White Center Now: The blog about White Center

The Hearst Corporation has indicated that the St. Patrick’s Day edition of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer will be their final newspaper edition. Going forward, the “P-I” will publish as a web-only newssite. Executive Producer Michelle Nicolosi, indicated that the paper will leverage the content of the Hearst newspapers for its online edition. The online edition will have a fraction of its former staff, leading to a blurring of titles and responsibilities.  As articulated by Nicolosi, “We don’t have reporters, editors or producers—everyone will do and be everything. Everyone will write, edit, take photos and shoot video, produce multimedia and curate the home page.” The media word is abuzz with the news as this will be the largest online only newspaper and will certainly test out new business and media models. Let’s hope for the best and wish the new organization godspeed.

According to this P-I story, the long-awaited Durham Creek work — $400,000 worth — is now on a list of possible cuts when the city updates its budget crunch in the coming weeks.

If it hasn’t turned to rain already where you are, it should soon. But watch out for possible wind trouble later today – there’s a National Weather Service advisory from noon-11 pm.

5:19 PM UPDATE: The wind’s here. Be safe. Gusts up to 50 mph are possible (and Alki Point in West Seattle had one at 45 mph at 5 pm).

Till 3 pm at the Salvation Army. Want to see and celebrate the community’s future? Drop in. ADDED MIDDAY SATURDAY: A few photos – good crowd, as you can see above; treats from Salvadorean Bakery! as shown below:

On behalf of West Seattle Blog and White Center Now, we interviewed King County Council Chair Dow Constantine the day he declared he was running for County Executive. One of his council colleagues, Larry Phillips, was already in the race – and we have just published our interview with Phillips on WSB – topics include annexation and a possible area jail — see the story here.

King 5 News is reporting that variation of the illegal drug, ecstasy, known as BZP is making the rounds looking like children’s candy and vitamins.   The drug could be fatal if swalloed by children.  Here are two pictures of the druges taken from the King 5 site.

BZP disguised as children

BZP as reported by King 5

We covered the announcement this morning in North Delridge: Seattle Public Utilities and Seattle City Light now both have the same criteria for low-income assistance – 70 percent of median income, which means about $53,000 right now for a family of four. If you are a customer of SCL and/or SPU, read all about the expanded assistance here; also see our coverage on partner site West Seattle Blog.

From Tina, in a comment on our coverage of the last White Center Arts open house night:

They are doing it again! Open studio art tour, Saturday, March 21st, from 5pm to 10pm. There will be several local guest artists showing their art too.

9639 16th Ave SW
White Center for the Arts building

And as already reported here, Rat City Rummage plans an encore March 28.

That’s according to the announcement of King County road-construction work scheduled for the upcoming season.

Snow showers are expected for much of the day (and the next few days, at this point). No bus/road trouble reported by King County yet; they’ve now added a blog-format website (see it here) and a Twitter account (@kcnews) for informal updates.

SATURDAY NIGHT UPDATE: Snowing in White Center as of about 9 pm. Nothing big around the area so far, though North Seattle neighborhoods have even had thunder/lightning/hail tonight.

March 28th is now set as the second round of Rat City Rummage in White Center’s old skating rink. First one last weekend was a blast – as we showed you here (and as you can tell from Dina Johnson‘s photos on the Highland Park Action Committee site). RCR’s website says vendor spots are still open, so you can e-mail at ratcityrummage@hotmail.com.

ORIGINAL WEDNESDAY REPORT: In the latest bulletin from the King County Public Health Department:

*Taqueria EL Rincon #1 located at 11066 16th Ave SW, Seattle* was closed by a Public Health food inspector on March 3, 2009 at 12:40 pm due to wastewater draining to the ground. The establishment will be reopened when all issues have been resolved

THURSDAY UPDATE: It’s open again, according to the KCPH website.

From Sgt. John Urquhart at King County Sheriff’s Office:

On March 3, 2009 at about 8.30 PM a home located in the 11000 block of 8th Ave S was invaded and robbed by three armed suspects. The suspects ransacked the house while holding the occupants at gunpoint. The preliminary investigation indicates the suspects were after money and drugs. They left in what was described as a tan newer Cadillac taking with them an undetermined amount of cash, 2 shotguns and other property. The suspects are described as a white male and 2 Hispanic males all in their mid to late twenties. They were wearing black stocking hats, black sweatshirts and dark jeans. The suspects were all armed with handguns.
Detectives are seeking the public’s assistance with any information that might assist them with their investigation.

