The next Rat City Rummage Sale will be held from 2pm to 6pm on Saturday, Dec. 19th at Big Als Brewing, which is located at 9832 14th Ave SW right here in the Dub-C.

Here are the details:

WHAT: Rat City Rummage Sale

WHEN: Saturday, Dec. 19th from 2pm to 6pm

WHERE: In the upstairs room at Big Als Brewing 9832 14th Ave SW 98106

INFO: From their website:

If you’d like to be a vendor at this art show please email us your web site info or 3 images of what you’d like to sell at the show. To avoid too many of the same type of vendors this is a juried show.

If accepted, you will recieve an email confirmation no later than December 12th with an application & paypal invoice. Booth space is limited to a 2×4 table, booth fee $10

Vending is open to handmade arts and crafts & baked goods.

General information on the event:

• No entry fee for shoppers or other “hidden” fees
• Vendor set up at 1:00pm take down no earlier than 6pm.
• You or a booth sitter must stay until 6pm, no early take down.
• Event runs 2pm to 6pm

This event is part of the monthly White Center art walk put on by White Center for the Arts. You are welcome to keep your booth open for the duration of the art walk which ends at 9:00pm, but only required to stay until 6pm.

Bring your own displays, plenty of change, tables, chairs, snacks and whatever else you may need for the day. This will be an indoor event, location: Big Als Brewing 9832 14th Avenue Southwest Seattle, WA 98106.

This is an all ages event.

White Center for the Arts is a group of artists with diverse backgrounds who have come together to form a non-profit organization focused on supporting the arts in White Center. Our desire is to offer space where local artists can show their work, and to provide a place to learn about art. We want to provide classes to young and old in many media, bringing out the rich diversity of culture that can be found in White Center.

And we want to have fun!

Thank you for your interest in Rat City Rummage.

by Ralph Nichols

For the second time in three years, King County is attempting to renege at the 11th hour on a deal with the City of Burien.

The King County Library System reportedly has entered into a preliminary agreement to purchase Puget Sound Park at 1st Ave. S. and SW 126th St. from the county in a deal brokered by through the county executive’s office.

Puget Sound Park is located in the unincorporated area of North Highline that is to be annexed by Burien early next year.

But the stealth attempt to sell the park – initiated and discussed by the county without informing the city of its intent – prompted Burien council members at their meeting on Nov. 23 that they will postpone official annexation of North Highline, which tentatively was set for March 2nd (read previous coverage on The B-Town Blog here).

Burien officials and North Highline residents now hope that new King County Executive Dow Constantine, who was sworn in Tuesday afternoon (Nov. 24), will intervene to block the sale, thus allowing Puget Sound Park to go to the city as part of annexation.

Constantine represented Burien, North Highline and West Seattle on the King County Council until his election as county executive in November. Because of his swearing in, he was unavailable for comment Tuesday.

Burien City Manager Mike Martin informed council members about the pending sale of the park – which he learned about only late last week – at Monday night’s meeting and recommended that they not vote, as scheduled, on an ordinance setting March 2 as the effective date of annexation. They agreed unanimously to postpone action at this time.

“We expect to have that park,” Martin told The B-Town Blog today. “No annexation deal will be done until we get that asset.”

Mayor Joan McGilton sent a letter to Constantine on Nov. 20, requesting his “direct intervention in this matter.” She noted that city attempts to contact county staff had not produced “satisfactory results.”

“I think we can agree that such a delay is not in the best interest of our residents, and comes at significant additional cost to the County’s general fund,” McGilton told Constantine.

Martin said he only learned about the county’s interest in selling Puget Sound Park – initiated when Kurt Triplett was county executive – during a recent conversation on another matter with Fire District 2 officials, who said the property had been offered to them.

After they declined, King County reportedly contacted the King County Library System, which said yes to the offer and subsequently signed a letter of intent.

“We didn’t know what was going on until then,” said Martin. County officials had given the city no indication of their plans, despite the fact the park is in the area to be annexed by Burien.

Staff in the executive’s office under Triplett – who was chief of staff to former county executive Ron Sims until Sims resigned earlier this year to take a position in the administration of President Obama – apparently hope to make about $500,000 on the sale of the park to help plug the $56.4 million shortfall facing King County next year.

Greg Duff, president of the North Highline Unincorporated Area Council, said, “The people of North Highline want their parks. We want our open spaces. For them to do that now is a slap in the face…. The people of North Highline voted for annexation and want King County to stop messing around.”

Shortly after the August election, when residents of the southern part of North Highline approved annexation by Burien, Triplett proposed mothballing King County parks to reduce general fund expenses by $4.6 million.

Constantine quickly responded, opposing Triplett’s plan to cut funding for the parks in unincorporated areas. “Parks are important to the health and quality of life of everyone in the communities,” and closing them would be “short sighted,” he said.

In 2007, Sims pulled out of a deal signed years earlier with Burien and the Port of Seattle for the demolition of the Lora Lake Apartments, which were operated by King County Housing Authority, to pave the way for commercial development in the city’s Northeast Redevelopment Area.

Although the county successfully won control of the apartment complex, it later was demolished anyway because soil contamination made it unsuitable as a residential property.

A local arts collective called White Center for the Arts is holding their first Open Studio Art Tour from 5-10pm on Saturday, Feb. 21st at the White Center for the Arts Building (formerly the Southgate Skate Rink) and current home of the White Center Swap Meet.

Speaking of Swap Meets, it looks like that weekend event is being re-tooled (at least for one day) as “Rat City Rummage” on Saturday Feb. 28th from 10am-6pm, with “live art, food and vendors selling whatever they can fit in their space!” There are still 10 x 10 foot vending spaces available for just $20 – email ratcityrummage@hotmail.com for more information.

Here’s a snippet from their press release:

White Center for the Arts is a group of six artists with diverse backgrounds who have come together to form a non-profit organization focused on supporting the arts in White Center.

Our desire is to offer space where local artists can show their work, and to provide a place to learn learn about art.

We want to provide classes to young and old in many media, bringing out the rich diversity of culture that can be found in White Center.

And we want to have fun!

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