Boulevard Park was a congenial enough place during my summer following college graduation when I wandered door-to-door in the neighborhood pedaling Fuller Brush vegetable scrubbers.

If Benjamin's post-college future in "The Graduate" could be summed up in the word "plastics" my immediate future was "brushes."

Many years later, Boulevard Park, nestled in the southeast corner of unincorporated North Highline, finds it has been ignored for a long time.

"This is the area nobody wants," Carol Fall, co-president of Folks for Boulevard Park, once lamented to the Seattle Post Intelligencer.

Even during the lengthy debate over North Highline annexation, the focus has been on White Center.

But now while two cities fight over White Center, Boulevard Park has three suitors.

In the bottom of the annexation game's eighth inning, SeaTac says it wants to play, too.

While Burien and Seattle are targeting all of North Highline, including Boulevard Park, SeaTac only has eyes for Boulevard Park.

The SeaTac City Council is studying an area from South 128th Street to South 116th Street between Des Moines Memorial Drive and the Tukwila city limits.

The city's planning commission originally sought everything east of State Route 509, including parts of incorporated Burien.

SeaTac councilman Joe Brennan joked that because his city has an airport, SeaTac's Air Force could easily conquer Burien's Air Force. (At least I think he was joking.)

The city's advisory planning board now says it only covets Boulevard Park and two nearby golf courses-Rainier and Glenacres.

But the golf clubs are outside the potential annexation area designated by SeaTac lawmakers.

When the council and planning commission first indicated they wanted in on the annexation action, my first impression was, "Are you guys crazy?

"Haven't you been following Burien's epic annexation saga in the Times/News?

"What about the outraged citizens committees, the marathon public-comment sessions, the bruising election campaigns and the threatened recall petitions?"

And then there's the sifting through the mind-numbing statistics:

"Under Option One, sewer costs would be XXX while water costs would be YYY with expected expenditures of ZZZ while under Option Twenty-seven...."

It is enough to make your eyes glaze over and your head explode.

But SeaTac lawmakers weren't dissuaded from further study even when consultant Brett Sheckler from Berke and Associates told them annexing Boulevard Park would run up an operating deficit of $1 million to $1.6 million. Adding capitol costs for infrastructure improvements ignored by King County, the total yearly deficit could balloon to almost $2 million.

Berke and Associates completed an annexation study of the entire North Highline area for Burien and then was hired by SeaTac to focus on Boulevard Park.

While municipal officials worry about losing out to neighboring cities, there is only one sure economic winner in the annexation battles-the consultants.

So why do lawmakers stay in the annexation game when their advisors provide such glum numbers? The answers often raise more questions.

The Holy Grail for government staffers these days is economic development.

They hope the big box stores will move into underdeveloped areas swelling the city's coffers while providing gainful employment for taxpaying residents.

Of course, the phrases "Wal-Mart" and "family-wage jobs" rarely appear together in the same sentence.

And what happens to the small family-run businesses that have been paying taxes to the city all along?

And what if ugly airport-related warehouses sprout up taking up lots of room and bringing increased truck traffic onto city streets without offering many jobs?

New growth management regulations also spur interest in annexation. Officials have to find someplace to fit in the city's share of new people moving to the Puget Sound area.

Staffers also fear having to replace police or fire services if a competing city takes over the nearby police precinct or fire station.

Council members in the three competing cities insist they will only push for annexation if the figures "pencil out."

For Boulevard Park and the other long-neglected North Highline neighbors, the good news is they will have the final say through a vote on any marriage proposal from ardent municipal suitors.

Eric Mathison can be reached at hteditor@robinsonnews.com or 206-388-1855.