White Center Now: The blog about White Center

If you don’t check out the White Center Community Development Association‘s website routinely – you should! We just checked in and discovered a couple of new items, including awards won by two WCCDA staffers – executive director Aileen Balahadia and community-building director Virgil Domaoan were honored this past week as Emerging Filipino Leaders. Read all about it (and see photos!) here.

What a beautiful afternoon it was at Lakewood Park when we stopped by Hicks Lake to check on the final hour of the annual volunteer cleanup and get some photos. Note the placid scene above – then the volunteers gathered for a group shot:

Just minutes earlier, they’d wrapped up their work clearing invasives and trash, among other jobs:

Dick Thurnau from Friends of Hicks Lake summed it up this way:

Twenty-five hard-working student volunteers from Seattle Pacific University came this Saturday to Hicks Lake located in King County’s Lakewood Park to remove invasive weeds. Two dumptruck loads of weeds, tree parts and litter were removed. We wish to thank the following: Disc Golf Club, Friends of Hicks Lake, a member of the NHUAC, managing engineer of King County’s surface water, providing their help to make this park and lake a better place.

Also the King County Maintenance crew cleaning up and filling the dump trucks with this trash all deserve a large THANK YOU. These students’ performance is a perfect example of what can be accomplished with proper guidance.

Knights of Columbus Council 8437 is sponsoring a spaghetti dinner at Holy Family School (9615 20th Ave SW) on Saturday night. Seating for dinner will start at 4:30 pm and continue until 7:00 pm. In addition to dinner, there will be a raffle for prizes. The cost for dinner is $10.00 for adults, $5.00 for children under 12. Tickets can be purchased by calling Ross Youngs (206) 932-8771; they can also be purchased at the door.

From Audrey at White Center Food Bank:

Evergreen High School Key Club is doing a food drive benefitting the White Center Food Bank as part of the Mayors’ Day of Concern for the Hungry on Saturday, September 26 from 10 am to 3 p.m. at Roxbury Safeway and Burien Safeway.

Also, Prudential West Seattle is conducting a food drive benefiting the White Center Food Bank and the West Seattle Food Bank on Saturday, October 3, at local Safeway Stores, Albertsons in White Center and Morgan Street Thriftway. Donations can also be made at the Prudential office on 4700 42nd Avenue, Suite 600 or through a local Prudential agent.

Given that White Center, Boulevard Park and surrounding areas are governed directly by King County, the choice of King County Executive should be taken very seriously.  The two candidates are Susan Hutchison and Dow Constantine.  Constantine is a fixture of West Seattle and White Center politics, so he is a known commodity.  Not so, Susan Hutchison, who hails from the East Side of the County.  Candidate Hutchison has run a “feel good” campaign, emphasizing her position to “bring people together.”  Her website’s issues page contains four short paragraphs, with the following priorities:

Jobs & the Economy:

Susan will help give small businesses the tools they need to create jobs…

Improve Transportation:

Susan will quickly implement simple changes to encourage transit ridership…

Budget Reform:

Susan will identify waste and restructure the budget to ensure our tax dollars are being spent effectively.

Protect Our Environment.

Susan will forge partnerships between environmental, labor and business groups as we work toward our common goal…

That’s it folks, Susan Hutchison’s platform for managing one of the biggest governmental entities in the country. In her defense, it might be said that she is offering as much detail as the two lightweights who are currently vying to be Seattle’s next mayor.  But then, that’s not much of a complement.

I will forthrightly state that I do not like Ms. Hutchison’s right-wing politics and that on that basis alone, she should be disqualified for the position.  Seattle and King County residents are a tolerant, liberal community.  To have a George Bush conservative speaking for us, just does not sit well.  But what about her competence?

Ms. Hutchison has never held public office.  She has never had to struggle with the political realities of governing a complex political entity whose ambits include not only roads and sewers but social services, neighborhoods and law enforcement.  It is difficult to see how her experience on the board of the Seattle Symphony prepared her, in the slightest way, for such a weighty role.

I often disagreed with former King County Executive, Ron Sims, but I found him thoughtful, intelligent and most importantly, quite knowledgeable on any issue relating to his role as Executive of the very large and expansive King County.  On the issue of affordable housing, we know nothing as to where Hutchison stands?  Does she support the Greenbridge and High Point housing/community developments?  If so, on what basis?  If not, why not?  Where does she stand on the issue of incorporation which raises the hackles of so many of White Center’s residents?

And what of her experience dealing with communities of color or economically distressed areas?  How does her “bringing people together” chirp really address the many challenges that White Center faces?  The fact is, nothing in her background begins to give her a serious understanding of White Center or similar communities.  There is no on-the-job training for such issues.  And Ms. Hutchison has given no indication that she even remotely cares about such issues.  In the end, Hutchison is what she was in her prior role as newscaster, a pretty face with a vacuous resume.

