White Center Now: The blog about White Center

Lots of movement in the restaurant ranks lately; thought we would note the listing discovered for Pho My Loi, south end of the main business district.

2 pm tomorrow is when the Seattle City Council Regional Development and Sustainability Committee takes up the North Highline annexation issue, potentially moving Seattle annexation of White Center (and environs) toward a vote this fall. Here’s the agenda; if you don’t have Seattle Channel on your cable (21), you can watch online from anywhere at seattlechannel.org. (Or go to Seattle City Hall – committee meetings begin with a chance for public comment.)

This Thursday, the elected community council whose members represent White Center and other parts of the remaining unincorporated area will gather for their monthly meeting, and you’re invited – to come listen and/or comment. As always, the NHUAC meeting is at 7 pm at the North Highline Fire District headquarters, 1243 SW 112th. The agenda is on the NHUAC website here, with guests including Jennifer Wiseman from the King County Library System, as well as regular participants such as Burien City Manager Mike Martin and King County Sheriff’s Office Capt. Joseph Hodgson.

(Photo by Deanie Schwarz for WCN)
With the issue of White Center (etc.) annexation before the Seattle City Council right now – a committee takes it up on Tuesday – Seattle Mayor Mike McGinn visited downtown WC this afternoon. With him in this photo, taken in front of Proletariat Pizza, are White Center Chamber of Commerce president Mark Ufkes and White Center Community Development Association executive director Aileen Balahadia; in the background, mayor’s office rep Kenny Pittman, who has long been a point person on the annexation issue. Most recently, as we have reported, McGinn’s stance has been “we can’t afford it”; WCN contributor Deanie Schwarz reports his main comment today was, “Seattle has some big decisions to make.”

Here’s the agenda for Tuesday afternoon’s Seattle Council committee meeting; here’s the briefing document (PDF) which lays out the potential timeline for a council decision on an annexation vote, as well as the potential range of financial effects if Seattle annexed the area.

More of Gabi Campanario‘s “Seattle Sketcher” work from Wednesday in White Center and South Delridge is now up on SeattleTimes.com (WCN partner). Check out the top sketch – that’s WCN contributor Deanie Schwarz in her trademark beret, as she was sending iPhone photos of Gabi to your editor here (including the ones in this story), hanging out with him at Café Rozella (and beyond).

(Also published on partner site WSB – this is big news for both communities!)

Story and photo by Deanie Schwarz
Reporting for White Center Now

The long-closed former Southgate Skate Center in White Center will be a roller-skating rink once more.

After more than three months of negotiations with the owners of what is currently the Southgate Event Center at 9646 17th SW, John Venables of Lakeview Properties and Josh Rhoads of Lynnwood Bowl and Skate confirmed today to WCN/WSB that they have put down deposits and are awaiting the receipt of the keys on Monday, when they plan to sign leasing papers with an option-to-purchase clause.

Rhoads is a 14-year U.S.A World Team competitive artistic skater who currently manages the Lynnwood Bowl and Skate rink. Venables is an apartment-properties owner and manager, as well as a former cargo-ship steward. They intend to return the building (originally called the Southgate Rollerdrome in 1937) back to full use as a competition and training rink and family-oriented entertainment/sports facility with full concessions. It will once again be called the Southgate Roller Rink.

(Photos courtesy Southwest Seattle Historical Society)
From 1937 to 2006, the building housed a roller rink; it was built in 1920 by Hiram Green, a pioneer White Center real estate developer, as a boxing arena. Ownership changed hands in the late 1930s, and the conversion to a family-oriented skating rink included closing off the original 16th SW entrance to avoid the rowdy bar foot traffic of the post-Prohibition era. You can read more of its history in a HistoryLink essay by the late historian Ron Richardson, from which this photo was used when that essay was featured on White Center Now:

In fall 2008, it reopened, briefly, as home to the short-lived White Center Swap Meet, and was renamed Southgate Event Center. But it’s still known best as a rink, and it’s a home to modern-day history as well. In 2002, the Rat City Rollergirls flat-track derby team began their illustrious road to glory on the original Southgate floor, as the women’s derby leagues began their meteoric re-ascent across the country. Eventually, the Rollergirls drew crowds too large for the White Center space and moved on to the Sand Point/Magnuson hangar facility. They’ve moved on since then, too, now staging their bouts at KeyArena before thousands of fans.

But the Rat City Rollergirls do return to White Center for public service work, including the strip of road they have adopted in the downtown business district. One of the organization’s founders, Rahel Cook, is also the co-owner of regionally renowned Zippy’s Giant Burgers, which has recently announced it’s moving from its current location in Highland Park to a new White Center location on 14th Ave. SW., about three blocks from the new rink.

