White Center Now: The blog about White Center

Help get White Center on two wheels! DubSea Bikes organizers invite you to their next planning meeting – tomorrow:

Please come to our planning meeting for DubSea Bikes at noon this Thursday, February 2nd, at Caffe Delia, 9622 16th Ave SW (in Proletariat Pizza). We’ll be talking about our four-month run at Full Tilt Ice Cream, looking forward to a partnership with the White Center Food Bank, and planning events in the Spring & Summer.

P.S. It’s already on our calendar, but another reminder, WC Food Bank is where you’ll find the next DubSea Bikes “bring yours to get it fixed up and on the road” event, 2-4 pm February 12th.

From Metro:

While King County Metro Transit bus routes remain on snow routing through the end of Friday, the agency hopes to begin returning to normal operations over the weekend.

People riding the bus Saturday and Sunday should check the Metro website before traveling, and do not expect all routes to return to regular service at the same time. Some parts of the county are still dealing with slushy and tree-covered roads, and snow routes or detours for the buses may be necessary for a few days in those areas.

It continues to be very important for Metro customers to watch for updated information online or through Transit Alerts.

Metro uses an online color-coded map to keep riders informed of the status of its bus service during storms. All bus routes are assigned into one or more of seven geographic areas within King County. When there is snow or ice on the roads, the service status of each area will be color coded and displayed on the online map.

Green indicates buses are operating on normal routes; yellow that some – but not all – routes in the area are on snow routes; and red tells you that all bus routes in the entire geographic area are on snow routing.

People can also call the Customer Information Office at (206) 553-3000 from 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday. Due to the volume of calls, there may be longer-than-normal waits on the phone.

Once again, Metro would like to thank its customer for their patience in dealing with service disruptions and delays caused by this week’s series of storms.

This might affect you, heading eastward toward Highway 509 the next few days. Announced today by the Seattle Department of Transportation:

Crews from the Seattle Department of Transportation plan to repair a hand rail this week on First Avenue (South) and Olson Place [map]. They will close the right lane of both streets at this location from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. on January 11, 12 and 13. This work is subject to change in the event they are called to respond to an emergency at another location.

As mentioned earlier – today was another edition of Dubsea Bikes. We were in downtown WC checking out something else (story to come) and caught Stu Hennessey on camera just as things were getting under way. No rain, mild temperature, so a great day for 2-wheeling.

Don’t let the need for bicycle repairs keep you off the road. Here’s free help, coming up Sunday:

Is your bike out of commission? Bring it to DubSea Bikes at Full Tilt Ice Cream, 9629 16th Ave SW, downtown White Center, on Sunday, November 13th, from 2 – 4 pm.

This free event will focus on minor repairs to get more bikes on the street in White Center and beyond.

If you haven’t noticed already, road work is under way on 16th SW in White Center, and Mark Ufkes from the WC Chamber of Commerce is getting out the word about the latest schedule. He says the west/southbound half of the road, starting from Roxbury and working south, is scheduled for paving starting Friday, and that the contractor will start work at 6:30 am (instead of the originally scheduled 8 am) “in an effort to minimize the disruption to businesses and on-street parking along 16th Avenue SW.” The other half of the road is scheduled to be paved on Monday (August 29th), according to Ufkes, “again starting at Roxbury at 6:30 am and working their way south.” It’s all supposed to be finished before Thursday, weather permitting.

We had checked with King County DOT about the work, and spokesperson Linda Thielke had said, “Traffic and transit will be allowed through while the crews are working, but people should expect some delays.” So don’t let it keep you away from your favorite businesses!

Big event at Greenbridge next Wednesday!

Want to have a more cycle-centric White Center and South Park? We do too! Many organizations partnered to plan this FREE event for families in our neighborhood. Hope you can come to TUNES & TUNE-UPS & pass on the word.

The new date is Wed Aug 24th, 4pm – 6pm, Greenbridge Music in the Plaza Outdoor Concerts. Chain lube, brakes, flat tire repair.

Also, look for a monthly bike repair clinic on Sunday afternoons at Full Tilt Ice Cream, planned for September 2011.

We published this Friday on partner site West Seattle Blog and it turned out to be a hot topic. If you take the bus between downtown and White Center, you might want to speak out while the county is taking comments:

King County Metro Transit and the Seattle Department of Transportation (SDOT) are evaluating options to improve traffic flow and transit operations on Columbia Street near the Alaskan Viaduct onramp.

One suggestion is to close the bus stop located on Columbia just east of Second Avenue. It currently serves as the last stop for passengers leaving downtown on Metro routes 21 Express, 54, 55, 56 Express, 113, 120, 121, 122, and 125. If this bus stop closes, riders will need to walk four blocks to Third Avenue just south of Seneca Street to board or exit.

This closure is one of several concepts being considered, and Metro and SDOT are seeking initial feedback on the potential impacts to riders and the general public. They are asking people to provide comments about the possible closure of this stop by Friday, Aug. 12. Send email to: customer.comments@kingcounty.gov with Columbia/2nd Ave in the subject line , or call 206-553-3000.

Even if this bus stop remains open, it may be necessary to temporarily close it without prior notice due to traffic conditions. If that happens, Metro staff and signage will direct bus riders to board buses at the stop on Third Avenue south of Seneca Street.

Quite the crowd down the hill in South Park this afternoon as a Cinco de Mayo festival was combined with the celebration for the start of South Park Bridge construction. The bridge that for a long time was no sure thing is now exactly that and is scheduled to be open in about two years. Our video captures the entire 40-minute ceremony with political speeches and at the end, the trap-door opening on the giant piñata!

