White Center Now: The blog about White Center

Just back from the White Center/South Delridge Community Safety meeting, with lots of information that we will break into at least three reports. First one — King County Parks’ draft proposal for dealing with graffiti, in the wake of the latest wave of tagging vandalism at White Center-area parks. The county Parks Department‘s Evergreen District manager Sam Whitman presented the four-point plan: #1, parks staff will try to remove or cover up graffiti “as soon as it appears,” with county painters following up to restore the original color scheme. #2, community members need to report graffiti-vandalism damage as soon as possible by calling Whitman (his number’s at the end of this post), and by helping clean up/cover up graffiti IF parks staff can’t get to it soon enough. #3, extra support for graffiti removal from Community Service officer Vary Jackson and Department of Corrections crews. #4, proactive work to develop and maintain murals in the parks, as a way of discouraging tagging vandalism. Whitman says the goal here is to remove/cover graffiti within 24-38 hours, and adds that the county has hired “seasonal” painting help to support the effort; to report park graffiti, call him at 206/296-0572. More from the Community Safety meeting in separate reports later tonight.

Though yesterday’s move by the City of Burien (first reported here at White Center Now last night) takes its North Highline Annexation proposal off the table, Burien city manager Mike Martin confirms to WCN that the Sept. 2 Boundary Review Board hearing is still on – as is Burien’s annexation-info open house in Boulevard Park tonight (6:30 pm, BP Presbyterian, more info here). We asked Martin what happens next regarding a timetable; his reply: “As for negotiations, Seattle has steadfastly refused to talk, respond to e-mails or anything else, so the ball is in their court. We’ll send them a formal letter asking them to meet, but so far not successful.” (Here’s what Seattle Council President Richard Conlin told us earlier.) P.S. Another meeting of interest to White Center neighbors tonight — NOT annexation-related – the White Center/South Delridge Community Safety monthly meeting, with the agenda including a presentation on 911-call “best practices,” 6 pm tonight @ St. James Place, 9421 18th SW (map).

Brazilian musical performer Eduardo Mendonca and his group will perfrom at Cafe Rozella this Friday at 7 p.m. Mendonca is a fire-cracker of a performer who always brings the house down. Admission is free and the place is kid-friendly.

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(video from today’s WCCDA open house added @ 4:45 pm)
The White Center Community Development Association is holding its open house today, Thursday 8/28/2008, from 11:00 am to 4:00 p.m. Check out the CDA’s new facilities and the great new members of the CDA team. Free BBQ and drinks! The CDA is locatedat 1615 SW Cambridge St., (corner with Delridge Way SW), Seattle 98106. You can phone them at (206) 694-8344. Stop by, chow down and say hi to the great CDA folks!

Michelle Smith-Lewis’ photos of vintage signs from Seattle will be showing for the month of Sept. Artists reception is at 8pm this Friday the 29th of August. 9629 16th Ave sw Rat City, wa 206-767-4811

As promised when we broke the story last night of Burien announcing it’s withdrawn its North Highline annexation proposal (you can see the formerly proposed map on our White Center Annexation Info page), we are continuing to pursue comment. Burien city manager Mike Martin confirms the annexation info meeting in Boulevard Park tonight is still on; meantime, we asked Seattle City Council President Richard Conlin what he had to say – here’s what he e-mailed back this morning: Read the rest of this entry »

Just happened to check the City of Burien website and found this bombshell: Burien has withdrawn its North Highline annexation request (which included part of White Center). Read the city news release here. This does not appear to have been reported anywhere else as of this time (10:08 pm Wednesday) – just checked newspaper sites and other area sites, so you’re hearing it here first. The news release notes that a new round of negotiations, involving Seattle as well, is expected to start. More shortly; we’ll be checking for reaction from some of the folks who have contributed more than 60 comments (thank you!) to the intense annexation discussion below this WCN post from two weeks ago tonight. ADDED 10:42 PM: In case you have any trouble with the direct link to Burien’s website, here is the full text of the announcement posted there: Read the rest of this entry »

West Seattle Montessori is moving into a location by the White Center Library, since its longtime WS location is the site of a new Harbor Properties development. That’s old news, but this isn’t: WSMS had been talking with Harbor about having a home in the new building at its old site, but Harbor told us this morning that those talks are no longer under way — apparently the cost and effort of moving into one new location, only to vacate it a year or so later, wasn’t going to work so well.

One week after the primary election, King County is not quite done counting votes; after the latest count today, the race for 11th District State Senator seems settled – with Juan Martinez definitely challenging incumbent Sen. Margarita Prentice in November. Today’s count finished with Prentice at 48.6%, Martinez at 27.7%, and Scott McKay at 22.9%. (Both other 11th District races had only two candidates, so in those cases both automatically advanced.)

It took me a while to actually stop into this place. I had been to the Be’s Diner in West Seattle years before, and I kind of knew what to expect, but running an ice cream shop has left little time in my day to go out and eat.

So this morning I gave it a try. The place is huge, bright and clean. I never went in when it was Doc’s or Entourage, but the new owner told me she had to do some remodeling and a lot of cleaning. The food is great. Nothing fancy, and who needs fancy from a diner. I had pancakes and eggs, a giant plate of food for $4. You can not beat that. The pancakes were perfect, and the eggs grease free.

They have a large menu, and are doing breakfast, lunch and dinner. This is just what White Center needed. They have been open a week today, so go check it out.

