White Center Now: The blog about White Center

We reported New Year’s Eve that photos and video were out from a recent robbery rampage that included a December holdup at the Lucky Seven in White Center. Early this morning, after a robbery attempt at a West Seattle 7-11, Seattle Police arrested three suspects and are working right now to establish whether they are linked to this series of robberies. Here’s our full report on West Seattle Blog; we will let you know when more information is released.

Just posted on partner site West Seattle Blog: An update with video and photos from a series of robberies in South Seattle/White Center/West Seattle including the December 11th holdup at Lucky Seven in WC (one of those photos, shown above). If you have any idea who these robbers are, CrimeStoppers is offering a reward: 800-222-TIPS.

One more reminder – last White Center/South Delridge Community Safety Coalition meeting of the year is coming up this Thursday night, different location – 6 pm, Boys and Girls Club, 9800 8th SW (map). (Find previous White Center Now coverage of this group’s meetings is archived here.)

A deputy goes on trial next week, and a flyer urging support for him is sparking controversy – read about it in the Times.

The P-I analyzed driver-attack reports on Metro routes and came up with a “top 10” list that includes Route 120, which runs through White Center (here’s the map). Even one attack is too many, of course, but do take note that the number of attacks that landed Route 120 on this list is … 6 per year.

The modern debate on urban housing policy takes as its starting point the post-World War II period when the country invested heavily in developing cities and its suburbs.  An outgrowth of the New Deal was  the belief that government should ameliorate the problem of housing for those unable to afford the cost of commercial or private housing.   The response to the housing problem was a mixture of modernist thought, good intentions, government bureacracy, racial attitudes and local politics.   While this subject is vast and would require tomes to fully comprehend it, we are here most concerned with the present moment in Seattle’s urban design and specifically the philosophy behind the Greenbridge Project.

The model against which much of the current thinking pivots is the Chicago Housing Authority and its notorious housing projects such as the Cabrini-Green projects.  Witold Rybczynski is an architect and an astute observer, with a sweeping knowledge of urbanism and a very accessible writing style.  I was introduced to Rybczynski’s writing when I was designing a home about 15 years ago and happened upon his meditative tome, “The Most Beautiful House in the World.”  Rybczynski took Cabrini-Green as a paradigm for the development of urbanism for a 1993 article entitled, “Bauhaus blunders: architecture and public housing – 1950s public housing estates Cabrini-Green, Chicago, Illinois, US“:

Cabrini-Green is but one of the most notorious housing projects known for its drab and sterile concrete towers of festering poverty, rampant crime, trash-strewn stairwells and unmitigated squalor.  Most of the towers are now being torn down.

The oldest housing on the site dates from 1941, not long after the Housing Act of 1937 that signaled the first involvement of the federal government in funding housing for what there then called the deserving poor. Frances Cabrini Homes was named after a soon-to-be-canonized Chicago nun, famous for her charitable work, and it was built on the site of a notorious Italian-American slum kown as Little Hell. The new housing consisted of almost 600 dwellings in two- and three-story brick buildings; the total area of the project was relatively small: sixteen acres. The unassuming architecture of these row homes–every dwelling had its own front door on the street–was not substantially different from the popular urban housing then being built by the private sector in the surrounding city. The brick facades even incorporated some decorative elements. The overall design, like that of most prewar public housing projects, is modest but unremarkable; it was taken for granted that poor people would prefer to live lie everyone else.  (emphasis added)

Although Cabrini-Green has become synonymous with large government-run slums, they were not the largest or worst of its kind.  Hunt D. Bradford has written a concise piece on the Robert Taylor Homes, a larger Chicago Housing project in piece entitled, “What went wrong with public housing in Chicago? A history of the Robert Taylor homes.”

Cabrini-Green towers undergoing demolition.

Cabrini-Green Tower

Crime was rampant in Cabrini-Green

The consensus it that the project tended to congregate poverty and stigmatize the residents.  As articulated by Rybczynski:

Although Cabrini-Green occupies almost as much land as the Loop itself, it is not the biggest public housing project in Chicago–that dubious honor belongs to Robert Taylor Homes, said to be the largest public housing project in the world. But Cabrini-Green was the first of the big projects, and it did become a model for how municipal authorities would rehabilitate deteriorated inner-city real estate and provide large amounts of public housing. The solution–bulldoze existing houses and replace them with tall apartment slabs spaced far apart in open parkland (created byh closing off existing streets to make immense “supper-blocks”)–reflected the prevalent social and architectural thinking of the time. As Bauer pointed out, his was not how the majority of Americans really lived–or would choose to live–but the idealistic housing reformers felt that they knew best.

