Author Archives: Hannah Saunders

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)

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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 →

As rising rents erode queer communities across Capitol Hill and the Central District, leaders pin hope on state rent stabilization legislation

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Rep. Nicole Macri at the September affordable housing forum (Image: CHS)

Nobody in Washington rents like the queer communities living across Capitol Hill and the Central District rent. Political and community leaders say there could be new opportunities in Olympia to address the climbing rents in the city’s core causing continued displacement among the city’s LGBTQIA+ population.

Advocates and legislators met in September with the Washington Low Income Housing Alliance to discuss rent stabilization and support, where House Bill 2114— which passed in the House and died in the Senate this past year — took up much of the conversation and was the’ go-to answer when responding to community questions about how they will improve the lives of renters.

A National Low Income Housing Coalition report this summer found that workers in the Seattle and Bellevue areas would need to earn $50.87 per hour to afford a two-bedroom unit.

A recent University of Washington graduate spoke about their experiences with renting in Seattle.

“The lack of stable rents really makes me feel as if Seattle doesn’t want to support young people, especially those who are all about improving their communities and not just making a big salary,” the renter said.

“It’s likely I won’t be able to stay in Capitol Hill at a certain point due to a future rent increase.”

The challenges for renters in Seattle hit the city’s LGBTQIA+ communities especially hard. Continue reading →

First Fridays and Second Thursdays — New Central District Art Walk joins Capitol Hill Art Walk for monthly explorations of neighborhood creation and community

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(Image: Central District Art Walk)

The Capitol Hill Art Walk has been on the move for more than 15 years (Image: CHS)

With First Fridays and Second Thursdays, Central District and Capitol Hill lovers of painting, photography, sculpture, and community now have two nights a month to mark on the calendar.

The Central District Art Walk is now making First Fridays a time for seeing new things and meeting new creators across the neighborhood.

“There’s a lot of really beautiful art and culture and history. I see [the art walk] as a way… of reminding people of the history and the culture of the Central District, and celebrating those. There’s a lot of art and music and beautiful stuff that came out of the Central District that can sometimes get lost when something like gentrification is happening,” Stephanie Morales of Made Space says about the new monthly event. The second ever walk is today.

Meanwhile, the long running Capitol Hill Art Walk walks on every second Thursday.

“We’re currently working alongside the Capitol Hill Arts District to help push public outreach marketing and venue growth, since it’s such a fantastic and vital community-building event,” coordinator Laurie Kearney tells CHS. “Currently, there’s an average of 20 venues that take place on a regular basis, which fluctuates throughout the seasons.” Continue reading →

Access Walk returns to Volunteer Park to help state’s safe abortion access organizations

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(Image: Access Walk)

With health and reproductive rights increasingly being determined at the state level, Access Walk is taking steps to support choice by strengthening Seattle’s ability to help people from across the nation. Capitol Hill’s Volunteer Park will host the 2024 Access Walk this Saturday with funds and donations raised at the event going towards services people need most when seeking care far from their homes, like lodging, food and, gasoline.

Access Walk co-founder Jeff Pyatt tell CHS the fall of Roe v. Wade inspired a family discussion at the dinner table. After pondering what they could do to assist birthing people, they came up with an idea for the walk. The first was held in Volunteer Park in 2023.

“This is a basic healthcare right—abortion is. Having it be banned or hard to receive in so many states, and having abortion services in Washington that are available, but for access, hard to get here, I feel like we have a moral imperative to make sure that anyone who needs to get here for an abortion can, and if we can help them with lodging and fuel and transportation and meals, then we’re doing good work,” Pyatt said. Continue reading →

A new flashpoint in Seattle’s concerns over crime and public safety, calls for resilience and change as hundreds march to remember dog walker slain in Madison Valley carjacking — UPDATE

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The carjacking murder of Ruth Dalton has become a flashpoint in Seattle’s concerns over crime and public safety. A memorial walk for the slain neighborhood dog walker Wednesday night included messages of resilience, anger, love, and politics as loved ones were joined by neighbors, city officials, and political candidates in the vigil and walk from where Dalton was dragged and killed in a Madison Valley carjacking attempt in August.

People streamed along E Madison Wednesday during the evening memorial walk for Dalton, an 80-year-old dog walker who was murdered in an August carjacking with her dog, Prince.

Leading the march were four people who helped Dalton during the aftermath of the brutal attack, holding a banner with a picture of Dalton and her pup, a cross and words that read: “We care—Be like Ruth. Change is coming.”

CHS reported here on the efforts to organize the march by the Friends of Madison Park community group and Dalton’s family.

The group trickled into Madison Park and posted up near the playground for the vigil. Melanie Roberts, Dalton’s granddaughter, said she’s been getting her strength from god, her grandmother and “little grumpy Prince dog,” who was Ruth’s defender, and spoke to each of the heroes holding the banner. Continue reading →