White Center Now: The blog about White Center

Tonight at South Seattle Community College in West Seattle, as covered on partner site West Seattle Blog, about 200 people showed up for a Seattle City Council budget hearing – and almost half of them spoke to the council (with, eventually, all nine members on hand). Among them, White Center Food Bank executive director Rick Jump – not speaking against a proposed cut by Mayor McGinn, but instead, in favor of the $35,000 he has proposed giving the WC Food Bank. Jump noted that a third of his agency’s clients come from within Seattle city limits, another third from unincorporated areas, and another third from Burien, and he does get funding from both the latter city and from the county. P.S. He’ll be back at SSCC’s Brockey Center, same site as tonight’s hearing, this Saturday night for the food bank’s annual Harvest Dinner and Auction, 5:30 pm.

It’s just been brought to our attention that while we’ve mentioned this several times on partner site West Seattle Blog, we haven’t mentioned it here! In case you haven’t already heard – the North Highline Unincorporated Area Council is presenting the biggest candidates’ forum between now and Election Day, with both the State House Position 2 and King County Council District 8 races featured. **Doors open at 6 pm** (corrected) October 21st at the Greenbridge YWCA, you will hear from all four candidates in those races – House candidates Mike Heavey of West Seattle and Joe Fitzgibbon of Burien, and KC Council candidates Diana Toledo and State Sen. Joe McDermott, both West Seattleites.

Countywide Community Forums are coming to the area – not White Center, but close. Here’s the invite, with an offer of free food, and a request for your RSVP:

OCTOBER 14: Countywide Community Forums event, 7:00 PM – 9:00 PM
Freedom Church of West Seattle
9601 35th Avenue SW
Tel:206-937-1417
Community-wide forum and dinner hosted by the Freedom Church in West Seattle. Join us for dinner with Dick’s Drive-In burgers and shakes and for a stimulating discussion about the county’s $63 million shortfall and how it impacts you and your community. Please RSVP through the website or by calling (206) 937-1417, so we know how much food to provide.

You can find out more about the CCF organization by going here.

From Proletariat Pizza‘s Facebook page:

Starting tomorrow- White Center Mondays!!! Bring in your receipt from ANY White Center business from the last week, and receive FIVE DOLLARS OFF your Proletariat purchase of twenty five dollars or more! This includes 3.14 Bakery, Full Tilt, Stan’s Adult Superstore, Taboo Video, Restaurant 88, and all of your other favorite White Center businesses!

From the South Park Library, via the SP Yahoo! group:

South Park artist Amaranata Sandys shows us how to make sugar skulls, a traditional Day of the Dead craft, using sequins, color paint and paper flowers. A Day of the Dead altar will also be on display. For ages 5 and up.

Saturday, October 23, 12-2 p.m.
@ South Park Library

Amaranta Sandys de South Park enseñará como hacer las calaveras de azúcar, una tradición del Día de los Muertos; ultiizando lentejuelas, pintura de colores y flores de papel. Un altar de los Días de los Muertos estará en exhibición. Para niños de 5 años y más.

Sábado, 23 de octubre de 12-2 de la tarde
@ la biblioteca de South Park

8604 8th Ave. S. & S. Cloverdale St.
206-615-1688

As previewed last weekend – noon-2 pm today, quite the party at Full Tilt, with live music, a new ice-cream favor, and general revelry. P.S. If you haven’t voted yet for Full Tilt and some other White Center faves like Proletariat Pizza in the Best of Western Washington online polls, just a couple days left – it starts here.

Caught that photo on our way to another story in White Center this morning – apparently job applications are being taken at the site of the new Dollar Tree.

If you are in the recently annexed North Burien (North Highline) area and have lived there at least a year, you’re eligible to run for the suddenly opening Burien City Council seat, according to this news release:

The City of Burien is accepting applications for City Council Position 6 which is being vacated on Dec. 31, 2010. Incumbent Councilmember Kathy Keene recently announced she is leaving the position in order to retire in Florida next year.

Applicants must be a registered voter and have lived in the City for at least one year. Residents of the North Highline area that was annexed to Burien in April 2010 are eligible if they have lived in their North Highline residence at least one year.

Prospective Councilmembers should have an interest in City government and in serving their community. Councilmembers typically attend three or more evening Council meetings a month and participate on local and regional governmental organizations. Councilmembers are paid $600 per month.

The City Council will review the applications and interview top candidates. Councilmembers will vote the appointment at the Jan. 3, 2011, Council meeting after which the successful applicant will be sworn into office. The newly appointed Councilmember will fulfill Keene’s term which expires on Dec. 31, 2011. The Councilmember will have to run for the office at the next General Election, in November 2011, to continue in the position.

