Grafting unincorporated White Center and North Highline onto Burien would be good for the community. It would give the new city an area of about 11 square miles and a population of 65,000, making it the state’s 12th largest city. If it’s true that there’s strength and safety in numbers, then perhaps more of “us” is better.
Since the trend seems to be toward more incorporations and annexations, I suggest we “Burienites” follow suit and use this opportunity to “bulk up” and consolidate our northern boundary. As a kid, I remember when going to Issaquah or even Federal Way seemed like treading on the edge of the earth.
Today, city crowds city in a realm of vanishing elbow room. Might as well give that lonely 3.4-square-mile chunk of real estate and its 21,000 souls to the north a happy home – with us.
I know that many of you are less than thrilled about bringing White Center home to meet the folks. But before you get your feathers too ruffled or your wind in a jammer, consider the following:
White Center has long been the home of savvy entrepreneurs and exceptional visionaries. Its early leaders had the grit and moxie to forge a streetcar line connecting Seattle with Burien, which became the City of Seattle’s first municipally owned streetcar line.
Tired of being “just outside the boundary of the civilized world,” as White Center’s own Richard Hugo put it, its citizens, when faced, as they often were, with the indifference and foot-dragging of the Seattle bureaucracy, all pitched in and strung their own power lines, drained their own swamps and built their own roads. This “can-do” spirit lives on in the community today through its many hard-working merchants and vibrant businesses.
White Center is the home of many notable people, including Jack Thompson, Richard Hugo, Steve Cox and many others whom any of us would be lucky to have as neighbors.
Jack Thompson, a 1974 graduate of Evergreen High School, went on to football fame at Washington State, where he set an NCAA passing record of 7,818 yards – that’s more than 4 miles – finishing 9th in the Heisman Trophy voting in 1978.
Richard Hugo, whose brilliant works of prose and poetry include White Center (1980) and The Real West Marginal Way (1987), received many fellowships, honors and awards, but never forgot his White Center Roots.
Steve Cox graduated from Evergreen and Central Washington University, received a law degree from Willamette and became a prosecutor, focusing on gang and drug-related issues. In 1997 he entered law enforcement in order to make a difference in White Center, his home and to help draw a diverse community together to tackle common problems and issues. He was killed in the line of duty in 2006, but his spirit, memory and mission live on, through Steve Cox Park and all those whose lives were bettered by his efforts.
– If you think the world has given up on White Center, think again. Groups such as the Annie E. Casey Foundation, HUD, Boeing, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Paul G. Allen Family Foundations and others are investing millions of dollars to improve the lives, early education, services and opportunities for White Center youth, increase the number and quality of housing units and upgrade parks, cultural activities and training programs.
White Center is one of the most ethnically diverse communities in the state – if not the nation – helping to promote a climate of mutual understanding, tolerance, respect and cooperation. Also enhancing its livability is the relative abundance of affordable housing, helping to keep the dream of home ownership within reach of many families.
Finally, if you are concerned that annexing White Center will lead to more rats in Burien, have no fear. White Center did not acquire its nickname due to rodents. “Rat City,” the history books tell us, got its name from either a) the military designation: Restricted Alcohol Territory, or b) the kids hanging out at Southgate Roller Rink, who were known as “rink rats.” (Besides, wouldn’t it be neat to claim the Rat City Roller Girls as our own?)
So there you have it. A few of the many reasons why I love White Center and would love to have it “Come on down!” to Burien.
And the first post-annexation order of business should be a contest to name the new town. I’ve got a few: How about Evergreen? Salmon Creek? Highline? Hugoslavia?
Any others?
