By Tracy Record
White Center Now editor
From tonight’s meeting of the North Highline Unincorporated Area Council:
METRO ISSUES INCLUDING RESTRUCTURING: One day after Metro went public with its revised plans for restructuring some routes concurrent with September’s debut of the RapidRide C Line service between downtown and West Seattle (see them route-by-route here), Metro reps DeAnna Martin and Doug Johnson were present; Martin led the briefing. She started by mentioning the zone concern that NHUAC has been pursuing, with the zone changing at Roxbury. “There’s a chance that Metro may be looking at fares overall in 2013” and maybe even looking at the possibility “of having no zones throughout the county,” she said.
To the restructuring, she talked about what the stations and stops will look like for RapidRide Line C starting this fall. President Barbara Dobkin asked why the RapidRide won’t be stopping in White Center, considering that the route it’s replacing, 54, currently does. Martin handed the baton to Johnson at that point, since he is a Metro service planner. He said the 120 would make the connection to WC from Westwood Village, where RapidRide will end, and their timing indicates it will only add a few minutes to a White Center rider’s travels. He said they’re also in the middle of a capital-improvement project to speed up the 120, and “perhaps we can make up for those 3 minutes.” The question came up again later from council member Richard Miller, who said people on Roxbury will be getting shortchanged in service to downtown. Johnson reiterated that they had had many requests for more service to come from various areas to Westwood, that’s why the line is ending there. Dobkin added that she is a 54 rider now and doesn’t see many people getting off at Westwood. Martin also pointed out that the C Line is being funded with federal money “specific to rapid transit,” which she said places certain parameters on its service.
Other changes: The 131 and 132 are going to be shortened to end in Burien, he said, “but at the same time we’re going to improve the frequency on those routes so they run every 30 minutes for most of the day.” The 131 currently comes up to WC and goes down to South Park, but its route will change to follow the 23 coming out of Highland Park, Johnson said. Route 60, which currently ends at 98th and 15th in WC, will extend to Westwood Village as another way of trying to compensate for the fact that the C Line won’t run to WC. Route 128, he noted, will be largely left alone, except to extend to the North Admiral District of West Seattle and to extend weekend hours earlier and later.
One question: No route that’ll get riders from White Center to light rail? Not directly. Another question: An Arbor Heights resident who says both he and his wife use Route 21, and says the new revisions are not only keeping them more than 7/10ths of a mile from the nearest stop, but are also “cutting (them) off” from the 21 Express. He asked if it would be possible to get DART-type service to fill the gaps. Johnson brought up the new 22 proposal, but that wouldn’t help, the Arbor Heights resident said.
Martin also promised to have someone look into dangerous sidewalk conditions that Dobkin mentioned. She also recapped how the process goes from here – public comment is being taken through the end of this month (including an online survey and other public events, listed here); the next proposal goes to the County Executive, then to the County Council (which “will do a public process as well,” according to Martin), which should make a decision in May.
KING COUNTY SHERIFF’S OFFICE UPDATE: Storefront Deputy B.J. Myers presented the briefing, bringing along maps with crime trends, summarized in general as “it’s felt like a quieter month.” He says there have been arrests made in the recent robbery at the downtown WC liquor store, with the help of surveillance video; “one of our deputies recognized somebody from one of those videos walking around White Center one day” and that suspect apparently subsequently confessed. He also mentioned the Pawn Pros armed robbery on January 24th and the subsequently released video (seen here among other places); he said, “My understanding is that leads were developed … there are good leads in this case” and he is hopeful the robbers will be in custody. On a non-crime note, he said they’d received complaints about a homeless encampment between Unity Village and Greenbridge, and an effort is under way to “clean up” the site, with help from Greenbridge’s Storefront Deputy Eric White – no one is living there any more, Deputy Myers said, but there’s a “whole bunch of garbage left behind,” and they’re going to take steps to make sure that it’s not turned into another campsite any time soon.
