White Center Now: The blog about White Center

While out covering the White Center Art Walk last Saturday night, we noticed a sign is up in the window of the former VN Market, touting Luso Food and Wine‘s new location – it’s moving a few blocks northwest, to the heart of downtown WC, at 9614 16th SW. The announcement on Facebook says the store is scheduled to open on February 15th, with a grand-opening celebration on March 2nd. It’s been a year and four months since Luso opened in its first location on 15th SW.

Even if you didn’t make it out to tonight’s White Center Art Walk, you have the whole month to check out the featured works … Above, Amanda Kay Helmick is showing her art this month at the fitness/wellness hub Center Studio (9×11 16th SW). Across the street at 9608 16th SW, it was party time at Company Bar, including the show opening for Mark O’Connell:

Company was rocking to music by DJ Transport:

On the same side of the street, while the artist wasn’t on hand when we stopped in, Proletariat Pizza/Caffé Delia is showing work by Aaron Loidhamer:

Keep watch here for word of the next WC Art Walk – and enjoy the art displays as you visit WC businesses the rest of the month!

Thanks to Gill for the photo and the sighting – the sign in the window at 9632 16th SW, right next to Stan’s Superstore, portends “Rat City Records and Relics.” Subsequently scouring the Web, we found RCRR’s Facebook page, describing the business as: “Used & some new vinyl records, turntables, stereo gear, old guitars and more.” and noting that it could be open as soon as the end of this month. We’ll update when we find out more.

Dubsea Bikes gets a boost – from a longtime West Seattle bike-shop owner who says he’s moving to White Center. Posted earlier tonight on partner site West Seattle Blog, here’s the announcement from Aaron Goss of Aaron’s Bicycle Repair:

Aaron’s Bicycle Repair, Inc. says thank you and goodbye to Morgan Junction and West Seattle proper.

However, they are only moving 3 miles away to White Center!

This is very exciting news for White Center and we have been welcomed with open arms by the community.

For several years, Dubsea Bikes, a non-profit bicycle repair and ride group, has been lobbying for a bike shop in Rat City.

Starting February 1st, 2013 that will be a reality!

The bike shop will be located in the White Center Square, anchored by Hung Long Asian Market.

The new address is 9988 15th Ave. SW, Suite E.

Phone, e-mail and web will remain the same. Look for updates on the shop’s website soon. www.RideYourBike.com.

Manager Gregg Sundin said the economic downturn and increasing online sales forced the decision to downsize. The shop will re-focus on bicycle repair and service but will still sell bikes, parts and accessories.

Also offered will be community-building events like Full Moon rides, Free Flat Tuesdays and hosting Dubsea Bikes repair parties.

The space the store is leaving was a state liquor store until four years ago, when the state closed it, and the bike shop moved in from another space nearby.

Sunday was opening day for Meat The Live Butcher, the successor to Top Hat’s Bernie and Boys, now open and selling meat in South Delridge (9432 16th SW), more than a year and a half after B&B closed (here’s WCN coverage from February 2011). We stopped in for a few photos on Sunday afternoon:

Check out the wall of history:

Thanks to Leticia from nearby Café Rozella for the Sunday tip that it was opening day. P.S. You can find MTLB on Facebook by going here.

Have some music with your mocha! The Tallboys are playing at Caffé Delia in downtown White Center right now (with the coffee shop’s co-owner Matt on bass) till 2 pm, as CD celebrates its first birthday. Here’s our preview story from Friday. Caffé Delia is co-housed with Proletariat Pizza – 9622 16th SW.

(This story also appears on our partner site West Seattle Blog)

(Matt, Delia, and Eric – photo by WCN co-publisher Patrick Sand)
By Tracy Record
White Center Now editor

You could call Caffé Delia “White Center’s first co-housed coffee shop.”

Or, pop-up coffee shop, as its proprietors dubbed it.

It opened one year ago in the downtown White Center space that, by night, is Proletariat Pizza.

As with Proletariat, Caffé Delia’s proprietors are a married couple – Delia and Matt. And they say Proletariat’s Stefanie and Mike had the coffee-cohousing idea in the first place – stemming from a mutual-admiration society when Delia worked at Bird on a Wire Espresso and referred people to “the fun pizza place in White Center.”

We sat down with Delia and Matt to talk about their shop and its milestone anniversary, which will be marked with a party during Caffé Delia’s regular hours tomorrow (8 am-2 pm Saturday).

Read the rest of this entry »

Thanks to Mikel Davila of the White Center Community Development Association for e-mailing us with the news about this: The long-long-long-awaited successor to Top Hat’s Bernie and Boys, Meat the Live Butcher, is finally about to open. There’s a grand-opening party this Friday night at the White Center Eagles. From the flyer Mikel shared:

OPENING SOON @ 9432 16TH AVE. SW
www.meatthelivebutcher.com

GRAND OPENING PARTY & FOOD DRIVE

· November 2ND 6:00 pm Start WHITE CENTER EAGLES 10452 15th Ave. SW

· FOOD PROVIDED BY THE LIVE BUTCHER

CANNED FOOD OR CASH WILL BE ACCEPTED AT THE DOOR – PROCEEDS TO GO TO THE WHITE CENTER FOOD BANK

JIM KING AND THE SOUTHENDERS WILL PLAY @ 8:30

You can read all about Meat the Live Butcher on its website.

