White Center Now: The blog about White Center

MargL noticed signs for a major closure coming up on Ambaum – so we checked with King County DOT for the details, and here’s what Linda Thielke sent:

* Ambaum Boulevard Southwest at Southwest 120th Street
* Scheduled closure is from 7 a.m. Monday, June 15 through 5 p.m. Friday, June 26
* During the closure, crews will be replacing a drainage pipe underneath Ambaum
* Motorists can detour via 12th Avenue SW to SW 116th Street and back to Ambaum
* This is a joint project between the City of Burien and King County

The info available on the White Center Jubilee Days website continues to grow – and now there’s more info about this year’s parade, Saturday afternoon, July 18th. The theme: “Living the Dream.” Hard to believe the heart of summer festival season is just a little more than six weeks away!

They represent you – until and unless you are annexed by someone – so you don’t want to miss this week’s monthly meeting of the North Highline Unincorporated Area Council. It’s at 7 pm at the North Highline Fire District’s HQ, and the agenda is now available online, by going here.

Context: As Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels prepares to officially file his re-election campaign documents on Monday, we were granted an interview with him Saturday morning, for partner site West Seattle Blog. We asked one question on behalf of White Center Now: With the Seattle City Council having turned thumbs down on the Memorandum of Understanding his office worked out with Burien (and others) regarding annexation (February WCN coverage here), what happens now? This video includes the entirety of his answer – mostly prefaced with background on the sales-tax incentive vote, which he thinks was the council’s only real sticking point:

If you’re interested in the rest of our interview, we’re parceling it out in multiple reports on WSB; watch the West Seattle Politics archive, where two stories are already posted as of this writing early Sunday.

Teresa posted some on her site – and in a comment here on WCN, Mike shared a few dozen more.

We caught up with the parade at 15th SW and SW 98th — our main camera choked and we had to pull out the trusty backup, but if you didn’t get to see it in person, this video (and music!!!) still suggests the flavor of the fun. If you see this before mid-evening, there’s still time to get over to Cafe Rozella for the concert that followed the parade. Scroll down the WCN home page to read Ricardo‘s earlier reports to find out more about the history of this tradition. ADDED LATER: We did manage to get a short clip of the end of the parade at Cafe Rozella, with a clearer view of the dancers in the shade:

Here are some more pictures from last night’s performance of Afro-Peruvian music and dance at Cafe Rozella.

Poetry and music at Cafe Rozella

Devil

Preparing for the Performance

Choreographer instructs troupe before performance

Last night at the White Center-South Delridge Community Safety Coalition meeting, an attendee mentioned getting a letter from Metro regarding the potential end of a program in which trash cans are provided for bus stops if someone promises to keep them empty and maintained. We checked today with Metro’s Linda Thielke to see what’s going on, and she explains:

If you’ve ever been to a White Center/South Delridge Community Safety Coalition meeting, you know that’s Kathy Kaminski, one of the WCSDCSC’s energetic co-facilitators (along with Karen Greene). At the end of Thursday night’s meeting, Kathy had a personal announcement: Next meeting will be her last, as she is leaving Seattle Neighborhood Group in July to return to school, seeking a Master’s Degree in Public Administration. She says she hopes to return after her two years of studies; she’s been with SNG for five years (per its staff page).

The first of several stories we’ll be publishing from Thursday night’s White Center Community Safety Coalition meeting: You’re invited to a meeting next Thursday to talk about the new playground that’s on its way to Steve Cox Memorial Park. King County replaces play equipment every decade or so, it was explained, and this one’s due – plus, besides being safer, the new equipment apparently will have less tag-attracting surfaces. The meeting’s at 6 pm Thursday 6/4 in the community center rec room at the park. (Right before the North Highline Unincorporated Area Council meeting just a few miles away, it was also noted; the art project for Cox Park is expected to come up at the NHUAC meeting.)

That’s our first photo from the groundbreaking less than an hour ago at the site of White Center Square; members of the Vong family, whose supermarket will anchor the new shopping center, participated along with contractors, architects, the head of King County Economic Development, and King County Council Chair Dow Constantine. We also spoke at the site with Soona Vili from White Center Community Development Association, who agreed it’s a “great day” for White Center. Rika Vong explained today was chosen for the groundbreaking because it has good feng shui – though the actual construction itself, according to the contractors, won’t start until sometime next month. Before the shovels turned dirt, the site was blessed with incense:

Here’s video:

ADDED 12:49 PM: Our video of Constantine’s remarks:

Others who spoke at the event included Rika Vong (that’s not her in the screengrab but she’s the first person you’ll see if you hit “play”):

We talked on the sidelines with the contractors, who are from Bellevue-based Buchanan; they also worked on Meridian Station, with the same architect. And we spoke with a member of the Mullen family, which owned the property for a century before selling to the Vongs; they’re just happy to see something finally being done with the land. ADDED THURSDAY NIGHT: Here’s the official news release from King County:

Ground broken at White Center Square

$11 million project uses public funding, will create 60 jobs

The revitalization of the White Center community received a major boost this morning with the groundbreaking for an $11 million retail plaza in the neighborhood’s business district that utilizes a $6.25 million federal loan.

