White Center Now: The blog about White Center

(added 7:14 pm, photo by Tony Bradley, replacing our original iPhone photo)
We’ve been covering this on partner site West Seattle Blog. Nobody inside, nobody hurt, no major damage from the outside, but flames were briefly visible from inside. As of 7 pm, that block of Delridge was still blocked off, as was 17th SW between Delridge and Roxbury, so avoid the Triangle area for a while, though fire crews should clear before TOO long. MONDAY MORNING UPDATE: Our fellow White Center Now contributor Ricardo Guarnero at neighboring Cafe Rozella says the fire actually was in a Muslim prayer hall in this building. We are still awaiting word from Seattle Fire investigators regarding cause/damage. Ricardo adds that there’s a note on the door saying “MASJID is closed indefinitely,” and adds, “The sign is on the door where Muslims gathered to pray five times a day. Next door is the ‘Hope Academic Enrichment Center.’ Both were there for the Muslim community in White Center – mostly African immigrants from the horn of Africa.”

Come down and try Laughing Buddha’s newest creations paired with some Asian-influenced ice cream. Today at 3 pm, Full Tilt Ice Cream.

We just stopped by. Lots of vendors and shoppers. Amazing quirky stuff like an item we picked up – Hunter S. Thompson, stenciled onto an old vinyl disc (we looked at the back – Saturday Night Fever, the album – fitting in an odd way).

Adding a video interview with stencil artist Dave Ryan shortly. Rat City Rummage continues till 6 tonight in the old roller rink – you can enter from 16th SW. 11:35 AM UPDATE: Here’s that clip:

ADDED 9:53 PM: Thanks to Highland Park’s Dina Johnson for sharing this page full of photos of other artists and craftspeople who were on hand at Rat City Rummage.

It’s happening at the old roller rink – while the recent swap-meet attempt didn’t quite get off the ground, organizers say all the vendor spots are filled for today’s event, so there should be plenty to browse and buy: ratcityrummage.com

White Center resident, writer and historian, Ron Richardson has just penned a history of the building, most commonly known as the Southgate Roller Rink.  You may recall that Ron previously penned a detailed history of White Center. Both articles can be found at HistoryLink.org website which has a compendium of articles on Washington State history.   The Roller Rink originally started as a boxing gym and, in fact, produced some nationally ranked boxers, including Harry “The Kid” Mathews who went on to fight Rocky Marciano at Yankee Stadium.  To wit some excerpts from Ron Richardson’s excellent and well-researched piece.

The Southgate Roller Rink (now Southgate Event Center) is located in the center of White Center (at 9646 17th Ave SW), a neighborhood of South Seattle. It was originally built by Hiram Green (1863-1932) in 1920 as a boxing arena. From 1937 for the next 70 years it became a roller rink, most recently famous for hosting the Rat City Roller Girls.

snip

Green and his arena established a connection between boxing and White Center.   A regular fighter at the arena was young Al Hostak (1916-2006) from Georgetown.  Over the years Hostak trained, boxed, and tended bar in White Center. In 1939 Hostak won the middleweight championship of the world against Tacoma’s Freddy Steele in front of  30,000 at Seattle’s Civic Field. White Center resident Harry “The Kid” Matthews (1922-2003) kept White Center on the boxing map into the 1950s.  Harry turned pro at the age of 15, hence the nickname “The Kid.” He fought former middle weight champion Al Hostak in two memorable fights, winning one and drawing the second.  Later in his career Matthews defeated Ezzard Charles (1921-1975), former world  heavyweight champion  After 20 years of boxing Matthews record was 87 wins, 7 draws and 7 losses out of 101 fights. His biggest fight was at Yankee stadium in 1952.  Matthews was knocked out by Rocky Marciano (1923-1969), future heavyweight champion of the world. This was a big disappointment, but no disgrace as no one ever did beat Marciano.

Rocky Marciano knocking out "The Kid" Mathews at Yankee Stadium

Hiram Green died in 1932. The Depression took down many an enterprise and boxing in White Center ws no exception. The building passed in to the hands of Green’s daughter, Ethel Green (b. 1909).  Ethel married William “Pop” Brown (d.1969).  William Brown had come from England to the United States during World War I. By 1934 the couple brought in dance bands to replace boxers and the building became a dance hall.

In 1937 Ethel, and ‘Pop’ Brown made a crucial and profitable decision.  They reopened the large hanger like building, calling it the Southgate Rollerdrome.  The name reflected a local attitude in that they considered White Center as the south gate to Seattle.  As it turned out, a large skating rink was the right idea at the right time and in the right place.  Generations of people recall the good times, friendships, skating instructions, and competitions.

And the story goes on to the present.  I invite readers to peruse the piece, as it is full of delightful anecdotes and trove of historical information.   Thanks Ron!