Architects and planners maintained that high-rise buildings were better because they occupied less land, and provided their occupants with sunlight and unobstructed views, but the Chicago Housing Authority was probably attracted to Modern architecture for the same reason that many commercial developers were partial to the designs of Mies van der Rohe–their cost. The truth is that standardized, stripped-down, and undecorated tall buildings can be erected quickly and inexpensively. It is also likely that the plain architecture suited the puritan view of many Americans–and certainly of the housing reformers–who felt that social housing should not be fancy. Soon, utilitarian high-rise apartment towers were accepted as the best solution for public housing.

High-rise slums

However, it was one thing to build apartment towers for the upper-middle-class, as Mies did, and quite another to adopt them as solutions for housing the poor. The well-off have doormen, janitors, repairmen, and baby-sitters; the poor have none of these things. Without restricted access, the lobbies and corridors were vandalized; without proper maintenance, elevators broke down, staircases became garbage dumps, roofs leaked, and broken windows remained unreplaced; without baby-sitters, single mothers were stranded in their apartments, and children roamed unsupervised sixteen floors below. In Cabrini-Green, there were problems with the design of the buildings: To save money, no private balconies or terraces were provided, access galleries and elevator lobbies were left open to the elements (in frigid Chicago!), and despite the lack of air-conditioning, the unshaded apartment windows of the tall buildings faced east and west.

Equally unsuccessful was the overall layout which dispensed with the familiar street and supplanted it with parkland, although what little landscaping there was quickly disappeared and was replaced by beaten dirt and asphalt parking lots. In any case, the open pedestrian spaces were problematic: windy, unappealing, and more crime-prone than conventional streets and sidewalks overlooked by individual homes. In the name of housing the poor, the well-meaning social reformers of the 1950s invented a new type of urbanism, quite foreign to any previous American ideal of city planning. It is hardly surprising that the projects acquired a social stigma. This, as well as crime, drugs, and poor management, explains why today one-third of the apartments at Cabrini-Green remain unoccupied [and are now being demolished].

The reaction to the failure of Cabrini-Green style projects was a return to a style termed, the New Urbanism.  Again,  Rybczynski:

Which brings us to the Greenbridge, High Point and Holly Park developments in Seattle.  Each of these projects reflects completely the philosophy of the New Urbanism and the rejection of the Cabrini-Green model.   The development are designed to mix inhabitants of different income levels.  As well, the housing is of a human scale with an emphasis on street life, walkability and sustainability.   Most critically, these developments aim to look like housing, that anyone, regardless of their station in life, would choose to live in.

First online report is from KOMO News – says one person’s been shot and is undergoing CPR. Deputies are searching the mall, according to the scanner. More as we get it. 4:31 PM UPDATE: We will post any major developments here when the info becomes clearer – but we will be tracking it more closely for now at partner site West Seattle Blog (here’s the post that’ll be updated) 4:53 PM UPDATE: Times says 2 victims, which is what we also heard on the scanner a few minutes ago. No word on conditions. 9 PM UPDATE: We know a lot more about the victims. A 16-year-old boy is dead, a 15-year-old boy in the hospital. No one under arrest yet. The WSB post linked earlier in this one has first-person stories from local people who were at the mall when it happened.

Usually the White Center/South Delridge Community Safety Coalition meets toward the end of the month, but not this time – we’ve just received a reminder that the next meeting, last one of the year, will be on December 11th, different location too — SW Boys and Girls Club, 9800 8th SW (map), 6-8 pm.

Dick Thurnau with Friends of Hicks Lake reports that graffiti vandals hit various structures, including the picnic shelter and restroom, at Lakewood Park (home of Hicks Lake) on Tuesday – one day after a paintover of previous vandalism. “Even over the student-painted murals,” says Dick, who says something has got to be done about this recurring problem.

Reminder that Thursday night’s when Detective Joe Gagliardi is giving another one of his popular and thorough gang-awareness presentations – and you can get the full benefit by driving a few miles south — read on for details provided by the city of Burien: Read the rest of this entry »

Will check to find out more – two tips about a robbery/police activity at the Shorewood Grocery on 26th SW (map). We’re on the way there to see what we can find out. More when we get it. 8:42 PM UPDATE: White Center Now’s FullTilt was there immediately afterward and reports, “Two guys with guns left on foot. I got there right after it happened. … I overheard it was two black males in their 20’s, both with automatic handguns.” He counted 8 King County Sheriff’s Office cars. 8:55 PM UPDATE: Our reporter says officers were gone when he arrived; the person on duty at the store did not want to say anything more than “a little bit” when asked if the robbers got away with anything.

Sketchy reports so far on TV news; here’s a short online report from KOMO – just watched a KING5 on-air report that says family members at the scene told reporters the victim was actually 17. So far, no word of an arrest. 12:10 AM UPDATE: Here are a few more details from the P-I. The address was 1800 South 118th; here’s a map.

