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The story behind "Waiting for the Interurban"
By Bruce Ramsey 
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTER
You've seen "Waiting for the Interurban," one of Seattle's most popular pieces of sculpture. Most people don't notice that the dog peering out from among the people's legs has a man's face.
The face is a relic of a dispute between sculptor Richard Beyer and aluminum recycler Armen Stepanian, the one-time honorary mayor of Fremont. Both were on a Fremont Arts Council committee to choose a sculptor. When nobody applied, recalls Fremont artist Roger Wheeler, Beyer chose himself.
Stepanian objected. "He didn't think it was an appropriate piece, he didn't think it would look good there, and he didn't think that the chairman of the committee to pick an artist should pick himself," Wheeler says.
Stung by the attack, Beyer had the last word: He put Stepanian's face on the dog.
Both have moved away, Stepanian to run a recycling program in the Midwest, and Beyer to Pateros, near Lake Chelan.
Beyer recalls being "sort of mockingly vengeful," and says "it rather bothers me" that 18 years later, his spat with Stepanian is immortalized in cast aluminum and displayed in public. Now he likes to think of the dog as no specific individual, but the person in every community hanging around for a free ride.
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