Responding to backlash, SPD chief names new East Precinct Commander and LGBTQ+ liaison

Posted on by
5

Britt

Seattle Police Chief Shon Barnes has named a new East Precinct Commander and appointed a new department LGBTQ+ liaison and is apologizing to the community and the organizations who called the new chief out over a bungled selection process.

CHS reported here on the joint letter from the GSBA chamber of commerce and the Lavender Rights Project criticizing Barnes and SPD leadership for its original selection of Michael Tietjen to lead the East Precinct and not being transparent with its efforts to fill the department’s open LGBTQ+ liaison position. “This decision was made without meaningful community engagement or transparency, and it sends a troubling message to the residents and businesses of Capitol Hill,” the groups said of the Tietjen selection.

Tietjen’s promotion came despite a history of department violations including a 2020 Capitol Hill incident caught on video when the SPD sergeant was placed on administrative leave after being caught driving an SUV onto a sidewalk and nearly striking a group of protesters and comparing them to cockroaches. Continue reading →

Police investigate Rainier Ave shooting involving Metro bus — UPDATE: Shelter in place at Garfield High School

Posted on by
Reply

The Seattle Police Department reports a man was shot and the suspect was taken into custody in a Friday morning involving a Metro bus at Rainier Ave and Dearborn.

The shooting was reported just before 10 AM. Seattle Fire was called to the scene to treat a man who had been shot in the chest outside the bus and rush him to Harborview.

UPDATE 12:45 PM: A Friday afternoon reported firearm incident outside Garfield High School put the campus into “shelter in place”status during the school’s lunch period. The “shelter” situation was not related to the morning’s Rainier Ave shooting. Police were investigating after a 911 caller reported seeing multiple teens carrying handguns and leaving the area. There have been no reports of shots fired and SPD was reportedly in contact with the officer who has been assigned to patrol the school’s parking lot daily.

Continue reading →

‘WAR! at the Market’ — Robots will battle Saturday on Capitol Hill

Posted on by
Reply

Lojinx vs Holy Terror in 2024

It will be “WAR! at the Market” Saturday on Capitol Hill.

Western Allied Robotics combatants will gather Saturday at 15th Ave E’s Quality Flea Center for a day of tournaments and robot on robot martial violence.

The event is free for spectators but serious business for members of the Pacific Northwest robotic combat club. Organizers are planning a giant arena and more than 20 tables for teams to prepare their wired gladiators and make repairs.

The fights go down Saturday from 10 AM to 4 PM at 416 15th Ave E.

 

$5 A MONTH TO HELP KEEP CHS PAYWALL-FREE

Subscribe to CHS to help us hire writers and photographers to cover the neighborhood. CHS is a pay what you can community news site with no required sign-in or paywall. To stay that way, we need you. Become a subscriber to help us cover the neighborhood for $5 a month -- or choose your level of support 🖤 

 
 

District says 40+ candidates wanted to lead Seattle Public Schools — here is the finalist

Posted on by
Reply

Just last year, the district was considering closing several campuses including Capitol Hill’s Stevens Elementary

Shuldiner

The Seattle School Board has approved a finalist to lead the city’s public schools.

Ben Shuldiner is currently superintendent of the Lansing School District in Michigan. Wednesday’s board meeting authorized the beginning of contract negotiations to finalize the hire.

Leading Lansing’s public schools since 2021, Shuldiner was part of a shift in the typical search for public officials as the board conducted a confidential process hoped to attract a stronger pool of applicants. Continue reading →

Election 2025 — Day 3: Seattle’s later-voter break hits for Wilson as gap with Harrell narrows — UPDATE

Posted on by
2

It looks like a reversal — but, as CHS has been saying, the votes have already long been cast. King County Elections — and the rest of us — are just catching up.

Turns out Wilson’s “Election Night” is still going

The first major count of later-voter ballots collected from King County drop-boxes has produced the start of what many Katie Wilson supporters have been waiting for.

Thursday, Wilson claimed nearly 52% of the count as tallied ballots approached the 35% mark on their way to a predicted 45% to 50% turnout.

The showing reversed the first two counts dominated by the incumbent that King County Elections said focused on ballots received by mail.