A quarter-million of your King County neighbors already have, according to the latest Election Department stats on “absentee” ballots (the antiquated term for what’s just become the mail-in vote, supposedly the only way we’ll all be able to vote, one of these days) — see those stats here. (As you’ll see, that’s a third of all the “absentee” ballots that King County issued – all already turned in. If you have one and you don’t want to drop it in a mailbox, there’s a round-the-clock dropoff spot a few miles north, at the Delridge Neighborhood Service Center.)>

The third in a series of four town hall meetings held by King County Sheriff She Rahr and Prosecutor Dan Satterberg is Wednesday in White Center.

Rahr has said proposed county budget cuts will put the public at risk, and is holding the meetings to hear from the public. For more on the previous meetings, click here.

The meeting is scheduled from 7 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. at the log cabin at Steve Cox Memorial Park, at 1321 S.W. 102nd St. in White Center.

We were covering this on partner site West Seattle Blog because of a helicopter sweep over West Seattle – but now it’s become a White Center story and we have actual facts from King County Sheriff’s Office Sgt. John Urquhart: A woman was attacked and “cut” by her boyfriend; she ran to Texaco at 16th/Roxbury for help; he ran to a friend’s house. Officers converged on the house to arrest him, and the King County helicopter Guardian One helped. If you saw the TV report about a “homicide suspect” — Sgt. Urquhart says the man MAY have a homicide warrant from somewhere else, but that hadn’t yet been verified; there was NOT a homicide in White Center. Will update if/when we get more info, but that’s the gist of it – the man is in custody. 10:34 PM UPDATE: TV says that other case was in Kent in July. 10:40 PM UPDATE: Got another call from Sgt. Urquhart, who confirms that the man was wanted for a Kent murder a few months ago. Appears to be this case. 10:49 PM UPDATE: Also heard back from Lt. Ron Smith at Seattle Police’s Southwest Precinct, who says two of his officers did help KCSO handle calls in White Center for a short time because of this incident — Seattle Police are all clear of the WC incident now — and also adds one other detail, that the location was “11th SW just south of Roxbury.”

Whenever the White Center/South Delridge Community Safety Coalition has its monthly meetings, the WC nightclub Evolucion somehow always comes up for discussion. Tonight, a representative came to face the critics – read on for our full report, with video: Read the rest of this entry »

Just a reminder – 6 pm tonight, the White Center/South Delridge Community Safety Coalition meeting is the place to bring up your crime/safety concerns, with law enforcers and community organizers right there to answer your questions and offer suggestions. St. James Place, 9421 18th SW (map), dinner provided!

This house is located at the intersection of Delridge and 16th Avenue SW.  The house burnt down in December of 2007.   Sometime thereafter, some vagrants started using the basement as their home and so the owner boarded up the windows.  Word is that the house was to be torn down and a mixed use residential-commercial project was to take its place.   Nothing good has happened since.

As you can see from the attached pictures the place is a complete nuisance.  No steps have been taken to mitigate the damage caused by the fire and the subsequent abandonment.  The grass and weeds are overgrown.  The charred appliances and furniture are still lying outside where they were dumped by the fire department.  And the place is conspicuous to just about everyone visiting the White Center commercial area.  Clearly, the owner does not care what kind of a nuisance this creates for the community.  Anybody got some ideas on how to get this negligent owner to clean up his mess?

Listening to the scanner – sheriff’s deputies are responding to a reported shooting (only a hand wound reported at this point) in the 10200 block of 16th SW (map). May not be able to get further details till morning, but in case you’re nearby and seeing/hearing the activity, thought we would mention it. By the way, this month’s White Center/South Delridge Community Safety Coalition meeting is 6 pm Thursday, St. James Place, 9421 18th SW (map).

Just in from King County Sheriff Sue Rahr (left) – plans for a series of town-hall-style meetings to talk about how the county budget crisis will affect public safety. She and other county leaders including Prosecuting Attorney Dan Satterberg, King County Superior Court Presiding Judge Bruce Hilyer, and King County District Court Chief Presiding Judge Barbara Linde will be in White Center for one of these meetings at 7 pm October 29, Steve Cox Memorial Park. The announcement says, “Because of an estimated $90 million county budget shortfall, the King County Executive has directed the criminal justice system to take an “across-the-board” budget cut of 11.4% for 2009. These cuts threaten the quality of justice in King County and put the public’s health and safety at risk. Your criminal justice elected officials are hosting a series of town meetings to discuss the issue. It’s critical that your voice is heard.” (Before White Center Now launched in August, we covered an early-warning briefing by Sheriff Rahr in SeaTac on June 21st; see that report, which includes video, here.)