I know this is rather old news, and the rain has really cleaned up the air in the past few days,  but I went and read up on it this evening after seeing all the black soot that washed off the front of my store.   Most of this study has to do with South Park and Georgetown, but given our proximity, I doubt the pollution knows to stay in that area.

My favorite line from the PI article is; “At Capital Industries, a Georgetown metal fabricator closer to homes than the airfield, the computer model predicts a rate of 600 cancer cases for every million people exposed. “. I don’t like those odds. I mean 600 per million is small, except that is 600 people that are going to die for no good reason.

First link is a PDF of the actual report the second is an article in the PI.

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/374066_badair08.html?from=wtnews

http://www.atsdr.cdc.gov/HAC/pha/Duwamish_Valley/Duwamish_Valley_%20HC%207-14-2008.pdf

County Executive Ron Sims just announced this on his blog: He’s recommending a 25-cent increase this year, 25 cents more in 2010. Read his full explanation here. 6:16 PM UPDATE: Our area’s County Councilmember Dow Constantine, who also is closely involved in this issue as chair of the council’s Transportation Committee, has issued a statement about Sims’ proposal – read on: Read the rest of this entry »

The North Highline Unincorporated Area Council is inviting you to a 9/18 community meeting on topics including annexation and graffiti-fighting – here are the details just in from Heidi Johnson: Read the rest of this entry »

JAIL-SITES FIGHT: The Highland Park Action Committee, the community group leading the fight against two potential city-jail sites in West Seattle — including the Myers Way site close to White Center — has its next meeting tonight, 7 pm, at 1116 SW Holden (map).

HELP MAKE YOUR COMMUNITY SAFER: The monthly White Center/South Delridge Community Safety meeting is at 6 pm Thursday, St. James Place, 9421 18th SW (map). (Free dinner!)

ANNEXATION OPEN HOUSE: Burien is starting a series of
“informational open houses” about its proposed North Highline Annexation Area (which includes part of White Center), and the first one is Thursday night in Boulevard Park (still waiting for word on the first one closer to White Center, so if you’ve got burning questions, you might as well go to this one), 6:30-8 pm @ Boulevard Park Presbyterian Church (1822 South 128th; map).

On first glance, it sounds dry as a grassy parking strip in August: The county is seeking comments right now on Amendments to the Consolidated Housing & Community Development Plan for 2005-2009. However, if you peek inside those documents, you will find the newest document about the proposal for creating a White Center Neighborhood Revitalization Strategy Area. This document describes its potential boundaries as follows:

North: From 18th Avenue SW east along SW Roxbury to 2nd Avenue SW, east along the City of Seattle borderline to SR 509;

South: From S124th Street and SR 509 to SW 126th Street to 112th SW;

East: State Route 509 from S 99th Street to S 124th Street;

West: North from SW 126th SW along 12th Avenue SW then west on SW 116th Street to 16th Avenue SW, north to SW 112th Street, west to 19th Avenue SW and north to SW Roxbury.

Once you’ve read the proposal, you can use this online form to comment on it; the deadline is September 15.

Just six days after this website went live, I happened to be covering the 34th District Democrats‘ meeting in West Seattle for WSB, when Seattle City Council president Richard Conlin was asked about the annexation issue. Since I was already online from the meeting room, I quickly posted a short item here on WCN about his response. Little could we have guessed that one short item would draw 51 comments with spirited debate and information exchanges about the ongoing annexation issue. I mention this today, because two more long, thoughtful and thought-provoking comments came in within the past 18 hours, and are worth going back to read if you haven’t checked that thread since the first day or two. (See the original post and all 51 comments here.) Thanks for taking time to discuss, debate, and inform — WCN coverage will continue, and your participation will make it even better. (And keep an eye on our Events Calendar for important meetings on the issue.)

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As promised in our earlier post about tonight’s live music at Cafe Rozella, here’s a quick sampler of the show that followed, a couple blocks south at Full Tilt Ice Cream. This was a CD-release party for Centaur Hearts, with Arbitron and One Million Teeth also on the bill – we showed up as the night began, so OMT is who you see in our video clip. Tomorrow (Saturday) night – more live tunes at Full Tilt – which proprietor Justin says got shoutouts from KEXP and the Stranger.

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More live music tonight in White Center – this video shows just a bit of the beautiful acoustic sounds provided by members of Children of the Revolution, tonight at Cafe Rozella. (Next Friday night at the cafe, it’s Eduardo Mendonca.) After this 7 pm performance, live music by Centaur Hearts was scheduled over at Full Tilt Ice Cream, and our video crew is over there right now – stand by for that clip, or better yet, get out and enjoy the show on this pleasant late-summer night.

In a growing and changing area like White Center that’s working to overcome outsiders’ inaccurate perceptions – it helps to have the facts. Here’s a good resource to look up the facts about crime and safety in your neighborhood — the King County Sheriff’s Office Crime Stats online search. You can search by area and date; here are the numbers you need to search by area – K1 is the patrol area from Roxbury to 112th, K2 covers 112th to 116th, N1 is 116th southward. Maps are included, so you can see if you’ve found the one covering your neighborhood.

I just posted this bulletin on West Seattle Blog, and wanted to share it with White Center Now readers since the story had been posted here too: The stolen pugs turned up today at the Kent Animal Shelter. Read the details at WSB.