With Mayor Jenny Durkan’s first community town hall on Capitol Hill taken care of, CHS thought we’d check in on how you feel your relatively new Seattle mayor is doing. We’ll share the results here and check in again the next time the mayor is planning a Capitol Hill appearance.
Monthly Archives: April 2018
With planned protests off Capitol Hill, 2018 May Day in Seattle will center on March against ICE, Bloc the Juvi — UPDATE
May Day protests around the Capitol Hill area have centered on 12th Ave’s youth jail in recent years
Will these characters show up again in 2018?
El Comite’s annual march — annually peaceful, annually colorful
It’s been a long time since May Day turned into a “riot” on Capitol Hill but given the neighborhood’s place as a gathering point for protest, SPD tactics in the past that resulted in a push of large crowds out of downtown and up the Hill, and the new focus on 12th Ave’s youth jail, the neighborhood remains on watch every time May 1st rolls around.
This year — the first May Day under former federal prosecutor Jenny Durkan’s mayoral watch, expect another day of heavy police presence and television helicopters.
The foundation to the day — and the first amendment activities most everyone can get behind — remains the annual Marcha Y Manifestacion Anual del 1o de Mayo organized by immigrant labor rights organization El ComitĂ©. In 2016, the route changed to include Capitol Hill. In 2018, the march that will again be joined by thousands has more significance than ever — calling out U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement activity in Washington:
El Comité and the May 1st Action Coalition are calling on all workers and all social justice advocates to come out on Tuesday, May 1st 2018 (International Workers’ Day) for the 19th Annual May Day March for Immigrant and Workers Rights. We are using the march to publicly expose ICE activity in Washington State and to hold the Department of Licensing accountable for having facilitated ICE harassment against community members by way of sharing information about motorists. The March in Seattle on May 1st is among several coordinated events happening in communities across the State of Washington, including Yakima, and Tacoma.
Groups announce First Hill plan for Seattle’s ‘largest’ affordable housing building
Nonprofit developers Bellwether Housing and Plymouth Housing Group announced Monday morning that they are moving forward on an affordable housing project on surplus Sound Transit land on First Hill. The project will be “the largest building constructed by any affordable housing provider in Seattle, with 12 to 15 floors of housing over a floor of retail, service, and community space.”
Sound Transit has agreed to transfer to the two organizations at “zero-cost” following a November decision on what to do with the land originally acquired for a never-built First Hill light rail station at the corner of Madison and Boylston. Continue reading
‘Inhumane’ encampments, development as greenhouse polluter, reset on transit: Here’s what Mayor Durkan talked about during weekend Capitol Hill business tour and town hall
Durkan on 15th Ave E doing a little Saturday afternoon shopping (Images: CHS)
Following a low-profile tour of are businesses along the quieter side of Capitol Hill, Mayor Jenny Durkan met a small gathering of the public at the Miller Community Center on Saturday for a community conversation. Introduced as the city’s first female mayor in nearly 100 years, Seattle native Durkan gave a short address and fielded questions from the audience around homelessness, mental health, zoning laws, and the future of public transportation during the hour long event.
Though the Mayor announced millions in investments to reduce homelessness this year with affordable housing and addiction mitigation and City Hall under her watch is pursuing a $75 million-plus plan to create a new employee tax for big businesses, she said Saturday the city is only a cog in a wheel when it comes to its ability to fortify behavioral health services and facilities in within city limits.
“We are trying to get to a point where we can offer services on demand because we have had defunding of mental health services,” she said. “Right now most of the mental health and treatment dollars go from the state to the county, so if we don’t have a regional solution including both, we’ll never get to the point where we’ll have more mental health facilities, short term and long term in the community or state wide. “
Duo reportedly armed with pistol and pepper spray hold up Capitol Hill market — UPDATE
A late night hold-up of a Capitol Hill convenience store involved two suspects reportedly armed with a silver handgun and some sort of stink bomb or pepper spray device.
According to East Precinct radio reports, police were called to the 700 block of Bellevue Ave E around 11:30 PM Saturday night to the reported armed robbery at the Mercato Bellagio quick shop. Continue reading
Pared back plan for new Volunteer Park Amphitheater still has one crucial rainy Seattle feature: a roof
On a cold and drizzly weekend, let us think of summer days on the Volunteer Park lawn, enjoying music and maybe a cup of wine. That stage where the music is coming from? The plan to create a new amphitheater in Volunteer Park is moving steadily forward from dream to reality.
“Volunteer Park Trust is continuing to look for opportunities for support for the Amphitheater Project, including applying for a Major Projects Challenge Fund grant,” the group’s Jeff Crandall tells CHS. “In doing so, we are seeking letters of support from community organizations for the project. We have been working with public officials on obtaining funding support from city and state funding sources. And in order to make the fundraising more manageable, we’ve been working with ORA Architects on a design review to seek cost savings from the original estimate.” Continue reading
CHS History | Summit Slope Park opens, Phoenix Comics born, May Day
Here are the top stories from this week in CHS history:
2017
CHS Crowsword Puzzle #1
Want to play a game?
CHS Pics | This week in Capitol Hill pictures
The CHS Flickr Pool contains more than 36,000 photographs — most of Capitol Hill images, many glorious, some technically amazing. The pool is a mix of contributions from Capitol Hill — and nearby — shutterbugs. Interested in being part of it? If we like your photo and it helps us tell the story, we may feature it on CHS so please include your name and/or a link to your website so we can properly credit you. Interested in working as a paid CHS contributor for scheduled assignments? Drop us a line.
We also keep our eyes on the #capitolhillseattle Instagram tag —- you should, too! Below are this week’s best Capitol Hill shots. Thanks for sharing!
Continue reading
OK, this time pizza *really* is coming to 19th Ave E as Zeeks Capitol Hill plans take shape
(Image: Zeeks Pizza)
19th Ave E continues to be a busy spot in Capitol Hill food and drink as another slice is falling into place along the redevelopment-reinvigorated artery connecting several area schools and some of the neighborhood’s wealthiest, leafiest streets.
Zeeks Pizza Capitol Hill is lined up to anchor the street level retail space at The Shea, a 33-unit mixed-use development planned to complete construction this summer. It will be the Puget Sound-area pizza chain’s 14th location. The restaurant space will stretch from E Mercer along 19th Ave E and will neighbor street longtimer Monsoon. Continue reading
