White Center Now: The blog about White Center

The South Park Bridge (seen in our February 2009 video from a Duwamish boat tour) made a cameo appearance during a CBS network news story last night; see it here. Accompanying news release from the county today:

Constantine: National news report spotlights need for South Park Bridge replacement

“Last night the CBS Evening News made a national example of the crumbling South Park Bridge, which, as their story correctly pointed out, is so dilapidated that it may have to be shut down next year. When that happens, we will lose a busy crossing point over the Duwamish River that carries 20,000 vehicles a day, and the too often neglected South Park neighborhood near Boeing Field will suffer further as a result.

“It should never have gotten to this point. Over the past few years, I have worked to identify a funding source for the replacement of this crumbling, unsafe public structure. I successfully lobbied to get this project included in the 2007 Roads and Transit ballot issue, and like the reporter who covered this story, I felt that the South Park Bridge was an excellent candidate for federal stimulus funds. I made sure to get this bridge at the top of King County’s stimulus funding list, and I traveled to Washington, D.C. in December and January to meet with our state’s delegation to spotlight the bridge’s replacement as a worthy stimulus project.

“I will continue to fight for funding to replace this key piece of King County infrastructure. This project would create many new construction jobs and would ensure a brighter future for working-class neighborhoods. Given the possibility of further stimulus spending in the future, I will continue reaching out to our delegation in Washington, D.C. to get this project completed.”

The Puget Sound Business Journal just published a story on the economic effects of the recession on White Center.   Entitled, “White Center Shows Its Diversity,” the article quotes many business owners including this writer.

In the good days, just one year ago, lunch break at construction sites around White Center meant a flood of workers pouring into El Paisano for a taste of home.

Silva’s situation reflects a larger picture in White Center, a struggling, diverse neighborhood with many immigrants on the southwest edge of Seattle. Its downtown is an eclectic mix of Pho restaurants, taquerias, bars, pawn shops, tattoo parlors, and hair and nail salons, and many of these small businesses say they are now teetering on the brink.

At $40,480 a year, the median household income is 24 percent lower in White Center than the countywide average, according to the 2000 Census. The population is 21 percent Asian, 12 percent Hispanic, 6 percent African-American, 2 percent American Indian, and 2.6 percent Pacific Islander.

The article can be accessed online at its website.

Now it’s just two days away, so it’s reminder time – this Wednesday night, local Kiwanians will be at the White Center Food Bank to collect your donations:

Members of the Division 26 Kiwanis in Seattle would like to invite you to bring non-perishable foods to the White Center Food Bank on Wednesday evening, April 8, 2009 from 5:30 to 8:00 pm. Members of the Kiwanis will be stationed outside the food bank at 10829 8th Avenue SW [map] under a canopy to collect your donations.

Kiwanis International is a global organization of volunteers dedicated to changing the world one child and one community at a time.

The White Center Food Bank says the most needed foods are Hamburger Helper and Rice-a-Roni type products as well as canned meat (not tuna), canned fruit, cereal, and jelly. The White Center Food Bank serves a diverse ethnic population so ethnic foods are always welcome. The food bank also accepts $5 and $10 gift cards from Safeway, QFC or Albertsons. Cash donations can be sent to the White Center Food Bank at 10829 8th Avenue SW, Seattle, WA 98146. To donate online, go to www.whitecenterfoodbank.org.

Donations to food banks count extra through the end of this month because of the Feinstein Challenge, so everything you give includes a built-in bonus. See you Wednesday night!

