Author Archives: Hannah Saunders

Under New Ownership: First, Pride, then new life and new memories at The Cuff

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First, Cuff Pride Fest (Image: The Cuff)

Scott Walent lived in San Francisco for 15 years where he worked to fill the city’s nights as a promoter and co-owned the music venue Rickshaw Stop. He gave it up to move to Seattle in 2018 to build his career.

Seven years and a lot of nights later, Walent is an owner again, the holder of the keys to The Cuff Complex, the Capitol Hill leather bar that has been a backbone of Seattle’s queer scene for more than 30 years.

“I’m really focused on providing a range of music types and party types. We’re really focusing on having the gambit as far as we have in the queer community,” Walent tells CHS.

CHS reported here on Walent’s spring acquisition of The Cuff as the Queer/Bar family of Capitol Hill businesses decided to spin off the 13th Ave leather hangout to an owner who could focus on the historic gay bar’s unique place in the city’s queer nightlife scene.

Queer/Bar nightlife veteran and co-founder Joey Burgess is still on hand to help guide The Cuff this Pride weekend through its major Cuff Pride Fest street party but, after that, Walent is ready to move forward in reshaping The Cuff on his own.

There will be changes. And expansions. Walent said he’s working to produce a Girl’s Night Out event so lesbians, queers and allies can also feel welcome at The Cuff, adding how he’s “making sure that it’s not just the typical gay bar.” Based on the mix of people he’s seen at The Cuff, Walent is excited to give this new effort a try. Continue reading →

In East Precinct community meeting, residents flag traffic and mental health as the city’s top safety concerns, SPD blames staffing shortages

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A scene from a SPD recruiting video

A “Community-Police Dialogue” for the East Precinct was held this week to discuss the results of the 2024 Seattle Public Safety Survey and the current concerns of residents. Traffic and police capacity were the two top safety concerns listed in the report, and meeting attendees cited their desire to assist those experiencing behavioral health challenges, like one man who has been living on a resident’s dumpster, usually naked, for three years now. The response from several SPD officers? Call 911 and wait until staffing levels rise to see a reduction in crime and a rise in assistance for those with serious mental illness.

“One of the things that’s changing in the work that I do, and it’s changing for the positive, has to do with our engagement with people in behavioral health crises…Police have been the default agency that goes to anything that’s strange,” David Sullivan, who does crisis intervention for the East Precinct, said.

He added how police have increased training on behavioral health response, and that the King County Crisis Care Center levy has opened one center in Kirkland. Sullivan said officers in Seattle are doubling the use of this facility “for voluntary and involuntary detentions or crises.” Continue reading →

Capitol Hill wine shop La Cha-Bliss: ‘A touch of fabulous in every pour’ — but nothing French thanks to ‘Liberation Day’ tariffs

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(Image: Ladie Chablis)

(Image: La Cha-Bliss)

Seattle drag queen Ladie Chablis is getting into the wine business and the show is ready to begin.

Capitol Hill’s new La Cha-Bliss wine shop is ready to open any day now.

Known as Howard Russell off the stage, the first-time retail entrepreneur told CHS that the support of the LGBTQIA+ community helped the vinous dreams come to fruition.

“The location is ready—it’s ready to go. I’m just waiting on the liquor license to come through, and that’s where we’re at right now. My goal is to have this store open on the first week of April,” Russell told CHS last month.

Russell was on holiday with friends in December and took note of cute and quaint wine shops, commenting on how lovely it would be to have one. After returning to Seattle, a friend alerted Russell of the available retail space at 1412 12th Ave formerly home to a flower design shop.

