Author Archives: Max Keystone - CHS reporting intern

About Max Keystone - CHS reporting intern

Max Keystone is an undergraduate studying Political Science and Journalism at the University of Washington in Seattle. They have a deep interest in Seattle politics and local culture.

‘EST. 2020’ — Another Capitol Hill restaurant born into the teeth of the pandemic, Meet Korean BBQ has rebuilt and is ready to thrive in Pike/Pine

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(Image: Meet Korean BBQ)

After a challenging opening during the onset of the coronavirus pandemic, Meet Korean BBQ has overcome pandemic setbacks to bring Capitol Hill its premium wood-fired meats.

Though it faced hardships along the way, the restaurant is emerging from the pandemic strong, owner Heong Soon Park tells CHS.

The first year of the coronavirus saw much of Meet’s workers leave as workers exited the food industry en masse, leading the restaurant to start over with a new team before finally reopening in January 2021. Now, more than two years since its initial opening in February 2020, Park reports success with Meet Korean BBQ even as it works hard to rebuild its staff roster.

“We’re busier now, which is great, but again the biggest challenge is finding the right staff. Demand is there, but we just don’t have enough supply for customers because you just can’t find enough manpower,” Park said. Continue reading →

With unique maps and chalk walks, Urban planning firm Smash the Box works to improve Seattle transportation

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(Image: Smash the Box)

Smash the Box, a multidisciplinary Seattle-based planning startup, recently won contracts with the Seattle Department of Transportation and King County Metro to join efforts to improve the quality of local transit. Founder Yes Segura, a professional cartographer, has been selling engraved wooden art of maps in order to raise funds to kick start the business.

The firm is diverse in both their leadership and the work they do — Yes Segura, a transgender man and first generation El Salvadoran, founded the firm to provide services ranging from art, to communications, to urban planning and design.

“We’re smashing the box in the way that we’re actually having representation at the table, but also the way that we’re going about it,” Segura said. Continue reading →

Here’s what (good things) happened when residents of Capitol Hill’s La Quinta apartments couldn’t buy their (landmarked) building

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(Image: Viva La Quinta/Jesse L. Young)

Declared a historic landmark last year after a lengthy campaign coordinated by a group of residents, La Quinta apartments has been under new ownership since late August. Though its residents were unable to purchase the Spanish-inspired building for themselves as they had originally intended, one tells CHS the new owners have been respectful of their tenants and the historic property.

“At the start of the pandemic we heard word that the building was going to be sold,” said La Quinta resident Chelsea Bolan.

In response, Bolan and fellow residents of the apartments sprang into action with the Viva La Quinta effort, which sought to gain landmark protections for the building and to raise funds for its tenants to purchase the property themselves. CHS reported here on how Seattle’s Notice of Intent to Sell ordinance could help residents like those living in La Quinta buy time to bid on their home property.

But at La Quinta, that never happened. The building sold to a real estate developer. It turns out, so far, everything is fine.

Though the group was ultimately unable to purchase the property before it was sold to its new owners, they were successful in pushing for La Quinta to gain historic landmark status in collaboration with local development authority Historic Seattle. Continue reading →

‘WE HAVE EACH OTHER – WE NEED EACH OTHER’ — A Will and A Way uplifts unhoused community on Capitol Hill through mutual aid

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Seattle’s homelessness crisis continues and government efforts come and go — here is one very small example of a different approach that moves outside City Hall’s response to the crisis. Forming in small community efforts nationwide during Black Lives Matter and anti-police protests of recent years, mutual aid organizations use donations to provide marginalized groups with resources such as food and medical care. One busy here is A Will and A Way, a Capitol Hill-based organization that seeks to uplift and support the local unhoused community.

A Will and A Way formed from a group of local protest medics who provided care to participants in a number of local demonstrations, that has since branched out and began to offer support services over the year and a half it has been on the Hill, a member of A Will and A Way tells CHS.

“We started to see how much the police brutality was also affecting the unhoused community, and so as the protests started to die down, we shifted into providing medical aid to the unhoused community,” the member said.

The member CHS spoke with chose to remain anonymous in order to avoid putting themselves in the spotlight above other members in the group — reflecting the horizontal organization of A Will and A Way. Continue reading →

The Ann Davison way takes hold in Seattle: City Attorney talks more aggressive approach to Seattle’s low level crime at East Precinct community meeting

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Ann Davison’s plan is taking hold in Seattle. She appeared at an East Precinct community meeting last week.

The Ann Davison way is taking hold in Seattle’s approach to curbing day to day street crimes and low level misdemeanors. Last week, the still new Seattle City Attorney took part in a Central District and Capitol Hill community and public safety meeting to talk about her latest efforts.

Monday, the city’s municipal court judges who hear the lower level cases the new Seattle City Attorney’s office prosecutes agreed to a plan that will put the most chronic offenders in jail, not a community diversion program.

Responding to the proposal from her office, the court’s judges have signed onto Davison’s “High Utilizer” plan and agreed to exclude the most frequent repeat offenders from Seattle’s community court program which can provide a path for charges to be dropped if an offender participates in programs including housing and employment services, and drug treatment. Continue reading →

On The Block Second Saturdays aims to uplift with monthly 11th Ave street party filled with art, vendors, and music

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11th Ave is a good place for a street fair (Image: CHS)

A coalition of Capitol Hill artists and performers are coming together in an effort to bolster both the economy of the neighborhood as well as the bonds within it, especially among the BIPOC community.