The big cleanup is this Saturday:

Please come join Friends of Hicks Lake and first-year students from Seattle Pacific University next Saturday (9/26/2009) from 10:00 AM to 3:00 PM for cleanup day at and for your Lakewood Park and Hicks Lake. Location 10 Ave SW next to Cascade Middle School.

Gloves and tools will be furnished; we need volunteers plus willing hands to remove weeds, broken tree limbs you get the picture. Your help will make this park and lake a better place for our community. We appreciate your help and thank you in advance.

Bret the Brat, star of that quick clip, is the mascot for the Burien Brat Trot, coming up October 4th and benefiting White Center-based WestSide Baby. No, no, no, not THAT kind of brat – think “rhymes with trot.” Goes with beer. Oom-pah music. Etc. (But not till AFTER you run.) Register online, for solo or relay, by going here.

Here’s your chance to do a good deed at the shopping center closest to White Center:

Sleep Country USA is holding its annual Coat Drive for Foster Kids, beginning Monday, September 21st.

WHAT: Sleep Country USA¹s Winter Coat Drive for Foster Kids
WHEN: September 21, 2009 through November 1, 2009
WHY: Because many foster kids arrive with only the clothes on their backs, Sleep Country USA is collecting winter coats to help keep the more than 26,000 foster kids in Oregon and Washington warm this winter. Our drive helps give foster children a leg up and keep them warm during the blustery winter months.

New coats in every shape and size can be donated to any Sleep Country USA store and will be distributed among 20 Pacific Northwest foster care organizations. For more information, please use the Sleep Country store locator at www.sleepcountry.com or call 1-888-88-SLEEP.

Head on over to Cafe Rozella for some beautiful music.  Correo Aereo rarely plays and this is an opportunity to hear some excellent Latin American music. 

(photo added 11:02 pm – Stefanie and Mike, Proletariat proprietors, and daughter)
We checked in with Stefanie and Mike at Proletariat Pizza just before 8 pm, three-fourths of the way into the first night of the new pizza parlor on 16th SW (next to Dzul Tattoo, across from Full Tilt Ice Cream). Stefanie told us they had a great rush in the early hours – then it settled down a bit – there was still a nice crowd when we dropped by. The atmosphere is very simple; some fun handmade signs (like “Home of The Big One”) up on the walls:

The signs look aged but Stefanie said they’re new, made by an artist friend. While their name has drawn a bit of controversy, their signage plays right to it – one door says BY THE PEOPLE and the other door says FOR THE PEOPLE:

Their menu has a logo of a “power to the people” type fist tossing a pizza, over the slogan “The Pizza That Made White Center Famous.” We’ll add photos in a bit; we brought home a menu and thought you’d be interested:

Pizzas
Cheese
Pepperoni
Margherita
Two Meats
The Favorite (Italian sausage, fresh chopped garlic, Mama Lil’s peppers are the toppings)
Ham and egg
Anchovy
The Real Hawaiian (SPAM and pineapple)
Cinco (fontina, provolone, asiago, gorgonzola, mozzarella cheeses)
Vegetarian (sundried tomatoes, kalamata olives, goat cheese plus mozzarella)

They offer pizza in “whole, half, slice” sizes — slices for cheese/pepperoni only ($2 and $3 respectively) with the most expensive “whole” $18 (cheese only, $15 whole, $9 half). Also a mixed green salad at $4 -organic mixed greens with garbanzos, kalamatas, gorgonzola and balsamic vinaigrette. Homemade tiramisu for dessert ($5) and two sugar-only sodas (Mexican Coke/Jarritos, $1.50) plus beer/wine for beverages.

For starters they’ll be open 5-9 pm Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Fridays, Saturdays, closed Thursdays and Sundays.

PROLETARIAT PIZZA: According to their website, they’re a go for grand opening at 5 tonight. 9622 16th SW.

PHO MY LOI: According to this online listing, Pho My Loi is for sale, less than a year after it opened.

Shelli Park from WCFTA sent this update on the Saturday night event at Big Al Brewing in White Center:

White Center for the Arts is excited about the Art Party on Saturday, September 19th!

Two bands will be performing over the course of the evening. The first band will start at 7:00. They are Mucho Gusto, a jazz trio whose drummer is from White Center.

The other band is Urban Achievers, a Led Zeppelin cover band, which has for a member another local musician, Ryan Burns. This is a really GOOD cover band! Stellar musicians.

Come and enter the raffle for a piece of art, or try that Big Al Smoked Porter! There is something for everyone.

As reported here several weeks back, King County Executive Kurt Triplett has proposed closing more than three dozen county parks in unincorporated urban areas, like White Center, because of the county budget crisis. King County Council Chair Dow Constantine, who is running for KCE, just announced his proposal to keep those parks from closing:

King County Executive candidate Dow Constantine today issued a four point plan intended to keep parks across King County open as the County moves to close its current budget gap.

