Rat City
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
- Rat City is also a location found in the comic book series Spawn.
Rat City is a colloquialism for the area of White Center, Washington. A small, low income suburb of south Seattle. White Center garnered a poor reputation due to its high crime rates and small homes. An alternate scenario for the moniker is that the name refers to the "rink rats" who roller skated at the Southgate Skate Center (which still stands).
There are a couple theories as to how "Rat City" got its name. Some people assume there was once a prolific rat problem in the 1940s, but RAT might have also been an acronym for Restricted Alcohol Territory, which was a term from the WWII era when Seattle was a Restricted Alcohol Territory, and non-incorporated White Center had liquor laws that were more lenient and it attracted a lot of servicemen.
Other folks remember when there was a military Relocation and Training (RAT) Center within the neighborhood of White Center during WW II. Urban legend has it that the very popular Southgate Roller Rink in the neighborhood was home to the “Rink Rats”.