And RCRG may have a presence in the revived rink as well. Rhoades told WSB/WCN that they are in conversation with the board of the Rat City Rollergirls discussing potential projects in the new Southgate Roller Rink, including perhaps demonstrations, but emphasizing junior bouts, and Brat (junior girls) team training and classes. Rhoades himself is an RCRG fan and is looking forward to partnership projects which will bring the Rat City Rollergirls home to White Center through the Junior derby members.

Rhoades and Venables have a team of construction folks to assist them in the refinishing (stripping, sanding and plasticking) of the 70-year old original floor – just under 10,000 square feet – as well as removing walls and relocating some fixtures and structures, with the goal of returning the facility to its full original configuration as a skating rink. They will be pursuing a retro aesthetic with the finish and decorative work. They anticipate the work to begin immediately upon receipt of the keys and are optimistic that they can complete the entire renovation within four weeks.

Since the rink has not had any food handlers license/concession since 2005, they will be submitting new applications for licensing and are uncertain of how long that will take. Initially, the food will be heat-and-serve until the expansion of the stand, but they envision partnerships with local White Center food providers on site.

Perhaps folks will be able to have Proletariat Pizza or Uncle Mike’s Barbeque delivered to the rink, Venables suggests as possibilities. They are interested in cross-promotions with local vendors and look forward to becoming part of the revitalization and preserving this legendary piece of White Center history. Eventually, as well, Venables wants to bring hot dogs to the rink – he envisions doing really good, creative, sausages a dozen different and innovative ways. “Hot dogs are perfect rink food,” he says, even so he’s looking to offer quality.

Once the interior work has been completed, not only will skaters be skating on a completely renovated, competition-standard flat track, they will also be able to rent brand-new roller skates (Golden Horse).

The rink’s hours, considered standard for most skating rinks, will include three-hour Friday and Saturday night sessions, a Saturday afternoon beginners’ class, and a Sunday afternoon session (1:00-4:30) oriented to fun family activities, such as birthday parties. Adult skates will be offered, at a minimum to begin, on Thursday evenings.

A roller-derby-specific skate session will be run on Sunday evenings with faster music to appeal to those who are perhaps more advanced skaters or who are looking to get into the derby scene. At his Lynnwood facility, Rhoades has worked with Seattle Brats Derby (RCR youth derby), Tilted Thunder (a bank-track team) and I-5 Girls, all derby youth teams. He anticipates developing the RCR training program for the Brats here in White Center. He also has experience putting together the bouts from the Lynnwood facility and will be repeating that program at the Southgate facility.

Wondering about prices? Rhoads says about $6.50 for a Saturday 1-4:30 pm session, including skate rental fees; Fridays and Saturdays would be about $7.50. They plan to assign off-duty King County Sheriff’s deputies to work the evening sessions to ensure a “family environment” is preserved for the community. They work with the Snohomish County Sheriff’s Office at their Lynnwood facility and have been successful in keeping customers safe and making sure that families have fun. They don’t intend on doing big late-night skates or holiday parties in the beginning, so the rink will close by 10:30 or 11 at night.

Venables mentions that they will be placing pinball and video machines in the facility as well as a black-and-white photo booth. A brand new sound system with roller rink musical standards from the ‘80s and beyond will be installed, and, perhaps most importantly, an iconic disco-ball will be installed mid-ceiling.

Again, they’re hoping to open Southgate within a month – to restart what had been a long history as a place to spin your wheels.

(From Images of America West Seattle, copyright 2010, SWSHS/Log House Museum, pg. 97)

6:04 AM: Holy Family School is closed; Metro has some buses on snow routing (the latest list is here). More info as we get it.

6:44 AM: Kennedy High School in Burien is closed.

8:56 AM: The weather is supposed to improve, though since it’s going to be really cold – teens, potentially – tonight and tomorrow night, the snow that’s here may linger a while.

The Southwest King County Metro routes are now all officially on snow routes – here’s the list and map. Some of those routes go through White Center. More weather-related news as we get it!

Noticed a guy hunched over a sketchpad around South Delridge/White Center today? That’s Gabi Campanario, the Seattle Sketcher, whose work is showcased by the Seattle Times (WCN partner) as well as on his own website. WCN contributor Deanie Schwarz caught up with him by the building that’s home to Café Rozella:

From there, he was heading south into White Center proper. Whatever he comes up with, you’ll see it online this Saturday, Deanie tells us.

THURSDAY UPDATE: Gabi has posted the first of his sketches – this one is from 3.14 Bakery.

