White Center Now: The blog about White Center

There is an interesting theory making the rounds in financial circles.  The thinking is that the more Starbucks locations a place has is correlated to the degree of financial distress.  The correlation is not with coffee, as countries with venerable coffee house traditions, Italy and Brazil, have not been hit as hard by the financial meltdown.  According to Daniel Gross, the author of the Starbucks theory:

My tentative theory: having a significant Starbucks’ presence is a pretty significant indicator of the degree of connectedness to the form of highly caffeinated, free-spending capitalism that got us into this mess. It’s also a sign of a culture’s willingness to abandon traditional norms and ways of doing business (virtually all the countries in which Starbucks has established beachheads have their own venerable coffeehouse traditions) in favor of fast-moving American ones. The fact that the company or its local licensee felt there was room for dozens of outlets where consumers would pony up lots of euros, liras and rials for expensive drinks, is also a pretty good indicator that excessive financial optimism had entered the bloodstream.

The theory has some appeal for independent coffee houses, such as Cafe Rozella.   Unlike Starbucks, you will find few independent coffee houses in the lobbies of financial skyscrapers.   But, there is an interesting backdrop to this theory and White Center.

Sometime back, while White Center struggled to right itself financially, a play was made to get Starbucks to open up a location in the heart of White Center.  In fact, the Walgreens Superstore at 16th and Roxbury contains the appended building designed to lure Starbucks to the neighborhood.   Starbucks corporate staff studied the area and decided that there simply weren’t enough greenbacks floating around to justify a store in the area.  We, at Cafe Rozella, only became aware of the Starbucks machinations after launching our coffee house.  Had Starbucks opened a corporate coffee house in the middle of White Center would it had speeded up gentrification?  Would it have driven up home values to unrealistic heights only to see them crash with the real estate bubble?  Certainly, it appears that White Center and its surrounding environs have mostly been spared the overvalued real estate crisis overtaking the rest of Seattle.  Perhaps we should be thankful that Starbucks took a pass on WC and drink a toast to Cafe Rozella.

From the Highline Public Schools calendar (which you can see in its entirety here): Wednesday’s an “early release” day, Tuesday 11/11 is a school holiday in honor of Veterans Day (as it is in the Seattle district).

Well, everything you need to know about the voting PROCESS, anyway – the King County Elections Department has put it all on one page. Chances are you’ve voted already; as of last night, the county had already received almost half the absentee (mail) ballots it had sent out. If you don’t vote by mail, but you don’t think you’re going to be able to get to your polling place on Tuesday, you can go vote tomorrow at county elections HQ in Renton, 8:30 am-6 pm, but it’s likely to be a long line, so the county’s suggesting you don’t do that unless you really have to — they do NOT expect long lines at regular voting places on Tuesday, since so many people vote by mail now, and they say they’ve staffed to handle anything up to 100 percent turnout. If you’re not sure where to vote, use this page to figure it out. However you do it, JUST VOTE – there’s a ton at stake beyond the president and governor races — statewide and local ballot measures, plus legislative races (two Democrats facing off in Legislative District 11 because of the new top-two primary).

The monthly meeting of the North Highline Unincorporated Area Council — the community council that represents White Center (and vicinity) — is coming up this Thursday, 7 pm, North Highline Fire District HQ (map). The agenda’ s online now, too (see it here); it promises more information on a potential parking change mentioned at last month’s meeting (White Center Now coverage here) — spaces to be removed along the south side of Roxbury. Also to be discussed, the upcoming fundraiser for art at Steve Cox Memorial Park.

(Picture is from New York Times website)

The New York Times Travel Section celebrates the quirkiness of Seattle’s Fremont and Ballard neighborhoods, in a piece entitled, “A Seattle That Won’t Blend In.” It probably goes without saying, that once the literati celebrate a place’s Bohemian character, the place is no longer Bohemian and likely has gentrified to the point of gentility.  True Seattlelites, as the late Emmett  Watson of lesser Seattle might have noted, know that one is more likely to find Adobe geeks, PCC yuppies and trophy wives getting botox shots in Fremont than they are to find witches, hippies and beats.   But so be eat.  Let the tourists have Fremont and Ballard.