“I went ahead, talked to the realtor and the broker… and they gave me a good offer on the place itself,” Russell said. “When all was said and done, they chose me [over seven applicants] to have my wine store there.” Continue reading →

Seeking connections and data trends, the new Capitol Hill Neighborhood Safety Coordinator is on the job

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SPD VIOLENT CRIME TRENDS — CAPITOL HILL: The Capitol Hill core has averaged about 29 violent crimes a month so far in 2025

SPD PROPERTY CRIME TRENDS — CAPITOL HILL: Property crimes like burglary and theft are a big problem. The area has averaged nearly 200 property crime reports per day in 2025 (Source: SPD Crime Dashboard)

Jen Carl

Since taking on the role of the new Capitol Hill Neighborhood Safety Coordinator with the GSBA chamber of commerce in February, Jen Carl has been conducting initial outreach with members of city departments, and taking a responsive approach by looking into safety issues the neighborhood is experiencing. But, her goal in this position is to uncover crime trends to build more proactive responses, and to strengthen relationships between the community and cops.

Carl is a Lesbian who grew up in Florida in the 1990s, having experienced bias. She went into the criminal legal field after the 2015 murder of Freddie Gray while in Baltimore police custody. She said the legal system is one of the most marginalizing systems in the U.S., and hopes to find ways to truly serve the neighborhood where it’s safe for the community and general public.

“Right now, it’s just a lot of data gathering: understanding where the gaps are in public safety, understanding that Capitol Hill is a very unique community,” Carl told CHS, who noted how Capitol Hill’s economy is driven by visitors and neighborhood-focused small businesses alike.

“Together, they create this wonderful [catalyst] of uniqueness, so understanding that unique vibrancy that Capitol Hill has and pairing that with the challenges that it’s seeing, and figuring out what the best strategies are to overcoming while maintaining the uniqueness.”

The new Capitol Hill Neighborhood Safety Coordinator comes as a response to growing concerns and impatience around street disorder and public drug use — especially in Pike/Pine and especially at the core area around Cal Anderson Park and Broadway and Pike. Continue reading →

How long to lid I-5 between Capitol Hill and downtown? Years and years and years — but the plan is being shaped now

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(Image: Lid I-5)

A view from the new lid over 520 in Montlake (Image: Lid I-5)

Last month, the new SR-520 bike and pedestrian bridge opened to counterbalance the flow of motor vehicles traveling across the new Montlake Lid. Longstanding hopes to cover freeways in other parts of the city are also taking shape. Between Capitol Hill and downtown, the Lid I-5 group has been working on its initiative long enough that its years-old utility pole flyers have become part of the area’s gritty urban landscape. The effort has a $2.2 million boost to work with in 2025.

John Feit has been part of the group pursuing the lidding of I-5 through downtown to cap noise and pollution, and to reconnect neighborhoods while filing gaping holes in the city—like the affordable housing supply. Now, the U.S. Department of Transportation awarded the city $2 million and the state legislature added another $200,000 in planning grants. Lid I-5 and other proponents of Seattle lids are pushing forward.

“We’re going to use that recent money to come up with an urban design vision, which means understanding what the people of Seattle would like to see with the lid accomplished,” Feit told CHS.

A rendering of a Lid I-5 concept that includes park space and new buildings (Image: Lid I-5)

Continue reading →

With changes on her City Hall squad, here’s how Hollingsworth’s ‘District Director for District 3’ helps connect the team

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Altshuler (Image: City of Seattle)

With ripples of political change underway at Seattle City Hall, District 3 representative Joy Hollingsworth’s team is also making changes headed into 2025. As she works to choose a new policy director, a stabilizing force in the first-year legislator’s office fills a role new to District 3.

Hollingsworth’s District Director for District 3 is Alex Altshuler who says year two in the office will be about continuing to navigate concerns of constituents while building on the team’s legislative victories of 2024 — and smaller, sometimes equally important wins helping constituents and community groups in District 3.

“It’s when I get little wins for the community. I’ve been able to get street lamps that are out of order for a couple of years back on in a few days,” Altshuler tells CHS.

CHS reported just under a year ago on Hollingsworth’s approach to leading District 3 and the formation of a new office as she first assembled her team while still emerging from the long shadows of Kshama Sawant’s highly focused but polarizing political organization. Continue reading →

Donna Jean’s Place — hope for helping 100 women a year rise from homelessness on Capitol Hill

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(Image: Operation Nightwatch)

The plan for growing a Capitol Hill women’s shelter began when Frank DiGirolamo of Operation Nightwatch and Rev. Steve Thomason, dean and rector of 10th Ave E’s St. Mark’s, met at a clergy dinner and shared their work with one another.

