean, civilized and yuppified Belltown. "Development happens," he told me as we sipped black coffee in the back of his Second Avenue Blacksmith's shop. "I'm middle of the road politically, and if I owned property I wouldn't want anyone telling me what to do with it. Neighborhoods change."

I asked Louie if he's bothered by the fact that he keeps showing up (along with fellow Black Dog Forgers Mary Gioia, Kelly Gilliam and Dan Schwartz) in slick marketing materials for trendy neighborhood condo developments. "It's none of my business that they lie to their clients about the community, they must be getting desperate though because one of those new developers had the audacity to name their human storage facility after the famous artist Paul Klee, an immpressionist who would have probably peed in their doorway in protest."

"The existence of artists in a neighborhood that is defined by its interesting and colorful constituents is usually a sign of things to come; gentirfication. Wait and you'll see the same things happening to georgetown that occurred in Belltown and then Pioneer Square."

Recently Louie's name was invooked at an event for Growing Vine Street, where he built gates for the Belltown P-Patch. I mentioned the fact that some neighborhood activists get the fringe benefit of increased property values from the civic improvements they spearhead near property they happen to own. "I was paid really well to do those gates, it was by no means a volunteer job," he told me with a chuckle.

Early Belltown resident and sculptor Buster Simpson is on board with the new guard of the neighborhood. "I credit them for bringing a real artist to the table, but now we have Simpson's Beckoning Cistern. Beckoning Cistern is an eyesore. For the first six months that thing was there I thought it was a half-finished Seattle City Light Project. At least it's tucked away down the hill in front of Carolyn Geise's (81 Vine) place."

But don't accuse Louie of being un-neighborly - he is open to helping out just about anybody, and says yes to "just about anyone who comes in here with a repair or a small project."

"In days of yore the blacksmith is where you went to shoe a horse, sharpen a dull plowshare. The blacksmith was a vital part of the community." The day I talked to Louie he was fixing a part for an industrial stapler that Joseph from Swifty Printing had brought over. Without Louie, Swifty might have had to have some specialist fly over from Europe to do the repair.

When not busy creating custom metalwork Louie also writes a column for the Northwest Blacksmith's Association Hot Iron News, most recently chronicling his tour of Irish blacksmith shops. He also has been spinning vintage country western and bluegrass tunes at the Lava Lounge every Monday night for many years.

But what about all the Seattle rock star clients the Forge has worked for? Louie would only tell me that he has had many clients who have had great achievements, some measured on a national scale and some local but that his favorite clients "can't afford the work, but they have good taste and are willing to spend more than they can really afford. Working for a client like that is way more gratifying than working for someone who is just throwing money around."

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