Spring is in the air! This time of year, I'm normally busy with early preparations for the annual White Center Garden Tour - lining up gardens, choosing a concept for the eagerly-awaited poster, cleaning up the mailing list, rounding up volunteers, and raising money.

For 14 years, I have enjoyed building our garden tour into a successful community event, supported by local businesses, neighbors, friends and visitors. What started as a one-time experiment has blossomed into a much-anticipated family activity for thousands of people over these years. Many who attend the garden tour are folks with longtime roots in this community, who come back to visit beautiful (and sometimes eccentric) gardens and see old friends, even if they've moved on to other parts of town.

Newcomers arrive to explore this colorful community they keep hearing and reading about, thanks to the hard work of community development volunteers and organizations who are working together like never before to build a strong, healthy, vibrant and prosperous White Center for our neighbors.

This year, White Center residents will face a decision more important than any that has come before them to date. This vital decision will determine White Center's governance. We will soon be asked to vote to decide whether all or part of White Center should be annexed to Seattle or Burien, as King County can no longer provide anything beyond regional services (such as transportation and public health) to residents in unincorporated areas.

As a community volunteer with a limited amount of time to give, I must choose where to place my energies; this year, I feel that I must sacrifice the garden tour, and use my time to support and promote the annexation of White Center to the City of Seattle.

I want to be sure that the entire community comes to a complete understanding of the impact this decision will have upon our quality of life. I want to encourage the active participation of all of our citizens in this momentous decision, and help them find answers to their questions. I want to be available to City of Seattle staff to help demonstrate the countless benefits that annexation to Seattle will produce, and to make clear that the City of Burien cannot possibly supply the services, resources and support needed to ensure the well-being of our diverse and often fragile population.

Speaking personally, I have waited more than 15 years for the City of Seattle to embrace the White Center neighborhood. As a homeowner, business-owner, taxpayer, volunteer and landlord, White Center's physical character and human condition is of great importance to me. Like everyone, I want my property to appreciate while my taxes remain moderate. I want conveniences and safe streets. I want my neighbors to have the things they need, and for their children to thrive. I want beautiful and inspiring landscapes and art, clean sidewalks, prosperous businesses, good architecture, innovative housing solutions, and preservation of White Center's historic, unpolished, past. We deserve these things in White Center. We've waited a long time for help to arrive. By annexing to the City of Seattle, we stand to improve White Center's prospects in a thousand different ways.

Only the City of Seattle offers the professional resources and fiscal capacity to advance the interests of our citizens in a meaningful way. With commissions to oversee planning and design, and an Office of Sustainability and Environment, Seattle can engage White Center residents in real urban planning, stewardship, desperately-needed code enforcement, design guidance, and zoning that encourages development of an appropriate style and scale while protecting fragile natural resources. The City's Office of Housing can advise and collaborate on projects and initiatives that afford innovative housing options to individuals across the economic spectrum; they can help us grow gracefully, and avoid the gentrification that has elsewhere put home and business ownership beyond the reach of working people. The Mayor's Office of Arts and Culture can provide our citizens greater access to the arts and help us to celebrate and better understand the international cultures represented among our residents. Add to the resource list the Offices of Technology, Economic Development, Civil Rights, Senior Services and Neighborhoods. The Pothole Rangers. Summer Youth Employment. Access to Flex Car and Pea Patch programs, and graffiti removal. And a specialized program to handle the eradication of rats - not that we have them in Rat City!

I've always been proud of my neighbors in White Center who work hard to improve the community while respecting its unique characteristics and hardworking history. That's why I've become an outspoken advocate for White Center's best option, and will defer the garden tour this year to work toward annexation to the City of Seattle. This is a pivotal moment: I encourage all garden tourists, past and present, to 1) become better informed about White Center's future governance; 2) register to vote, and 3) become active advocates on the community's behalf. For my part, I plan to reinstate the annual garden tour in 2007, when White Center's future governance is clarified.

For further information about annexation, or to attend or volunteer at an upcoming forum, readers may contact me at wcgt@mindspring.com, or Mark Ufkes, White Center Homeowners Association, at markufkes@comcast.net