White Center Now: The blog about White Center

Just announced – the Rat City Business Association‘s Trick-or-Treat Festival, 2-5 pm Sunday, October 27th. Be there!

Just in case you’d started to wonder, with the 4th of July just a week from Thursday: Fireworks sales are still legal in unincorporated King County, and they start at noon Friday (June 28th) this year. And fireworks are still banned in the cities around White Center – Seattle, Tukwila, and Burien.

Some notes for the holiday:

TRANSPORTATION: Metro is on a Sunday schedule, as are Sound Transit buses.

SCHOOLS: Highline Public Schools are closed.

LIBRARIES: The King County Library System is closed.

GOVERNMENT OFFICES are closed.

NO MAIL, NO BANKS … though on occasion we hear of a bank branch open on a holiday, so if you find one, let us know!

EVERGREEN AQUATIC CENTER is closed this morning, but open for a special public swim noon-2 pm and then for lessons at 4:30 pm.

(January 2012 video by Deanie Schwarz for WCN)
Lunar New Year is a little more than two weeks away, and Au Lac Vovinam Lion Dance Team plans to be dancing again – so, adviser Doan Dinh tells WCN, if any business owners are interested in bringing the team in for Lunar New Year, contact them at aulacvvn@gmail.com ASAP! Dinh adds, “This year, we are planning on donating 25% of our profits to Ky Quang temple in Vietnam, which is also an orphanage for children with disabilities and physical defects.” You can find out more about the team via its website.

We know of at least two in the downtown White Center vicinity – who else?

*Company Bar – Special dinner menu, plus dancing with DJ at 9 pm, midnight champagne toast too.

*Mac’s Triangle Pub – New Year’s Eve Karaoke, “Puttin’ on the Glitz,” 9 pm-close, no cover, midnight champagne toast and party favors, presented by PCM Musiq Productions.

It’s a full house at Center Studio, with arts/crafts vendors from White Center and West Seattle during the studio’s first Blithe Bazaar, continuing till 8 pm. Most of the participating arts/crafts vendors are listed here.

But we didn’t see the listing for proprietor Lonjina Verdugo’s son Adrian:

His duct-tape wallets are just one of many items you’ll find at 9611 16th SW in downtown White Center till 8 pm.

(Photos by Katie Meyer for WCN)
If you haven’t already noticed: White Center has a new Christmas-tree lot this season – at Holy Family, benefiting HF’s Parish School. It’s being run by HF parishioners the Calderons: Carlos, Tracy, and kids Andres and Tahlia, who are in our photo, and Marco (who was off at a sports practice when we stopped by).

Carlos says the idea came up at a Holy Family School board meeting – fundraising ideas were being brainstormed, and Carlos suggested a Christmas tree lot, recalling one run by an acquaintance in South King County. The idea was enthusiastically approved. Carlos was put in charge. He and his family bought the tree inventory, added fencing to the lot at 18th and Roxbury, built the wooden framework for the trees, and opened within days.

The Calderons are helping tree-shoppers in Spanish as well as English, and they’re open long hours – 9 am till 10 pm. P.S. Delivery’s available.

Two days till a chance to shop for gifts while supporting the community group that supports your White Center Library: 11 am-3 pm this Saturday (December 8th), the White Center Library Guild Holiday Bazaar will include “cookies, breads, and gently used items” – plus creations by the Burien Knitters group (for the first time!) and entertainment by magician Jeff Evans at 2 pm. Find it in the meeting room at the library, 11220 16th SW.

White Center’s Christmas tree, in Veterans’ Triangle Park on the north side of 16th/Roxbury, is lit! The ceremony followed the gathering to honor Margaret Ryan (see separate story). On hand … someone who you might call “Santa Mac”:

(We suspect this “Santa” parks his sleigh regularly at Mac’s Triangle Pub right next to the tree. Even a pet was in the holiday spirit:

Just announced by White Center Chamber of Commerce president Mark Ufkes:

The Annual White Center Chamber of Commerce Hero Awards and Luncheon is planned for next Tuesday, December 4, at the Salvation Army from 12-1:30 pm. We will recognize three White Center Heroes for 2012, for their contributions to White Center. We encourage folks to bring an unwrapped new toy for our Chamber Toys for Tots collection. The address is: White Center Salvation Army, 9050 16th SW

From a morning stroll on 16th:

The new restaurant TT’s Soul Kitchen, at the site of the former Pho Lynna (southeast corner of 16th/Roxbury), plans its grand opening tomorrow (Tuesday, November 27th), according to handwritten signs put up on both sides of its corner location. We’re checking on hours.