(Seattle Channel video added 6:15 pm – this is the entire council briefing; annexation is final portion, starts at about 82:00 in – you can pull the indicator on the playbar to the right to get to that point)
As previewed here, the Seattle City Council just got its briefing on last month’s report about the potential costs of annexing White Center and the rest of “Area Y.” However, no vote was taken and the few questions asked by councilmembers – whose schedule was rushed because a preceding, unrelated presentation took much longer than scheduled – did not tip any hand as to how they might decide on taking an annexation vote. As previously reported, and as reiterated at the meeting by city budget boss Beth Goldberg (we’ll add the full video clip when it becomes available via the Seattle Channel online), Seattle Mayor Mike McGinn does not favor moving ahead with annexation right now “because we just simply, in his mind, can’t afford it at this time.” City Council President Richard Conlin’s Regional Sustainability and Development Committee now will take over the issue for meetings on March 1st and 18th; Conlin pointed out that even if there were a vote this fall and annexation was approved, it wouldn’t take effect before 2013, and could even be scheduled for later implementation. It was also mentioned that (though Seattle’s council never ratified it), Seattle and Burien are continuing to observe the informal agreement that Seattle has dibs on Area Y through this year – after that, it’s up for grabs. We’ll add a few more details shortly; we’re also working with council staff to get all the documents that were presented today.

ADDED 1:04 PM: Here are both documents from today’s meeting:
PowerPoint presentation
Financial tables
Presenters had calculated that the potential $91 million one-time only expenditure mentioned earlier could be reduced to less than half that, if only arterials were addressed in the backlogged North Highline road maintenance that’s been mentioned – the higher number included non-arterials.

Just received, a preview for this Thursday’s White Center/South Delridge Community Safety Coalition meeting:

The White Center-South Delridge Community Safety Coalition Meeting will be this Thursday, February 24th, from 6-8 pm. We will be meeting at the DSHS building located at 9650 15th Ave SW in the lobby on the second floor.

This month, a representative from the King County Council is scheduled to speak.

Everyone is welcome to bring up concerns at the meeting, and please be sure to share this information with your neighbors. We look forward to seeing you on Thursday!

Just in from Nancy:

WRITERS & TELLERS NITE at 2 Venues:

Venue #1:

DubSea Coffee and Cultural Art Projects hold “Open Mike” on Tuesday, February 22nd
5pm to 6pm Youth Writers & Tellers
6pm to 7pm Adult Writers & Tellers

Location: 9910 8th Avenue Southwest (at Greenbridge)
(206) 708-6806

Family-friendly and cozy atmosphere for those who want to share their written work.
Open to all genres! Come down and sign up. Inbetween segments – there will be writing exercises and prompts

Featured at the end of the evening: The Big Fat Liars Club
Participants will utilize the presented artwork in the place; 10 minutes to formulate a story – then present it. Best storyteller is voted on, by the audience. Winner comes back the following month to defend his/her title. Prize for the big fat liar.

Venue #2:

Triangle Pub and Cultural Art Projects hold Open Mike on Tuesday, February 22nd at 8pm
Sign up!!! Open to All Genres!!!

Triangle Pub – 9454 Delridge Way SW & Roxbury (206) 763-0714

Featured at the end of the evening: The Big Fat Liars Club
Participants will utilize the presented artwork in the place; 10 minutes to formulate a story – then present it. Best storyteller is voted on, by the audience. Winner comes back the following month to defend his/her title. Prize for the big fat liar.

Any information, please call: Nancy 795.0833 or email: culturalart@msn.com

No vote is scheduled, but the Seattle City Council will hear an official presentation tomorrow morning on the newest report regarding White Center (etc.) annexation. It’s on the “council briefing agenda” for tomorrow, 10:30 am. As reported here last month, the newest report suggests that annexation may be too costly for Seattle to pursue at the moment. After that report came out, we checked with Seattle Council President Richard Conlin, who told White Center Now/West Seattle Blog that he remained enthusiastic, but wasn’t sure what his colleagues would have to say. If you’re in the Seattle cable viewing area, you can see tomorrow’s briefing live on Cable Channel 21; if not, you can watch online at seattlechannel.org.

Story and photos by Deanie Schwarz
Reporting for White Center Now

Though it’s not in White Center, it has fans far and wide, so we have heard from customers lamenting the upcoming closure of Bernie & Boys Market Place, home of the “Live Butcher,” in Top Hat, and suggesting a closer look.

Bernie and Boys recently announced to their customers that the 100-year-old, family-owned-and-operated grocery/butcher shop/deli/bistro at 11225 1st Ave. South will close its doors.