Congratulations to the Spencer family – Rich, Joan, and daughter Rachel – as the family business reaches a milestone today: Half a century! Spencer’s Automotive is the Shell station/auto-repair shop at the corner of 15th and 107th:

Till 3 pm, it’s party central:

Bouncy house, climbing wall, Full Tilt Ice Cream treats, and on the east side, hot dogs:

Rich Spencer bought the business from his dad – who died just last February – back in 1989, according to posters that are up at the station, explaining its history.

It’s White Center Art Walk night, 6-9 pm! One of the places you can stop for art and treats is Center Studio (9611 16th SW), whose proprietor Lonjina Verdugo sends word of what she has in store:

September Artist: Sarah Barrick at Center Studio

Please join us every 3rd Saturday of the month during Art Walk and enjoy what Center Studio has to offer. This month, Sarah Barrick’s photography based visual interpretations of the ratios and proportions found in the study of sacred geometry examine the perspective of the mandala principle where existence is described as ‘orderly chaos.’ She hopes that the beauty of her circular images give pause and create a space for the mind to wander, to wonder, and to appreciate what she sees as inseparable parts of a total vision of reality. www.sarahbarrick.com

We will be enjoying snacks and sips from 6-9 pm tonight with specials on classes if you sign-up while at the studio. Plus, if you have been wanting to try us out, we are offering our first Community Yoga night Sunday, 9/16, at 5:30. Cost is donation only. All are welcome!

Anybody else part of Art Walk tonight? Send info! whitecenternow@gmail.com

Story and photo by Tracy Record
White Center Now editor

Lea Kuchan and her 9-year-old daughter have been picking up litter and cleaning away graffiti as a labor of love – both in small day-to-day efforts and as part of big events like White Center Spring Clean.

“It’s an instant-gratification thing,” she smiles – the results are visible immediately.

That was especially true during this year’s Spring Clean, Lea says, when she was on a team “in charge of washing windows,” and someone came by to suggest it would be great if that happened on a regular basis. “At that point, I decided to get some business cards and a business license so I could hand them out to say, ‘I’m available’.”

And so, Lea is on the road to turning her passion into a business – Neat Street. “It came from seeing a need in the community and seeing that there might be an idea for a business at the same time.”

After finding out about it via Facebook, we asked Lea if she could spare some time to sit down and chat about her new business. We chatted one recent night at Company in downtown WC.

She will offer local business and property owners the opportunity to contract for a regular service package “where I would come around once or twice a week and keep an eye on the property – eliminate graffiti, pick up litter, scoop up cigarette butts, (deal with) illegally dumped items like shopping carts …”

Lea has a vested interest in this: Two years ago, she became a White Center homeowner, moving from the West Seattle neighborhood of North Delridge after seven years there, and noticing that her new neighborhood seemed to have a problem with litter and tagging. “I don’t think I would have paid as much attention before becoming a homeowner.”

She’s steadily amassed the tools of the trade – litter grabbers, graffiti remover; she is also passionate about making sure that the remover is earth-friendly, so that there’s no ground/water pollution even as visual pollution is being removed. It requires a fair amount of research, though: “Some graffiti is more stubborn – spray paint on metal, for example, is harder to get off.” Cleaning fluids aren’t the only way to handle it, Lea notes – pressure-washing and even methods involving dry ice and nutshells are all on her list for investigation. “I don’t like the idea of using chemicals.”

Neat Street also will handle litter in an environmentally friendly way, she promises – whatever is picked up that can be recycled, will be recycled.

And she expects to patrol the gutters on the street in front of clients’ businesses/properties, too. “A lot of people throw litter in the gutters.”

Whatever she does, Lea vows there will be “a significant difference from the time I get there to the time I leave.”

She doesn’t plan to abandon her volunteerism; “a lot of (this), I’ll probably honestly do as community service,” she acknowledges, especially as a “neighborly” favor for new businesses as they start up.

Hers, in turn, is ready to get going once she starts finding clients, and she thinks value will be found in it, even beyond the clients themselves: “Litter affects property values, the reputation of a neighborhood. Businesses are affected. We’re hoping to benefit the community.”

And as things get going, Lea’s open to working outside White Center, too.

In addition to community benefit, she’s setting an example for her daughter, though sometimes, she says, it works the other way around – “She’s much more thorough than I am. She’ll see a little tiny rollup of tinfoil, gum wrapper, or something, and she gets very meticulous about it. She insists ALL the litter must be picked up.”

Maybe because she’s seen positive feedback, even from strangers – “My daughter and I were out with our pickup sticks and somebody went by and honked,” Lea explains, “and gave us a thumbs-up. Somebody (else) told my daughter, ‘good job,’ and she said, ‘I feel really good about this’.”

