Capitol Hill is dead — The Rhino Room is selling couches

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(Image: CHS)

Six months after going dark and quietly ending its 11-year run of Capitol Hill nightlife, the former Rhino Room space at 11th and Pine is suddenly filled with furniture as custom retailer Couch has moved to Capitol Hill from Ballard.

“Pick one of our thoughtfully designed styles or work with us to come up with a new variation. We are custom builders in the truest sense of the word,” the store’s pitch goes. “Custom elsewhere can mean you get to choose blue instead of gray. At Couch it means you design a sofa in your exact size, style and comfort specifications.” Continue reading →

Garfield High marks one-year anniversary of fatal shooting with walkout, debate over cops on campus

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Flowers left last June after Amarr Murphy-Paine was shot and killed during a lunchtime altercation in the Garfield parking lot (Image: Converge Media with permission to CHS)

Results from a survey of students about campus safety conducted last fall

Many at Garfield High School won’t be wearing purple and white this Friday as they put on orange shirts for National Gun Violence Awareness Day and hold a remembrance of a fallen friend.

Wednesday night, some will call on the Seattle School Board to support a plan to opening the way for Seattle Police officers to again be assigned to the 23rd Ave campus where gun violence has taken a terrible toll.

Friday’s planned student walkout at the largest public high school serving Capitol Hill and the Central District will include a celebration of life for Amarr Murphy-Paine, the 17-year-old shot and killed while trying to break up a fight in the school’s parking lot a year ago to the day of the planned remembrance. The victim’s father Arron Murphy-Paine is scheduled to speak during Friday’s event. The 17-year-old’s family has sued the district alleging officials were negligent in their security practices at Garfield.

There have been no arrests in the June 2024 case.

The anniversary of Murphy-Paine’s killing comes as Seattle’s public school system is considering rolling back a five-year-old reform that removed uniformed police officers assigned to the city’s campuses. Continue reading →

Seattle City Hall 2026 budget guidance — 2% cuts for public safety, homelessness, 8% for everything else

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If you are worried about Seattle defunding the police, a few data points from Wednesday’s session (PDF) of the Seattle City Council’s budget committee should set your mind at ease.

As the city grapples with a “pessimistic” revenue forecast, Mayor Bruce Harrell’s administration is holding the line at two separate thresholds for cutbacks to city departments.

When it comes to the 2026 budget, City Hall is preparing for planned 8% cuts to departments supported by the city’s General Fund and payroll tax on its largest employers. The Seattle Police Department and all “public safety related” departments number? 2%. Same for the city’s spending on homelessness. Continue reading →

Seattle approves ‘Smart City’ digital kiosks — but none, for now, on Capitol Hill sidewalks

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IKE Smart City’s rendering of what a kiosk would look like on E Pike (Image: IKE/DSA)

Pike/Pine, for now, won’t be part of the deployment of 80 digital wayfinding kiosks across Seattle.

Tuesday, the Seattle City Council approved a program to add the kiosks with news and information, wi-fi access, directions, and advertisements to the city’s streets. A first phase will focus on 30 new kiosks downtown. A possible second phase would add 50 more in areas including West Seattle, Ballard, the University District, and SoDo. Continue reading →

911 | Gunpoint mugging on 18th Ave

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See something others should know about? Email CHS or call/txt/Signal (206) 399-5959. You can view recent CHS 911 coverage here. Hear sirens and wondering what’s going on? Check out reports from @jseattle or join and check in with neighbors in the CHS Facebook Group.

  • 18th Ave armed robbery: Two people returning home from a restaurant were beaten and robbed at gunpoint in an incident near 18th and Denny late Thursday night. The Seattle Police Department reports the victims were walking around 11:20 PM when two men jumped them, punching one victim in the face and grabbing the other’s bag after pulling her to the ground. The victims said the second suspect pulled a black handgun on them as they were robbed. Police say one victim suffered a laceration to the face during the mugging. No detailed descriptions of the suspects were provided in the SPD report.

  • Monday stabbing: Police say a stabbing reported Monday afternoon in a Madison area apartment was a domestic violence incident. SPD reports a woman was taken into custody after cutting a family member on the hand in the dispute. The victim suffered minor injuries. The suspect was booked into jail for investigation of assault.
  • Overnight gunfire: Police investigated reports of gunfire early Monday morning. Officers were dispatched to the report of a series of gunshots near E Highland Drive around 12:45 AM but no injuries or property damage was reported located.
  • Additional May 24th arrest: SPD says there was an additional arrest in the East Precinct during the day of counter-protests against an anti-trans Christian rally at Cal Anderson Park on Saturday, May 24th. CHS reported here on the updates on the arrests as no charges had been filed against the eight protesters SPD said it took into custody that day. In the additional arrest, SPD says officers noted “a suspicious male standing next to their marked Seattle Police vehicle” just after noon Saturday. “After concluding their initial call, he approached one of the officers and asked how many officers it would take to arrest him,” the SPD report on the arrest reads. “The individual then stated that he was on his way to ‘blow up’ the police headquarters because he hated the police.” Police say they took the man into custody as he was headed toward Capitol Hill Station. He was booked into King County Jail.
 

