White Center Now: The blog about White Center

That whiteboard holds a few of the questions asked by some of the dozens in attendance at tonight’s gathering in Boulevard Park, the first in a new round of informational meetings planned by Burien city leaders in hopes of answering questions about their North Highline Annexation proposal.

Besides “how would annexation affect me?” type questions like those you see in our whiteboard photo, the biggest question underlying the event: After yesterday’s withdrawal of the proposal, what now? Here’s what we found out, including video from our interviews with two top Burien leaders: Read the rest of this entry »

White Center Now also covered tonight’s annexation-information meeting presented by Burien city leaders in Boulevard Park; we will bring you a complete report, including video, a little bit later, but one highlight: Burien Councilmember Gordon Shaw explained the reasoning behind one frequently asked question — why isn’t Burien seeking to annex the entire White Center/North Highline area right now? He believes that Burien runs “efficiently” right now and that could change if the city takes on too much territory all at once. Stand by for much more information from tonight’s meeting, including the status of plans for more meetings like this, even as ramifications of the procedural development we first reported last night continue to unfold.

Just back from the White Center/South Delridge Community Safety meeting, with lots of information that we will break into at least three reports. First one — King County Parks’ draft proposal for dealing with graffiti, in the wake of the latest wave of tagging vandalism at White Center-area parks. The county Parks Department‘s Evergreen District manager Sam Whitman presented the four-point plan: #1, parks staff will try to remove or cover up graffiti “as soon as it appears,” with county painters following up to restore the original color scheme. #2, community members need to report graffiti-vandalism damage as soon as possible by calling Whitman (his number’s at the end of this post), and by helping clean up/cover up graffiti IF parks staff can’t get to it soon enough. #3, extra support for graffiti removal from Community Service officer Vary Jackson and Department of Corrections crews. #4, proactive work to develop and maintain murals in the parks, as a way of discouraging tagging vandalism. Whitman says the goal here is to remove/cover graffiti within 24-38 hours, and adds that the county has hired “seasonal” painting help to support the effort; to report park graffiti, call him at 206/296-0572. More from the Community Safety meeting in separate reports later tonight.

Though yesterday’s move by the City of Burien (first reported here at White Center Now last night) takes its North Highline Annexation proposal off the table, Burien city manager Mike Martin confirms to WCN that the Sept. 2 Boundary Review Board hearing is still on – as is Burien’s annexation-info open house in Boulevard Park tonight (6:30 pm, BP Presbyterian, more info here). We asked Martin what happens next regarding a timetable; his reply: “As for negotiations, Seattle has steadfastly refused to talk, respond to e-mails or anything else, so the ball is in their court. We’ll send them a formal letter asking them to meet, but so far not successful.” (Here’s what Seattle Council President Richard Conlin told us earlier.) P.S. Another meeting of interest to White Center neighbors tonight — NOT annexation-related – the White Center/South Delridge Community Safety monthly meeting, with the agenda including a presentation on 911-call “best practices,” 6 pm tonight @ St. James Place, 9421 18th SW (map).

Brazilian musical performer Eduardo Mendonca and his group will perfrom at Cafe Rozella this Friday at 7 p.m. Mendonca is a fire-cracker of a performer who always brings the house down. Admission is free and the place is kid-friendly.

As promised when we broke the story last night of Burien announcing it’s withdrawn its North Highline annexation proposal (you can see the formerly proposed map on our White Center Annexation Info page), we are continuing to pursue comment. Burien city manager Mike Martin confirms the annexation info meeting in Boulevard Park tonight is still on; meantime, we asked Seattle City Council President Richard Conlin what he had to say – here’s what he e-mailed back this morning: Read the rest of this entry »

Just happened to check the City of Burien website and found this bombshell: Burien has withdrawn its North Highline annexation request (which included part of White Center). Read the city news release here. This does not appear to have been reported anywhere else as of this time (10:08 pm Wednesday) – just checked newspaper sites and other area sites, so you’re hearing it here first. The news release notes that a new round of negotiations, involving Seattle as well, is expected to start. More shortly; we’ll be checking for reaction from some of the folks who have contributed more than 60 comments (thank you!) to the intense annexation discussion below this WCN post from two weeks ago tonight. ADDED 10:42 PM: In case you have any trouble with the direct link to Burien’s website, here is the full text of the announcement posted there: Read the rest of this entry »

West Seattle Montessori is moving into a location by the White Center Library, since its longtime WS location is the site of a new Harbor Properties development. That’s old news, but this isn’t: WSMS had been talking with Harbor about having a home in the new building at its old site, but Harbor told us this morning that those talks are no longer under way — apparently the cost and effort of moving into one new location, only to vacate it a year or so later, wasn’t going to work so well.

One week after the primary election, King County is not quite done counting votes; after the latest count today, the race for 11th District State Senator seems settled – with Juan Martinez definitely challenging incumbent Sen. Margarita Prentice in November. Today’s count finished with Prentice at 48.6%, Martinez at 27.7%, and Scott McKay at 22.9%. (Both other 11th District races had only two candidates, so in those cases both automatically advanced.)

