“Alcohol Impact Area” for South Delridge/White Center?
Just broke this story at our partner site White Center Now: King County Councilmember Dow Constantine‘s office has announced a discussion October 2nd about a potential Alcohol Impact Area in the White Center business district – and the announcement notes that since the district includes areas within Seattle city limits as well as unincorporated King County, authorities and community members on both sides of the line are invited – and that the concept of “adjacent AIAs in unincorporated King County and the South Delridge area” should be considered in the discussion. The discussion is set for 7 pm Thursday, October 2nd, during the regular meeting of the North Highline Unincorporated Area Council at North Highline Fire District headquarters. Read more here (the seventh news item today on White Center Now, with at least one more to come – newsiest day for our partner site since it launched seven weeks ago).
Crime/safety update for south WS, including some good news
Some of what was discussed at last night’s South Delridge/White Center Community Safety Coalition meeting will be of interest to anyone living/working in south West Seattle – including some good news about ongoing issues in the area — so we’d like to point you to the full report we have just posted on partner site White Center Now; you can read it here.
Announcing the blog about White Center: whitecenternow.com
If you visit the WSB Forums, you may have seen a recent thread by Justin, co-owner of Full Tilt Ice Cream, suggesting a White Center blog. We had been working offline on plans for one for a while, so we contacted Justin and inquired whether there might be any advantage to a partnership — otherwise, if he was ready to launch something, we were ready to support it. 
Justin had been talking with another dynamic White Center entrepreneur, Ricardo from Cafe Rozella, but they hadn’t launched a site yet, so we agreed to join forces on a site that is intended to be very different from this one – much more of a true blog (WSB is at its core a neighborhood-news site, not so much a “blog” though we have the word in our name since that’s what we evolved from): White Center Now, at whitecenternow.com. We all started posting content within the past week (starting with the Big Al Brewing opening) and intended to keep it as a soft launch till we finished adding content on the sidebars and inside pages, but the company which had kept whitecenterblog.com idle for 9 months (the only reason we’re not launching at that URL – it wasn’t available) suddenly decided to do something with it starting today, perhaps inspired by the WSB thread, so we’re letting you know that White Center Now is already up and running – with some very interesting contributions already from Ricardo and Justin, and a couple of news items from us. It’s a very simple layout – we are not bells and whistles people – but you know that, if you are a WSB regular; it’s about the words, the pictures, the stories, the information. If you have White Center news, photos, events, information, ideas – and/or if you are interested in being a contributor – please e-mail whitecenternow@gmail.com. White Center and West Seattle will grow even closer together in the years to come, we believe, as travel to downtown gets more difficult, so we are honored to be involved with Justin and Ricardo – and the others to come – in this effort to tell, share, and experience the stories of this growing community.
Grand opening for Big Al Brewing in White Center
The WSB Forums have been abuzz about it for a month so we couldn’t help but drop by to check it out – Big Al Brewing opened this afternoon in White Center (9832 14th SW, former home of Pacific Rim Brewing). The photo above is “Big Al” himself, Alejandro Brown (who has been among those participating in the WSB Forums thread); here’s the building in case you get lost:
One thing to note – Big Al Brewing is all about beer. No food, just brew. Also on tap tonight as the grand opening continues – live music.
Grand Opening day for Full Tilt Ice Cream (and pinball!)
The first pinball (note the circa-1981 Mr. and Mrs. Pac-Man game at right) and video games are in … the ice cream is up at the counter …
… and Full Tilt Ice Cream on 16th SW (detailed WSB preview here with flavors, hours, etc.) is open for business as of a couple hours ago. Co-owner Justin Cline says the party really gets going tonight, with The Blank-Its playing from 9 till about midnight, but you can wander in any time before then and try the ice cream, paletas, and/or pinball. We’ll add a couple video clips in a bit with a closer look at the games; just wanted to post this reminder that they’re officially open.