Puget Sound Park wasn’t the only park discussed at last Thursday night’s North Highline Unincorporated Area Council meeting: Steve Cox Memorial Park updates were discussed, too. Artist Jay Haavik presented his concept – the large, leaning piece is meant to represent White Center, and the short one to represent Deputy Cox, with the community leaning on him. The larger, leaning piece will be an 8-foot basalt column; the smaller piece will be 5 feet tall, with a replica of his badge sandblasted into the side. The next step isn’t quite settled, though; the memorial is to be in a 20 x 37 section of the stadium, but there’s a City Light vault in the area, and if that turns out to be in active use, then the memorial’s area may have to be condensed. Councilmembers approved the design in principle but are waiting for formal word on the vault before a formal decision. There’s also concern about the picnic shelter at the park; county parks rep Sam Whitman says a neighborhood petition would be needed to start the process of possibly removing the shelter, which has drawn complaints about transients and late-night partying. Suggestions were made about better lighting or moving the picnic shelter, but Whitman says all that would cost money, which is in short supply right now.

Since we were at the Gathering of Neighbors at Chief Sealth High School all day (coverage on partner site West Seattle Blog), we only made it down to the festival in the final hour, but that was in time to catch some shots of music and dance – with the crowd having a great time right on into the final moments just before 5 pm:

Just a reminder that we’re now in the season where so many great events overlap, you wish you could be in two (or more) places at any one time.

ADDED SUNDAY: Thanks to Tim LaPlante for sharing more photos!

Though the event is in West Seattle, White Center’s part of it too. DNDA is presenting the Gathering of Neighbors/Biz Expo tomorrow (Saturday 4/4) with the West Seattle Chamber of Commerce, and tonight we have the full participant list: To see who’ll be there, click here – on behalf of White Center Now and partner site West Seattle Blog, we’ll be there along with more than 70 other local businesses and organizations, including, from White Center, WestSide Baby and the White Center Community Development Association, as well as the White Center-based YWCA Employment and Training Program. Come by and say hi, 11 am-3 pm tomorrow, Chief Sealth HS at Boren (5950 Delridge; here’s a map); one other note — if you’re in West Seattle and you’re thinking about joining in this year’s West Seattle Community Garage Sale Day (May 9), sign up at our table tomorrow — the first day of registration — and get a one-day-only discount on the signup fees (which pay for mapmaking, posters, other fun stuff that gets WSCGSD on the regional radar). See you tomorrow!

(click to see a larger version of the letter)
Following up on last night’s update of the Puget Sound Park sale-proposal situation – that’s the letter County Council Chair Dow Constantine has just written to County Executive Ron Sims, asking him to take the park off the list of land he’s seeking to convert into “affordable housing” — as noted on this county webpage — or else, Constantine writes, if PS Park is still on the list when it gets to the County Council, he’ll move to take it off through legislation. We’ll be checking with the County Executive’s office for their response.

FRIDAY NIGHT UPDATE: While we haven’t yet received a direct response from the County Executive, his staff is working to arrange a chance for us to talk Monday with his point people on this project. We’ll let you know what we find out.

First of two reports from tonight’s North Highline Unincorporated Area Council meeting — this one, focusing on the intensifying controversy over the county proposal to sell Puget Sound Park (as reported here yesterday, it’s already accepted “submittals” from firms interested in buying up to five county park sites to build “affordable housing”).

Toward the start of tonight’s meeting, council member Barb Peters read a letter the NHUAC sent to outgoing County Executive Ron Sims expressing opposition to any sale of Puget Sound Park.

James Bush, from the office of County Council Chair Dow Constantine, stood up and said the sale proposal’s not going anywhere. Constantine himself reiterated that in an e-mail to us after the meeting, saying in part:

… as far as I am concerned, we’re not selling Puget Sound Park. The Council would have to approve such an action, and my position has been clear:

1) Park land is precious and is not to be parted with except under extraordinary circumstances; and

2) Puget Sound Park is within Burien’s intended annexation area and any decision about changing the park can and should wait until after that annexation happens.

Burien city manager Mike Martin was at tonight’s meeting too and warned NHUAC members not to leave anything to chance, saying they have to get the county executive to remove the park from the list. From what he’s seen, he says he’s clear that “the project is alive.”

Each council member agreed to contact a King County Councilmember tomorrow to get the message out; Constantine also tells us that we should know within a few days whether he has a majority of councilmembers on the no-sale side.

