Charles Ganong has written 2 articles about what he likes about White Center as grounds for why it should be annexed to Burien. He has provided no sound financial evidence or support for why annexing this area is a wise or prudent action for the City of Burien to follow. His reasons for liking White Center are the same kind of reasons that could be given for why people like; Detroit, Michigan, Cleveland, Ohio, Oakland, Calif.

However, none of the above mentioned cities would be financially wise to annex. In terms of the stats on poverty and unemployment, Area Y/White Center would be classified as one of the 10 poorest cities in the USA. All you have to do is Google White Center and it appears as one of the poorest areas or the poorest area in all of King County.

Most folks in Grosse Pointe, Michigan would not see annexing sections of Detroit to their city and then renaming their city as a step forward. Following Mr. Ganong’s thought process, they might call it Grosse Town and their city could be overwhelmed by the poverty and decaying infrastructure from Detroit. So it escapes imagination why Burien would annex Area Y/White Center, not be able to manage the long term finances of the annexation and then see that as a step forward.

While Mr. Ganong has written a clever piece on why he personally likes White Center, the article lacks solid substance on the real issues of annexation. He definitely is loyal to Evergreen High School. 30% of his reasons-on his list of 10- for why White Center should be annexed are based on Evergreen High School and the Evergreen Pool. Too bad Evergreen HS doesn’t exist any longer; it is now 3 separate schools. Also Evergreen’s standardized test scores didn’t reflect how highly he regards his alma mater- math 23%, science 14%. These kind of school scores are the reason most aspiring families will not move into the area.

Annexation should be based on sound financial reasons not nostalgic trips down memory lane.

W Deyman
Burien WA

Editor's note: Charles Ganong's opinion articles on White Center can be found here and here.