Current King County Executive Kurt Triplett has called on the County to begin mothballing parks December 1st of this year in order to help close the budget deficit.

“I do not believe that closing parks is the right approach for dealing with the County’s budget problems, nor is it necessary,” Constantine said. “If we use our existing resources more wisely, we can keep our neighborhood parks open and available for use by the people of King County.”

Constantine’s concern with the Executive’s proposal to shutter parks is two-fold.

“Our 39 local parks provide critical services to the communities in which they reside. Many of these parks are in low-income communities and are important community gathering places that provide recreation and exercise and enhance the quality of life for the communities in which they are located,” Constantine said. “Moreover, the voters of King County passed two parks levies in 2007 in order to save all our parks. While this levy applied only to regional and rural parks, this was not the perception of the voters and I am not interested in closing these parks based on this technicality.”

Constantine’s parks plan outlined the following points:

Prioritizing Parks in the Budget: When the Executive transmits his budget to the Council in late September, Constantine will propose funding these parks through 2010. This would provide the County Parks Department with the appropriate amount of time to execute on the Executive’s current plan – which Constantine believes has merit – to transfer urban parks to cities and other entities. With reduced maintenance and other efficiencies, the cost of keeping the affected parks open should be able to be reduced to about $1 million. In his nine-point budget proposal, Constantine has previously highlighted up to $75 million in cuts and other efficiencies that could be used to find the necessary funding.

Aggressively Pursue Annexations: All but five of the threatened neighborhood parks are in urban unincorporated areas slated for annexation by surrounding jurisdictions. The annexation of part of North Highline by Burien, approved by voters in the August ballot, will ensure that beginning in January six of these 39 parks will remain open. Similarly, the three other annexations on the November ballot, if approved, will protect 12 more parks. The willingness of cities like Burien to take over their annexed parks earlier then initially planned is a positive step, and Constantine is confident that the County can keep expenses low and transfer these assets without disadvantaging the communities that hold them dear.

Partner with Community Groups: Constantine will initiate and expand discussions with local community groups and other interested organizations to support threatened parks. As an early model for such partnerships, Constantine cited his work with White Water Aquatics to facilitate their takeover of the Evergreen Pool in White Center early next year. While that effort has not been perfect – the pool will have to be shut down for a few months until the transfer occurs – partnership and/or sponsorship efforts with respect to parks could help ease the cost of keeping these parks open.

If Necessary, Modify the Existing Parks Levy: The second of the two regional parks levies passed in 2007 includes significant funds for new open space acquisitions. Constantine is a long-time supporter of parks, open space and trails acquisition. However, in a time of recession it would make sense to use a portion of those funds to keep our existing parks open and maintained. If the pace of annexations is slowed and the need arises for King County to continue funding these parks beyond 2010, Constantine will propose going back to the ballot to modify the existing levy to allow existing levy funds to be used to keep threatened neighborhood parks open. Such a modification would require no new taxes but would simply allow more flexibility with existing resources to ensure no parks are closed, and would still leave millions of dollars in funding to continue expanding the County’s regional trail system and make other acquisitions.

“By transferring the majority of these parks to other entities in 2010, my plan will also allow the County to use money already set aside to fund these parks in 2011 right now. This money will be critical in closing our 2010 budget gap and still allow us to keep our local parks open in the meantime,” Constantine said. “Given the County’s shrinking revenues, it is an economic reality that the County will have to stop funding local parks in the long-term. However, this process must be done in a responsible manner that allows adequate time for other jurisdictions or interested parties to step up to keep these parks open and available for use. It is the responsibility of your elected officials to find creative solutions that protect our citizens’ quality of life, and that is what I intend to do as Executive.”

The 39 parks that at risk of being closed are:

132nd Square
Arbor Lake
Bingamon Pond
Boulevard Lane Park
Bridle Crest Trail
Bryn Mawr Park
Camelot Park
East Norway Hill
Edith Moultan Park
Evergreen Athletic Fields
Five Mile Lake Park
Green Tree Park
Hamm Creek Natural Area
Hazel Valley Park
Hilltop Park
Juanita Heights Park
Kingsgate
Klahanie Park
Lake Geneva Park
Lakewood Park
Maplewood Heights
Maplewood Park
May Creek Park
North Green River Park
North Meridian Park
North Shorewood Park
Park Orchard Park
Puget Sound Park
Renton Park
Salmon Creek Park
Sierra Heights/Honey Dew
Site 1 Duwamish
Skyway Park
South County Ballfields
Southern Heights
Sunset Playfields
White Center Heights
White Center Pond Natural Area
Windsor Vista

By the way, something we didn’t realize till a conversation this morning with State Senator Joe McDermott, who’s campaigning for Constantine — the new county executive will be sworn in after the election results are certified in late November, rather than the more standard January swearing-in, since the current KCE is appointed rather than elected.