It took me a while to actually stop into this place. I had been to the Be’s Diner in West Seattle years before, and I kind of knew what to expect, but running an ice cream shop has left little time in my day to go out and eat.

So this morning I gave it a try. The place is huge, bright and clean. I never went in when it was Doc’s or Entourage, but the new owner told me she had to do some remodeling and a lot of cleaning. The food is great. Nothing fancy, and who needs fancy from a diner. I had pancakes and eggs, a giant plate of food for $4. You can not beat that. The pancakes were perfect, and the eggs grease free.

They have a large menu, and are doing breakfast, lunch and dinner. This is just what White Center needed. They have been open a week today, so go check it out.

I know this is rather old news, and the rain has really cleaned up the air in the past few days,  but I went and read up on it this evening after seeing all the black soot that washed off the front of my store.   Most of this study has to do with South Park and Georgetown, but given our proximity, I doubt the pollution knows to stay in that area.

My favorite line from the PI article is; “At Capital Industries, a Georgetown metal fabricator closer to homes than the airfield, the computer model predicts a rate of 600 cancer cases for every million people exposed. “. I don’t like those odds. I mean 600 per million is small, except that is 600 people that are going to die for no good reason.

First link is a PDF of the actual report the second is an article in the PI.

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/374066_badair08.html?from=wtnews

http://www.atsdr.cdc.gov/HAC/pha/Duwamish_Valley/Duwamish_Valley_%20HC%207-14-2008.pdf

The North Highline Unincorporated Area Council is inviting you to a 9/18 community meeting on topics including annexation and graffiti-fighting – here are the details just in from Heidi Johnson: Read the rest of this entry »

JAIL-SITES FIGHT: The Highland Park Action Committee, the community group leading the fight against two potential city-jail sites in West Seattle — including the Myers Way site close to White Center — has its next meeting tonight, 7 pm, at 1116 SW Holden (map).

HELP MAKE YOUR COMMUNITY SAFER: The monthly White Center/South Delridge Community Safety meeting is at 6 pm Thursday, St. James Place, 9421 18th SW (map). (Free dinner!)

ANNEXATION OPEN HOUSE: Burien is starting a series of
“informational open houses” about its proposed North Highline Annexation Area (which includes part of White Center), and the first one is Thursday night in Boulevard Park (still waiting for word on the first one closer to White Center, so if you’ve got burning questions, you might as well go to this one), 6:30-8 pm @ Boulevard Park Presbyterian Church (1822 South 128th; map).

I just posted this bulletin on West Seattle Blog, and wanted to share it with White Center Now readers since the story had been posted here too: The stolen pugs turned up today at the Kent Animal Shelter. Read the details at WSB.

Centaur Hearts

www.myspace.com/centaurhearts

Abitron

and One Million Teeth

www.myspace.com/onemillionteeth

Starts at 9 pm SHARP Friday, over by 11 pm FREE FREE FREE

The Seattle Times is reporting that Arbor Heights resident, Marsha Lubetkin, had her two pugs stolen during a burglary last night.  Lubetkin is posting pictures  and asking residents to be on the lookout for of her beloved pups, Bandit and Pippin.  Picture from the Seattle Times article.

Lubetkin and her two pugs (source Seattle Times)

The latest King County results are linked from this page. We’ll add updates to this post as the 11th Legislative District (which includes part of White Center) races shape up; none of the 34th District legislators have challengers. 8:35 PM UPDATE: The main race to watch is 11th District State Senator, with three contenders, to be narrowed to two for November – incumbent Sen. Margarita Prentice is ahead, with Juan Martinez narrowly edging Scott McKay for second place right now. 10:30 PM UPDATE: More King County votes counted; Prentice and Martinez are still the top 2 in that race. 12:46 AM UPDATE: Martinez (27%) has started to pull away from McKay (24%) in the latest count – still quite some distance behind Prentice (49%).

Be’s just opened on 16th in the old Entourage space. It is the same folks who have the Be’s on California. I will post some pics and a review soon.

Happened onto this while chasing something else: The Technology Access Foundation‘s annual Geocache Cup — described by TAF as a “high-tech treasure hunt” — will start at White Center’s Lakewood Park. The Geocache Cup is set for 1-6 pm Sept. 27; registration is open NOW for participants and sponsors – here’s the place to start. If you’re not familiar with TAF, its mission includes “prepar(ing) underserved children of color for higher education and professional success.”

If you vote in person instead of by mail, tomorrow’s the day – 7 am to 8 pm. The “Top 2 Primary” system is now in effect; the county has an FAQ explaining it here. If you’re not sure where to go to vote, look it up here. In state legislative race (all candidates listed here), the 34th District (map) legislators are all running unopposed, but the 11th District (map) races all have at least two candidates each.