Wilson’s camp has expressed confidence that later ballots would swing their way and thwart Mayor Bruce Harrell’s re-election bid. Continue reading →

‘A little bit of everything’ — How Standard Goods grew from 10 years of retail on Capitol Hill

Posted on by
3

Reaching a ten-year anniversary is a quiet victory for any small shop. It is a milestone that feels especially significant on the ever-changing streets of Capitol Hill. For Standard Goods, what started as a storefront next to the HoneyHole back in 2015 has grown into a local fixture with a few locations. But if you ask owner Jeff Gardner, the journey was anything but a straight line.

“I screwed that up so bad,” Gardner says with a laugh, looking back on opening day. “It was terrible. It was so bad.”

Coming from a life in wholesale that had him living out of a suitcase 30 weeks a year, Gardner launched Standard Goods in December 2015 at the location that previously housed occult bookstore Edge of the Circle with big ideas and what he thought was a handle on the neighborhood vibe. He missed the mark, badly, on one key thing: the prices. His initial focus was on premium, American-made goods, with shirts running around $120, a number that immediately felt out of step with the pocketbooks of most Capitol Hill locals.

“I had never lived in Capitol Hill, and I didn’t understand the clientele,” he admits. “My goal was always to cater to the people that lived and worked here, and we were pricing a lot of people out. So we had to pivot.” Continue reading →

2026 Seattle City Council is set with ‘affordable housing champion’ Lin victory in District 2

Posted on by
2

Lin

While Seattle voters wait for the dust to settle in the race for the mayor’s office, the political battles to shape the Seattle City Council have been wrapped up including a new leader in District 2 representing South Seattle.

Eddie Lin rode a campaign that billed the candidate as “an affordable housing champion” to victory to represent the city’s southern neighborhoods claiming a whopping near-70% of the vote.

Lin, an assistant attorney in the Seattle City Attorney’s office, said his victory boiled down to making Seattle less expensive for D2 residents. Continue reading →

Police say man dropped at Harborview after being shot in the head linked to car found at Central District school

Posted on by
Reply

Police are continuing to investigate after a car discovered abandoned at the Central District’s Thurgood Marshall Elementary School Wednesday morning was linked to an overnight shooting when a victim who had been shot in the head and dumped at Harborview. Continue reading →

Police arrest domestic violence suspect after apartment standoff near East Precinct

Posted on by
Reply

Police engaged in a long standoff with a domestic violence suspect overnight Thursday in a 12th Ave apartment building just blocks from the East Precinct.

SPD was called to the building just after 1 AM where the victim fled and reported the suspect was likely still inside an upper floor apartment. Continue reading →

Election 2025 — Day 2: Harrell lead solidifies as Wilson’s math becomes clear

Posted on by
3

Harrell holds a 54% to 46% lead over Wilson as of Wednesday’s count

Harrell claimed nearly 57% of the ballots counted on Wednesday — a stronger showing than his already powerful election night

When reporting on a mail-only election, it’s difficult to not make the daily results sound like a horse race. But here’s the deal: All these things we are counting? They have already happened.

Wednesday’s update by King County Elections has strengthened the Election Night lead held by Mayor Bruce Harrell with the incumbent now up to 53.8% of the vote over challenger Katie Wilson’s 45.7%. Meanwhile, 0.5% of ballots counted so far went with “Other.”

Wednesday’s totals may not inspire hope for Wilson supporters. Of the more than 20,000 new ballots added to the tally, a whopping 57% of them were marked for Harrell. The mayor’s strong early counts also come as his fellow moderate incumbents Seattle City Council president Sara Nelson and Seattle City Attorney Ann Davison have already been solidly counted out of the race.

Still, there are thousands of votes left to count.

Processed totals now stand around 27.5% in an election expected to reach a turnout of around 45%. 2021’s mayoral battle in Seattle, by the way, boosted turnout to 54.6%.

At predicted turnout, around 56% of remaining uncounted ballots will need to be marked for Wilson for the challenger to unseat the incumbent.

With Washington’s by-mail system, ballots will continue to be processed over coming days. In past races, progressive candidates have generally seen their tallies rise as the later ballots from younger, poorer, and more likely to rent voters are counted.

It typically isn’t until the third day’s count when the late ballots really assert themselves. Continue reading →