Closure in the Central District: Jackson’s Catfish Corner

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(Image: Jackson’s Catfish Corner)

40 years of the family business came to an end in the Central District last week with a final 50 pounds of catfish as Terrell Jackson and Jackson’s Catfish Corner called it quits.

“My grandparents started this business in January 1985. This is now 40 years of business. 40 years of business and I just cannot do it anymore,” Jackson said in a heartfelt video posted to the 23rd and Jackson restaurant owner’s social media last Friday. “I don’t have the team, the structure, I don’t have nothing right now. Just doing shit on my own is very hard and I don’t, I think I just think I did all I can do in Seattle, you know what I’m saying?”

In the announcement, Jackson invited regulars by for a last po boy or two at the joint he opened at the corner in 2021 after years of pop-ups and smaller projects carrying on his family’s Catfish Corner legacy, saying he had about 50 pounds of catfish left, 20 or so burgers, and some oysters and calamari.

The final ingredients really were about all Jackson had left to give.

“I don’t want this to be a sad time or heartbreak time or ‘what are you gonna do next’ time. It’s that I did all I can time. I did all I can,” Jackson said, saying he was “maxed out” and ready to look for new opportunities.

The walls of Jackson’s Catfish Corner were a testament to its popularity, covered up and down in signatures of customers.

In an interview with Converge Media, Jackson said the Central District’s changes and the costs of doing business in Seattle caught up with him, citing the jump in the minimum wage and lower than expected foot traffic due to the neighborhood’s changing demographics. Continue reading →

As Seattle reshapes its goals around growth and development, it also has a new ‘Action Plan’ to help address the high cost of food in the city

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Seattle’s updated plan is hoped to connect more people to fresh food in the city

By Madison Rogers/UW News Lab

Monday, District 3 representative Joy Hollingsworth got an earful of what it will be like leading the city’s 20-year planning effort of the neighborhood by neighborhood zoning changes part of the Seattle Comprehensive Plan update.

She also has been focused on Capitol Hill public safety investments around street disorder and public drug use.

In addition to those higher profile challenges, Hollingsworth says her second year serving on the Seattle City Council will also be addressing more of the root causes of Seattle’s problems. Some of those, she says, start with breakfast.

“I am starting to ring the alarm now for our food systems,” Hollingsworth says. “The current way in which we consume food is not sustainable for our future growth as a city, as a state, or as a country.”

Hollingsworth has spoken out on the value of farming and food security in communities and has been a critical contributor to Mayor Bruce Harrell’s efforts to update the city’s $30 million a year Food Action Plan, committed to tackling food insecurity and rising costs with community-driven solutions that improve access, sustainability, and local food equity.

The sprawling connection of programs and initiatives hasn’t been addressed and updated by the city in over ten years.

The new plan prioritizes programs like Fresh Bucks which provides $40 stipends to income-qualifying residents to spend on fresh produce from participating retailers as well as providing the framework for the city’s food programs and community P-Patch gardens. Continue reading →

Courts | Metro deadly stabbing charges, cop who hit and killed Jaahnavi Kandula fired, no charges for driver in Capitol Hill van theft shooting

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  • Metro deadly stabbing charges: Richard Sitzlack has been charged with second degree murder in the deadly stabbing of Metro driver Shawn Yim. The 53-year-old has pleaded not guilty to the charges which include a count of third degree assault. Yim was stabbed and killed in an overnight confrontation in the University District in mid-December that has led to increased calls for more to be done to protect drivers and riders on the city’s public transit systems. Prosecutors say Yim told Sitzlack to exit the coach after an argument about a window on the bus. Surveillance video showed Sitzlack allegedly pepper spraying Yim and the driver pursuing him out of the bus. The driver was stabbed repeatedly and died about a block away. Sitzlack is jailed on $5 million bail.
  • Cop who hit and killed Jaahnavi Kandula fired: Two years after the deadly collision, the Seattle Police officer who struck and killed Jaahnavi Kandula as she crossed a South Lake Union street has been fired. Interim Seattle Police Chief Sue Rahr finalized the termination of Kevin Dave this week, citing the “poor decision” of the officer who investigators say struck and killed the 23-year-old as he sped to the scene of a reported overdose. The January 2023 incident had repercussions beyond the tragic death of the young woman as issues of accountability and community complicated negotiations over a new contract with the police officer union. Union leader, Seattle Police Department veteran, and former East Precinct officer Daniel Auderer was fired in July over his comments about Kandula caught on his body cam the night of her death. King County Prosecutor Leesa Manion has declined to press charges against Dave.
  • No charges for driver in Capitol Hill van theft shooting: The delivery driver police say shot an alleged car thief in the chest during the theft of a delivery van from outside a Capitol Hill apartment building in December won’t face charges in the incident. Court records show Francisco Rodriguez Martinez faces a felony charge of auto theft in the early morning December 14th incident at the PIVOT apartment building on Pine. CHS reported here on the shooting as police said the delivery driver attempted to stop the Toyota Venza from being ripped off as he returned to the vehicle after delivering a package. According to the court documents, police said the driver told them he feared that he would be run over in the incident when he opened fire. Police found Martinez slumped over in the vehicle after the driver was able to use tracking to locate the van a few blocks away outside a downtown hotel. The suspect was rushed to the hospital and treated for the life-threatening gunshot wound. Court documents show Martinez lives in Bellevue and has no significant criminal history in national crime records. Police said the driver’s concealed pistol license was current and his 9mm Sig Sauer handgun was legally registered.
 