The agenda for this Thursday night’s meeting of the North Highline UAC is available online, and includes:

7:30 p.m. Burien Deputy Mayor – Rose Clark – July 4, Parade

7:45 p.m. Code Enforcement – DenoBi Olegba & Randy Sandin

8:05 p.m. Old Business –
Meeting with Ron Sims – Heidi Johnson
Puget Sound Park – Heidi Johnson
Annexation Update
Abandoned Shopping Carts – Heidi Johnson
AIA – Heidi Johnson

The AIA is the alcohol-impact area proposal, which was discussed again at last Thursday’s White Center/South Delridge Community Safety Coalition meeting, though nothing major was resolved there – it continues to be a situation where each side of the city/county border has to develop a proposal and take it to their respective governing body for approval, for starters. From what was said at the CSC meeting, the county side seems to be further ahead at this point. Meantime, the Thursday night meeting is at 7 pm at North Highline Fire District HQ, and everyone’s welcome.

We told you a few days ago that the time, date, and location are all now set for the upcoming Youth Summit – and now, here’s the flyer for the event described as “An opportunity for young people to help create the future of the White Center/Boulevard Park Community.”

Seattle Fire Department spokesperson Dana Vander Houwen has just told White Center Now that “improperly discarded smoking materials” were the cause of last night’s fire — ruled an accident — that damaged what Ricardo reports is a Muslim prayer hall (or “masjid” – see photo at bottom of this post) in the building on the alley immediately north of his building (home to Cafe Rozella and the Platinum salon). The fire started on/in a “vinyl couch,” she says – you’ll note the photos we took outside the building this morning include a badly burned couch.

Damage from the fire is estimated by SFD at $25,000.

(added 7:14 pm, photo by Tony Bradley, replacing our original iPhone photo)
We’ve been covering this on partner site West Seattle Blog. Nobody inside, nobody hurt, no major damage from the outside, but flames were briefly visible from inside. As of 7 pm, that block of Delridge was still blocked off, as was 17th SW between Delridge and Roxbury, so avoid the Triangle area for a while, though fire crews should clear before TOO long. MONDAY MORNING UPDATE: Our fellow White Center Now contributor Ricardo Guarnero at neighboring Cafe Rozella says the fire actually was in a Muslim prayer hall in this building. We are still awaiting word from Seattle Fire investigators regarding cause/damage. Ricardo adds that there’s a note on the door saying “MASJID is closed indefinitely,” and adds, “The sign is on the door where Muslims gathered to pray five times a day. Next door is the ‘Hope Academic Enrichment Center.’ Both were there for the Muslim community in White Center – mostly African immigrants from the horn of Africa.”

Come down and try Laughing Buddha’s newest creations paired with some Asian-influenced ice cream. Today at 3 pm, Full Tilt Ice Cream.

We just stopped by. Lots of vendors and shoppers. Amazing quirky stuff like an item we picked up – Hunter S. Thompson, stenciled onto an old vinyl disc (we looked at the back – Saturday Night Fever, the album – fitting in an odd way).

Adding a video interview with stencil artist Dave Ryan shortly. Rat City Rummage continues till 6 tonight in the old roller rink – you can enter from 16th SW. 11:35 AM UPDATE: Here’s that clip:

ADDED 9:53 PM: Thanks to Highland Park’s Dina Johnson for sharing this page full of photos of other artists and craftspeople who were on hand at Rat City Rummage.

Just heard from from Dan Donohoe at the office of King County Prosecuting Attorney Dan Satterberg: He says Satterberg has a family emergency and has to cancel his planned appearance at tonight’s White Center/South Delridge Community Safety Coalition meeting, but will reschedule. (However, the law/justice reps who are usually on hand at the meeting do include a prosecutor’s-office rep.) Everything else planned for the meeting, including updates on local crime trends and nuisance spots, is on as usual, 6 pm, St. James Place, 9421 18th SW.