We stopped by last night just in time to catch Tyson Ballew‘s last two songs. Lots going on along 16th the next few days/nights too: 8 pm tonight, Triumph of Lethargy Skinned Alive to Death plays Full Tilt; tomorrow, the first Rat City Rummage, 10 am-6 pm in the old skating rink; Sunday, Full Tilt Ice Cream hosts its beer/ice-cream tasting event, 3 pm.

First tidbit from tonight’s White Center/South Delridge Community Safety Coalition meeting (full report in the works) – the time and place are set for the upcoming White Center Youth Summit: 10 am-3 pm March 14, at the Salvation Army in WC. Organizers say they’ve had a sizable turnout of young people helping plan the meeting, so they’re optimistic it’s going to go well.

Just heard from from Dan Donohoe at the office of King County Prosecuting Attorney Dan Satterberg: He says Satterberg has a family emergency and has to cancel his planned appearance at tonight’s White Center/South Delridge Community Safety Coalition meeting, but will reschedule. (However, the law/justice reps who are usually on hand at the meeting do include a prosecutor’s-office rep.) Everything else planned for the meeting, including updates on local crime trends and nuisance spots, is on as usual, 6 pm, St. James Place, 9421 18th SW.

First – Metro says everything’s back to normal, after the morning show and associated troubles. The news release is posted on our partner site West Seattle Blog. Second — reminder that tonight’s the night County Prosecuting Attorney Dan Satterberg guests at the White Center/South Delridge Community Safety Coalition meeting, 6 pm, St. James Place (original White Center Now report here).

This is going to be an amazing lo-fi show. The stranger even agrees, and they don’t like much of anything.

http://www.thestranger.com/seattle/underage/Content?oid=1133544&ms

Metro is reporting some delays, though the list is fairly shortly right now; check this list for the latest.

Also, Highline Public Schools are starting 2 hours late, along with: Limited Bus Transportation. No A.M. ECEAP, preschool, kindergarten, PSSC. No Out-of-District Transport. Seattle Public Schools are 2 hours late as well.

ADDED 7:12 AM: We have scattered reports of Metro delays that are not listed on the “adverse weather” page, so be forewarned if you are planning on taking the bus.

ADDED 8:30 AM: Metro now says ALL riders should expect delays; we have had reports of area routes experiencing delays/no-shows that were not listed on the Metro “adverse weather” page.

From the Seattle Department of Transportation:

SDOT’s contractor plans to lay a new asphalt surface on the southbound lanes of 14th Avenue South in the South Park neighborhood from Monday, March 9 to Friday, March 27, depending on weather conditions. During this work, the southbound lanes of 14th Avenue South between South Cloverdale Street and South Director Street will be closed with traffic detoured 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Detour signs will be posted prior to the start of construction. One lane will remain open for northbound traffic. The project is scheduled for completion this spring.

I grew up in West Texas and did not experience a bagel until I left for college on the East Coast.  Early in my college career, I was in line to get breakfast when I spotted a basket full of, what I thought were, donuts.  I put the “donut” on my plate and saved it for last.  Having wiped the scrambled eggs off my plate, I picked up “the donut” and wondered why it felt, so crusty and kind of heavy.  I bit into it and was instantly horrified.  Not only was it not sweet, it had the consistency of lead.  I spit it out, all the while swearing.  My Jewish friends, laughed and laughed.  That was my introduction to the bagel.

Over time, I not only came to appreciate the bagel’s charms, but actually to become addicted to this wonderful food.  Little did I know that this bread, which I associated with the East Coast, would become the journeyman of foods: always ready to do proper service, no matter the occassion.  Bagels have improved since we used to get them frozen in Lender’s packets at the supermarket.  Today, we can feast on a real bagel, much as you would in New York City, 20 years ago.  As described by William Safire in the New York Times, the true bagel has the following qualities.

A bagel is a meal in itself.  Throw on some cream cheese and marmalade and you have a slice of heaven.  Which is why we always strive to keep pastry case full of fresh bagels at Cafe Rozella.  Nothing, in my view, goes better with a hot cup of coffee, on a cold gray day.

