Last week, “Seattle Sketcher” Gabi Campanario was in White Center (see his sketches here and here). Above is a photo by Gabi as he works on his sketch of Darren - thanks Darren for the free leftover Caramelo Frap this morning!

The Seattle Times recently covered White Center’s Greenbridge neighborhood and highlighted local businesses such as Dubsea Coffee. Read the entire article here.

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Attention new business owners and existing business owners! If you interested on expanding your business or in the start of developing one this is the right time to attend our business seminar. Take the first step to become a successful business owner by joining our seminar and learning new ways to build your business the right way. There will be special guest speakers who will reveal shortcuts and useful resources on how to organize your strategy. Mark your calendars for March 7^th this is something you do not want to miss out!

Kathi George Wheeler of NoiseWithoutSound.com displays the graphic designs she created for the effort to promote fresh produce in White Center. The designs build on the Growing a Global Community theme and graphic look she created for the recently installed Welcome to White Center signs. Photo and article by Patrick Robinson.

Marketing White Center was on the agenda (and a lot more) at the White Center Business District Mixer on Monday evening, Feb 7. Led by Nhan H. Nguyen, Neighborhood Revitalization Program Manager from the White Center Community Development Association, the meeting was crowded at Young Restaurant at 9413 16th s.w.

Nguyen spoke about upcoming revitalizing projects for the White Center business district sponsored by the CDA, Chamber of Commerce and other community partners: including façade improvement grants, street banners, a business resource guide, a shopper incentive card, a buy local campaign, seeking social media marketing training, brand promotion, and more.

At the last mixer, topics were listed and prioritized, which set not only the agenda for this meeting but for where people felt their energies would be best spent.

These included:
Facade Improvement Grants
Continue to organize mixer meetings
Media outreach
White Center Spring Clean
The creation of a White Center Shopping Guide and Map
Buy Local marketing campaign
Creating a business resource handout
Revamping the shopping card

Full article here.

There’s a lot of excitement with food lovers in our area about Zippy’s Burgers moving to White Center. Check out the coverage on KING 5/MSNBC by clicking here!

Fireworks were ablaze while Lions Danced in front of Tam Thanh in White Center today. This drew a pretty sizeable crowd in front and across the street from the restaurant.

Check out this short video as well:

Lunar New Year comes a little early this year for us, courtesy of Sam from Samway Market in White Center! He dropped off three beautiful gift bundles of fruit (oranges, guavas, pomelos, starfruit, grapefruit, etc) and a large vase filled with gladiolas. There are red envelopes attached to each gladiola, symbolizing good luck. Thank you Samway Market, and have a prosperous 2011. Photo, L to R: White Center CDA intern Julia Salinas, CDA admin director Kate Stannard and Sam Yin.

UPDATE, 2/3/11: According to our Nhan Nguyen, our Neighborhood Revitalization program manager, there will be lion dances in front of Young’s Restaurant, Pho My Loi, First Impression Dental, Banh 88 and other businesses this Saturday, February 5.

These meetings have been happening since last year and it is a great opportunity to network with local business and shop owners. Please see the flyer below for the next meeting’s agenda. Thanks!

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The White Center CDA is proud of the community effort that enabled the creation of multiple street banners, currently on display in White Center’s business district (north of Roxbury). There are 25 banners total with 5 different designs. The banners incorporate “Growing a Global Village” brand and logo of White Center and the 9 most common languages in White Center. This project contributes to the marketing and promotion work as a part of the White Center Commercial District Revitalization Plan, spearheaded by the White Center CDA. The designs were vetted through community meetings: WC Business District Mixers, WC Chamber of Commerce meetings, a White Center/South Delridge Safety Coalition meeting, and others. The banners were made possible with a grant from the City of Seattle’s Office of Economic Development; the graphic designer is Kathi Wheeler of Noise without Sound, and the manufacturer is SuperGraphics, Inc.

Additional information about the designs: the rat design shows our pride in the pioneer history of White Center, the 16th/Roxbury designs refers to our main intersection, the building design is the façade of the Skate Rink - a WC icon, the fish/chili talks about our destination for delicious global food, the blue sky statues/multi-colored rings refers to our diversity and progress, and the building/circles design refer to the vibrancy and multiculturalism of our business district.

Next step, the White Center CDA has secured funding to install more banners to the south of Roxbury and the rest of the White Center business district. For question regarding this project or volunteer opportunities, please contact the White Center CDA at nhan@wccda.org.