August 2011

August 20 will likely be the busiest day in a long time for White Center.

That Saturday five major events are scheduled for the community, designed to entertain, feed, inform and otherwise engage people with the businesses, agencies and residents of White Center. Here's a list of the events as compiled by the White Center Community Development's Association:

Fundraising pancake breakfast at Holy Family School,
8-11am, organized by the White Center Chamber of Commerce. Proceeds will be used toward replacing the American Flag at the Memorial for Veterans of Foreign Wars in front of the Triangle Pub. Please contact the White Center Chamber of Commerce at 206-763-4196 for additional information

Hicks Lake BBQ at Hicks Lake Park
11am - 2pm, organized by Friends of Hicks Lake. A great community event to bring neighbors/friends/public officials together to work for a clean, safe and healthy Hicks Lake Park. Please contact Mr. Dick Thurnau at 206-244-4558 for additional information

2011 White Center Business District Shop Fresh

By Theresa Edwards, Intern.

On Sunday, August 14, Mayor Mike McGinn cut a yellow ribbon to officially mark the beginning of the 'in ground' construction of Greenwood Park's new community garden on 87th Street between Fremont and Evanston Avenue.

Neighbors were invited to come learn about the Greenwood Park improvement efforts and celebrate the groundbreaking of the new community garden with picnic lunches, and live music.

In addition to a new community garden (also called a P-Patch), the park improvements include a multi-sport court for basketball, soccer and street hockey. Construction is scheduled to begin spring 2012.

“One of our goals is to add features to the park geared toward different age groups in the community,” explained Mike Stringer, chair of the volunteer group Vision Greenwood Park.

Greenwood Park’s new P-Patch is now about halfway finished after two years of hard work by Vision Greenwood Park. Efforts to bring the P-Patch to life started when neighbors noticed two empty lots adjacent to the park along Fremont Avenue.

press release:
For anyone who says Pokémon was a late-90s fad, the thousands of die-hard fans of all ages who gathered en masse in San Diego this weekend for the 2011 Pokémon World Championship Tournament might beg to differ. Kids from all over the world are buzzing about the recently crowned Pokémon Trading Card Game (TCG) World David Cohen of West Seattle.

David, who is 16 years old, was one of more than 400 Pokémon players from over 27 countries who competed in the 2011 Pokémon World Championships in San Diego, California on August 13 and 14th. After combating in a fierce two-day competition of one-on-one Trading Card Game (TCG) battles, 10 rounds of game play, and over 16 hours of tournament playtime, David crushed his competition, fellow Seattle native Ross Cawthon (age 22), and was crowned the Master Division TCG World Champion.

Because the Pokémon TCG Worlds tournament is an invitation-only event, David battled TCG Organized Play events throughout the entire 2011 season, including events at the city, regional, state and national levels.

Discovery Shop
4535 California Ave, S.W.
206 937 7169
Antiques and Collectibles Annual Event begins Monday, August 22, at 10 a.m. Yellow tagged items: $1, Monday, August 22 thru Wednesday, August 31. The Shop will be closed Sunday, August 21. The American Cancer Society Shop is open Sundays 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. All other days 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.

An Afternoon of Music & Dance
Delridge Community Center
4501 Delridge Way SW
(206)684-7423
Friday, August 19th, 1:30-3:30pm. Enjoy the music of the 30’s to the present by entertainer Lauren Petrie. Listen or dance. Cost $3 per person.

Picnic at the Precinct
Southwest and West Precincts
August 20 and 25th. The Southwest Precinct picnic will be 1-4 p.m. at 2300 S.W. Webster. The West Precinct picnic will be from 3:30-6 p.m. at 810 Virginia St. These picnics provide an opportunity for the local community to get to know their precincts and the officers who serve their community. More info at www.seattlepolicefoundation.org/programs/picnis.htm

Guitarist Del Rey at Village Green Nursery
10223 26th Ave. S.W.