NHUAC is also considering further public outreach about the controversy, possibly leafletting neighborhoods, even organizing a picnic. We’ll follow up with Constantine and his staff to keep you up to date on what happens next.

Thanks to Ron Angeles, Delridge Neighborhood Services Center coordinator for the city of Seattle, for circulating that flyer so we could share it with you here!

The Seattle Times has a piece that profiles five of our many wonderful and diverse eateries and markets.  Herein are excerpts from their piece:

White Center looks more like the south-end version of Seattle’s Chinatown International District every time we visit — only more diverse, with Halal meat markets and Latin American cuisine.

Lately, though, foodies have discovered White Center as the go-to area to pick up exotic spices and ingredients, especially if you want to avoid the traffic and crowds at the ID on weekends.

Nice that they noticed, but they should have mentioned the wonderful food at El Paisano Restaurant on 15th Ave. SW – just across from the Bartells.

Here’s the official reminder from the county – it kicked in today.

Several White Center Now commenters asked questions following our publishing the other day of the King County Council’s news release announcing a $6 million financing deal for a “retail plaza … near Greenbridge.” What’s the project, and what’s “White Center Investment Fund LLC”? they asked. Alcina noted that the state corporation files include no such entity. We put the question to King County Council Chair Dow Constantine‘s office, and James Bush explains:

“White Center Investment Fund LLC” is an entity set up for this loan by U.S. Bank. It’s a Delaware limited liability corporation, as are many of the local LLCs set up for development purposes. In this sort of federal tax credit arrangement the money moves around from entity to entity, but where it will end up is as a loan to Vongs LLC, a corporation owned by the Vong family. They have an Asian grocery store in White Center which will move into a much larger space in this project when it is completed.

The White Center Square site is at SW 100th/14th SW (Google Street View, above). The project’s total cost is expected to be around $10 million. Here’s the ordinance the council passed; we had spoken with the company working on the project recently, and they said they’re hoping to break ground around the end of this month.

ADDED WEDNESDAY NIGHT: KING 5 TV news was in White Center today to do a story about the project and the area’s revitalization in general (what? no Rozella/Full Tilt interviews?); see it here.

Much controversy and concern has been brewing around the prospect of King County selling parkland in North Highline, including Puget Sound Park, for “affordable housing” — here’s the full list of what the county put up for sale, five properties, with a request for submittals suggesting they would prefer that all five go to the same developer.

Three firms responded, according to online records: DevCo, Quadrant Homes, and Shelter Resources. The next step in the process is not clearly spelled out online. During a recent interview, we asked outgoing County Executive Ron Sims about this, and he said that the intent is for the county to replace the sold parkland with open space somewhere else. That’s not what North Highline opponents of the sale want to see happen, like Greg Duff of the North Highline Unincorporated Area Council (which will discuss the sale status during its meeting this Thursday). He writes:

It’s time for the citizens of Burien and North Highline to say something to Mr. Ron Sims about his underhanded attempt to sell off Puget Sound Park located at 126th and 1st Ave. South to contractors for affordable housing (another word for low income). Anyone who watched channel 4 news this weekend saw that this area is part of the proposed annexation area of Burien. Mr. Sims wants to sell off this park and leave Burien with more low income housing. Mike Martin, Burien city manager, is opposed to this idea. We need this park and unless we speak up we are going to lose one of the largest open spaces left in North Highline. Write Mr. Sims and let him know you are opposed to it. Maybe he’ll read your e-mail because channel 4 tried for 2 weeks to reach him and he never returned any calls. Maybe he is too concerned with moving to Washington DC to actually take care of King County.

The park sale plan is under “old business” on the agenda for this Thursday’s NHUAC meeting, 7 pm, North Highline Fire District HQ.

