Tents, blankets, and tarps — Camp of asylum seekers back in the Central District at Powell Barnett Park

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The Central District’s Powell Barnett has become the latest landing spot for asylum seekers from Congo, Angola, and Venezuela who have been shuttled from temporary camps to county and donor-supported motel rooms and back again while local governments try to sort out more permanent shelter.

Mutual aid groups announced the new camp location as tents were set up Monday in this Central District park along MLK Way. The new camp is a few blocks east of Garfield Community Center where the group briefly set up tents on the campus tennis courts earlier this month in what turned out to be a one-day camp thanks to a private donation securing enough funding to pay for more nights at the Quality Inn in Kent.

With funds again short, organizers say the group needs tents, blankets, and tarps to make the Powell Barnett camp livable. Continue reading →

Save Kerry Hall? Students stage sit-in, call for arts, music, and dance to be preserved as buyers eye historic property for housing and development

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Monday, Cornish College of the Arts students gathered along E Roy on Capitol Hill for a sit-in at Kerry Hall. Their hope is to save the historic building — and keep the 103-year-old studio and performance hall as a center for arts and learning on Capitol Hill.

There is also a Save Kerry Hall group formed with hopes of asking Cornish to reconsider the decision — or help shape the old building’s future by finding a buyer dedicated to continuing its role in the city’s arts scene.

“Most of us feel that the Cornish school should not be sold and it could be part of a vision of Cornish in other ways on Capitol Hill, so [there’s] this sort of long standing threat and feeling of insecurity for many of us as far as the future of Kerry Hall,” Elizabeth Jane Darrow, a former Cornish faculty member who has been helping organize efforts to save the building, tells CHS.

CHS reported here as Kerry Hall hit the Capitol Hill real estate market in April. At the time of Cornish’s announcement that it was finally preparing to sever its final ties to its birth neighborhood and fully move its campus to South Lake Union, the arts school did not include a price for the E Roy property and three-story building just off Broadway within the Harvard-Belmont Landmark District. Its broker is now awaiting offers.

Cornish students staged the sit-in at Kerry Hall on Monday to raise awareness about the pending sale. The sit-in plan included improvisational dances by Cornish graduate Sylvia Schatz-Allison and an opportunity for students past and present to write goodbye letters to the building.

“The decision to divest from Kerry Hall is a strategic one, so that we can focus on our energies on teaching and learning,” James Falzone, academic dean and professor of music at Cornish told CHS about the planned sale. Continue reading →

Seattle’s new deal with cops: big raises, some new oversight, more police work moved to ‘civilian resources’

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Seattle has reached a tentative agreement on a new contract with its police force that meets many of the goals on salary increases that advocates have said are necessary to help grow the Seattle Police Department’s ranks, adds increased oversight and accountability, and opens the door for City Hall to move more of its work around public safety like automated traffic tickets and property damage to teams outside the department.

Mayor Bruce Harrell announced the tentative agreement with the Seattle Police Officer Guild and the move of legislation covering the contract to the Seattle City Council.

“This agreement focuses on three key areas: improving police staffing and fair wages at a time when officer numbers are at a historic low; enhancing accountability measures to ensure allegations of misconduct are thoroughly investigated and discipline is appropriate; and expanding civilian response options to build a diversified safety system and create new efficiencies,” Harrell said in statement.

The deal retroactively covers 2021, 2022, and 2023 with a series of raises that will give officers an immediate 23% boost in pay. The Harrell administration said negotiations for 2024 “are ongoing with the assistance of a mediator appointed by the Public Employment Relations Commission” and suggested more reform measures “proposed by the City based on input from community partners and the federal judge overseeing the City’s Consent Decree with the Department of Justice” will be included in the final agreement. Continue reading →

Driver uninjured after flipping car on side on E Olive Way

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The driver in a single-vehicle crash that left her car on its side along the curve of E Olive Way walked away without injuries Tuesday morning.

Seattle Fire was called to E Olive Way between Harvard and Boylston around 6 AM to the reported rescue extrication incident and found the driver uninjured and alert inside the Subaru Impreza. Continue reading →

Amid continued rise in East Precinct burglaries, somebody broke into Seattle Fish Guys and stole all the salmon

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As burglaries have continued to climb in the East Precinct, one local business is vowing to recover after a break-in emptied the Central District shop of cash and took something even more valuable — its stock of smoked salmon.

