Author Archives: Emma Schwichtenberg - CHS Intern

In county’s hopes to house its homeless, the Salvation Army part of growing effort on the streets of Capitol Hill and the Central District

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(Image: Salvation Army Street Level)

A red van filled with shoes, socks, and hygiene bags navigates the streets of Seattle’s core this winter across Capitol Hill and the Central District. The words “Street Level” appear on the side. They are looking for unhoused individuals who they can help find housing.

“We offer the one thing that not many outreach workers offer,” Tina Lewis director of Salvation Army Street Level ministry said. “Nine times out of 10 they’re offering hygiene kits, blankets,and tents, street level goes a bit further. We are offering you the chance to get into permanent housing. Asking people to allow us to help them eliminate those barriers that are stopping them and causing them to be out here.”

The Salvation Army has never had an outreach team before. Street Level is the first of its kind for the charity. Launched in South King County by Lewis in 2019, Salvation Army says the team has helped more than 1,200 people gain housing last year.

While Street Level is unlike any approach from Salvation Army before, it is shaped in the spirit of the organization with its official status as a religious organization.

In June, Street Level received a new $1.2 million contract with the King County Regional Homelessness Authority to expand its efforts to Central Seattle including the Central District and Capitol Hill. That team consists of five individuals; a behavioral health specialist, a resource coordinator, and three outreach workers equipped with one van. Continue reading →

A growing movement in the Central District, here’s what it means when you see a Black Legacy Homeowners sign

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(Image: Black Legacy Homeowners)

A movement to celebrate the history and present day of Black home ownership in the Central District is taking shape with gatherings and signs proudly displayed in yards across the area’s neighborhoods.

Black Legacy Homeowners is a newly forming network of neighbors organizing to protect and grow their place in the CD and across the Seattle-Tacoma region.

“The Black Legacy Homeowner network is a collection of Black homeowners who are coming together, to provide resources to each other, so we can stay in our homes and stabilize ourselves,” Chukundi Salisbury, executive director for the organization, tells CHS. “We are trying to turn back the tide of gentrification and predatory development that seem to displace us from our homes.”

Part of the group’s mission is to push back on the misconception that Black homeowners are disappearing, a point that Salisbury says is not true.

“You have people that just did not know that there are a lot of Black people left who own property,” Salisbury said. Continue reading →

CHS Pics | A visit to Capitol Hill’s Christmas Dive Bar

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You can mark Christmas Dive Bar off your wishlist this year. An 11th Ave club has transformed into Capitol Hill’s winter wonderland for this holiday season.

“Seattle winters can be super dark and super gray,” owner Joey Burgess said. “This was an interesting opportunity to light up a space that could be unique to the Hill.”

Unlike holiday venues that can pop up to profit off Capitol Hill’s nightlife culture, Christmas Dive Bar is a local venture.

“This is just a homegrown project, by Capitol Hill for Capitol Hill,” Burgess said. “We appreciate everyone’s creativity, we know this isn’t a unique concept. We just thought we could try to do it our way and keep it local.” Continue reading →

A Capitol Hill Station cafe years in the making, Seasmith really will arrive in 2024

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Seasmith will have a lot in common with its Beacon Ave sibling Fable (Image: Fable)

Capitol Hill Station’s crowds of light rail passengers are back to pre-pandemic levels — and then some. The mix of apartments and new residents above the stations has created a busy new Broadway neighborhood. Now the hopes of new businesses above the nearly eight-year-old Seattle subway stop are also returning to pre-pandemic levels.

“I don’t think I could have imagined that a project could take us that long but back then,” Mathew Wendland, owner of Seasmith said. “But I also couldn’t have imagined any of the things we were all going to go through within COVID.”

Seasmith is the happily anticipated, long awaited coffee shop and casual hangout from the Burien Press family of businesses. It will have been in the works to join Capitol Hill Station’s new development at the corner of Broadway and E. Barbara Bailey Way for five years when it finally opens in 2024 joining the expanded Glo’s Diner (May 2023), and H Mart’s M2M grocery market (April 2022) as the development’s commercial tenants finally reach critical mass.

