White Center Now: The blog about White Center

ENERGY FESTIVAL: You’re likely to get a visitor today; here’s what it’s all about.

HICKS LAKE CLEANUP: You’re invited to join volunteers, 10 am-3 pm. Read more about it here; Dick Thurnau tells us that, to get there, you should “use the west entrance on 10 Ave. SW slightly north of SW112 th St. next to Cascade Middle School and meet at the West side Picnic Shelter restroom.”

CONVERSATION CAFE: 2 pm today at Cafe Rozella; read more here. Voter-registration drive all weekend, too, so if you’re not signed up yet, might be handy.

And that’s not all … check the White Center Now Events calendar page for more (including the Geocaching Cup and tonight’s football game)!

A Rep of Chris Gregoire has just told the residents of Nickelsville that they can stay on the adjacent State property for another five to seven days. I will update more soon.

At 1:25 p.m., a couple dozen Seattle police officers moved into NIceckelsville.  Tracy reports 15 arrests so far.  Stay tuned for further developments.

No major headlines from tonight’s White Center/South Delridge Community Safety Coalition meeting, but we’ve got a few toplines for you anyway: Read the rest of this entry »

This morning’s annexation-issues meeting with Seattle reps visiting North Highline Fire District headquarters lasted only half an hour. Kenny Pittman from the City of Seattle said he’d come looking for “continuing discussion,” hoping it would help lead to a “direction.” A document presented at the meeting recapped the concern that had arisen prior to Burien temporarily withdrawing its annexation request, and laid out three potential annexation-related scenarios, one of which would call for a new fire station in White Center – read on: Read the rest of this entry »

From Highline Public Schools – more proof that saving energy isn’t just about the environment: Read the rest of this entry »

Lots of news at today’s North Highline Fire District commissioners’ meeting – including the fact there will soon be fewer meetings. With everything new that’s on the home page, we’ll jump this one ahead – click for the full scoop: Read the rest of this entry »

Word just in from the office of County Councilmember Dow Constantine: A discussion is set to look at the “concept of setting up an Alcohol Impact Area in the White Center business district.” This will happen during the next regular monthly meeting of the North Highline Unincorporated Area Council, 7 pm October 2 at the North Highline Fire District HQ. According to the announcement, “A representative from the Washington State Liquor Control Board will give a short presentation and will be available to answer questions,” and it further explains, “The Alcohol Impact Area (AIA) program was established by the Washington State Liquor Control Board several years ago. Liquor licensees within the borders of an AIA are subject to special restrictions as to what products they can sell. AIAs were established to deal with the problem of chronic public drunkenness and have been put in place in Seattle and Tacoma. Setting up an AIA requires an extensive neighborhood effort to document a neighborhood’s alcohol-related problems (police calls, aid calls, litter, etc.) along with a government effort to convince liquor license holders to sign “Good Neighbor” agreements. Because the White Center business district is bisected by the Seattle-King County border, we should also consider the concept of setting up adjacent AIAs in unincorporated King County and the South Delridge area (city of Seattle).” The invitation has gone out to “law enforcement personnel, community activists, and crime prevention experts on both sides of the city-county line to attend this discussion.”

That’s Patricia Julio, neighborhood-revitalization director for White Center Community Development Association<, at last night’s Highland Park Action Committee meeting; she and WCCDA’s neighborhood-revitalization program manager David Daw were there to update HPAC on some of the many things WCCDA is up to, including the latest on the Cultural Center at St. James Place, and revitalization work in the WC business district — here are the toplines: Read the rest of this entry »

Just received this announcement – note it’s for an event this weekend as well as a call for playwright participation in an event next month:

The White Center Arts Alliance and DramaQueen Theatre are co-sponsoring a White Center “Future of the Arts” community planning meeting and visioning session on Sunday, September 28th from 2:00 to 4:00 p.m. The meeting will be held at the White Center ALL ABOUT ARTS studio space at 9444 17th Ave SW.

White Center artists, community leaders and other interested parties are encouraged to attend. The agenda will focus on the short and long-term future of the arts in the White Center community. Phone Nancy Calos-Nakano at (206) 795-0833 for further details.

Also, looking for local playwrights for Live Theatre Week. 5 playwrights to read and present a 10 minute play will be presented on Oct 16,17,18 at ALL ABOUT ARTS studio space. Novice and seasoned writers should turn in a copy of their work to: Nancy Calos at culturalart@msn.com or Karen Kinch jkkinch@msn.com for details, approval, scheduling and entry. There is a small stipend awarded to the writer. Women Writers from all backgrounds are encouraged to enter. Event is called “The Rivers that We Carry – Voices from West of the Duwamish”

The long-closed roller link has been rebranded as the Southgate Event Center (website here), with a weekend swap meet starting October 4th-5th.

