A Capitol Hill closure to add: Ian’s Pizza on the Hill leaves Broadway

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(Image: CHS)

We have an addition to the roster of 2024 Capitol Hill food and drink subtractions to make.

The Broadway closure of Ian’s Pizza is permanent.

A person familiar with details of the shuttering tells CHS the closure comes at the end of the shop’s 10-year lease as the small chain has chosen to focus on its Fremont location.

CHS reported here in 2015 as Ian’s moved onto the Hill after building its pie business slowly with origins in Wisconsin and Colorado. The Mac n’ Cheese pizza was a fun introduction for a pizza joint some argued served the Hill’s best slices. The exit leaves a hole in the tenant mix in the Broadway Building neighboring Blick Art, FOB Poke Bar, and its new sibling Old Street Malatang.

Some will add Ian’s to the flurry of closures to start 2025 as the city’s tip credit for its smallest businesses expired. Its arrival ten years ago in Seattle also came amid minimum wage tensions. Ian’s replaced a location of the Zpizza chain that shuttered after its ownership blamed the new wage laws. “It feels more like the right thing to do to respect service workers and what they do,” Ian’s owner told CHS about the new minimum wage at the time.

 

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Coming soon to 12th Ave: Kemi Dessert Bar set to create its own identity in Capitol Hill’s cookie, cake, and pastry community

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Black sesame hazelnut thumbprints (Image: Kemi Dessert Bar)

The business has grown with pop-ups and holiday events (Image: Kemi Dessert Bar)

The success of Kelly Miao’s black sesame hazelnut thumbprints, matcha kumquat cakes, and dense slices of Hong Kong milk tea basque cheesecake is so close, you can taste it.

“It’s in the palm of my hand right now. I just need to make it happen,” Miao tells CHS as she prepares for her planned opening next month of Kemi Dessert Bar, a working dessert kitchen and cookie, cake, and pastry walk-up counter planned to open soon on 12th Ave.

Miao comes to Capitol Hill having cut her sweet tooth in New York City’s “Instagram Bakery Scene” — yes, they have one of those — and honing her craft in pastry arts at a prestigious roster of NYC bakeries, bars, and restaurants, including a joint with a Michelin star.

There are no Michelin stars on 12th Ave but Miao arrived in Seattle with the dream of opening her own place here and started to get to work with the locals. Miao joined up with the crew giving Coping Cookies a go on 12th Ave where they combined chocolate chips with support for social causes. Coping Cookies also built out a lovely bakery for the venture.

Soon, the cookie business wasn’t working out and Miao decided it was time to step up. “I’m trying to get my roots in Seattle — I figure I’d shoot my shot and see if I could take over their space.”

Now Kemi Dessert Bar is about to happen. Continue reading →

‘We Rise Against Project 2025’ — MLK Day march part of weekend of rallies and protest in Seattle

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Monday is Inauguration Day in Washington D.C. — In the Central District, the day brings the MLK Day rally and march to Garfield High School. Organizers of the annual event to honor the life of the civil rights leader are fully embracing the contrast.

This year’s event from the volunteer-run MLK Jr Organizing Coalition is focused on the inauguration in D.C. with workshops and speakers addressing what is at risk. Continue reading →

On one hand, another weekend with no Capitol Hill-SoDo light rail service — on the other, progress on *late* 2025 opening of 2 Line

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(Image: Sound Transit)

Judkins Park Station and the rest of the 2 Line really are on track to finally open this year — late this year but still 2025. To get there, Sound Transit’s contractors must occasionally shut down parts of the 1 Line to complete some of the required work. This weekend will bring another light rail shutdown between Capitol Hill and SoDo:

In order to perform essential testing to prepare for full 2 Line operations, Link light rail will be temporarily suspended between Capitol Hill and SODO stations from 10 p.m. Friday, Jan. 17 through the end of service Sunday, Jan. 19. Normal operations are scheduled to resume at the start of service Monday, January 20.

During this time, crews will be performing the first integrated tests of the combined 1 and 2 Line safety communications equipment. These tests include preparing for and simulating over 100 different emergency scenarios and represent another step forward towards the full 2 Line opening. To perform the tests, power to the test area must be suspended. Sound Transit will provide Link Shuttle buses to transport passengers. The buses will run approximately every 10-15 minutes and stop at all stations between Capitol Hill and SODO. Additional information about the bus bridge is available here.