And right across Roxbury, the banner’s up for this Saturday night’s tree lighting:

Veterans’ Triangle Park, right in front of Mac’s Triangle Pub, is the place to be at 5 pm this Saturday (December 1st).

Tomorrow night brings the second-annual White Center Pumpkin-Carving Contest – bring your pre-carved pumpkin to Mac’s Triangle Pub (Delridge Triangle, just north of Roxbury) as early as 5 pm for dropoff; the official contest hours are 6-8 pm, and you don’t have to be present to win. More info on the contest’s official Facebook page.

Sweet treats for some local kids, thanks to a regional union – here’s the announcement:

Halloween will be a little bit sweeter for children in Seattle’s White Center neighborhood, thanks to members of Machinists Union District Lodge 751.

Union members across Puget Sound collected more than 500 pounds of candy for the Salvation Army of White Center, to support its annual Halloween party.

“That much candy should get them through Halloween and their Christmas party too,” said Ron Coen, the president of Machinists Union Local Lodge 751-C and one of the organizers of the union’s annual candy drive.

District Lodge 751 represents about 33,000 people at 48 employers in three states, including ours. Last year, the union says, members of its Volunteer Program donated more than 10,000 hours of community service.

Some of your downtown White Center favorites are taking a break this holiday – like Full Tilt Ice Cream and Proletariat Pizza – but Caffe Delia, which operates inside the Proletariat storefront in the pre-pizza hours, is open for coffee today: 9 am-1 pm.

If this turns out to be the last 4th of July for fireworks sales in White Center – since fireworks are banned in Burien – the local International Order of the Rainbow for Girls will have to find something to replace it; the fireworks stand is their biggest fundraiser of the year. Theirs is the stand at 16th and 100th, and they’ll be open till 9 pm on the 4th of July.

Whether you love them, hate them, or don’t care about them, it’s notable that this might be the last 4th of July with legal personal fireworks in White Center and the rest of unincorporated North Highline, since they are illegal in Burien (as they are in Seattle), and if annexation is approved in November, it may be in effect by this time next year. We are reminded of this because the annual week of pre-4th sales is days away; by county law (as outlined here), stands can open at noon June 28th – this coming Thursday – and can be open 9 am-11 pm daily thereafter, through July 4th. However, fireworks can only be used on the 4th itself.

Found this one via Facebook: In addition to Cinco de Mayo parties on May 5th, White Center also will be the site of “Cinco de Medico” at Northwest Cannabis Market, with live music and medical-marijuana-strain “judging.” The event poster, which you can see online here, says nearby Herban Legends is a sponsor, with other participating medical-marijuana establishments including Northwest Patient Resource Center in south West Seattle.

For Highline Public Schools, it’s mid-winter break all week till classes resume Wednesday. Most if not all others have at least today off. … Metro is on a “weekday/no UW” schedule. … Sound Transit services’ plans are here … No U.S. Postal Service delivery … The King County Library System is closed today (including the website, which is scheduled to be down 8 am-5 pm for maintenance).

*EDITOR’S FOOTNOTE: Mark asked via e-mail if we had ad space to sell for a day to publish this message. We aren’t yet selling ads on WCN but decided to run it free and invite anyone else with a message to share for their beloved to e-mail us at whitecenternow@gmail.com (before 3 pm today), and we’ll add it too.

If you had a one-use tree this holiday season – here’s how to recycle it.

If you have Waste Management pickup service, you can put it out with your yard waste this week, as long as you follow these rules:

Waste Management collects Christmas trees from its residential customers. Be sure the tree is cut into three-foot sections and remove any tree stands, nails, tinsel and decorations.

If you are within Seattle city limits, you can take your tree to the South Transfer Station in South Park, as long as it’s not taller than eight feet (rules here).

Wherever you live, you are welcome to help out local nonprofits with these two tree-cycling events coming up next weekend:

SATURDAY & SUNDAY: Boy Scout Troop 375 Christmas Tree Recycle
January 7 – 8, 2012 (9 to 4)
Five Corners (160th and 1st Avenue in Burien)
$5 per tree
“Good Karma” Christmas Tree Mulch available for $25 donation per yard

SATURDAY, TWO LOCATIONS: The West Seattle Rainbow Girls will hold their fifth annual Christmas tree recycle fundraiser January 7 at the Alki Masonic Hall 4736 40th Ave. SW. and also at the Southgate Masonic Hall located at 1004 SW 152nd in Burien from 10:00 – 2:00. Suggested donation $5.00. No flocked trees please. For more information please contact Jan Hunter at 206-849-7906. Check out the Rainbow Girls by going to www.gorainbow.org.