As noted in our as-it-happened coverage, members of the North Highline Unincorporated Area Council were on hand last night as the Boundary Review Board considered the proposed partial North Highline Annexation – and you can see them all in action this Thursday night, 7 pm, North Highline Fire District HQ, during their regular monthly meeting. The agenda’s now available online; one of the “old business” items is the controversial proposal to sell King County parkland in North Highline.

(below, our notes on the meeting as it happened, start to finish)

7:06 PM: We’re at the Riverside Residences in Tukwila, where the King County Boundary Review Board is about to start its public hearing on Burien’s proposed annexation of part of North Highline. This is a key step along the path to the proposed August 18 public vote. We’ll be posting live updates here as it happens. Vice chair Robert Cook has recused himself from consideration of this matter; member Lynn Guttmann is ill. The hearing starts with various explanations of how the process works. Special assistant attorney general Robert Kaufman has just reminded those in attendance that they need to sign up if they want to speak when this finally gets to the public comment portion, likely no sooner than 8 pm. The city of Burien gets to make its presentation first. Kaufman explains that the board will conclude this hearing with a “preliminary recommendation” on the proposal, which then would be considered for final action when board members have their next formal meeting on April 16th.

7:13 PM: Looks like fewer than a dozen people plan to testify – there has just been a mass swearing-in of those who were signed up. Now Burien city manager Mike Martin is starting his presentation. He says this is a “historic” occasion and notes that at least three councilmembers are in the audience. He is also mentioning the hearing back in September that came to an abrupt end because the proposal had been withdrawn at that time.

His presentation says the proposed annexation area includes: 1679 acres, 14,100 people, assessed value $1,159,030,100. He recaps the negotiations that resulted in the Memorandum of Understanding with parties including the county, Seattle, Burien, and fire districts, including pointing out that everyone ratified that agreement except the Seattle City Council. Now a timeline – if the annexation vote happens in August 18 and it’s approved, the council could formalize the annexation in March 2010. Martin says the city is trying very hard to reach out to residents of the area. He says that while the county thinks that the area has $13 million in capital needs, Burien thinks there’s more like $59 million and isn’t sure how it’ll handle that, but they’ll do their best to try.

FOR THE REST OF OUR NOTES ON THE HEARING, WRITTEN AS IT HAPPENED, CLICK AHEAD: Read the rest of this entry »

This news release just in from the King County Council:

Council approves investment in White Center
HUD loan key to redevelopment and jobs in southwest King County

The revitalization of White Center received an economic boost today with action today by the Metropolitan King County Council to accept a $6.25 million federal loan for construction of a retail plaza.

“This is a great opportunity to finance an economic development project that directly benefits the surrounding mixed-income community, creating local jobs for local residents,” said Council Chair Dow Constantine, who represents White Center on the County Council.

“The next step in the transformation of the Park Lake neighborhood into Greenbridge is construction of the plaza that will be financed by this loan,” said Councilmember Larry Gossett, chair of the Council’s Budget and Fiscal Management Committee. “This complex will spur economic growth in both Greenbridge and the communities within southwest King County.”

The legislation approved by the Council authorizes the Executive to borrow $6.25 from the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and re-lend those funds to the White Center Investment Fund, LLC. The legislation also pledges the County’s Community Development Block Grants funds as additional security for the loans.

The investment Fund will use the loan to leverage the additional funding needed to complete a new 26,500 square foot retail/office plaza near Greenbridge. Greenbridge is a mixed-income community built on the site of the former Park Lake Homes, the King County Housing Authority’s oldest and largest public housing development

The project will also be eligible for a federal tax credit, which will help defray the overall cost of the $11 million project.

The new building, which has pre-lease commitments for 80 percent of its retail space, will provide goods and services to the surrounding neighborhood while creating about 60 job opportunities. It joins a plaza and renovated community center that were built as part of the Greenbridge revitalization project.

Reminder: Tonight’s the Boundary Review Board public hearing on Burien’s proposal to annex part of North Highline – it’s at 7 pm at the Riverside Residences in Tukwila. More info here; for a map to the hearing location, go here.