Applications are available at City Hall, 400 S.W. 152nd St,, Ste. 300, online at www.burienwa.gov or by calling (206) 248-5517. Applications will be accepted through 5 p.m. on Oct. 27.

That’s the “kindie-rock” band The Not-Its playing Cupcake Royale in West Seattle back in May – they’ve played Full Tilt Ice Cream in White Center before, and that’s where they’re going to be performing this Saturday, noon-2 pm, as part of a benefit for Northwest Folklife – Full Tilt is releasing a special flavor for the occasion, Clusters of Folk. Don’t miss it – the ice cream OR the music; here’s the Facebook invite.

From the folks at White Center Eagles – a big show tonight!

EVENT: Jamie’s Rock & Roll Legends Presents “Kings & Queens of Country”
WHEN: Saturday, October 2, 2010 5pm dinner, 7pm showtime
WHERE: White Center Eagles, 10452 15th Ave SW, Seattle, WA 98146, (206) 248-1400

The “Kings & Queens of Country”, Johnny Cash, June Carter-Cash, Conway Twitty & Loretta Lynn are coming to White Center for ONE NIGHT ONLY, this Saturday, October 2nd! These LEGENDS of country music will be appearing at the White Center Eagles, tickets are $40.00 for VIP reserved seating or $30.00 for general admission. Ticket includes chicken fettuccini dinner served at 5pm and the show at 7pm. You don’t want to miss your chance to see this LEGENDARY performance presented by Jamie’s Rock & Roll Legends and the White Center Eagles. The White Center Eagles are “people helping people”, serving our community since 1946. Please join us, tickets available at the door.

Prudential Northwest Realty agents are collecting food at supermarkets in White Center and West Seattle, 10 am-2 pm Saturday – just take your nonperishable food donation to the White Center Albertson’s at 10616 16th SW. More locations here.

The agenda’s out for next Thursday’s meeting of the North Highline Unincorporated Area Council, and it includes a guest for which councilmembers have some big questions: Stephen Norman, Executive Director of the King County Housing Authority. He’s expected to be asked about past, present and future housing-development plans. The full meeting agenda is here, and everyone’s welcome, 7 pm Thursday, October 7th, at North Highline Fire District headquarters.

Just announced by Full Tilt Ice Cream‘s Justin Cline via Facebook – Halloween trick-or-treating in downtown White Center. 3-5 pm Sunday, October 31st, at participating stores; here’s the Facebook events page if you’d like to RSVP and watch for more information.

It’s been repeatedly pointed out to Seattle city leaders that while the White Center Food Bank serves a notable number of clients inside the Seattle city limits – from SW Myrtle southward – it doesn’t get any funding from the city. That will change if the budget proposed by Mayor Mike McGinn yesterday goes through – it includes this line:

*Increase budget by $35,000 to provide funding to the White Center Food Bank in recognition of the significant number of Seattle residents served by the program

King County Executive Dow Constantine is presenting his budget proposal right now – and @kcnews has been providing key points via Twitter. They include 462 proposed job cuts. The full budget documents are linked here. The first public hearing is in the King County Council Chambers at the downtown courthouse, this Wednesday night at 6:30 pm. Meantime, here’s a county-budget overview from our partners at the Seattle Times.

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 »

Just in case you are wondering what’s going on and why traffic is blocked on westbound Roxbury around 14th SW – there has been a multiple shooting incident, with four people reported dead according to scanner traffic (though police have not yet formally confirmed that), at 14th and Cambridge, just north of Roxbury. We are posting continuing coverage at partner site West Seattle Blog.

The next mixer presented by the White Center Community Development Association is this Saturday, 1-3 pm, at Educare Early Learning Center in Greenbridge – meeting on the 2nd floor, child care provided on the 1st floor. All welcome, according to WCCDA’s Sean Healy, who says, In this mixer we will follow up with the concerns brought up by our members at the previous membership mixer on Aug 7th. We will discuss immigration reform, and immigrant barriers to education and housing. Also we will discuss the youth of White Center and positive youth alternatives.”

Once again this year, students from Seattle Pacific University are on their way to help clean up around White Center’s Hicks Lake. (Our photo is from 2008.) It’s part of a regional effort on September 25th in which the college sends nearly 800 freshmen and transfer students to various sites for a “community-service orientation” known as CityQuest. Between 10:30 am and 2:30 pm on Saturday, you’ll find students working to pick up litter and take out invasive plants. (That’s not the only White Center site where SPU students will be working that day – SPU also tells us that Neighborhood House in Greenbridge will have visiting students to “help with administrative organization, fall cleaning, and brainstorm ideas for future classes.”) You are also welcome to come join in the cleanup, by the way.

