Monthly Archives: July 2021

Seattle announces plan for no-cop response to some 911 calls, $10.4M in grants for BIPOC public safety

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The first big outlay from Mayor Jenny Durkan’s $30 million Equitable Communities Initiative will address public safety in BIPOC communities. Meanwhile, the mayor’s office says Durkan is set to unveil a new plan for how it responds to some 911 calls in the city as part of efforts to “reimagine policing and community safety.”

Friday, Durkan is set to unveil the planned creation of “a new specialized triage response program” to provide “an alternative model for some 911 calls.”

“Analyzing the data of 9-1-1 calls and recognizing the hiring challenges of sworn officers facing the Seattle Police Department, Mayor Durkan, SPD, SFD, and CSCC are proposing a series of plans to maintain 9-1-1 response while reducing the need for a sworn officer response in some calls,” the Durkan administration announcement reads.

Earlier this week, Durkan’s office announced $10.4 million in one-time funding for 18 months for 33 organizations “working toward community-led solutions to end violence and increase safety in Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) communities.”

“These investments will support organizations providing an array of programs, services, and upstream investments meant to improve outcomes and contribute to overall community safety and wellbeing,” the Durkan administration announcement reads. Continue reading →

Save the Mercury! Save Neighbours! Donations and volunteers helping dance clubs reopen on Capitol Hill

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(Image: The Mercury at Machineworks)

The Neighbours disco ball survived break-ins and squatters (Image: Neighbours)

While Capitol Hill watches a new future unfold for a building that formerly housed one of the neighborhood’s iconic clubs, organizers around two other centers of dance and community in the neighborhood are asking for help to reopen the venues.

The efforts include fundraising, selling merchandise, and work parties to help reopen the Mercury and Broadway’s Neighbours.

Here’s one message from the people working to save E Union’s Mercury at Machinewerks private gothic dance club: Continue reading →

Capitol Hill Community Post | For Transparency And Empathy

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(Image: Jessica Rycheal)

From Andrew Grant Houston

This Monday, conservative blogger Jason Rantz published a hit piece, alleging I intentionally refused to pay rent amid the fallout of a pandemic that laid off, unhoused, and killed millions in our country. The only “exclusive” it contained is that Rantz hasn’t been listening to the multitude of times I’ve talked about my rental debt online and during forums for the past six months and a lack of true understanding as to just what is happening to myself and to our community.

Over the pandemic, 200,000 Washingtonians have accumulated over a billion dollars of rent debts in our state. In a city where homelessness has been declared an emergency that has only gotten worse, it’s immoral and petty to belittle me, the only candidate in this race whose net worth isn’t six figures or more, the only candidate who doesn’t own a home, and the youngest candidate (who represents Seattleites in ways others in this race cannot) simply because I’m one of these people. I am currently experiencing the precarious condition that many renters live in—where one catastrophe can make them another homelessness statistic in our leadership’s failed response. Continue reading →

Remember those five Capitol Hill and Central District questions? We also asked the candidates for Seattle City Council Position 9

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Earlier this week, CHS posted responses from the leading candidates in the Seattle mayor’s race to a set of questions representing some of the highest priorities for voters across Capitol Hill and the Central District — homelessness, services, housing affordability, and public safety. We hope it was helpful as you sort out your vote in the August 3rd primary election.

Two other crucial battles to lead the city are playing out this summer to determine what two candidates in each race will move through to November. One of these contests for the two citywide positions on the Seattle City Council appears to be a slam dunk with incumbent Teresa Mosqueda lapping the field in polling, fundraising, and endorsements — though the Seattle Times bitterly held back on its support. We’ll have more questions for Mosqueda and her eventual challenger before November.

POSITION 9
Corey Eichner Nikkita Oliver (CHS coverage)
Xtian Gunther Brianna Thomas (CHS coverage)
Lindsay McHaffie
Rebecca Williamson
Sara Nelson (CHS coverage)

But in the race for Position 9’s citywide seat, the time to challenge the three leading candidates is now. We asked microbrewery business veteran Sara Nelson, attorney and civil rights leader Nikkita Oliver, and Lorena González staffer and city hall wonk Brianna Thomas the same tough five Capitol Hill and Central District questions we asked the candidates for mayor.

Here’s what they said.

Question 1) The four highest priorities for CHS readers are homelessness services, mental health services, housing affordability, and public safety and crime. What are three to four specific existing city programs or teams that need increased funding that will address these priorities? What would you do to increase that funding?

NELSON: • First and foremost, Seattle must directly fund mental health and substance abuse treatment to serve our chronically homeless population. Currently, dollars for those services flow through King County and there’s inadequate funding and capacity to serve Seattle’s concentration of people in need. Until and unless the state dramatically increases funding for behavioral health, and until jurisdictions within the King County Homelessness Authority start paying their fair share into the collective resource pool, Seattle must establish its own funding stream and contract directly with providers. One appropriate source of initial funding for mental health and substance abuse treatment services is the Jump Start payroll tax. In the spending plan for the $250 million dollars of revenue Jump Start is anticipated to generate, exactly zero dollars are allocated to meeting this critical need while 9% are allocated for Green New Deal programs. I believe the nexus for funding behavioral health services is stronger and these services are a higher priority. So, in the near term, Jump Start revenues should be reallocated for them. Continue reading →

Seattle freeway encampments to be cleared as rock throwing incidents bring surveillance flights, arrests

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A small surveillance plane buzzed large circles around Capitol Hill and the Central District early Thursday morning as crews prepared to remove encampments above the I-90 and I-5 interchange area in the core of Seattle after weeks of rock and debris throwing incidents freeway endangering motorists.

