A White Center Produce Market Tour was held on Oct. 20 to do updates/reports of past and current work to raise the awareness of healthy food options at the produce markets and promote healthy foodshopping and cooking (WC Food Bank Healthy Food Gift Certificate Program, Family Connections events). Around 20 participants walked through WC business district, visited two produce markets and conversed with the owners of Lee’s Produce and Samway Market. The tour ended at 3.14 Bakery and Coffee to see a presentation from Evergreen H.S. students on a food label project conducted at WC local markets.

Photos courtesy of Desiree Sideroff.

American Home Shield® has launched the national AHS CHALLENGE FOR CHANGE, an online voting contest that will award $10,000, $15,000 and $25,000 to the three Habitat for Humanity affiliates that receive the most online votes for their neighborhood revitalization initiatives. Just by casting your vote, you can help transform the lives of Seattle and South King County low-income families!

You can help Habitat for Humanity Seattle/South King County win the AHS CHALLENGE FOR CHANGE by casting your daily vote at www.ahschallenge.com. If you have multiple email addresses, you can vote multiple times! The challenge ends on January 30, 2011.

It only takes one click to help make a difference, so spread the word!

If Habitat for Humanity Seattle/South King County wins the money, they have promised to use the money to go towards a Neighborhood Revitalization Initiative in White Center! At the time of this blog posting, they are currently in 4th place, so vote vote vote! Click on “Habitat for Humanity Seattle/South King County” to submit your vote.

Each October, millions of children, parents, teachers and community leaders across the globe walk to school to celebrate an International Walk to School Month. This year, White Center Heights Elementary will participate in the event for the first time. Walk to School in October is an energizing event, reminding parents and children alike of the simple joy of walking to school. It also serves as an opportunity to focus on the importance of physical activity, safety, air quality and walkable communities. Be on the lookout for walkers (morning and afternoon) and help ensure safe journeys for our kids and families by always observing speed limits near schools - and stopping to allow pedestrians to cross at corners and crosswalks.

Event: Walk to School with Dow Constantine, King County Executive

Date: Friday, October 29^th 2010

Time: 8:20am Sharp

Location: Greenbridge Plaza

Hosted by the King County Food and Fitness Initiative in partnership with King County Housing Authority (KCHA) and Neighborhood House, Be Active Together

Contact Maggie Anderson 206-205-3186, Jennifer Calleja 206-461-4554 or Tracie 206-574-1167 with questions.

The White Center CDA is a co-host of this event. Please spread the word!

Our staff visited the scene on Sept. 23 and stood on the corner of 14th and Cambridge, after hearing interpreters were needed at the scene. Police were able to find interpreters by the time CDA staff arrived with two staffers who speak Cambodian. Photo by Ian Dapiaoen.

Our deepest thoughts and wishes go out to the Phan/Harm family and all victims of violence in our White Center community. If you wish to contribute to costs of funeral and medical expenses, a benevolent account has been set up at BECU (via Harm family):

If you wish to contribute monetarily to costs of funeral & medical expenses, a benevolent account has been set up at BECU. Deposits can be made at any BECU accepting deposits, by mail or electronically (for BECU Members only).

Phan/Harm Memorial Fund
Acct # 3586082948
BECU
PO BOX 34044
SEATTLE, WA 98124-1044
BECU Members can call: (800) 233-2328

Read the Seattle Times article here.

Here’s a great photo from last week’s SOPI Village Groundbreaking ceremony. Thank you to the 100+ White Center residents, community leaders, elected officials, community partners and SOPI Village supporters who attended. Click here for coverage from White Center Now. Photo by Patrick Robinson - West Seattle Herald/Robinson Newspapers.

The newest earthwork in the King County Public Art collection, Pillow Field by Andy Cao and Xavier Perrot, provides pedestrian connection along SW 98th Street between White Center’s Greenbridge housing development and the central business district and transit center. It also connects the residents surrounding the CBD and transit center to the library and youth center at Greenbridge.

The remarkable project, completed in July, is an illustration of what can be achieved when contemporary artists’ perspectives are brought into the design of our public spaces. The 227 earthen mounds, representing the cultural diversity of White Center, are covered by creeping thyme which will blanket the 16,000 square foot site with pink blossoms from late spring to late summer. A generous, central staircase and ADA-accessible ramp frame the sculpted quadrants of the earthwork and replace the former tough terrain and steep slope. This public artwork is the first permanent piece by Cao and Perrot in the United States.

The SW 98th Street pedestrian corridor has been finished for a month but it already supports a high level of positive community uses, from high school athletic training to elders enjoying their daily stroll. Pillow Field is part of King County’s successful community initiative, begun in 2005, which is intended to spur private investment and foster a vibrant, healthy, mixed-income community in White Center. The corridor was developed as a result of the Land Use, Transportation, Air Quality and Health Study, which found that people who live in walk-able communities are healthier.

Although many residents are enjoying the benefits of the new pedestrian corridor, sadly, vandalism has caused King County to close portions of the site for safety reasons. Vandals stole the stainless steel hand-railing and cut the electrical service to the pathway lights. The corridor’s central stairway is unsafe for use at night without the lights and handrails; however, the ADA-accessible ramp remains open. The area was also repeatedly vandalized with graffiti. The 98th Street Corridor is a collaboration between King County’s divisions of Roads Services and Parks, 4Culture, and the White Center Community Development Association. Pillow Fields was partially funded through the King County 1% for Art fund. The project also received $1.5 million through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA).

About the artists:
Andy Cao’s work melds landscape and art. In 2006, he teamed up with landscape designer Xavier Perrot and formed the award-winning cao | perrot studio. Drawing on their diverse cultural backgrounds, Cao and Perrot, respectively born in Vietnam and France, create environments that they describe as “places for dreaming.” Their projects cross commercial, artistic and residential boundaries, and vary in size from intimate courtyards to a 600-acre public park. The artists often employ humble, everyday or recycled materials. The result is work with an organic, handmade feel-spontaneous and low tech-that defies specific meaning, but invites visitors into a contemplative world of color and sensuality.

To find out more about the artists: http://www.4culture.org/publicart/registry/sites/sites_artist.aspx?ArtistID=8

To find out more about the 98th Street Corridor: http://www.kingcounty.gov/environment/dnrp/newsroom/newsreleases/2010/August/0813VandalsCauseClosure.aspx

CHECK OUT THESE TRANSLATED VERSIONS!

VIETNAMESE - SPANISH - KHMER