Two bicyclists in their 60s, one male and one female, were riding near the intersection of Delridge Way and Willow St when a man approached them and pulled out a small black gun. The suspect said, “Give me your stuff,” and the woman threw him her fanny pack containing her driver’s license, cell phone and $80. The victims rode their bikes to the nearby Southwest Precinct to report the crime and described the suspect as a Hispanic male in his 20s, 5’8” with dark short hair, bloodshot eyes, clean shaven and possibly missing teeth. The suspect was wearing a black doo rag, black t-shirt, black jeans and black shoes at the time of the crime, which occurred on July 27 around 3 p.m. The female told police she was concerned the robbery suspect had her ID with her current address on it and police told her to lock her doors and report any suspicious activity.

All ballots for the primary and special elections most be returned today.

Ballots can be returned by mail or simply be dropped off in one of the drop boxes around town.

By mail, ballots must have a first class postage and be postmarked by August 16.

Ballot drop boxes are located throughout the county and no stamp is needed. Ballots must be in drop boxes by 8:00 p.m. on August 16.

In Ballard, a drop box is located in front of the Ballard Library at NW 57th and 22nd Avenue NW.

For more information, visit http://www.kingcounty.gov/elections/elections/201108.aspx.

King County Executive Dow Constantine announced on Friday that a supermajority of County Council support needed to enact a two-year $20 Congestion Reduction Charge and avert a 17 percent cut of Metro bus service has been reached.

Constantine today thanked members of the Council – including Councilmembers Jane Hague and Kathy Lambert, who announced their support today based on a package of amendments that paves the way for councilmanic action at Monday’s Council meeting. Councilmembers Larry Phillips, Bob Ferguson, Larry Gossett, Joe McDermott, and Julia Patterson had previously stated their support.

“The people of King County voted with their feet, and they overwhelmingly turned out to tell us to save Metro Transit and keep bus service on the street. They have been heard,” said Executive Constantine. “This agreement creates value for drivers who pay the fee, and provides an incentive for them to give the bus a try. I want to thank these seven Councilmembers for stepping up. This is a collaborative approach that shows how government is supposed to work.”

Dear Friends,

We apologize for emailing you today, but we feel compelled to correct the record and urge you to vote Reject on Referendum 1.

As participants in the City's waterfront planning effort and the Protect Seattle Now campaign, we are writing to assure you that we share your vision for a beautiful waterfront and that vision can be achieved without the tunnel. Planning and design work for our future waterfront is not tied to the tunnel. In fact, the projects are completely separate; WSDOT is not involved in planning either the seawall or new waterfront.

A couple facts to set the record straight:
There is no state funding to rebuild the waterfront street in the current funding plan for the tunnel project. While the 2009 Memorandum of Agreement for the tunnel promised $290 million to build Alaskan Way, this funding is not budgeted in the current tunnel project plan.

If you drive west, down Brandon Street in West Seattle, you eventually reach the end of the road. For a pig that came from The Swinery it was the end of the road too because for the 2nd year the Seaview neighborhood held a pig roast party with a 100 pound porcine specimen as the featured attraction.

CLICK THE PHOTO ABOVE TO SEE MORE

The new tradition came about because of one neighbor's experience with the process, Sinisa Bjelic, who was born in Bosnia and has lived here three years was called on after the group began seeking a way to bring neighbors together with something unique.

That size pig will feed between 100 and 150 people.

Jason Henson, Cliff Low, and Sini Bjelic prepared the pig with apples, onions and other spices inside it. The Hawaiian theme inspired people's choices of attire and the food choices which included melon and other fruit.

The beer was supplied by Beer Junction and was Fremont Brewing.

The Log House Museum, home to the Southwest Seattle Historical Society and many artifacts of West Seattle's colorful past was the site of an Ice Cream Social Sunday Aug. 14. The occasion was also a celebration of the 79th Anniversary of a West Seattle institution, the Husky Deli.

Appropriately, Jack Miller, owner of the deli was there to serve Husky Flake ice cream for a $5 donation to the museum.

HistoryLink.org provides this bit of background on the business:
"Herman Miller, a native of Indiana, bought a small grocery store in the Junction. In 1933, he turned the store into a full-service soda fountain, named "Husky Homemade Ice Cream," now Husky Deli -- a Junction institution.