Monthly Archives: January 2020

Where and when it will be cheaper to park on Capitol Hill in 2020 (and where the appetite for parking is apparently insatiable no matter how expensive it gets)

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2020 mornings will bring cheaper paid parking to most of Capitol Hill’s streets — the nightlife crush means prices are rising. Seattle announced its annual adjustments Friday to be rolled out in its regular rebalancing of pricing for the city’s paid parking based on demand studies over the past year.

“Our goal is to make it efficient and accessible for people who need to drive to find a parking space,” SDOT says in its announcement and explainer of the 2020 adjustments. “This reduces how much time drivers spend circling for parking, which provides other important benefits” —

  • Improves safety for pedestrians and cyclists – drivers circling for parking are often distracted
  • Reduces congestion – drivers circling for parking contribute to congestion
  • Improves transit efficiency – less congestion and fewer cars stopping in the bus lane means our public transit is more reliable
  • Decreases greenhouse gas emissions – less circling means fewer emissions

Simplified, SDOT says its goal is to price so that “two parking spaces are available on each block throughout the day.”

It’s not clear how high prices would have to rise across SDOT’s Capitol Hill paid parking regions to hit that “two space” goal at night were capacity is also measured at hitting greater than 100% thanks to creative — and illegal — parking strategies some nightlife visitors deploy. Prices will hit from $4 to $4.50 across most of Capitol Hill at night. Continue reading →

After criticism for route that included riding on sidewalk, city rolls out new plan for E Union ‘parking protected bike lanes’

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The proposed layout for parking protected bike lanes between 14th Ave and 26th on E Union — the vehicles inside the outer white lanes would provide a buffer between bikes and traffic

Above E Union at 18th Ave

The Seattle Department of Transportation has responded to community feedback and has a new plan for E Union that will create unbroken protected bike lanes from 14th Ave to 23rd Ave. Construction is now on track to begin this summer.

The updated plans were presented at a community open house Wednesday night at the neighborhood’s Liberty Bank Building. An online survey will be collecting feedback on the updated plans through February 7th.

The updates follow plans shaped last year that drew criticism for trying to maintain area parking and existing traffic lanes by routing a portion of the planned bike lanes onto the sidewalk. The E Union bike lane project is being paid for by the Move Seattle levy to create an alternate for bicyclists away from the coming Madison Bus Rapid Transit corridor. CHS reported earlier this month that the future RapidRide G start of service has again been pushed back — this time to 2023.

The newly released plans would remove some street parking, shift a school bus loading zone, and consolidate Metro bus stops to add the “parking protected bike lanes” to both sides of E Union between 14th Ave and 26th Ave, and then transition to an uphill protected bike lane and a downhill sharrow lane from 26th to Martin Luther King Jr Way. Continue reading →

To help battle growing fentanyl problem, Seattle providing training and 700 naloxone kits

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Officials say counterfeit pills made to look like pharmaceuticals such as oxycodone but actually containing fentanyl are a growing problem. In addition to increased efforts to crack down on the drug trade, the City of Seattle is also hoping to help more people survive overdoses.

Thursday, Mayor Jenny Durkan announced the city will purchase 700 naloxone kits to distribute at trainings throughout Seattle.

“Fentanyl and counterfeit oxycodone pills laced with fentanyl are spreading throughout our communities, and we must continue to combat this growing crisis. Naloxone can reverse overdoses – these kits can truly save people’s lives,” Durkan said in the announcement of the effort. Continue reading →

CHS Pics | A new daycare for Capitol Hill’s furbaby boom

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With the smash of a tennis ball-packed piñata, the latest edition to the Capitol Hill pet economy opened over the weekend.

CHS reported last fall on the plans for a Capitol Hill expansion of the Tails of the City dog daycare business in the underground space beneath Velocity Dance Center on 12th Ave. The longtime Georgetown doggy daycare, is expanding to its second Seattle location under owner Karyn Johnson. Continue reading →

Time for tip credit? Capitol Hill’s independent restaurants and bars near $15 minimum wage milestone

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Terra Plata (Image: CHS)

Seattle’s long march to a $15 an hour minimum wage included its biggest jump yet to start 2020.

One Capitol Hill restaurant owner and Seattle business leader says the milestone means it is time for the city to rethink how it treats tips and wages.

Linda Di Lello Morton, co-owner of Terra Plata and president of the Seattle Restaurant Alliance, says increasing costs are eating up her profits at the Melrose Market restaurant and is calling for a tip credit to help the city’s restaurant industry survive, KING reports.