In November, a similar closure was required for the installation of a new signal house and communications system.

Last weekend, the line was also disrupted between Westlake and SoDo for similar 1 Line-2 Line work. 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 →

Trial begins in murder of Elijah Lewis as scooter rider claims self defense in Capitol Hill road rage shooting

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Family and loved ones of Elijah Lewis are worried that court proceedings are stacked against justice as the trial of the man who shot and killed the 23-year-old community leader and activist and injured Lewis’s young nephew in a road rage confrontation on Capitol Hill begins.

Defendant Patrick Cooney pleaded not guilty in the April 1, 2023 killing and has remained jailed on $2 million bail since. Lawyers for the 37-year-old are set to argue Cooney shot Lewis in fear he would be run over as he rode a rental Lime scooter up E Pine. Lewis was in the neighborhood to pick up his nephew from his nearby apartment home and take him to a monster truck rally at Lumen Field to celebrate the child’s birthday. Much of the confrontation was captured on security video.

Cooney’s defense team has successfully argued to limit some evidence from being presented to the jury when proceedings begin including that police reported the shooter was also armed with a knife and his firearm lacked a serial number.

Judge Sean P. O’Donnell also ruled to limit the presentation of police records showing Cooney has been investigated for firearm incidents multiple times while riding Lime scooters around Capitol Hill prior to the shooting. Continue reading →

Hollingsworth abstains as new SPD crowd control rules move forward

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(Image: Noah Lubin with permission to CHS)

District 3’s Joy Hollingsworth, representing the Central District and Capitol Hill where memories of the 2020 multi-week conflict between protesters and police are still fresh in the minds of residents and area businesses, sat out on several votes Tuesday as the Seattle City Council public safety committee she is part of finalized legislation creating new rules for Seattle Police Department crowd control.

Hollingsworth abstentions came as the committee rejected amendments that would have toughened restrictions and made it easier for people injured by police to sue. The second-year city legislator also decided to abstain on the committee vote approving chair Bob Kettle’s bill that now goes onto the full council for final approval. Continue reading →

Opening in 2027, work begins on eight stories of affordable housing and homeless youth Constellation Center ‘education and employment academy’ at Broadway and Pine

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(Image: Community Roots Housing)

A rendering of YouthCare’s planned Constellation Center

By Matt Dowell

Construction is beginning on the Constellation Center, an affordable housing and homeless youth education and employment academy project planned for Broadway and Pine.

The development will bring months of heavy demolition and construction work to the core of Capitol Hill — and add what officials say will be a vital resource for addressing the city’s homelessness crisis while also creating new affordable homes above this busy intersection.

Meanwhile, Community Roots Housing, the Public Development Authority and local affordable housing provider behind the project, has also announced its plans to sell one of its most celebrated new projects — the mass-timber Heartwood building at 14th and Union — as it continues a multiyear process of paring down its holdings.

A spokesperson for Community Roots reported that construction of theConstellation Center began Monday, January 6 at Broadway and Pine. Continue reading →

Sound Transit collecting feedback on plan to improve safety at dangerous at-grade crossings

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(Image: Sound Transit)

Sound Transit is collecting public feedback on improving safety along its at-grade crossings including areas along its light rail route in South Seattle that have killed and injured multiple people while also leaving the system vulnerable to delays and disruptions.

The effort comes as the agency is shaping a new At-grade Crossing Program with new rules and enhancements hoped to be approved by May.

On Capitol Hill, the light rail trains rumble far underground but elsewhere along Sound Transit’s systems, the line is vulnerable to dangerous collisions with vehicles at intersections crossing the tracks. The crashes are sometimes a nuisance — frequently tragic.

It is taking years for Sound Transit to fully act on the at-grade problem. Continue reading →

A memorial to Jonny Adamow at Broadway and Pike as SPD says deadly shooting investigation continues

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A memorial to Jonny Adamow has taken shape at Broadway and Pike. Meanwhile, the Seattle Police Department says it continues to work to arrest the suspect caught on video in the deadly shooting.

A collection of Adamow photos, flowers and Pride flags have been placed on a neighborhood utility pole at the corner — the same location where the gunman was hiding the night of the shooting.

The Alphabet Alliance of Color gathered a group in Cal Anderson Park Friday night to remember the 29-year-old Adamow. Continue reading →