Seasmith will be “all day cafe, really looking at how do we create something that is activating every part of the day — coffee, fresh food in morning, full kitchen, lunch, dinner, beer, natural wine,” Wendland said about the project when we first spoke to him about it in 2021.

When it finally opens next year, Seasmith’s story will be one of pandemic challenges, transit oriented development bureaucracy, and creative perseverance. Continue reading →

Capitol Hill Business Alliance providing new connections as neighborhood’s shops, service providers, and hangouts recover from the pandemic

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(Image: Capitol Hill Business Alliance)

New Capitol Hill Business Alliance leader and membership manager Laura Culberg is focusing on in-person “Community Conversation” sessions with businesses and they want the neighborhood’s small business communities to join.

“There’s a place for all sizes and types of businesses,” Culberg said. “Sometimes people think there’s nothing for them there, but you don’t know what’s possible until you connect with your community.”

While Culberg may be new to the CHBA she knows firsthand what it is to run a business, she ran her Sweatbox Yoga studio in Capitol Hill for 20 years before selling before the pandemic. For her, the CHCC helped her benefit from a network that she wants CHBA to help small and big businesses alike to receive the same benefits.

“What I can bring to the conversation is resources people just often don’t know about,” Culberg said. “Capitol Hill knows more small businesses than any other neighborhood in Seattle so they need some support. I had to learn a lot about just getting support, you know, I couldn’t manage it on my own. I needed help, and that’s what CHBA does — we help the community.” Continue reading →

Hope that benefits will shine through construction and parking worries for one-way Pike and Pine

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Work is already complete to transform Melrose — but SDOT is going back to finish the job

The Melrose Promenade needs a redo. The Madison bus RapidRide construction has been a pain. With the Seattle Department of Transportation’s recent track record for the area, Capitol Hill businesses along the stretches of Pike and Pine being transformed to one-way streets with protected bike lanes are hoping for a smoother ride through the changes.

It’s not clear the hoped benefits of the work — wider sidewalks, better bike protections, safer driving conditions — have fully hit home as construction has begun and the changes are underway.

“They gave us a flyer letting us know that these changes would impact traffic in the area so we’re sending out messages to our clients to let them know of the change,” Chenelle Basurto, front desk lead at Vain Hair salon, said. “The area itself is already incredibly difficult to find parking and navigate for our clients. This is impacting us kind of negatively in that regard, it’s just an added stressor for the people trying to get to our location.”

The Pike and Pine construction now underway between I-5 and Bellevue Ave is the beginning of 18 months of scheduled work as the city will continue to install new bike lane protections, from downtown to Capitol Hill. The project itself came from a business focus group, Downtown Seattle Association started their Pike Pine Renaissance Project back in 2013.

“They did a lot of different engagements to talk about how to make the Pike-Pine Corridor sort of stand out,” Brie Gyncild , co-chair of Central Seattle Greenways, said. “A lot of that was done with the intention of making it a better environment for the businesses.” Continue reading →

Affordable, LGBTQIA+ focused, and neighboring Neighbours, Pride Place creates a new home for Capitol Hill seniors

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After decades of community hope, Pride Place is filling with residents.

On Broadway between Pike and Pine, the affordable housing for LGBTQIA+ seniors is the first of its kind in Washington. There are 118 new homes in the project. The conveniences of modern construction and quality windows will help keep dance club Neighbours a good neighbor.

The ribbon was cut on a cold fall night in late October but energy from the new senior residents cut the chill. Taking the stage was Laney, a resident of Pride Place who had been waiting a long time for queer elders to be placed at the forefront of the community’s needs.

“Pride Place is the kind of place my friends and I talked about in our 40s, something we could only dream about,” Laney said.

Pride Place is special. Applicants must financially qualify for the building that is utilizing “affirmative marketing” to reach out to underrepresented communities and help make the new building a home for the LGBTQIA+ senior community. The building cannot restrict leasing to queer-identifying seniors because of federal housing law. Instead, Pride Place is reaching out to LGBTQIA+ seniors who meet income requirements.