“It’s going to be a challenge for sure, and the problem is more than just minimum wage,” Morton told the TV station about the 2020 minimum increase. “There’s a lot of other increases, there’s other legislation that’s passed that have increased our costs, rents are going up, triple nets are higher than they’ve ever been, property taxes are going up. That affects our bottom line.”

UPDATE 10:25 AM: Jacque Coe, communications for the Seattle Restaurant Alliance, tells CHS that the organization has no official position on a tip credit at this time. Morton did not respond to CHS’s inquiries.

Continue reading →

Proposal would allow a $121M King County tax on big businesses to pay for housing, homelessness

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Sawant made the Tax Amazon movement the centerpiece of her inauguration and start of a third term. A state proposal would open the door to a tax on “big business” at the county level.

As the rumble has started again for a tax on large employers in Seattle, Capitol Hill’s State Representative in Olympia has proposed a bill that could take the push for revenue to support housing and homelessness services to a new level.

Rep. Nicole Macri is co-sponsoring a bill that would allow King County “to impose an excise tax on business.”

The state proposal would actually open up the option to any county with a population over 2 million — right now, that would be King County.

“The thing I am interested in is something that will allow for more of a regional approach on addressing homelessness, housing and behavioral health needs than what the current authority allows,” Macri told Crosscut about the proposed legislation.

Fellow 43rd District Rep. Frank Chopp is also a co-sponsor.

The Seattle Times reports that Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan and King County Executive Dow Constantine support the bill.

Durkan and Constantine said the tax could raise $121 million per year “for housing, homelessness, public safety, and behavioral health services across the region.” Continue reading →

More than 1,300 apply for 110 affordable apartments above Capitol Hill Station

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A sample floor plan of a two-bedroom unit at Station House

CHS reported on the January 7th opening of the application process for the 110 affordable apartment units slated to open later this year in Station House, the development from Capitol Hill Housing part of set of brand new buildings rising above the Capitol Hill Station light rail facility.

Just how big was demand for the six-story building’s affordable units? Capitol Hill Housing tells CHS that within 10 minutes, 300 respondents had filled out the form expressing interest in the application process — and more than 1,300 registered through the mid-January deadline. Continue reading →

2020: The year of Dingfelder’s bagels

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Dingfelder’s, the Capitol Hill Jewish deli, has come together piece by piece. In the summer of 2018, we got the first tastes of the “perfect pastrami” and corned beef sandwiches. A year ago this month, hey, Dingfelder’s celebrated 2019 by introducing the novel concept of indoor seating at the corner of 14th and Pine.

2020? It is time for Dingfelder’s bagels.

“We’re starting out slow,” chef and owner Vance Dingfelder says.

It’s the Dingfelder way. For now a weekend only addition, Dingfelder’s bagels, Vance says, are being perfected. “I like the consistency, I like the crust. I like how they last when stored in a brown paper sack,” Dingfelder said.

But he especially likes them hot. And that means he’s taking a slow approach. Continue reading →

Striking Swedish Medical Center nurses and caregivers will march from First Hill

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(Image: @SEIU1199NW)

A Wednesday afternoon march will mark the midway of a planned three-day strike as nearly 8,000 Swedish Medical Center nurses and caregivers are fighting for a new, better contract with the nonprofit Seattle-area health provider.

The strike is hitting Seattle campuses including First Hill, Cherry Hill, Ballard, Edmonds and Issaquah where Swedish says it planned to use thousands of temporary workers to continue its services.

Emergency rooms in Ballard and Redmond have been closed during the strike which is slated to end Friday morning. Organizers claim Swedish management has threatened to lock striking workers out through the weekend.
Continue reading →

Capitol Hill masked superhero Phoenix Jones charged for selling Molly at a downtown Starbucks

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(Image: Phoenix Jones)

The man known as Pacific Northwest vigilante Phoenix Jones — who became Seattle famous patrolling the streets of Capitol Hill as a masked superhero in the mid 2010s —  has been charged for allegedly selling Molly out of the 3rd Ave Starbucks and bringing coke to the Silver Cloud across from T-Mobile Park.

KOMO was first to report the charges against Benjamin Fodor and his alleged accomplice Tuesday:

A witness told detectives they could not believe Fodor had not been caught yet by authorities, paving the way for an undercover sting operation designed to catch the superhero that turned to a life of a crime. The operation revealed Fodor sold MDMA or “Molly” to an undercover narcotics detective Nov. 21 at a Starbucks at 999 3rd Avenue.

According to court documents, police say Fodor was paid $300 via Venmo after allegedly selling methylenedioxymethamphetamine, also known as Molly, to an undercover cop in a deal made at the Starbucks at 3rd and Madison. Continue reading →