This Saturday, noon-3 pm, you can buy fall vegetable starts at Community Harvest of Southwest Seattle‘s sale at St. James Place, 9421 18th SW (map). Bring produce for the food bank if you have some – taste heirloom tomatoes – and celebrate locally grown food. Need to know more? 762-0604 or info@gleanit.org – and at the CHoSS website, gleanit.org.

It appears that Seattle Mayoral Candidate, Mike McGinn has staked his campaign on one issue, gutting the viaduct tunnel plan carefully negotiated by all the relevant players.  If he wins, he has stated, he will view his victory as a mandate to undo the viaduct replacement plan.  In its stead, McGinn has promised more busses, sidewalks and bike paths.  As someone who regularly commutes on the viaduct it’s hard for me to see how more sidewalks and bikepaths is going to make my commute any easier.  Oh, yeah, and McGinn says he wants to use light rail to replace the viaduct.  Geez, I didn’t know that Sound Transit was planning a light rail leg for West Seattle and White Center.  Wait, there is no light rail leg for West Seattle.  So if McGinn is elected we can expect protracted delays on replacing the viaduct, procuring boatloads of money and the decade’s long process of what:  extending the light rail line to West Seattle.  No problema.  I’ll take the tunnel.  It’s clear that McGinn does not live in West Seattle nor does he use the viaduct to commute.

What is particularly disingenuous, is McGinn’s claim that the tunnel option was voted down by Seattle voters.  This is simply not true.  A tunnel option which would have meant tearing down the viaduct and digging up a tunnel was rejected.  The deep bore tunnel that is currently planned would leave the viaduct in place while the tunnel gets built, saving West Seattleites years of aggravating surface detours.  This option was negotiated because it provides the most mobility and least interference while it is getting built.  What McGinn is proposing would set us back a decade and have us revisit the viaduct replacement options once again.  Recall how all this useless process killed the monorail (we had to vote on it three times).  And in the meantime, we have to hope that a seismic event doesn’t make the whole thing hollow by bringing down the decrepit structure.  Busses, bikes and sidewalks, Oh My!

McGinn’s ill-defined plans for the viaduct are enough to nix the guy in my book.  Add to that, the fact that he has never held electoral office, that most of his policy positions lack any specificity and you have a feel-good kind of guy that you might pick for your soccer team, but not a mayor for a major city.  Seattle needs better.  I’m not crazy about Joe Mallahan, but he at least seems considerably more grounded on policies.  We have already had a couple of amateurs embarrass the City.  It’s time to let the grown ups proceed with real policies grounded in reality.

Jeni at Cascade Middle School shares word of this event and is hoping that as many community members as possible will show up to pitch in (and enjoy a free lunch!):

Cascade is honored that RESA Seattle, an organization of professional stagers, has chosen our school for their first service project. They will be redesigning several areas at our school, helping to improve functionality and beautify our surroundings.

Stagers will be joined by the staff of Cascade and the community to make improvements to the Main Office, Cafeteria/Gym Foyer, hallways, Staff Lounge and exterior of the grounds.

Many hands make light work – Join our Community Service Day!

Date:
Saturday, September 19th

Time:
9 a.m. until the work is done

Place:
Cascade Middle School – 11212 10th Ave SW

Meet in front of the Main Office

Bring your garden gloves, dress to paint, and work outside.
Barbecue lunch will be served courtesy of Cascade Middle School

If you want to call or e-mail the school for more info on this, contact info is on its website.

We got a question about this not long after it happened but didn’t have official information till today. King County Sheriff’s Office spokesperson Sgt. John Urquhart confirms there was a stabbing downtown on Friday night. Here’s his account of what deputies found out:

The stabbing occurred in front of Brewsky’s on Friday, Sept. 11th about 11:00 PM, 9636 16th SW. We responded to a 9-1-1 call and found the victim covered in blood a short distance away for the bar. He was somewhat incoherent but conscious. However he was uncooperative as to details of the stabbing and even where it occurred. He would not tell us who stabbed him. We also spoke to several patrons of Brewsky’s. All were moderately to severely intoxicated with varying accounts of the event.

The victim is 39 years old from Kent, and the suspect is in his mid-30’s, a black male. This apparently was a mutual fight that led to a stabbing. No arrests and no suspect.

From the White Center Community Development Association website: Feet First is out with its White Center On Foot map – the links are in this WCCDA post.

Music! Bicycles! Facepainting! And White Center’s own Full Tilt Ice Cream. “Crank It Up” is happening at Cesar Chavez Park (7th and Cloverdale) till 6 pm – here’s an update from our partner site West Seattle Blog.