Laney was a longtime resident of Capitol Hill until COVID hit and she took to the road in her minivan, leaving behind her close-knit queer community. It wasn’t a decision she took lightly, while her travels over the next couple years were full of adventure she couldn’t forget those she had left behind.

“I missed my queer community,” Laney said. “I returned to Seattle but there was no way that I could afford my apartment on Capitol Hill any longer — I couldn’t return to my beloved neighborhood.” Continue reading →

Owner of Taurus Ox opening Ananas Pizzeria bringing Lao pizza and dive bar classics to First Hill

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(Image: Ananas Pizzeria)

The flavors of a classic pizzeria and Lao cuisine are set to marry in Ananas Pizzeria, a pizza dive bar reintroducing classics while putting a spin on the classic pie from Seattle restaurateur Khampaeng Panyathong.

The pizza joint on 8th Ave is a new name returning to an old spot. The location was once filled by Primo Pizza Parlor, a favorite in the neighborhood. Taurus Ox and Ananas Pizzeria chef/owner Panyathong champions staying true to the roots of the local culture. The building has over 100 years of history within its walls and a new business is incoming.

“As soon as I walked in I was able to feel this energy and see beyond the rundown nature of the building,”  Panyathong said. “I was just envisioning the possibilities of what this space could become.”

Panyathong plans to open the new pizza joint this month.

Despite the Lao influence, Panyathong sees Ananas Pizzeria as a separate entity from Taurus Ox and its sibling Ox Burger. CHS reported here on the reshuffling of Taurus Ox and Ox Burger. Taurus Ox on 19th Ave E hosts a menu of traditional Lao cuisine, a mile southwest of the original Taurus Ox location, now Ox Burger. Panyathong says there are a few connections between his projects.

“I couldn’t miss this opportunity to do a Lao pizza,” Panyathong said. “We’re really close to figuring it out.” Continue reading →

Gold Coast Ghal Kitchen bringing Liberian and Ghanaian flavors and West African favorites to First Hill

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Fahnbulleh’s food is ready for more glamour shots (Image: Gold Coast Ghal Kitchen)

Tina Fahnbulleh celebrating in August as she got the keys to her first brick and mortar restaurant (Image: Gold Coast Ghal Kitchen)

 

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The West African flavors of Gold Coast Ghal Kitchen are set to join First Hill in a space filled with memories of home for owner Tina Fahnbulleh.

Gold Coast Ghal Kitchen was started in 2017 with a six-year journey of pop-ups and events by Fahnbulleh toward opening her own restaurant.

“My menu is based on the foods I grew up with,” Fahnbulleh said. “I’ve had to go without them in each place I’ve lived in Seattle and I just wanted a little bit of home with me.” Continue reading →

Behind the Capitol Hill curtains at a ‘macabre Halloween cocktail party,’ local theater makers and ‘tiny moments to scare the partygoers’

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Showtime on E Roy

 

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Subscribe to CHS to help us hire writers and photographers to cover the neighborhood. CHS is a pay what you can community news site with no required sign-in or paywall. To stay that way, we need you.

Become a subscriber to help us cover the neighborhood for as little as $5 a month. 

 

You can look at the return of the Haunted Soiree “macabre Halloween cocktail party” to Capitol Hill as the return of a soul-stealing zombie business that haunts the neighborhood sucking dollars from unsuspecting tourists and filling them with watered down cocktails.

Afterall, Capitol Hill does Hilloween just fine on its own. Bars and restaurants up and down Broadway and across Pike and Pine look forward to the weekends around the holiday for almost Pride-levels of business.

It is also true that the concept is part of a nationwide production company’s ventures that swoops onto Capitol Hill once a year to cash in on Hilloween enthusiasm.

But you’ll be missing most of the fun. And some of the cocktails are actually good.

“I’m a teaching artist and I heard about Haunted Soiree through some friends,” cast member Hannah Votel said. “I love the tiny moments to scare the partygoers, luring them in with a false sense of insecurity. You can tell they like to be messed with.” Continue reading →