Another hot topic: Papa’s Pub (one of the targets of the “Center of Attention” operation), and recent “criminal incidents” that led Deputy Myers to talk with the Liquor Control Board, who, he says, told him the review period for the violations is ending, and a penalty may “kick in” soon. “There’s definitely an awareness at the Liquor Control Board that it’s not satisfactory,” he said. Another topic: “You may hear that the Sheriff’s Office is changing our staffing model.” That’s about patrolling, he explained – they’re looking at “new models for how to move deputies from one area to another” at times when there might be a staffing inequality, a shortage in one area but an overabundance in another. NHUAC president Dobkin asked about the “medical-marijuana market” in WC and its status, saying people are smoking outside; Deputy Myers said, if that happens, someone needs to call us, as we don’t have any reports of that – he said to call 911 so a deputy can be dispatched. “What about if they’re smoking inside?” she asked on followup. Deputy Myers said that they might be able to go inside if that can be verified. A question from the audience: “Stolen mail – do you want to know about that?” He said yes, but also encouraged victims to check out the Postal Service’s own reporting system (you can file a complaint online here). Council member Liz Giba asked Deputy Myers about cameras she’d noticed on utility poles around the area; some might be theirs, the deputy allowed, or perhaps other law-enforcement organizations’ cameras. “There’s a lot of attention on the neighborhood, and I wouldn’t be surprised who’s got cameras out these days.”
CITY OF BURIEN UPDATE: Nhan Nguyen filled in for City Manager Mike Martin (who, he said, is out of the office, taking care of an ailing parent). Nguyen started with an annexation update, recapping the Boundary Review Board’s recent action resulting in “preliminary approval,” with a final vote due February 16th. (That meeting is at 7 pm at DDES headquarters in Renton, president Dobkin noted.) Meantime, “everybody is holding their breath right now on the state sales-tax credit,” since if the Legislature kills that credit, the annexation would be abandoned, Martin has said. In another hot topic, he brought up the library-consolidation issue involving the King County Library System. A task force has been meeting, and Nguyen says this will come up before the Burien City Council on February 27th. And he showed the cards for a new prescription-drug discount card that “pretty much anybody” can get, for use at pharmacies in the city of Burien. Almost all the city’s pharmacies are participating, he said. The card is available at City Hall.
UNFINISHED BUSINESS: Dobkin said they’re still in the process of getting a flag to fly at Steve Cox Memorial Park – one that will fly over the Capitol in Deputy Cox’s honor, before being sent to NHUAC for use at the park. … She noted that the council is not subject to the Open Meetings law now that it’s not an official county-sponsored/funded body, and the status change might also affect plans for future elections (that process is currently suspended, pending the results of the annexation process). Dobkin said she would like to see the council become an all-at-large body. “Talking about elections is negative!” said council member Ron Johnson. “It would mean we didn’t get annexed!” Councilmember Giba pointed out that even if there’s an annexation vote this fall and the vote is pro-annexation, there will still be some time before the annexation becomes final.
COUNCIL ANNOUNCEMENTS: There’s a poetry workshop at the White Center Library this Saturday, 2 pm, led by Mike Hickey, who has served as Seattle’s Poet Populist … The rescheduled Key Club dinner for New Start is February 16th (see this entry on the White Center Now Events Calendar) … The King County Housing Authority Task Force meets at 5:30 pm February 21st … the North Highline Fire District Board of Commissioners will meet at 7 pm February 23rd at NHFD HQ … and a reminder, the first in a series of quarterly public-safety forums will be one week from tonight, February 9th at 7 pm, also at NHFD, with the Metro Transit Police Chief, a King County Sheriff’s Office gang expert, and Deputy Myers, discussing “safety in the community,” as Dobkin described it (more info on the NHUAC website) …
MARCH MEETING: WestSide Baby’s Nancy Woodland, who was originally scheduled to speak tonight, has been rescheduled to the March meeting; King County Transportation will have a representative there too. The date: March 1st, the time 7 pm as usual, at the North Highline FD HQ as always.