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CHS Pics | The Korean Food Promotion Institute held a cooking contest at Capitol Hill’s Seattle Culinary Academy

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Moore on her way to victory

Anybody wondering about the wave of Korean-flavored food and drink that continues to wash over Capitol Hill can probably find a few answers in the spicy sweetness and umami of gochujang chilli paste. It also helps that the Consulate General of the Republic of Korea in Seattle is really into food and drink.

Last month, CHS stopped through a Korean cooking competition sponsored by the consulate and the Korean Food Promotion Institute held at the Seattle Culinary Academy at Seattle Central College as a battle over bulgogi and bibimbap played out. At stake in the 2025 “Culinary Class Wars” competition? An all-expenses-paid trip to Korea to compete in the International Namdo Food Festival in October where the winner will “represent Seattle & U.S in the final global round, with flights, accommodation, meals, local transportation, and interpretation fully provided.” Continue reading →

With clouds of nicotine, kratom, and cannabis over Capitol Hill, World of Smoke & Vape coming to E Pike

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(Image: World of Smoke & Vape)

Thanks to a CHS reader for the picture and tip!

There will be a head shop in the heart of the Pike/Pine nightlife district. Be careful with your lungs.

Fast-growing, Hollywood, Florida-based franchise World of Smoke & Vape is joining the block neighboring LGBTQ art, retail, and community space Queertique and legendary neighborhood lesbian bar The Wildrose.

The stretch is familiar with big chains in alternative markets — the below-sidewalk commercial space was once home to the neighborhood’s Castle Megastore sex shop.

Construction permits and business filings show the new shop is owned by the experienced franchise entrepreneur who also opened a World of Smoke & Vape on Queen Anne last year. Ameen Babul has also been a successful operator of Subway sandwich shop franchises. Continue reading →

‘There’s the door’ — Cathy Moore to step down from the Seattle City Council

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Moore

Hours after a humbling political reversal, Cathy Moore has announced she is resigning her seat representing the city’s north on the Seattle City Council due to “health and personal reasons.”

“My decision to leave the City Council is one I’ve been considering seriously over the past several months due to some recent health challenges,” Moore said in the announcement. “Ultimately, I believe that District 5 community members deserve a representative who can give their full attention to the critical issues facing the City and its neighborhoods.”

Moore, a former King County Superior Court judge, was elected in 2023 with a centrist approach to policy and promises of what she said would be a more civil approach to Seattle politics.

CHS reported here on Moore’s decision to withdraw her proposed legislation championed by Council President Sara Nelson that would have allowed members to vote on bills in which they have a disclosed conflict of interest. Continue reading →

The Capitol Hill Farmers Market’s summer season of Tuesday markets begins with a bonus for food workers

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The return of the Tuesday night Capitol Hill Farmers Market this summer will be especially sweet for neighborhood food and drink workers:

To celebrate the seasonal opening of our Tuesday market in Capitol Hill, we will be offering Farm Bucks for local food workers. If you work as a barista, cook, or wait staff, stop on by the manager’s tent for $4 in NFM currency to spend at the markets! You can take advantage of this promotion every first Tuesday of the month through September.

Tuesday night, June 3rd marks the start of the weeknight season for the market joining the year-round Sunday markets. Continue reading →

After skirmishes ‘on the frontlines at Denny Blaine, Cal Anderson, and recent events at City Hall,’ the Pride flag flies above Seattle

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(Image: City of Seattle)

City officials and community leaders gathered at Seattle City Hall this weekend to again raise the colors of the Pride flag above the city.

This June’s Pride celebrations come amid a rush of recent challenges to the city’s queer communities.

Jaelynn Scott of Capitol Hill’s Lavender Rights Project acknowledged “the leadership of the young people who were on the frontlines at Denny Blaine, Cal Anderson, and recent events at City Hall” in celebrating the flag raising event. “We are so proud of you,” Scott said to the assembled crowd. “Our liberation will be led by this movement of youth right now.”

Saturday’s ceremony follows political attacks on Seattle and Mayor Bruce Harrell over the city’s handling of Christian fundamentalist and anti-trans rallies that have provoked counter-protests and demonstrations on Capitol Hill and at City Hall. Continue reading →