On The Block Second Saturdays will be a recurring event that will take place on 11th Ave between E. Pike and Pine, with the first edition scheduled just two weeks away on May 14. It will be held every second Saturday into October of this year. The event will run from 1 PM to 9 PM.

“What we hope to do is build a kind of community that will level the playing field by bringing people together authentically, and also super organically create an environment that is more safe for our communities,” said Julie-C, founder of artist support group Forever Safe Spaces, who serves as the project coordinator for On The Block.

Julie-C said though the pandemic brought hardship to the community, it is not the only barrier to local artists — BIPOC artists in particular are often excluded from creative spaces. The new event seeks to both uplift and create a space for them while also assisting in local economic recovery after the devastation of COVID-19. Continue reading →

Capitol Hill’s Lady Krishna — love, meditation, and new music

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Natasha Shulman, better known as Lady Krishna, tells CHS she is working on a new album. Those unfamiliar with Lady Krishna need look no farther than her website, which showcases her multimedia art and performances.

Lady Krishna has lived in the neighborhood consistently since the late 90s after nearly two decades spent in New York City, among other spots. Ever since, she has enriched the Hill with her paintings, albums, and meditations, though not without recent challenges due to her health as well as the coronavirus.

“I feel a part of the community so much in Seattle, I’m happy I’m here and I’m getting such good care here,” said Lady Krishna.

She recently finished mixing and mastering her latest song, with the working title I’m a butterfly, I came to be free, as part of an upcoming album.

Three months ago, Lady Krishna was diagnosed with colon cancer. Continue reading →

Pride 2022 on Capitol Hill will include some bigger stages amid return of familiar celebrations

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A scene from last year’s Pride on Broadway

After years of pandemic challenges, the are big plans for Pride celebrations on Capitol Hill this summer including acts on a Pike/Pine stage that will give Capitol Hill Block Party a run for its money. Meanwhile, the downtown Seattle Pride celebrations will move on without a major corporate sponsor.

In Pike/Pine, there will be a big show with events boasting star-studded lineups including Kim Petras and Iggy Azalea performing at Queer/Pride. Organizer Joey Burgess, who owns Queer/Bar and Cuff Complex, aimed to create impressive lineups for 2022, hosting a wider selection of performers than ever.

“We definitely programmed more heavily this year and tried to curate two festivals with amazing, inclusive national and local talent,” said Burgess.

In 2021, concerns over the continued spread of COVID-19 pushed Capitol Hill celebrations into September.

While Queer/Bar is ready to try something new in 2022, the Wildrose will return from its two-year Pride hiatus with a return to its popular Pride past with an expanded street party area with live performances.

“This year, we are concentrating on bringing local, diverse talent to our stage,” co-owner Shelley Brothers tells CHS. Continue reading →

In-person, and online, the Seattle International Film Festival returns — Capitol Hill’s Egyptian has survived to help screen it

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SIFF is coming up on the end of the ten-year lease it forged in 2014 to keep the screen lit at Capitol Hill’s Egyptian Theatre. What started with a triumphant overhaul that kept the Egyptian a working cinema has been a rougher showing in recent years as SIFF and theaters across the city tried to survive the pandemic.

This week SIFF’s signature event, the Seattle International Film Festival, returns for its 48th iteration to present 262 films, a slimmed-down number compared to past years and a slimmed down version of the event. Kicking off Thursday night, the 10-day festival will screen films at a handful of local theaters including Capitol Hill’s SIFF Egyptian Cinema, which will host a number of headlining films.

After SIFF was canceled entirely in 2020 due to the emergence of COVID-19 and subsequently hosted online in 2021, this year will be a return to form in some regards– though it will feature the first in-person screenings and festivities in two years, the 2022 festival will be conducted in a hybrid format, with over 100 films being made available for streaming on the SIFF Channel.

Though partially in-person once again, the offerings this year are much more streamlined than usual– past festivals have generally boasted over 400 films, far more than the 262 coming this time around. Around two-thirds of the films shown this year were created by either first- or second-time filmmakers, and a similar amount may not screen commercially in the U.S. after their screening at the festival. Continue reading →

One of Capitol Hill’s few Black-owned bars and restaurants is being refreshed under a new owner — and is still Black-owned

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(Image: @misterrhodes via Instagram)

Patrons returning to Capitol Hill establishments after two years of the pandemic will find a new and uplifted Poco Bar & Lounge on E Pine under new owner Jesse Rhodes, who continues the spot’s history of Black-ownership.

“I’m invested in Cap Hill and the community, and I embrace the diversity that it brings,” said Rhodes.

Rhodes, a friend of previous owner Rashida Burnham and longtime patron of Poco, purchased the bar from her in early January of this year. Since its purchase by Jackie and Tramale Turner in 2015, Poco has been one of few Black-owned businesses on the Hill, including Plum Bistro, Marjorie, and Osteria La Spiga where chef Sabrina Tinsley is a co-owner.

“I always felt attached to Poco, so when I learned she was looking to sell it, I decided to make the purchase and become that next owner and keep the Poco brand alive,” said Rhodes. Continue reading →