From WCN contributor Deanie Schwarz: You might have noticed the recent addition at the midway crosswalk on 16th SW in the north block of the heart of the White Center business district. King County recently installed the small rack after Proletariat Pizza co-owner Stefanie Albaeck got proactive with an appeal to the county requesting the purchase and installation. The first rack will serve shoppers and visitors to the business core on 16th. But according to Stefanie, the County will provide additional racks to the larger community if this rack is well-used. If the change in the weather prompts you to take a ride to 16th, you now have a centrally located place to park your wheels!

Though we haven’t had any new snow in the past 24-plus hours, everyone’s still in snow/ice mode for one more day, because of the way-below-freezing temperatures. Metro’s again on snow routing. Schools are closed (Highline and the private schools we’ve heard from). Stay safe! The weather’s expected to “warm up” – back to the more-normal highs in the 40s – sometime Thanksgiving Day. P.S. If you are in an area served by Seattle trash pickup and have Wednesday collection – it’s postponed again today, as it was on Tuesday; put out double next week for no extra charge.

Right now on cable channel 22 or online (kingcounty.gov/council), you can watch a briefing by King County Department of Transportation leaders – both roads and transit – regarding their preparations in case of bad-weather road trouble this winter. (KCDOT director Harold Taniguchi opened by joking that they ordered today’s heavy rain to coincide with the briefing.) One thing they’re stressing, particularly for bus riders, is to sign up for alerts – details on that, and links, are in a news release posted this morning on the county website – find it here.

Writer Chad Newton makes the proposal on his website: What about a new South Park Bridge that’s aligned along South Cloverdale rather than 14th Avenue South? He made the Google Map above to illustrate his idea. You can read about it here. (Of course, as he notes, this would cost a few hundred million dollars more, but his main point is the west-east disconnect in the south sections of Seattle.)

We’ve been covering it at partner site West Seattle Blog but it’s big news for White Center and environs too: It was announced this afternoon that the South Park Bridge has full replacement funding – since the federal government has given a $34 million TIGER II grant. (The first TIGER was the round of funding in which King County had sought $99 million and been rejected; this time around, funding pledges were sought from a variety of regional sources, and that means the $35 million is only about 1/4 of the tab, instead of 3/4.) Sen. Patty Murray, U.S. Rep. Jim McDermott, County Executive Dow Constantine and Seattle Mayor Mike McGinn were among the many dignitaries on hand for the midafternoon announcement by the south end of the old bridge, closed 3 1/2 months ago for safety concerns. The county says that if all goes as expected, construction will start next year and the new bridge is projected to open around May 2013 (we confirmed that date with the county, though the official news release says “late” 2013).

Metro‘s next “service revision” has some changes for White Center and West Seattle riders – including some trips being dropped entirely – and late tonight, the details came in. Read on for Metro’s full announcement of which routes will be affected: Read the rest of this entry »

That’s one angle we had on the final three minutes of the South Park Bridge‘s life – as the gates went down, the warning bells and siren sounded, and then, the drawbridge went up forever, as the crowd howled. Then – an impromptu round of “Amazing Grace,” and a toast – all in that clip. White Center was certainly represented at the wake – we saw WC Food Bank executive director Rick Jump atop the bridge in its final hour, and community activists including Liz Giba. King County Councilmember Jan Drago was there in a pink hat and pink tulle – same kind that decorated the bridge’s leaves as they rose. State House Position 2 candidate and White Center business owner Geoffrey “Mac” McElroy was there too. More coverage to come – this event was really all about the moments captured in video and photos. We had some photos in as-it-happened coverage on partner site West Seattle Blog.

(Photo courtesy King County Department of Transportation)
The bus reroutes kicked in this morning; the bridge closes tonight. Here is a preview from partner site West Seattle Blog. Note that the South Park community is hoping to have a strong show of support from all over the area as they say goodbye to the bridge tonight – and say hello to an interim time, before a new bridge is built, that they know will be challenging, but survivable with support from neighbors. P.S. A traffic alert from Jim, in WSB comments:

Watch your driving through the area. SDOT has already changed lane assignments as of Noon. You are going to be down one right turn lane off of E Marginal Way southbound.

Also the right lane on Cloverdale is no longer a left turn lane, it is right turn only.

This seems a little premature, and is bound to screw up the afternoon commute.

Thanks to Gill for the photo – apparently if you catch that sign at just the right instant, half the illuminated words and numbers disappear. The handwritten sign below, however, speaks more loudly. We’re taking the occasion to point you to a news release the county sent around today – for anyone who didn’t already have this burned into their awareness, 7 pm this Wednesday is the moment that the South Park Bridge is scheduled to close for good – more like “open” permanently, as the leaves will be raised so vessel traffic can make it through. The community is planning a 6-10 pm wake with art, music and more, and inviting you to be part of what they hope truly will be just a temporary end to their link across the Duwamish … the push for a new bridge now has $80 million of the $130 million funding commitment that’s neded. P.S. An important part of the reminder is that the bus routes that are changing because of the bridge shutdown will start their new routes at 5 am Wednesday – so tomorrow is the final full day of those routes (explained here) the way they are.

$10 million more today, according to County Councilmember Jan Drago‘s office. Meantime, counting down to closure of the old one – 7 pm Wednesday, if for some reason you hadn’t heard. The 1st Avenue South Bridge has maintenance closures 5 am -11 am both days this weekend.

… and, says the Transportation Department’s Road Services Division, the road is reopened.