To be in the company of Stu Hennessey of Alki Bike and Board is to be with the kind of guy you might hear on the radio, talking about life as it is, and could be. Nearly everything Hennessey says is worth writing down, whether he's talking about teenagers, community, biking or alternative ways of living.

A longtime owner of the Admiral Junction store, Hennessey is a longtime observer of humanity as well. As a business owner, he is something of a grass-roots visionary, and his focus is placed on enhancing the lives of children. He's a bit like a walking Russian novel, complete with plenty of philosophy and lots of flexibility. He's the kind of good heart a person can turn to when they need help, and he's now focused on ways to enhance life in West Seattle.

We find a place in his bike shop to chat, luxuriating on the West Seattle issues of the times. Hennessey is part of the Sustainable West Seattle movement and an advocate of biking. Over the years, he's seen many people leave their cars and begin engaging in the freedom offered by the bike.

He is notable, too, for the care he gives to building a community.

"It's really all about community, care and respect," he says, and then says of his teenage customers. "It's important to be nice to them; they are the future.

"Teenagers need a friendly, trustworthy place to be," Hennessey says.

He is working to help create a new skate park, a movement covered by this newspaper. He looks around his shop and his eyes - mine, at least - catching on the long boards, the skate boards, the commuter bikes, the kids' bikes and the big, puffy velveteen chairs.

"This place is a place where parents drop their kids off after school," Hennessey says. "There's a lot of fun to be had here."

He likes it like that. Hennessey believes this culture routinely shuns teenagers and devalues their contribution to society. In his shop, teenagers are welcome to come by and play. Hennessey walks over to the counter with the hackey sacks, and pulls one out of the jar. He begins to play, right on the spot, the hackey sack bouncing off his feet.

"Really," he says. "This is all a kid needs. It's simple; it's cheap, it's fun and you can pick it up anywhere."

Hennessey's social actions are about enhancing the lives of children.

"I'd like to see a Children's Bill of Rights, which gives kids a guarantee to the future. We can commit now to truly improving the world for our children and their children, through cleaning up the environment."

To meet with the like-minded, Hennessey attends the meetings hosted by the Sustainable West Seattle movement. The group meets at various locations around West Seattle, and discusses ways to keep West Seattle buzzing, and how to fortify it. They work on issues including open space, pea patches and creating better facilities for - you guessed it - teenagers.

He contributes to the public schools by donating unicycles. In his years working on repairing and selling active gear, he's learned this: "When a kid can feel comfortable doing something like learning to ride the unicycle, they come into studying in a whole new way. After riding the unicycle, they think: Math is going to be easy."

In the back of the shop, a dedicated mechanic named Kyle Miller is repairing another flat tire, or tuning up another commuter bike.

"Stu cares. It's not just talk with him; he cares. He really cares."

Miller begins to share his plans to move into a new profession, and Hennessey begins to help him plan. The two talk philosophy as they repair bikes. Miller agrees with much of Hennessey's philosophy, and also muses on what it takes to build a good community.

"With everyone working for and with each other, we can all be happy," Miller says.

The biking world is, in part, a world motivated by social change. People began to leave behind the over wrought and manic world of car driving, returning to a time of simpler grace: the bike. The results have been astonishing.

"I could complain all I want about global warming, but if I rode my bike every day, it would make a difference," Hennessey says.

Even the City of Seattle works actively to encourage people to commute on bikes.

Many more customers come in to make such a shift in their own lives. People are commuting huge distances to work. Some people, like this writer, commute exclusively on a bike, opting out of the car world completely.

"It's such an easy solution," Hennessey says. "The easy solutions are the best solutions."

The pace stays relaxed and the conversation buoyant. It's nearly closing time and the wind is blowing outside the shop. Another customer is leaving the store, satisfied. He is considering commuting to work on his old Schwinn, which is a possibility, as he enjoys a 20-mile commute to Renton.

Miller watches the commuter as he walks out of the store. The sun is setting. The shops are closing for the night. The customer is thanked and the day is over.

"We can all make anyone's life a little better," Miller says.

Alki Bike and Board 2606 California Ave. S.W. Seattle, 98116, telephone 206/938-3322. Sustainable West Seattle movement: www.sustainablewestseattle.org For information on the construction of a new skate park: Seattleskateparks.org

http://alkibikeandboard.com

Lesley Holdcroft is a West Seattle freelance writer who may be reached via wseditor@robinsonnews.com