(Photo by Dina Johnson)
White Center Food Bank executive director Rick Jump made a guest appearance Monday night at the monthly meeting of the Highland Park Action Committee, whose turf stretches all the way to the WC line, and he shared numbers that won’t surprise you, but are startling nonetheless: Last month alone, WCFB served almost 1800 families – 6,000 people. That’s up to 80 percent more than this time last year, Jump said, describing it as “a bit of a crisis” while also noting that in addition to serving White Center, WCFB also serves Highland Park (and other areas of West Seattle’s south half). He elaborated: “We’re seeing a lot of people who have never visited a food bank before in their life, and they’re really embarrassed to be there … it really is a new face we’re seeing in food bank lines.” He says the Feinstein Challenge starts next month, with a private organization rewarding WCFB (and other organizations nationwide) depending on how much food and money is donated to the organization in March and April, so if you make a donation during the next two months, be sure to earmark it to qualify for the Feinstein Challenge. What they need most right now, he says, is “dry variety” food – macaroni and cheese, Hamburger Helper type of stuff. What they don’t need … tuna … they get that as a government commodity and, Jump smiled, “we’re swimming in tuna.” They have a “baby pantry” service as well, and while they don’t need formula – a private donor gives them all they could possibly need, according to Jump – they do need “larger size” diapers. You can find out more about WCFB, and donate money online, by going to its website, www.whitecenterfoodbank.org. (We’ll report more on the Highland Park meeting later today on our partner site West Seattle Blog.)

Just posted at partner site West Seattle Blog: Prosecuting Attorney Dan Satterberg — who has longtime White Center ties and lives in nearby Normandy Park — is the guest at this Thursday night’s White Center/South Delridge Community Safety Coalition meeting; read about it here.

A new “edible garden” has sprouted at the White Center Food Bank; volunteers from Community Harvest of Southwest Seattle and SeattleWorks spent several hours Saturday clearing ornamental plantings from the plots where vegetables will now grow. Read more about it on partner site West Seattle Blog – including the need for one more volunteer – somebody to set up and tend a new worm-compost bin! Meantime, hours after we stopped at WCFB, it was off to the first open house at the artists’ studios on the east side of the old skating rink:

The party inside and upstairs was a little too crowded and dark for good pix but we had a great time wandering from room to room, viewing some of the artists’ creations, including paintings, sculpture, even a striking bench with an inset eagle-head carving. Next weekend, the artists will be involved in the first Rat City Rummage event – remember, you can look for the entryway from 16th:

Rat City Rummage is set for next Saturday, 10 am-6 pm at the old skate rink.

Those two photos represent the “chocolate” in the AmeriCorps-organized “Peace, Love, Chocolate” event at the Boys/Girls Club gym at Greenbridge today — top, Seattle’s own fair-trade, organic Theo Chocolate brought free candy; immediately above, volunteers made necklaces from Hershey chocolate kisses. And then, there were non-edible examples of peace and love, starting with kids creating art at this table – what you see hanging on the wall behind it is a “peace quilt” of paper:

Of course, you can’t have a “peace” event in this area without representation from West Seattle Neighbors for Peace and Justice:

AmeriCorps volunteers who work for Habitat for Humanity in East King County kept watch over a table where these young helpers were creating with clay:

And if you think 4H is just about farms, this table was there to remind you that’s not so:

The event was a service project organized by AmeriCorps members including Yichuan Zhao, who kindly showed us around to the various stations (he also works with the White Center Food Bank, site of another event today that we’ll be writing about later). He and his AmeriCorps colleagues also are very appreciative of the many White Center businesses and organizations that helped them out and promised to send a list that we can add to this report (among them, White Center Now‘s own Cafe Rozella, which donated coffee, and Full Tilt Ice Cream, which sent paletas). Yichuan was proud to say that, thanks to donations and volunteer help, the entire event cost only $200 to put on – and that was to procure a PA system for live music! ADDED TUESDAY: Here’s the list of sponsors they wished to thank:

Food:
Full Tilt
Salvadorean Bakery
Carniceria El Paisano
Castillos
Samway Market
Cafe Rozella
Theo Chocolate
PCC
Trader Joe’s Burien
Albertson’s
Little Caesar’s
International Market

Tables:
WSU 4-H
West Seattle Neighbors for Peace and Justice
Seattle Center for Peace
Powerful Voices
Solid Ground
Habitat for Humanity East King County (AmeriCorps Team)
ECOSS

And people who donated stuff:
Goodwill (mugs)
Seward Park Clay Studio (Clay)

Music:
Alex Kajumulo
Seattle Peace Choir

You heard about it here first, two and a half weeks ago – now the big night is here – the first White Center Open Studio Art Tour, 5-10 pm tonight:

Are you ready to serve? The search is on and maybe you can answer the call:

The North Highline Unincorporated Area Council is seeking applicants for council positions. Candidates must be 18 years and older, a resident of the area, and/or a business/property owner in the area or an official representative of a non-profit in the area. The council represents residents and business/property owners of the North Highline Unincorporated Area in their dealings with King County and surrounding cities. The council is comprised of 13 members representing the communities of Beverly Park, Boulevard Park, Glendale, Riverton Heights, Salmon Creek, Shorewood, South Park, Top Hat and White Center. To obtain a Candidate Filing Statement or to learn more about the open position’s contact Christine Waldman, cwaldman@northhighlineuac.org