White Center Now: The blog about White Center

Just received from the state:

OLYMPIA — Beginning April 1, many people currently receiving food
assistance through Washington’s food stamp program, Basic Food, will
receive an increase in their monthly food benefits. The Federal American
Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA), recently signed into law to help
stimulate the national economy, provides additional aid to people
receiving food benefits. Changes in Basic Food provided by the federal
stimulus package include:

* A 13.6 percent increase in maximum monthly benefit amounts for
most households – meaning a four-person household could receive up to
$668 instead of $588.

* Suspending the three-month time limit on food assistance for
childless, unemployed adults through September 2010.

Households currently receiving Basic Food will automatically receive the
higher benefits. DSHS sent letters to all affected households informing
them of the upcoming increase to their monthly benefits.

People receive their monthly Basic Food benefits electronically on a
debit-like card to spend on food items. The additional grocery purchases
generated by the extra benefits will increase economic activity in
communities across the state. During the state’s 2007 fiscal year,
Washington’s Basic Food Program generated more than $607 million in food
purchases statewide. With recent program expansions, this figure is
estimated to reach nearly $1 billion in 2009.

“Washington state has a history of weathering economic downturns fairly
well, but we haven’t been so lucky this time,” said Troy Hutson,
assistant secretary for the DSHS Economic Services Administration. “As
unemployment continues to rise, more people needing help to make ends
meet are coming to us. The food stamp program is the nation’s first
defense against hunger and these additional benefits provide much needed
help to families and the economy as a whole.”

People who would like more information about Basic Food can go to
www.foodhelp.wa.gov . Households can
quickly estimate what their monthly benefits would be and apply online.
People can also call 1-877-514-FOOD (3663) for questions about the
program.

From our partner site West Seattle Blog – both King County deputies and Seattle Police say what brought the chopper over the city/county line early Sunday was a fight, possibly involving someone with a gun, and did not result in arrests. Police could not confirm whether this nearby incident was related.

(Crossposted in part from partner site West Seattle Blog.) Area students are involved with the World TB Day event Tuesday night at Town Hall in downtown Seattle is free – and promises to be an eye-opener. Full details here. If you thought tuberculosis was a thing of the past – this King County-specific information alone will cure you of that notion. (The local rate, in fact, hit a 30-year high in 2007.) Student organizers also have been sending out TB info via Twitter – follow their tweets (and see the archives) at twitter.com/worldtbday.

The huge regional FIRST Robotics Competition is happening in Seattle next week – Thursday 3/26 through Saturday 3/28 at KeyArena – and Evergreen TEC will be there. Read all about its robotics achievements here.

Your neighbors on the Seattle side of the line are inviting you again to the next Highland Park Action Committee meeting – here’s the announcement from chair Dan Mullins:

This month’s HPAC monthly meeting will include a presentation from Carolyn Johnson from Seattle Public Utilities to discuss the upcoming changes to our garbage, recycling , food and yard waste pick-up.
She will discuss:

What’s Changing
Food and Yard Waste (What’s New)
Recycling (What’s New)
Other Items (Now Collected @ Curbside)
More Options Than Ever (Service Levels)
What to Expect
Why is This Happening
You Can Make a Difference

Question & Answers or Where to Find Answers

And of course we will have reports on the NEC jail proposal, Becca Fong will discuss the King Co. Food & Fitness initiative, Officer Adonis Topacio with the neighborhood crime watch and much more. We will also have a Spotlight on a local business that we feel you should know about and a raffle with a big prize!!

So come for the pot-luck dinner and stay for the meeting, meet some old and new neighbors and bring your Rants and Raves.

The Highland Park Action Committee monthly meeting
Monday, March 23rd. at 7:00 ( potluck dinner at 6:30)
at the HP Improvement Club building
1116 SW Holden

Yesterday was St. Patrick’s Day, so the chronic alcoholics, that live on the streets, felt emboldened.  Two drunks wondered down 16th Ave. SW, malt liquor in hand (no bags).  Clearly having imbibed a good deal already, one of the pair starts screaming at the top of his lungs.  Concerned that a fight was about to break out between these two drunks, I called 911 and explained that there were two intoxicated men, drinking malt liquor and being belligerent.  The dispatcher asked for description and said he would “call it in.”

My friend and I waited outside of the cafe and placed wagers on whether SPD would respond at all and if so would it be within the hour.  “These calls are just one step above noise complaints on their radar,” he said.  One of the drunks finished his liquor and flung the 20 oz can like a baseball.  The other one continued to nurse his beer.  Finally, about a half hour later a Seattle Police Department patrol car shows up with two officers.  Not bothering to get out of the car they pull up to the individual with the can of malt liquor in his hand.   “Toss it out,” they direct, although he had already started draining the can as he saw the patrol car approach.  He flings his can to the ground.  “Now move along,” says the officer.  The drunks get up and start heading south towards Roxbury.

My friend approaches the patrol car and indicates he wants to talk to them.  The police officers look bothered.  He tells them that the other fellow had just tossed his can on top of the roof of building.  “So?”  came the reply from the officer, who had by now exited the car.  “Well, we have lots of problems with these chronic drunks and we are concerned that nothing is being done to rid the area of them.”

“Look buddy, it’s not my issue.  I can cite him for public intoxication, but that’s just a small fine.”  We do not mention that he could have checked their ids and checked for outstanding warrants.

“But they are just going to get another round of malt liquor and continue to blight the area.”

The officer hems and haws and says, “they’re gone ok.  Buddy, we gotta go.”

And as the two drunks cross Roxbury into unincorporated King County, the officer looks over and says, “look, they’re the County’s problem now.”  And with those parting words, the officer gets in his squad car and drives away.

We’ve been covering this story at partner site West Seattle Blog, but turns out it’s on the county side of the line. Deputies tell us the man is expected to survive. Here’s our report.

There’s word of a meeting this Friday, 11 am-noon, at North Highline Fire District HQ, regarding the future of Evergreen Pool — Pat and Bob Price forwarded the note through mailing lists with a plea for a big turnout to show that the pool shouldn’t be shut down to save money. They say Margaret Anthony from King County will be there to talk about the pool. 1243 112th SW is where you’ll find the fire station, if you haven’t been there before.

Just in from Rick Jump at the White Center Food Bank:

Effective Saturday, March 21st the White Center Food Bank will be open on the 3rd Saturday of every month between the hours of 11:00am and 1:00pm. Registration begins at 10:00am. Proof of address is required on each visit. Service boundaries are as follows:

Between SW 140th Street and SW Myrtle Street
Between Highway 509 and Puget Sound

“During these tough economic times local food banks are serving more families than ever. Many of them are first time visitors to a food bank,” said Rick Jump, executive director of the White Center Food Bank. “This increased demand for services is likely to continue over the next several months. To help meet the need we find it necessary to expand our hours to include a weekend distribution for those who are unable to access our services during the week” said Jump.

The White Center Food Bank also welcomes donations to help meet the increased need in our community. Donations may be mailed to 10829 8th Avenue SW, Seattle, WA 98146. To make a donation online or for additional information about the White Center Food Bank, visit their website at www.whitecenterfoodbank.org or contact Rick Jump at (206) 762-2848.

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.