Lots going on this week and three to remind you about for starters: The North Highline Fire District commissioners’ regular bimonthly meeting is 8 am tomorrow at district HQ; then at 8 Wednesday morning, it’s the special meeting with Seattle reps re: annexation issues, as announced at the last NHFD commissioners’ meeting. Thursday night, the White Center/South Delridge Community Safety Coalition meeting starts at 6 at St. James Place – tons of important info at these meetings every month, and free dinner too. See you there!

Announced by U.S. Senator Patty Murray’s office (read the announcement here): $20 million in federal funds confirmed for the King County Housing Authority’s Park Lake II redevelopment project. Murray says the White House had tried to cut the HOPE VI funding that included this money. Here’s a financial breakdown of the nearly $200 million going into Greenbridge. UPDATE: Per comments, King County notes that this portion of Park Lake redevelopment is for a project separate from Greenbridge.

Dreaming of a future White Center Farmers’ Market is part of what the PARKing Day “park” is all about. Till 3 pm, you can see the “park” set up by White Center Community Development Association and Technology Access Foundation — with that banner, some greenery, fresh produce, and of course, technology — in the parking spaces by Full Tilt Ice Cream on 16th SW, west side of the street, a short ways south of Roxbury. Staffing the “park” when we stopped by a short time ago — WCCDA’s Sopha Danh and TAF’s Richard Brown:

TAF is also promoting its free TechStart classes – all listed on this handy white board at today’s “park”:

PARKing Day is happening nationwide – with people setting up temporary “parks” like this one to remind us that urban greenspace is vital to healthy, happy city living (among other things!).

WestSide Baby, which is headquartered in White Center and helps families here as well as West Seattle and environs, just put out an urgent call for newborn-size diapers – those shelves are bare! WestSide Baby collects diapers at its headquarters (10032 15th SW) as well as several other West Seattle locations and even one in Burien; full list is here.

That shelf of quirky collectibles (if you’re over 40 like me, the lunchboxes may strike a note of nostalgia!) graces the office of Mount View Elementary‘s new principal Mark Demick, who says they’re just items he’s picked up “along the way.” And what a way it’s been, bringing him from his first teaching job in the farming community of Delano, California — where parent/teacher conferences were sometimes held at vineyard worksites – to this new role in White Center. Read on to find out more about him, why he’s excited about the job, and what he hopes to do: Read the rest of this entry »

(update: here’s a link to a map of all Friday’s PARKing Day “Parks” citywide)
Perhaps you’ve heard of PARKing Day – a relatively new annual event in which volunteers in cities nationwide transform parking spaces into parks, to spotlight the importance of urban open space. This year’s edition is coming up on Friday, and there’s going to be a PARKing Day “park” in a prominent White Center spot – here’s the official announcement:

Seattle Parks Foundation is partnering with The Trust for Public Land and Feet First to turn Seattle’s parking spaces into parks on September 19th as part of PARK(ing) Day, a fun and visible event started by Re-Bar in San Francisco to bring attention to the need for more green space in urban areas.

Technology Access Foundation and The White Center Community Development Association will be transforming the parking spaces in front of Full Tilt Ice Cream into a classroom. We are hoping to provide awareness to the community about the work that we do. Everyone is invited to come out and show support to the community.

National Parking Day
Friday, September 19
10:00 am – 3:00 pm

In front of:
Full Tilt Ice Cream
9629 16th Ave SW

Come out and meet your community neighbors!
For More info call – 206-722-2369×102

King County’s out with a new report today about growth, and is using the occasion to reiterate that it needs unincorporated areas such as White Center need to be annexed to cities. Here’s the official news release: Read the rest of this entry »

White Center Now was invited to check out the start of the Burien City Council meeting tonight, to be on hand for a special presentation – on behalf of a program that may be setting a national precedent. Twenty Highline Public Schools teachers are getting financial help for rental housing in Burien, but they don’t have to teach in Burien – and in fact, five of the first 12 chosen for the program are teaching in the White Center/North Highline area, according to Jenn Ramirez Robson from the office of Burien City Manager Mike Martin; Ramirez Robson explains, “To our knowledge we have not been able to find a similar program anywhere in the United States. Many states offer mortgage assistance but I have yet to find anything that relates to grants or subsidies toward rental housing.”. Several of those teachers are in the front row of the group shot we caught candidly above; speakers included State House Speaker Frank Chopp (the state played a role in this too) and Highline Public Schools Superintendent John Welch, who ceremonially accepted the quarter-million dollar grant from Burien Mayor Joan McGilton tonight. Welch explained how the grant is helping with teacher recruiting in the areas where the district needs help the most (he introduces the teachers during this section of his speech, too):

Click pic to play video

34th District State Rep. Eileen Cody was there for the occasion too, along with 33rd District Rep. Dave Upthegrove, mentioned when Chopp alluded to the money’s origins in the long and difficult Lora Lake Apartments saga:

Click pic to play video

Here are a few more details about the program, from a City of Burien document: Read the rest of this entry »

Most of the Metro bus service changes announced by County Executive Ron Sims today don’t have a major direct impact on White Center – but there is one WC-specific change: a late-night trip is cut from Route 23. See all the changes (which take effect next Saturday), listed here.