Their landlord has put the property up for sale, though the economy had already caught up with the Salle brothers, Joe and Tom, who are left with no choice but to clear out of the current location and explore new opportunities.

In 1995, working 18-hour days for two years, the Salle brothers, Joe and Tom (along with their deceased father and brother, Bernie and Mike) reincarnated the previous Food Merchant store in this Top Hat area of North Highline. “Some of the neighbors use to refer to it as a “crack house which sold groceries” when we took it over. It was pretty rough,” Joe said recently, sitting in the store’s bistro where a full house gathered for companionship, as much as for the $1 per cup coffee or breakfast.

When the family arrived in Top Hat 16 years ago, the store needed vast improvements. Bernie and the boys dug in and not only cleaned up the store, they helped cleaned up the neighborhood. Their previous customers followed them from the family store they still owned then in Tukwila, the Riverton Community Store. They continued to grow the new business to employ 35 people, while maintaining a regional reputation for customer service and quality meat as the “Live Butcher,” a trademarked term coined by their father, Bernie, during the 1962 Worlds Fair.

“People were always talking down about Top Hat or Rat City. And I say, you know what? This is a great neighborhood. People that live here are blue-collar, normal people. They are not fancy. They’re blue jeans and tennis shoes; and that was our kind of people. That’s who we were,” said Joe.

Like so many others in the early 1950’s, Ginger Kelly and her sister would visit the family business with their parents, when it was located across from the old Duwamish Drive-In. The big weekly trek to the Riverton market was to get the best quality meat available. Even with all the nearby grocers, her dad, a former army cook, insisted he knew what was quality beef and that was Bernie’s, says Ginger. As an adult, she left the area, but later returned and now, at 65, she still shops at Bernie’s in the current location. “It’s still just as good – good produce at a good value.” Kelly has been marketing at the store all of her life as a second-generation Salle customer.

Over the past 16 years, the 22,000 sq. ft. store became a communal center for generations of folk and catered to all ethnicities. “My dad always said we don’t care what color they are, as long as their money is green. We want to sell to everybody. We did not discriminate against anyone,” said Tom. In fact, the Salles supported the community with sponsorships of school events for Evergreen and Kennedy High Schools, swap meets, classic auto shows, catered to 5,000 people at festivals and hired recovering drug addicts and sober alcoholics from the neighborhood.

People traveled from all over the metropolitan Seattle area to buy the meats.

Here’s an example of the “specialty” meat the family has sold: Tom proudly mentioned that his prime rib sales at Christmas were double of his butcher friend at a high-volume grocery store meat department. The butcher shop and customer service were their primary draws. Over the years, folks have always gathered in the coffee shop and shared their stories of weddings, births, illnesses and deaths, even more so while the recent economic tide slowly receded.

According to Joe, “We weren’t making any money, we were just breaking even. We were able to keep 35 people employed, get our insurance paid [and pay $7000 per month light bills]. But as the business declined, and the difference got wider, we were losing $10-$15K a month. And we’ve been losing that money for a couple of years, borrowing from everybody we can just to keep the doors open and to get through this. But, at some point, you have got to stop the bleeding.”

He goes on to explain that “twenty-five to forty-five percent of our customers have left the neighborhood in the last two years, by the thousands, because there are no jobs. The sheetrockers, painters, the landscapers, menial construction jobs have all disappeared,” Tom said.

A poignant camaraderie exists with their remaining customer base as all negotiate this era of troubled economic times. “That’s the hardest piece,” the brothers say. “Every day here lately is like a funeral. We don’t want to lose our customers. They become friends, too. But they understand we have to do what we have to do to stay afloat,” Tom said.

The Salle brothers promise the third and even fourth generation of loyal customers that they will once again reincarnate the Salle family “Bernie and Boys” and “Live Butcher” brand in one form or another, but are just beginning to explore what opportunities are available for them. And fortunately for the brothers, there are a number of them. Cutting their teeth in a grocery family with over one-hundred years of survival know-how having been passed on, might prove to be the key for rebounding away from the edge in this harsh economy.

As they prepare to shut the doors , they are running a 20% discount on all products. “We aren’t restocking anything except, milk and some produce and a little bit of meat. I think it will take a few weeks to sell everything out, but we’ll see how it goes. When it gets down to a certain point, we might kick up the discount. I don’t know. I’ve never had to do this,” Joe said. At some point, an auction will be held to clear out fixtures, signage and certain equipment that will no longer be needed, as well as decades of advertising props and memorabilia jumbled about the cavernous store. Notices will be published when the date for that is determined.