“There is very tight competition for these federal funds. This project won support from a review panel that includes representatives from across King County—and for several good reasons,” said Metropolitan King County Council Chair Dow Constantine, who represents the White Center neighborhood. “This project will create new retail space and new jobs, while providing a new home for a longtime community business, the Vong family’s Asian market.”

This retail project will bring 60 new jobs to White Center.

Legislation approved by the King County Council in March authorizes the Executive to borrow $6.25 million from the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and re-lend those funds to the White Center Investment Fund, LLC. The legislation also pledges the County’s Community Development Block Grants funds as additional security for the loans. The White Center Square project will also benefit from a federal tax credit.

The investment Fund will use the loan to leverage the additional funding needed to complete a new 26,500 square foot retail/office plaza near Greenbridge. Greenbridge is a mixed-income community built on the site of the former Park Lake Homes, the King County Housing Authority’s oldest and largest public housing development

“We have seen major public investments nearby—most notably in the form of Greenbridge project, White Center Heights Elementary School, and White Center Heights Park,” said Constantine. “King County has been a big part of this effort. I am proud to celebrate another step forward for the White Center neighborhood.”

Advisory just in from King County Council Chair Dow Constantine‘s office:

King County Council Chair Dow Constantine will join the owners of the White Center Square development for a groundbreaking ceremony to launch this retail project, which was funded through a $6.25 million loan from the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development:

Thursday, May 28
10:00 a.m.
White Center Square site
Corner of 15th Avenue SW and SW 100th St.
Constantine will speak at around 10:30 a.m.

The $11 million project, which will provide 60 new jobs for the White Center neighborhood, was authorized on March 30 by the King County Council.

You know the usual holiday drill – schools, most government facilities, banks closed, etc. — but in case you need to take public transit, we also wanted to let you know: Metro is running its Sunday schedule today.

Many of you saw him at the Rat City Rummage a few months back. Dave Ryan is a stencil artists from Bremerton, Washington. All of his art work is done on recycled goods, such as old LP’s, windows and thrift store canvases. Dave enjoys painting silly and epic things, has two different sized feet, and can grow a fairly thick beard when cold or frightened.

Currently he has 42 stenciled LP’s on the walls, and two larger paintings. We had 49 yesterday, so they are going pretty quick.

Followup to our report earlier this week about White Center Community Development Association getting a $5,000 award from the Seattle mayor’s office, which will be used for business-district branding: The mayor’s office just shared this photo of WCCDA’s Karen Veloria accepting the check from Mayor Nickels at the awards-announcement event in Columbia City yesterday.

The draft agenda is now out for next Thursday night’s White Center-South Delridge Community Safety Coalition meeting – read on to see what you’ll hear if you go: Read the rest of this entry »

This announcement is from the Technology Access Foundation, which has a big event coming up next month:

On June 13, 2009 Technology Access Foundation (TAF) will host our Robotics competition for TechStart, our after school program. Six classes will be participating: five from Highline (grades 4th-6th) and one from Seattle. (Grades 6th-8th) The event will take place at the White Center Boys and Girls Club, 9800 8th Ave. SW, Suite 105, from 9 AM to 1 PM. The students will be required to build robots that compete in four events:

1. Tug of War (head to head) (30 minutes)

2. Archery – 2:30 for each run w/ 5 min between rounds (35 minutes)

3. Basket Bot (16 minutes)

4. Drag Race (7 minutes)

This morning in Columbia City, the Seattle mayor’s office is awarding grants to business and community groups from all over Seattle, and one of them is going to the White Center Community Development Association (whose headquarters are on the Seattle side of WC). Congratulations! (P.S. WCCDA has posted even more photos from last weekend’s Spring Clean on its website, plus a big “thank you” to the nearly 400 people who joined in last weekend’s event.) THURSDAY AFTERNOON UPDATE: The city has released the full list of grant recipients and the amounts; WCCDA’s grant is for $5,000. According to the mayor’s office, WCCDA will use the money for a “business-district-branding campaign.”

From Sarah at WestSide Baby:

Grab a friend and join WestSide Baby tomorrow, May 21st,from 7-9pm, for our monthly “After Hours” sorting frenzy. Enjoy an evening of sorting donations, socializing and making a difference in the community!

Please RSVP to Sarah@westsidebaby.org if you know you will be able to attend. Children under 14 must be accompanied by an adult and it is especially important for us to know if minors are coming so we can prepare appropriate jobs for them.

We also have an ongoing need for larger size diapers (Sizes 4-6) and Pull-ups (Sizes 3t and 4t).

WestSide Baby is at 10032 15th Ave. SW in White Center.

The annexation vote for part of North Highline is now less than three months away, and the open house that the City of Burien is presenting at Salmon Creek School tonight is the first one since the question was officially placed on the ballot. It’s from 6:30-8 pm; here are full details from the Burien website.

Two advocates for keeping Evergreen Pool open, veteran Cyril Miller and North Highline firefighter Ed Marrs, are pleading their case with King County Council leaders today, according to this seattletimes.com story, which says they’ll be meeting with County Council Chair Dow Constantine and Councilmember Larry Phillips this afternoon. Evergreen Pool remains slated for shutdown after the end of next month unless either the county finds more money or a community coalition figures out how to take it over.