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Goodbye to Plum and 20 years of vegan good eats and memories on Capitol Hill

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A family’s more than 20 year vegan and vegetarian connection to the neighborhood is ending and one of Capitol Hill’s few Black food and drink owners is leaving to focus on a new venture in the south of the city. Plum Bistro is now permanently closed.

“We will look back on these past 20 years with great gratitude for your patronage,” chef and extra busy Seattle food and drink entrepreneur Makini Howell said in the announcement. “It’s been such a pleasure to share the joy of vegan food with you.”

The closure will leave a hole in 12th Ave’s dining scene where Plum has neighbored Osteria la Spiga since 2009 in the Piston Ring building. The 12th Ave facing Piston Ring’s connection with the block’s 11th Ave-facing Chophouse Row development has stayed busy with food and drink options through changes big and small over the years. Plum’s exit could make way for one of Chophouse’s existing tenants to move up to the street level — or it could make a place for a new venture to move in. Plum’s small Plum Chopped lunch and salad sibling which opened next door in 2017 is also part of the closure. Continue reading →

Seattle Black Firefighters fight to protect historic Central District property from controversial sale

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A fight is underway in the Central District to save a home that a group of Black first responders say has long been a cornerstone in their community.

Members of the Seattle Black Firefighters Association are locked in a legal battle to reclaim the property, which was sold last year under controversial circumstances. Saturday, a community rally was held at 23rd and Pike to show support for saving the property.

“It’s just really very disappointing that we cannot, as Black men and women, sit down and talk about the property, and the only solution that the current regime has come up with is to sell it,” said retired Deputy Chief Charles Gill of the Seattle Fire Department. Gill, alongside other retired and active members, has been leading the charge to preserve the house, which has been central to the group’s identity for over four decades.

The house’s sale has ignited outrage not just because of its history but also due to what some say was a lack of transparency and a disregard for the organization’s bylaws. A court ruling in 2024 affirmed that retired members of the SBFFA retain voting rights, yet the sale went ahead anyway. The double-lot property, located in one of Seattle’s most rapidly gentrifying neighborhoods, was sold for $680,000 — far below its market value, the group says.

The corner marks the latest fight in what is becoming sometimes a house by house effort to hold onto remaining roots of the Central District. Continue reading →

Capitol Hill Community Council holding ‘Great Ideas Festival’ to kick off 2025

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The Capitol Hill Community Council is starting 2025 with an effort to gather “great ideas” for the neighborhood.

The group is holding its first ever Great Ideas Festival on Wednesday, January 22nd at 11th Ave’s Hugo House:

We’re inviting all of our neighbors to come together and share their ideas for making Capitol Hill the best neighborhood in Seattle. Based on what we hear at the meeting, we’ll use that to prioritize projects in the next few months, over the next year, and into the future. It should be a really fun, exciting opportunity to dream big for the neighborhood.

Continue reading →

Pikes/Pines | Why mixed-species flocks enjoy communal winter meals on Capitol Hill

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A Ruby-crowned Kinglet (Regulus calendula), a less gregarious winter migrant to the hill. They are often found in mixed-species flocks but are outnumbered, at least 10-1, by Golden-crowned Kinglets. (Image: Brendan McGarry)

Everywhere I looked there were birds. Sprites in perpetual motion, determined to find their next meal. Kinglets, chickadees, creepers, nuthatches, and wrens worked through the forest understory as I sat watching. It hardly felt like they noticed me. If I kept still enough, I’d just melt into the background, or at least that’s how it feels when you encounter a winter feeding flock.

Back in October I started noticing mixed-species flocks of chickadees, Golden-crowned Kinglets, and a few Pacific Wrens around my yard. This is my personal cue for the changing of the seasons. When the last of the year’s fledglings are self-sufficient, the winter migrants have arrived, and breeding territories are moot, it’s officially winter. The majority of birds are now much more concerned with surviving the cold, less abundant months, than defending their corners of the forest or your backyard.

Call them mixed-species foraging flocks or winter feeding flocks, every year these groups of birds form during the non-breeding season on Capitol Hill and across our region. They move together, across the landscape, foraging as they go, all day long.

The birds that make up these flocks in our part of the world have a fair amount in common. They are all small, active birds that eat a lot of insects (but also seeds and fruit). Most of them glean their meals from tree bark crevices and the undersides of leaves. Some are faster moving and more balletic, like kinglets, twirling about foliage and eating unseen tiny morsels. And others feel more methodical, like Brown Creepers, who do as they are named and crawl up and down tree trunks in search of sustenance. But they all seem to see the value of keeping close together while foraging this time of year. Continue reading →

Victim in Broadway and Pike shooting identified

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Adamow

The victim in the deadly December 31st shooting at Broadway and Pike has been identified.

The King County Medical Examiner says Jonny Adamow died of a gunshot wound to the chest in the early Tuesday shooting at the troubled intersection.

Adamow was 29 and is being remembered as an artist and friend by loved ones and family.

Adamow appeared to have been hit in an ambush targeting another person. Continue reading →

Capitol Hill ‘self-pour’ wine bar Rapport closed ‘indefinitely’

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Thanks to reader Todd for the picture

“Self-pour” wine bar Rapport has closed indefinitely on Capitol Hill as people involved in the business say they are seeking options to reopen the E Roy venue that carved a popular hangout out of a former Starbucks concept cafe on North Broadway.

A person with knowledge of the closure said the shutdown was due to a personal family decision with the ownership and that there were hopes of possibly working out a new deal for the cafe and wine bar’s lease.

Rapport’s last night of business was December 29th. Continue reading →