At Cafe Rozella we like to riff on the old Fremont, by saying that White Center is the “new” Center of the Universe.  In some sense, we do carrry the torch of real quirkiness, as affordability, ample bars and coffee houses feed the artitistic temperament.   And as we well know, The New York Times is not going to be celebrating our charms anytime soon.  So on this night of witches, warlocks and saints, drink a toast to the White Center that IS before we toast to the White Center that WAS.  Cheers!

Sketchy reports so far on TV news; here’s a short online report from KOMO – just watched a KING5 on-air report that says family members at the scene told reporters the victim was actually 17. So far, no word of an arrest. 12:10 AM UPDATE: Here are a few more details from the P-I. The address was 1800 South 118th; here’s a map.

A quarter-million of your King County neighbors already have, according to the latest Election Department stats on “absentee” ballots (the antiquated term for what’s just become the mail-in vote, supposedly the only way we’ll all be able to vote, one of these days) — see those stats here. (As you’ll see, that’s a third of all the “absentee” ballots that King County issued – all already turned in. If you have one and you don’t want to drop it in a mailbox, there’s a round-the-clock dropoff spot a few miles north, at the Delridge Neighborhood Service Center.)>

Sheriff Sue Rahr said this, to applause, at the budget crisis town hall meeting at the Steve Cox Memorial Park “log cabin” — she says the White Center Sheriff’s Office storefront fills “a critical need,” so she’s made an exception, though other storefronts are in jeopardy. More later; any other announcements, we’ll add them as the meeting goes. ADDED 9:04 PM: Meeting’s over, so we’ll be adding more details here, starting with this video clip of Sheriff Rahr after she was asked later in the meeting why she wasn’t going to cut White Center but was cutting other storefronts including Boulevard Park:

Click pic to play video

She added that none of the storefront buildings will be closed – just that they will not be staffed with a deputy, and those deputies will be transferred to openings elsewhere in the department. By the way, murdered Deputy Steve Cox‘s mom Joanne Cox was in the audience tonight, and given recognition – to warm applause from the 100 or so attendees – at the start of the meeting. UPDATE: The rest of the story — click ahead to read what else happened: Read the rest of this entry »

An elevated highway, a park, shops and offices, a pedestrian-friendly place where cars can bypass downtown Seattle two stories above ground.

According to The Seattle Post-Intelligencer, there are currently eight plans to replace the Alaskan Way Viaduct.  Prominent amongt them is a goody-bag approach set forth by Speaker of the House Frank Chopp.

Speaker of the House Frank Chopp’s idea for replacing the Alaskan Way Viaduct, he said Tuesday, is ” a way of including everybody’s bottom line.”

There have been long arguments over whether to replace the viaduct with a tunnel, another elevated highway or remove it altogether and disperse the traffic to other streets and into buses.

Chopp’s ambitious idea, not yet given a price tag, would replace the viaduct with a mile-long, four-level structure open to retail space on the first level, offices on the second, highway lanes on the third and a park on top.

If anyone knows more about this plan or has links to the plans please let us know and we will post the links.

The third in a series of four town hall meetings held by King County Sheriff She Rahr and Prosecutor Dan Satterberg is Wednesday in White Center.

Rahr has said proposed county budget cuts will put the public at risk, and is holding the meetings to hear from the public. For more on the previous meetings, click here.

The meeting is scheduled from 7 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. at the log cabin at Steve Cox Memorial Park, at 1321 S.W. 102nd St. in White Center.