Story and photos by Deanie Schwarz
Reporting for White Center Now

If you were in White Center Saturday night for the monthly WC Art Walk, perhaps you joined the families, friends, and dating couples who filled the art-filled Proletariat Pizza on its one-year anniversary.

In a kind of homecoming, Shawn Wolfe’s work (he’s the artist who did Proletariat’s bold exterior signage) hung on the tall walls of the packed pizzeria. Highland Park residents and Prole owners Stefanie and Mike Albaeck graciously took a few minutes out of their jammin’ dinner hour to update us (and you) on their first year in the WC.

Mike telecommutes from home full-time for a popular cell provider and is often seen commuting the mile or so from the couple’s Highland Park home on his bike to 9622-A 16th SW (across the street from Full Tilt Ice Cream and next door to Dzul Tattoo, if somehow you haven’t made it to Proletariat Pizza yet).

Stef is devoting her spare time – if there is such a thing when you run a restaurant and have two young children – to the kids. Both are hands-on in the restaurant, of course, but now have a staff keeping the standards of quality and customer service high while creating a know-you-by name, community-friendly vibe.

Despite having just one year on the books, the Albaecks have catapulted themselves onto the regional stage with their artisanal, thin-crusted pizza. When Kathryn Robinson, the grande dame of Seattle culinary culture and restaurant critic writes, serious restaurateurs and foodies listen. She recently visited Proletariat and spoke in as glowing terms (read it here) about Proletariat’s elegant interpretation of pizza as any pizza restaurant could hope for.

Along with that approving nod, neighborhood word-of-mouth recommendations, more than 600 Facebook “fans,” and other reviews have all identified various elements of the critical-to-success X-factors of artisanal pizza Prole-style. Folks rave about the perfectly bubbled crust, the impeccably fresh and organic ingredients (“Except for the Spam!”) and the consistent quality of the fresh dough. (The momentum has Proletariat Pizza nominated for the Best of Western WA competition for Best Pizza.)

Looking back at Year One – the original one-slot oven used during the pizzeria’s first week proved far too slow and small. So they found a refurbished oven with four slots which can hold up to five pies on each shelf when necessary.

According to Stef, date-night couples are well-represented in their customer base, as are families. They tend to arrive after 7 pm and are becoming as loyal to Prole as the larger groups, often taking advantage of the Weekly Specials. The organic, fresh, local seasonal offerings have included pesto, potato and other creations, and right now, zucchini is on the lineup. So what’s the most popular? No one pizza stands out, we’re told, but the prosciutto and organic-soft-egg pizza (Ham & Egg) and The Favorite are mentioned. As for dessert, the light, cakey tiramisu is a hit.

Family groups dining at Proletariat can take advantage of a play area in the rear of the space; kids, including Stef and Mike’s newborn son Hollis and daughter Hazel, are encouraged to enjoy the full space of what is becoming, as Kathryn Robinson put it, part of “the soul” of White Center.

Like many other WC owners, Stef is passionate about the neighborhood in which they are conducting their business. She insists she would open five other businesses there if she could. She is bursting with ideas, but says, “[New business owners] can make whatever they want of this neighborhood. You really don’t have to do much to be successful, because the neighborhood is starved for something new, productive, positive or what feels good. “ She thinks a yoga studio in a former dance studio currently available a few doors down would be fabulous. “The community is willing to accept your shortcomings because they are just so glad you are here. It is a slam-dunk [business wise].”

She suggested that anybody who is interested in starting a business carefully consider the WC’s incredibly affordable rents. “The sky is the limit, as far as potential in this neighborhood,” Stef reiterates. “[Cheap rent] makes it a feasible risk for anybody to take. What have they got to lose? It is easy to make rent here…our space is only $1 a square foot! That’s unheard of in any other neighborhood. When the rent is that low, what do you have to lose?”

In looking at the year they have been working hard to build their business, Stef and Mike are most surprised that they become so successful so quickly. “We had really high hopes, but this has been so, dare I say, easy, because people are so amazingly forgiving. For example, when we have forgotten somebody’s order on a really rough night, they tell us ‘Oh, that’s OK! We are just glad we are here!” The community is so grateful and so supportive. They will forgive anything. And [the support] just continues to happen and make [us] continually happy.”

This remarkable first year has given rise to a new T-shirt design from Shawn, now available in the store. The t-shirts remain $15 and a new American Apparel hoodie is available for $25.

As for the aforementioned weekly specials – they’re mentioned on Proletariat’s Facebook page, as are the flexible closing hours; fall evenings are getting darker earlier, so they will close at 9:00 some evenings. But, as Stef says, they are always willing to stay open till 10, if that’s what folks want. You can also catch them on Twitter.

One note – the store will be closed tomorrow (Monday, September 20) – Stef and Mike are taking their hard-working crew out to celebrate their memorable first year.