White Center Now: The blog about White Center

They’ve been planning it for months, and tonight’s the big night: The North Highline Unincorporated Area Council‘s fundraising dinner for the art project at Steve Cox Memorial Park. When we last checked in with NHUAC’s Heidi Johnson, just a few tickets are left, so we are hopeful the dinner will be a smash hit, and the project will be on its way to completion.

Check out the Waste Free Holidays participant list on the King County website, just revealed today – we’ve just started browsing WFH, and noticed this Evergreen Pool deal is among the offerings.

This tip comes from the busy forums at our partner site West Seattle Blog – White Center Now‘s own FullTilt gets a nod in Seattle Metropolitan Magazine‘s “Best Restaurants” feature, for the increasingly famous ice cream, which forum participants were busily praising. Way to go!

Reminder that Thursday night’s when Detective Joe Gagliardi is giving another one of his popular and thorough gang-awareness presentations – and you can get the full benefit by driving a few miles south — read on for details provided by the city of Burien: Read the rest of this entry »

We’re watching the approaching storm for White Center as well as West Seattle – one of the newest developments is a wind advisory that’ll take effect in the metro area at 10 pm tonight; read about it here.

Happened onto the Evergreen Key Club‘s blog, with an update on myriad projects they’re taking on this fall, including work this week on scarves for homeless people. Sounds like these teens are going to have a very busy season of giving; read about it here.

Want to know what’s new with Park Lake II? The King County Housing Authority has a meeting planned at 6 pm Thursday, community room of the Nia Apartments (that’s the building that filled within days of its recent opening; 9935 8th SW in Greenbridge). Topics: Update on the “revitalization plan” for Park Lake II, and a discussion of its environmental review. Here’s the Google Street View of where you’ll be going for the meeting:

(You can click inside the Google Street View image and drag the cursor around to pan the image, without leaving this page!)

WCN’s FullTilt broke the news here when Be’s opened in White Center a while back. First comprehensive review I’ve seen is this one just posted by Tara.

Tuesday is 11/11, Veterans Day – schools are closed, as are government offices. Library branches too.

Now that the Greenbridge library branch is open, its events calendar is online – looks like kids’ story time, Thursday nights at 7 pm, is the big plan for now. Meantime, there’s a video clip we didn’t get around adding to our original coverage of Wednesday’s ribboncutting: a wonderful speech by King County’s Poet Laureate, Dr. Mona Lake Jones. Here’s the entire six minutes:

Click pic to play video

The White Center Community Development Association and Trusted Advocates will host the 2008 Community Summit this Saturday, November 8th at Mount View Elementary School.  The event starts at 8:00 am and ends at 3:00 p.m.  Please come and offer your input on the future of your community.   Mount View is located at 10811 12th Avenue SW.

This year’s community summit will gather families, government agencies and local community-based/non-profit organizations in a fun family-friendly environment.  Live cultural performances, ethnic foods, door prizes and children’s activities are just a taste of what the summit has to offer!

Come learn about the issues affecting your community and how you can be involved in a positive way.  There will be info booths and workshops on health, education, jobs, housing, annexation, immigration and more.  Translation services will be provided in Cambodian, Vietnamese, Spanish, Tigrinya, Somali, Amharic, Samoan, Arabic and English (other languages upon request).  Childcare will be provided.

For more info:  Ebony Davis: (206) 694-1082 ext.  168 – ebony@wccda.org or Ian Dapiaoen:  (206) 694-1082 ext. 175 or ian@wccda.org.

For the first time in a few months, we were unable to send a White Center Now rep to cover North Highline Unincorporated Area Council‘s regular meeting last night. We asked council member Heidi Johnson if she could share highlights, and we are grateful to her for agreeing to share a few notes: Read the rest of this entry »

Tonight we are proud to host Bill Horist and special guests The Marmits.

Bill is an improv artist that has played with diverse artists such as the Nortek Collective, Maktub, and  Acid Mothers Temple. Borrowing from jazz, rock, noise and classical.

Show starts at 8 pm and is of course free.

http://www.myspace.com/marmits

http://www.myspace.com/billhorist

Salmon Creek Park Will Be Beautiful Once Again

Salmon Creek Park SW 118^th and 8^th Ave SW, Burien WA 98146

Saturday November 8^th from 10am-2pm

Come one come all, help out a good cause and have some fun! On November 8^th we will be planting native plants in Salmon Creek Park to help restore its natural beauty. We are also planting some smaller plants at the school itself to help them along until they are ready to be moved to the park. So grab your gloves and rain gear and come have a great time with us!

This event is part of the New Start High School Native Plant Nursery project, along with King County and the Seattle Conservation Association.

New Start School at Salmon Creek

Phone: 206-433-8760

Contact Ann Magyar magyarac@hsd401.org with any questions.

From Evergreen High School‘s football director Alfred Johnson (thanks so much to Alfred for keeping us updated on the team and the schedule, once we made contact around midseason):

This Friday, 11/07/08, The Wolverines will play their last Home game of the season.
They will be facing Bremerton High School, 7:30 pm @ Highline Stadium. This is called a “Pigtail Game.” Why? I dunno, but it gives the boys one more shot at a victory.

Get out and cheer them on tomorrow night.

Click pic to play video

That’s County Executive Ron Sims, with brief informal comments about President-Elect Obama‘s victory, during this morning’s dedication of the YWCA Learning Center and new King County Library branch at Greenbridge. Here are the kids to whom he referred — White Center Heights Elementary School students who sang “Library Boogie” at the event:

Click pic to play video

As for the actual ribboncutting, we’ll add that visual in a bit. Meantime, you are welcome at an open house at the new facility, happening all day long, with special events including Story Time for kids 2-6, 1:45-2:45 pm. It’s in the 9700 block of 8th SW, just south of Roxbury (map).

Two hours since Sen. Barack Obama was declared president-elect; now, we watch state and local races. In White Center-specific races, 11th District State Sen. Margarita Prentice appears to be cruising to re-election despite another D challenger surviving the Top Two primary; her two fellow 11th District legislators are winning too. (All 11th District results here). If you’re in the 34th District, none of the three legislators had opponents; here’s their results.

King County says this is it, the last in-person election. So for the 1 in 3 who still votes that way, here’s all the info you need. We will post pictures and info throughout the day and night, but you can help by sharing White Center scenes: whitecenternow@gmail.com … the King County Votes website is promising to chronicle the grand finale of in-person voting, too. ADDED 12:06 PM: Voting photos from White Center Heights Elementary, still crowded five hours after voting began:

We even spotted a couple of apparent Republicans who didn’t appear eligible to vote:

Will check to find out more – two tips about a robbery/police activity at the Shorewood Grocery on 26th SW (map). We’re on the way there to see what we can find out. More when we get it. 8:42 PM UPDATE: White Center Now’s FullTilt was there immediately afterward and reports, “Two guys with guns left on foot. I got there right after it happened. … I overheard it was two black males in their 20’s, both with automatic handguns.” He counted 8 King County Sheriff’s Office cars. 8:55 PM UPDATE: Our reporter says officers were gone when he arrived; the person on duty at the store did not want to say anything more than “a little bit” when asked if the robbers got away with anything.