“It’s truly disheartening to report that cash, checks, equipment, and our beloved smoked salmon were taken,” Seattle Fish Guys reported about the overnight burglary this weekend of its 23rd and Jackson shop. “Fortunately, our team is safe, and we’ve acted swiftly by contacting the authorities and cooperating closely with them to gather any leads. We urge anyone who noticed anything unusual nearby to please come forward. Your assistance could be crucial.” Continue reading →

Need Councilmember Hollingsworth’s attention? Use the new D3help email address

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District 3 representative Joy Hollingsworth’s office has rolled out a new way to ask for help around the district beyond potholes and Find It, Fix It issues.

CHS reported on the new [email protected] email alias as Hollingworth took part in a public safety tour around Pike/Pine and Broadway on Friday.

Hollingsworth said the email address is intended to be used so messages sent to her office can be categorized and tracked. The result, Hollingsworth says, is a system that allows her constituents to reach her office directly and produces data and insights about important categories and public safety issues. Continue reading →

Pike/Pine and Broadway Safety Coalition asks for more from city including help paying for private security to combat drugs and street disorder

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A group of neighborhood business representatives calling themselves the Pike/Pine/Broadway Safety Coalition are calling on the city and the East Precinct to do more to combat street disorder and what they call “open air drug markets” at Broadway and Pike and near Cal Anderson Park.

The group led city officials including Deputy Mayor Tim Burgess and District 3 representative Joy Hollingsworth on a tour of the areas Friday that included plenty of ideas for change — and a flaming reminder of challenges after someone set fire to a portable toilet in Cal Anderson during the tour.

There was another stark reminder over the weekend after a woman was hospitalized in an overnight shooting in the parking lot above the Broadway and Pike QFC just up the stairs from a stop on Friday’s tour.

The coalition group including representatives from QFC-parent company Kroger, the Broadway at Pike Harvard Market shopping center’s ownership, local developers and building owners Hunters Capital and Dunn & Hobbes, and the GSBA, has placed drug dealing fueled by the fentanyl crisis at the center of its calls for help, citing areas outside the Pike QFC, in front of 11th Ave businesses south of Pike, and on Nagle Place next to Cal Anderson as “drug markets” and “a massive health hazard and public safety problem.”

“There are visible weapons and frequent violence. Addicts are in crisis and people don’t know who to call to help,” the group wrote in an “issues and requests” document distributed by the GSBA’s Laura Culberg for Friday’s tour. “Business owners and property owners are cleaning up bloody messes and dangerous drug waste.” Continue reading →

One to hospital after shooting in Broadway shopping center parking lot

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A shooting in the shopping center parking lot above Broadway and Pike sent one woman to the hospital early Sunday morning on Capitol Hill.

Multiple gunshots were reported coming from the Harvard Market shopping center above the Broadway and Pike QFC around 1:30 AM. Arriving police found vehicles fleeing from the parking lot, shattered glass from a business hit in the crossfire, and blood but no victim at the scene.

As police were still gathering evidence just after 2 AM, Harborview Medical Center reported that a gunshot victim had been dropped at the emergency room 20 minutes earlier by a driver in a grey Mercedes SUV who fled the scene. Police were able to confirm that the victim was connected to the Harvard Market shooting, according to East Precinct updates. Continue reading →

Pikes/Pines | The reliable Butter Butts are back on Capitol Hill

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A “Myrtle” Yellow-rumped Warbler in winter plumage (Image: Brendan McGarry)

This time of year I am always listening for the next new arrival, no matter where I am. A surprise visitor is certainly more likely during spring migration — and, because I enjoy seeing common birds filter in and out as they pass by or arrive to breed. I have written about spring migration a lot on Pikes/Pines, but that’s because it is a source of renewed excitement about birds and phenology.

The same way we get excited about flowers blooming, seeing feathered friends arrive is a serious source of happiness and curiosity. Never is the movement of birds exactly the same each year because weather and other factors are never exactly the same – even with the help of Bird Cast and years of experience can’t you totally predict what birds show up (but boy, is it fun when you find that you’ve hit the mark). However, there’s always things you expect, like for instance Yellow-rumped Warblers (Setophaga coronata). Continue reading →