Operation Nightwatch has been active for 57 years and began through street canvassing efforts, which they continue to this day on Capitol Hill.

“We spend a lot of time listening and reminding people that they’re loved,” DiGirolamo told CHS. “We’re always responding to the needs we hear about from the people we visit.”

Thomason said St. Marks had been a site for women’s emergency shelter for over two decades, but then COVID-19 hit.

“It seemed the natural thing for us to consider again, even if it’s not a long-term solution for that location. We’re hoping that the City of Seattle and King County, all of the organizations that are committed to addressing the housing crisis, will be in a very different place three to four years from now than we currently are,” Thomason told CHS. Continue reading →

Scott vs. Suarez — The race for the 43rd moves through the Capitol Hill Farmers Market

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Scott with campaign workers at Sunday’s farmers market

Suarez and her recovered signs

This election season’s battle for the open seat to represent the 43rd District in the Washington House of Representatives has many of the markings of modern political warfare — extreme polarization over social issues and public safety, slick attack ads with the fingerprints of political think tanks all over them, and back and forth accusations tying the opposition to larger, overarching threats to the country and Democracy as we know it.

But as the campaign draws closer to November 5th’s Election Day, the fight was playing out over the weekend with simpler battles over stolen campaign signs and the neighborhood farmers market.

Sunday, Shaun Scott and opponent Andrea Suarez told CHS that both campaigns were confident that they’d come out on top.

Scott has regularly canvassed at the Capitol Hill Farmers Market since the start of his campaign, which has amounted to about 24 visits, he said. Attending the market has allowed the candidate to talk with many voters who are more challenging to reach through traditional campaigning methods like door-knocking. When speaking with neighborhood residents, the primary concern Scott says he hears is the need to pass the rent stabilization bill, House Bill 2114, which will be re-introduced next session and would, in part, limit rent and fee increases.

CHS Election 2024

“Renters are one of the most disenfranchised groups that we have in our state, because we have a state legislature that is dominated by property holders, homeowners, landlords, and as a result, the interests of renters and working people are not reflected in our state government and it’s decisions,” Scott told CHS.

While acknowledging the skyrocketing of rental prices, Suarez holds different views on the efficacy of rental caps. Continue reading →

Checking in with the revival of the Capitol Hill Community Council: an overflow start, November election party, and big plans for 2025

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So many people want to get involved with the revival of the Capitol Hill Community Council, its September relaunch meeting put the neighborhood library over its legal occupancy limit.

Organizer and neighborhood resident Chris Paulus, who has taken initiative to recharge the council, said it was “too much of a success.” The solution in September was to split the crowd in half and run the meeting twice.

“We weren’t expecting a large turnout but then to our surprise…we couldn’t let anymore people in,” Paulus tells CHS.

The October follow-up also went well. Now the neighbors, business owners, and community group representatives of the revived CHCC must work together to figure out where the council goes next.

This month’s meeting on October 10 in the 12th Ave Arts building offered space for attendees to express concerns they’re grappling with, like the transportation levy that will be on the November ballot. Continue reading →

‘Proof and power’ — Africatown Plaza affordable development now open in the Central District

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(Image: CHS)

(Image: CH)S

Africatown Plaza, a new $66.5 million 126-unit affordable apartment building on the 23rd and Union Midtown block, opened to residents this month after two years of construction that included an unprecedented number of Black families who worked on the project, its developers say.

Community Roots Housing and the Africatown Community Land Trust say Africatown Plaza is a standing symbol of what can be achieved through advocacy, unity and perseverance.

“When I thought about what this day and what this project represents, what really came to me was proof and power,” K. Wyking Garrett, president and CEO of ACLT, said at the building’s opening ceremony earlier this month. “We see the proof of the true power that exists within us, and among us to imagine, design and build solutions for the problems that we face.” Continue reading →