The question remains of what comes next. The brothers discussed a few possible scenarios, all contingent upon finding available and appropriate properties and workable financing packages. They are welcoming information and leads from commercial property owners with viable space to rent. They are not even certain the two will remain together or will, out of necessity, split and go their own way – though Tom is quick to point out that they are and still will be family, no matter what road they take.

They do know that the weekly, casual Saturday night Classic Car meetup is going to continue in the parking lot. The landlord has said they can do that, even though they will no longer be tenants, until the property sells. “They’ve [the landlord} always been good to us here, “ Joe said.

Beyond that, the future depends on whether they, together, operate a smaller, Italian specialty grocery with some olive oil, some wine, fresh pasta, maybe a deli and a smoking and/or dry cure room, if they have a butcher shop with it. To do the meat and a smaller grocery together – a scaled down version of their current placement – they estimate they would probably need 8,000-10,000 square feet, which is roughly half the size of the current space, as well as needing ample parking.

If that is not feasible, the brothers’ expertise and successful track records in smaller niches might lead them to open up, independently, a bistro-type deli and Italian catering business (that would be Joe) and a separate “green” live butcher shop, perhaps with a smoking room and a dry cure room, eventually (that would be Tom). Tom says that a stand-alone butcher shop, as he envisions it with white shirts, bow ties and black pants, needs to be at least 1,500-2000 sq. ft. He wants to highlight the trade with open window fronts facing traffic, so his customers can see him as he works. Also on the list of requirements for this scenario would be parking.

The brothers have each looked at a few spaces in North Highline, as well as White Center, West Seattle and Magnolia. Their formative years provided each brother with unique educations: learning from their dad, Bernie, how to cut high-grade meat and sell groceries while getting return customers during the day, then going home at night and having their mother, Lucy, teach them how to cook what they sold. They are keeping the faith that that family apprenticeship and legacy will bode well in any future endeavors.

From the White Center Community Development Association website – whose latest updates are always linked from the right sidebar here on WCN – the date is set for White Center Spring Clean 2011: May 14th. (That’s also the date for West Seattle Community Garage Sale Day, sponsored by our partner site West Seattle Blog, and if you want to add some extra “cleaning” oomph by having a yard sale, White Center participants are always welcome!)

Check out what WCN contributor Deanie Schwarz spotted at the future location of Zippy’s Giant Burgers on 14th SW (a story she broke for West Seattle Blog and White Center Now exactly two weeks ago). “SoRo” and all! (Yes, we know there is a “SoRox” faction.) Deanie also reports that the interior sprucing-up is under way. And we can tell you that Zippy’s has applied for its liquor license (beer/wine).

The company that manages the White Center Now server had a widespread problem today, affecting many sites beyond ours – and even once most were up, this one still had a database disconnect. Fixed now! Please accept our apologies!

For Proletariat Pizza fans – they just posted to the restaurant’s Facebook page that they’re on vacation, reopening February 24th. (Just so you don’t drive by and worry that they’ve closed, we’re mentioning it here.)

(Also published on WSB)

You’ve heard a lot about what’s going on in the Middle East – but have you heard about what’s going on in Southeast Asia? A border clash between Cambodia and Thailand is about to come to a head in front of the United Nations, and today Cambodian-Americans came to White Center and West Seattle for a demonstration aimed at bringing it to your attention and demanding the U.S. government get involved. WCN/WSB contributor Deanie Schwarz noticed the protest, took these photos and talked to spokesperson Sokmakara Hang, who explained that the demonstrators came from all over the state, and came here because this area has the state’s highest concentration of Cambodian-Americans. They stood on corners all around 16th/Roxbury:

Also on hand was Meach Sovannara from the Khmer Post Media Center in Long Beach (Calif.). The dispute is over a border area near the Preah Vihear Temple, a UNESCO World Heritage site that is more than a millennium old. The Cambodian-Americans say the most recent skirmishes killed Cambodian soldiers, and are demanding that the Thai government stop what they call an “invasion.” They want United Nations intervention as well as President Obama and the rest of the international community. According to this story from the Bangkok Post, this issue will be brought to the UN Security Council on Monday, and reportedly Cambodia will claim it’s at war with Thailand. There’s more background on the century-long conflict over the temple in this Jakarta Post story.

VN Market & Trading Company opened for business at 9614 16th SW this month in White Center. WCN contributor Deanie Schwarz caught up with owner Phong Le back on opening day in early February, when he was still filling the shelves with his stock, which is primarily dry and nonperishable goods commonly carried by Vietnamese grocers. His plans also included filling freezers with an emphasis on seafood and vegetables, rather than fowl or meat, and refrigerators stocked with assorted beverages. He has applied for a license to sell beer. Le is a White Center resident and former print-shop worker who’s going into business for himself for the first time as a grocer.