(video no longer available due to blip.tv shutdown)
Also happening tonight in West Seattle: “Spanglish Potluck”
Not the kind of potluck you’re probably thinking of – though there will be cookies! It’s a writers’ reading and music event tonight at Cafe Rozella (on the southern edge of West Seattle, 9434 Delridge), 7-9 pm. Here are more details, forwarded from Cafe Rozella’s Ricardo Guarnero:
This Spanglish Potluck features readings in Spanish & English by Hedgebrook alumnae Wendy Call & Maria Victoria. Also featured will be traditional Cuban music from Irene Mitri & her Charanga Danzón. This will be a reading like none other. There will be live words & music along with freshly-made Hedgebrook cookies and an opportunity to sing Las Mananitas (the traditional Mexican Birthday Song) to Wendy’s godchild. So come, bring a friend, bring your family and be a part of the fun!
If “Hedgebrook” doesn’t ring a bell – it’s a writers’ retreat on Whidbey Island (read more here).
Traffic alert: Roxbury/Delridge accident
Police are on the scene of an accident that’s causing some traffic trouble if you are trying to turn northbound on Delridge from westbound on Roxbury. Doesn’t look too major; we’re just alerting you to avoid the area (map).
Reader report: Heroism revealed in Delridge fire
Over the weekend, we mentioned the fire that swept through this house early Saturday. Tonight, we have a followup e-mailed by Ricardo Guarnero, proprietor of nearby Cafe Rozella:
Wanted to let you know of an unsung hero in the fire that gutted the house at 9415 Delridge. Six people were sleeping upstairs where neighbor Paul saw a bright light from his window next to the house. He looked out and saw flames bursting out of the lower window. Paul immediately started yelling to wake up the inhabitants. He then ran out and saw a truck with a ladder. Wasting no time, he propped it against the house and helped out all six residents. Had it not been for his timely actions all could have perished. Paul is the owner/mechanic of 944 West, a high-end German automobile repair shop.
Thanks to Ricardo for sharing that. (Also thanks to Trina for posting a comment with similar info, below the original post.) Whatever you see/hear/find out about in your neighborhood, e-mail WSB with info (photos and video welcome too), any time.
Fire guts South Delridge house
The exterior appears intact but the charring over the broken-out windows suggests this house was gutted by the overnight fire there. It’s 9415 Delridge (map), on the north edge of the Delridge/Roxbury business district, at a location identified in county records and online searches as home to B & J Plumbing (we have left voicemail for that business to check on this); 911 logs show the fire callout was at 1:50 am. There’s no official Fire Department press release on this, so here’s hoping that means nobody was seriously hurt.
Making the south end of West Seattle safer
We’ve said it dozens of times and want to say it again today: West Seattle Blog works because of you. The photos, the information, the tips, the rumors, the questions, the comments, the announcements, or even simply reading WSB and using the info to become more involved in community events and concerns … thank you to everyone who contributes in every way. That said, we have a big shoutout today to someone who agreed to cover the White Center/South Delridge Community Safety meeting for WSB last night, when we realized neither WSB editor could go. Here’s his report, full of information that might be of value to you even if that’s not your end of WS, including more on the latest West Seattle crime trends:
————-
By Evan Baumgardner
WSB contributor
This was my first time attending a Community Safety Meeting. I have to say, it was a real eye-opener for me, and I highly recommend checking one of these out if you haven’t yet. …Read More
On the border
We’ve mentioned before that White Center holds many pleasant surprises for WSites who venture south of the city limits. Cafe Rozella, for one. Not far from there, also on the WS-WC border, if you can call it that, is the Salvadorean Bakery. We’ll admit to not having been there, yet. This detailed post/review has us ready to check it out, as soon as we can!
Of interest to West Seattle, since it could ultimately play into whether our boundaries stretch further south: We just discovered this on the City of Burien website and posted it at 
Thanks to everyone who has checked out
| Comments Off on “Alcohol Impact Area” for South Delridge/White Center?