The continued surveillance and camp removal follows the East Precinct’s arrest Tuesday of a man for throwing rocks at cars just before rush hour near the eastbound onramp to I-90 from Rainier Ave S. The arrest is one of at least five the King County Prosecutor’s office says have been taken into custody in recent weeks for the bizarre and dangerous acts. A sixth person was taken into custody but released, officials say, after the Washington State Patrol determined the suspect “was not the person they thought he was.”

Tuesday’s incident required an “help the officer” alert to be issued as police sped to the scene as the suspect began fighting during his arrest by WSP. Seattle Police says “a loaded 9mm magazine” fell from the man’s waistband as he was being apprehended. The area and nearby encampments were searched but a weapon was not located. Continue reading →

Board candidates to represent Capitol Hill and Central District public schools take on issues of equity, Critical Race Theory

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With the rest of the city closely watching key races for the mayor’s office and the two citywide seats on the city council, who gets elected to the Board of Directors for Seattle Public Schools doesn’t get as much attention. The Seattle School Board also runs its elections in an unusual way. The city is carved up into seven districts — Capitol Hill is in District 5. During the primary election, people vote only for a candidate in their district. When the general election comes in November, the races are thrown open citywide, with everyone in the city voting for a candidate in every race.

For now, we’ll focus on the more immediate decision. The summer is the time for primary elections, and board member Zachary DeWolf opted not to run again after serving one term, so the seat is open.

That leaves three candidates vying for an open District 5 seat. Voters will get to choose one, and the top two finishers will face each other in November to determine the winner. The race is nonpartisan.

And, like in many places around the country, Critical Race Theory is making an appearance. The theory is a roughly 40-year-old concept which until a few months ago was largely relegated to discussions within academia and the legal profession until it became a flashpoint for conservatives around the country, who are really, really against it.

We’re not going to get into it in detail here. If you want to understand the debate, you can Google it. We’ll let you know which candidates have taken a public stance on it. Seattle Schools doesn’t have policies which formally use the term, but the district does have policies which seem informed by some of the ideas it espouses.

Here’s a look at the District 5 candidates. Continue reading →

With planned return to in-person learning, Seattle Public Schools adds ‘Virtual Option Pilot Program’

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(Image: Seattle Public Schools)

Seattle Public Schools will keep the online instruction muscle it struggled to build during COVID-19 restrictions with a Virtual Learning Option pilot program for the 2021-2022 school year.

The district announced details and leaders for the pilot program earlier this month in preparation for the start of the new school year in September:

While we are taking all the necessary steps to ensure in-person learning is safe and welcoming for all students, we will also a pilot virtual option for a small population of K-12 students. A virtual option for preschool students will not be offered. Starting with a small virtual option pilot will best promote the district’s goals for racial equity and will provide important data and feedback should the district decide to develop larger scale virtual learning options in the future.

Starting this fall, SPS says there will be “a limited number of students in grades K-12” who can enroll in the virtual learning pilot. Continue reading →

Intiman Homecoming street party and performances joins growing list of in-person Capitol Hill events coming soon

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Capitol Hill’s in-person events calendar is beginning to fill up including a new “homecoming” celebration planned for September to mark the arrival of Intiman Theater in the neighborhood.

The Intiman Homecoming street party is being planned as a ticketed event and will fill Harvard with performance, vendors, and celebration between Pike and Pine the weekend of September 18th.

The event will celebrate the theater group’s new partnership and programs at Seattle Central: Continue reading →

This Capitol Hill candidate for Seattle mayor can’t make rent — and that’s OK

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(Image: Andrew Grant Houston for Seattle Mayor)

A Seattle conservative radio show host’s attempt to take on mayoral candidate and Capitol Hill apartment resident Andrew Grant Houston over unpaid rent has backfired.

Pundit Jason Rantz targeted the “divest SPD” candidate with an article based on email from Houston’s landlord detailing more than $20,000 in back rent at the unnamed Capitol Hill building Houston calls home.

The gist: Houston’s campaign has raised more than $400,000 for his longshot bid for the mayor’s office largely from the success of its efforts to collect Democracy Vouchers while the candidate has reportedly failed to pay rent.

The unpaid rent is just as likely to garner support for Houston as it is scorn. Turns out, Houston is a lot like thousands of other renters in Seattle who have struggled to make ends meet. Continue reading →

Capitol Hill tech firm Add3 eyeing deal for new headquarters, space for new club in former R Place building

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(Image: CHS)

The likely future for a history-rich building formerly the longtime home of an icon in Capitol Hill gay nightlife could be a new headquarters for one of the neighborhood’s home-grown tech firms while making space for a new player to enter the Pike/Pine club scene.

Digital marketing firm Add3 is under contract to purchase the 1917-built Bothell Motors garage building at E Pine and Boylston, according to construction permit documents. You might know it is as the former home of R Place.

According to the documents, the Capitol Hill tech firm is making plans to purchase the building and overhaul it as a new headquarters with offices and meeting rooms. The effort would include “core and shell renovation” of the three-story, unreinforced masonry building, maintaining nightlife use on the ground floors and creating new office space above. The $1.1 million construction project with Mallet Construction would overhaul the first two floors formerly home to the longtime Capitol Hill gay bar in preparation for a new tenant. Continue reading →