The Seattle Foundation has just announced a new round of grants – and White Center-based WestSide Baby will receive $10,000. Click ahead to read the entire announcement, including the other agencies on the grant list: Read the rest of this entry »

Just announced by the King County Executive‘s office, a major step toward enabling a plan to save $10 million next year – applied toward the $90 million-plus projected county budget deficit – by a near-shutdown of county government for 10 days. Which 10 days, not specified yet; here’s the official news release from an announcement made by Executive Ron Sims a short time ago: Read the rest of this entry »

From the 34th District Democrats‘ website, Election Night potluck and viewing party at Big Al’s Brewing in White Center (with ice cream by Full Tilt) – read about it here. Any other WC parties on Election Night? Let us know!

The White Center Community Development Association held its Fifth Annual Banquet Fundraiser at South Seattle Community College’s Brockey Center on Saturday, October 25th. Jammed full of people, everyone had a great time. Herein some pictures from the event.

EVERGREEN HIGH SCHOOL FOOTBALL: Tough year for the team, which lost Saturday night to Renton, 40-8. One more regular-season game to go, an away game against Lindbergh on Friday night, 7 pm.

VILLAGE GREEN PERENNIAL NURSERY: Today’s the last scheduled day for the nursery to be open. Proprietor Vera Johnson is having a sale on Vietnamese pottery for the grand finale (50% off). Vera also notes she’s offering consultation/design/installation services, $50/hour, and adds, “Just a heads-up, we will be reorganizing over the winter. I am planning some changes with the use of the land.” Next year, she’s planning the usual spring opening, but then a July closing of the retail operation, not sure about “regular” hours after that, but definitely “more design and consulting work, allowing our creative skills to be more useful in designing beautiful gardens for clients, plus garden maintenance.” She’s also planning to offer plants for real estate “staging,” as well as using the Village Green land to grow more food, with more “demonstration edible gardens” and more workshops on “edibles/herbals.” One final note – she’s planning on keeping goats, and might even rent them out for blackberry removal. Vera promises more details to come; meantime, Village Green‘s hours today are 10 am-4:30 pm, 10223 26th SW (map)

We dropped by Full Tilt Ice Cream shortly after this afternoon’s pre-Halloween party started (note the clock over the cones), and the place was already jammed. Appropriately enough for a place with pinball and game machines, Pac-Man made an appearance:

Musical entertainment was courtesy of the Not-Its:

Click pic to play video

We’re still looking for White Center Halloween activities to add to the events calendar – if you know of one coming up between now and The Big Day/Night, please e-mail us, whitecenternow@gmail.com – thanks!

Inside the “Log Cabin” at Steve Cox Memorial Park, you can take kids to enjoy a Halloween Carnival this afternoon – 2 to 5 pm, with a free magic show at 4! (Thanks to MargL for the tip.)

We were covering this on partner site West Seattle Blog because of a helicopter sweep over West Seattle – but now it’s become a White Center story and we have actual facts from King County Sheriff’s Office Sgt. John Urquhart: A woman was attacked and “cut” by her boyfriend; she ran to Texaco at 16th/Roxbury for help; he ran to a friend’s house. Officers converged on the house to arrest him, and the King County helicopter Guardian One helped. If you saw the TV report about a “homicide suspect” — Sgt. Urquhart says the man MAY have a homicide warrant from somewhere else, but that hadn’t yet been verified; there was NOT a homicide in White Center. Will update if/when we get more info, but that’s the gist of it – the man is in custody. 10:34 PM UPDATE: TV says that other case was in Kent in July. 10:40 PM UPDATE: Got another call from Sgt. Urquhart, who confirms that the man was wanted for a Kent murder a few months ago. Appears to be this case. 10:49 PM UPDATE: Also heard back from Lt. Ron Smith at Seattle Police’s Southwest Precinct, who says two of his officers did help KCSO handle calls in White Center for a short time because of this incident — Seattle Police are all clear of the WC incident now — and also adds one other detail, that the location was “11th SW just south of Roxbury.”

Whenever the White Center/South Delridge Community Safety Coalition has its monthly meetings, the WC nightclub Evolucion somehow always comes up for discussion. Tonight, a representative came to face the critics – read on for our full report, with video: Read the rest of this entry »

First posted at partner site West Seattle Blog. They need diapers AND people-power.