Like many small-business owners, Lea expects this to start as a sideline. She works in the accounting department of a law firm and says she enjoys that work too. But – “I’m an energetic person, and the idea of being outside doing something physical” is attractive too.

You can reach her through her website, NeatStreetSeattle.com.

Rat City Rollergirls.

Rat City Business Association.

They, among others, have embraced the rat in White Center’s nickname “Rat City” (the origins of which are still argued to this day).

As first reported here in WCN coverage of last week’s North Highline Unincorporated Area Council meeting, the White Center Chamber of Commerce‘s new website (see the current front page here) is on the verge of embracing the rat, too. But one longtime business owner was so upset about that, he came to NHUAC to make his case (though they have no involvement with the website).

And, as also mentioned in our story, he plans to take it to the WC Chamber at their lunch meeting today. Chamber President Mark Ufkes sent around an updated announcement asking members to come prepared to discuss it, as well as making them aware they can expect to hear from rat opponents.

So just a reminder, if you are interested – noon today, Salvadorean Bakery (Roxbury just west of 17th).

This afternoon at 1 pm, Annette Cottrell, the author of “The Urban Farm Handbook” will be at Village Green Perennial Nursery (10223 26th SW) to sign books. Full details are on this Facebook event page.

One year after the longtime White Center mailbox (and more) business Pony Express closed, the name and services are back. Jeri e-mailed us to announce that “the services provided by the Pony Express of White Center are now available at a new address. S & L Realty LLC at 9849 17th Ave. SW is now providing private mailboxes, mailing services, UPS shipping, money orders, pay bills, faxing, and copying.”

In downtown White Center till 6 pm, you are invited to come celebrate The Center Studio‘s grand opening (9611 16th SW).

Meet proprietor Lonjina Verdugo (above), admire RobRoy Chalmers‘ art (behind Lonjina in the photo), have a snack and/or sip, and if you are bringing kids – there’s a bouncy house out back!

See the class info at whitecenterstudio.com.

As previewed here last week, Sili Savusa of the White Center Community Development Association and Aileen Sison of White Center B.O.S.S. were among the panelists during a special Leadership Seminar at the start of last Saturday’s Gathering of Neighbors in West Seattle. Leadership and community organizing were among the topics, and we have the whole thing on video if you’d like to hear what they had to say.

P.S. Aileen’s “White Center B.O.S.S.” has its next Happy Hour tonight, 4-7 pm at Company in downtown White Center.

Just a reminder – no White Center Chamber of Commerce lunch tomorrow. President Mark Ufkes shared this note:

Rather than have two White Center business gatherings on the same day, the White Center Chamber of Commerce is cancelling the April Chamber monthly luncheon and encouraging Chamber members to attend the White Center CDA Business Mixer … The Chamber web site committee will be reporting out on our progress to date for our planned web site. We will resume our normal monthly luncheons on Tuesday, May 8th. Also remember that we will have White Center Spring Clean scheduled for Saturday, May 19th and need volunteers and funding support for our several anti-graffiti mural projects.

The WCCDA mixer is at 6 pm Tuesday at Be’s Crawfish House, 9826 16th SW.

Café Rozella proprietor Leticia Martinez is certainly proud of her coffee shop’s new look. But when we stopped in during the “reopening” celebration tonight, we found out she is even prouder of an achievement by her son Patrick – who just got an honor-roll certificate commemorating his 4.0 GPA at Madison Middle School. (Congratulations, Patrick!) He is a fixture at the shop, which has always been a home to art and a celebration of creativity, but is now artistically decorated in its own right:

Tonight’s event included live music – playing a handmade instrument from Germany, we found Craig Cinderich:

There’s also a new menu at Rozella, with added savory/hearty options as well as the to-be-expected sweets (often including Leticia’s home-baked breads). Tonight’s ringleader, White Center business-community cheerleader Aileen Sison, says there’s a celebration ahead on April 20th, too, so if you couldn’t make it to the café tonight, mark your calendar.

The sign is up at the former White Center Albertsons, with more signage in the works right now.

As the new owners had told us last month, it is open during remodeling and is now Super Saver Foods. Here’s our original report from February; the takeover happened this week as planned.

While we were there, warehouse workers from Supervalu were on hand stocking the store (and so proud about it, they posed for a big group photo out front!). The store does not have a pharmacy – Albertsons transferred its customers to its 1st Avenue South store in Burien last month. Burien is also where the new Super Saver Foods’ parent company has its nearest store.

We’re continuing to track who’s applying for a license to sell hard liquor, once privatization takes full effect June 1st. The latest to apply: The White Center Bartell Drugs store at 15th/Roxbury put in its application last week, according to the state Liquor Control Board website. The new owners of the White Center Albertsons store, Saar’s, which is about to rebrand it as Super Saver Foods, also are seeking a license to sell hard liquor. And the Walgreens store that’s just over the White Center/West Seattle line at 16th/Roxbury has applied too. As for the current state liquor store in WC, the license to sell liquor there – if a lease can be worked out, among other conditions – remains up for auction, along with the licenses of other state liquor stores, and the bidding is now up to $6,600 (it started at $1,000 minimum).