Thanks to a CHS reader for the picture from the scene
Seattle Police had a building at the base of Capitol Hill surrounded late Monday afternoon after a report of suicidal man with a gun inside.
SPD was called to the Pine address of Seattle Counseling Services around 4 PM to the report of staff was evacuating and an agitated man inside the building. Continue reading
There are some big holes in Capitol Hill food+drink real estate to fill — Sitka and Spruce’s centerpiece restaurant in Melrose Market will close on New Year’s Eve, the relatively giant space left behind by Trove on E Pike, and the biggest empty cafe on Capitol Hill where Starbucks pulled up the stakes on Roy Street Coffee in April.
And there is now a small one we knew was coming but still makes us sad to report. Continue reading
Inside the U District H Mart (Image: CHS)
CHS reported in March on negotiations for Korean grocery chain H Mart to lease the centerpiece retail space in the development under construction atop Broadway’s Capitol Hill Station.
While the company and lead developerĀ Gerding Edlen still won’t talk about the deal, permit activity confirms the plans are a go as the mixed-use affordable and market rate housing, retail, and community development moves toward a 2020 opening.
As CHS reported previously, the plans filed in August show H Mart’s project will take the prime Broadway street frontage near the north entry to the busy light rail station. Plans show a layout with more than 11,000 square feet of store space on the ground level plus a 5,000+ square foot mezzanine. Continue reading
The evening after this summerās primary election for City Council, at a public forum on the appointment of a new representative on the Seattle School Board for South Seattle, it was back to business for Zachary DeWolf.
The Primary candidate and Seattle School Board representative hadnāt given himself much time to think about the results, which were disappointing. He received 12.54% of the votes on election night, not enough to make it onto the November ballot.
āI probably didn’t get enough time to really kind of sit down with the whole experience of it,ā DeWolf says today. āBy and large, I can say I’m really grateful to have done it. There’s probably a whole list of 10 or 15 things I could do differently, (ā¦) strategy stuff.ā
DeWolf had announced he was running for City Council in April, a little over a year into his four-year term on the school board. Though he chiseled away a substantial chunk of labor support from Sawantās base and was seen as one of the frontrunners, the Seattle Education Association (the cityās public school teachers union) endorsed Ami Nguyen and Kshama Sawant in District 3. It also didnāt help that local blogger and education advocate Melissa Westbrook wrote a searing editorial dis-endorsing DeWolf on Seattle Schools Community Forum, calling out his ālackluster record and lack of community meetings.ā
In a recent phone call, DeWolf didnāt really feel like revisiting the issue.
āI’m not going to respond to a blogger [who] clearly doesn’t understand my work and my record,ā DeWolf said. āWhat this comes down to is who I serve: the students and the families in my district.ā
DeWolf brought up the example of the student Luna, a trans student who had asked that Seattle Public Schools fix its databases so that all correctly identified the gender and names of trans and gender-diverse students. DeWolf said the issue is now fixed because of her advocacy and his pushing for it. Continue reading
“Come experience an 8.0 earthquake!,” the Seattle Office of Emergency Management invited. Wednesday afternoon at the Seattle World School along E Union, dozens of people took them up on the offer. Continue reading
We found Ada and Suzi walking down 17th at Olive headed to Volunteer Park. Ada Ninkasi, — the Sumerian goddess of beer — is a four-year-old āred and whiteā Border Collie. Suzi, her human, has had her since she was 10 months old. A very agile pup, Ada can jump for a frisbee, boop it with her nose, leap again, and catch it. Give her a watch if you see her jumping around the park.
WeĀ askĀ photographer Alex Garland to follow marchers in the rain and do crazy things like trying to make yet another picture of yet another huge apartment building look interesting. We thought weād ask him to do something a little more fun.Ā Capitol Hill PetsĀ is a semi-regular look at our furry, fuzzy, feathered, and finned friends found out and about on Capitol Hill.
āPlease do not clap, do not cheer, and certainly do not boo.ā
Such was the request from Seattle CityClub, the organizer of last nightās City Council candidate debate for District 3 at a packed Town Hall on First Hill.
It turned out an impossible ask, as supporters applauded and cheered when incumbent Kshama Sawant was welcomed to the stage, and fans of challenger Egan Orion seemingly tried to surpass the decibel levels just moments later.
Applause returned soon when Sawant hit the ground running when she called Orion a āposter child for big businessā and took aim at the Amazon and Vulcan-backed Political Action Committeesā expenditures on Orionās behalf, just moments after he made his first pitch.
Orion had said he would be equipped to serve in public office because he had served his ācommunityā with his work at PrideFest and brought āa collaborative style of leadershipā to the table.
āUnity and collaboration and coalitions with whom?ā Sawant asked. āWe know what corporations like Amazon and chamber of commerce are trying to do. They are trying to flip City Hall to the right.ā
The comment set the tone for the rest of the debate ā and potentially the rest of the campaign through November 5th ā with jabs on both sides, either followed by applause or finger-snapping, one thing the organizers had not explicitly discouraged.Ā Continue reading
The final designs for the Volunteer Park Amphitheater replacement project have been unveiled.
The final renderings show a simplified, more brutalist curve for the signature element of the new amphitheater stage — its “overhead weather and sun protection” roof. Continue reading
(Image: Sitka and Spruce)
Capitol Hill never really knew Sitka and SpruceĀ at its most audacious when a talented young chef brought James Beard–worthy quality to an Eastlake strip mall. At the end of the year and after a decade at the center of the much celebrated Melrose Market mix of retail, food, and drink, Matt Dillon will close Sitka and Spruce and bring the Capitol Hill chapters of the well-respected restaurant’s lifetime to a close.
Dillon turned to a great philosopher in his goodbye letter to the restaurant’s fans: Continue reading
The future of the Chateau
Thursday night, the development process set to replace the former Section 8 subsidized Chateau Apartments in the Central District will grind forward with another early design review but residents of the old building got some welcome news earlier in the week with a plan that will provide them with new housing opportunities in the neighborhood thanks to the Low Income Housing Institute.
DeveloperĀ Cadence Real Estate announced what it called a partnership with the Low Income Housing InstituteĀ “that will enable all Section 8 residents at the Chateau Apartment building in the Central Area to stay in the neighborhood.” Continue reading
