With echoes of its ‘grand lobby’ past, Piedmont Cafe now open on First Hill

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(Image: Piedmont Cafe)

Enough of closures and looking back. Here is something new — though its inspiration is steeped in the past.

The Piedmont Cafe is now open on First Hill as part of an overhaul of the historic building now known as the Tuscany Apartments.

The Seneca Street site was once the Piedmont Apartment Hotel, “with exuberant colored tile and elegant ornament” from one of Seattle’s most prominent architects, the city’s entry on the historically significant structure reads. Continue reading →

It’s already the first second Thursday of 2025 — Take your first Capitol Hill Art Walk of the year

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Sandbox recently featured the work of Brandon Thomas (Image: Sandbox Seattle)

While the number of participating venues in tonight’s first Capitol Hill Art Walk of the new year falls just short of 25, that is still a hell of a lot of neighborhood art.

Start 2025 off right by checking out a venue or two on this first second Thursday of the year.

There is also a new participant in the Walk. Sandbox Seattle is a new addition to the mix adding a a video and photo studio, co-working space, and lounge at 1417 10th Ave. The studio is hosting a new exhibit from Lucille Groleau “featuring a series of eight oil paintings, six small 8×10 framed paintings and two larger pieces on stretched canvas.” Sandbox is also showcasing a selection of printed photographs from our local studio collective through January.

Learn more and check out a map of all participating venues at capitolhillartwalk.com.

For more neighborhoods things to do, check out the CHS Calendar.

 

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STG at Kerry Hall already in motion as Seattle Theater Group makes immediate use of its $6M Capitol Hill acquisition

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(Image: CHS)

The group is calling its new venue STG at Kerry Hall

By Domenic Strazzabosco

After acquiring Kerry Hall from Cornish College of the Arts last November, Seattle Theater Group — the nonprofit that manages The Paramount, The Moore, and The Neptune — has quickly made itself at home in the neighborhood.

Groups and organizations are already utilizing the historic space and a full slate of programming is expected to be active as STG at Kerry Hall fully ramps up by summer.

At a building tour on Wednesday, STG’s Director of Education & Community Engagement Marisol Sanchez Best described crying from excitement over what the building would provide. She noted arriving that morning and feeling the space alive with the sounds of dancers and musicians practicing.

At the event, rooms were occupied by artists including Grammy-winning musician and decades-long Cornish professor Jovino Santos Neto’s trio practicing, as well as Mark Haim directing a large group of dancers, and Bailadores de Bronce, a folklorico group and longtime STG partner, practicing in the hall.

Nate Dwyer, head of STG, described acquiring the space as presenting the “awesome privilege to steward the building for another generation.” He said Wednesday that though some work had to be done to update and maintain the space, STG was able to begin using it almost immediately. Within just a few weeks of acquiring the building, STG programs began operating out of the rooms, and by summer, they hope to have full programming available to the public. Continue reading →

Slain Metro driver to be remembered Friday with downtown bus procession

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(Image: King County Metro)

(Image: King County Metro)

Metro driver Shawn Yim will be remembered by his city with a memorial procession of buses stretching through Seattle’s downtown Friday morning:

A memorial procession of several dozen buses and transit vehicles from Metro and agencies around the region is scheduled to leave Metro’s Central/Atlantic bus base at 10 a.m. The procession will travel north on Fourth Avenue to Broad Street, Fifth Avenue North, Mercer Street, Sixth Avenue North and then south in the SR 99 tunnel to Lumen Field. No personal vehicles will be included in the procession. Cross-street traffic will be temporarily held as the procession passes.

Metro says “several dozen buses and transit vehicles from Metro and agencies around the region” will participate and is encouraging the public “to allow additional travel time due to temporary traffic delays.”

The procession is scheduled to begin at 10 AM. Continue reading →

Trump is back, so are the marches — People’s March Seattle planned to step off from Capitol Hill’s Cal Anderson Park on January 18th

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Days after the first inauguration of Donald Trump in 2017, 120,000 people took to the streets as the first Seattle Women’s March stretched from the Central District to the Space Needle. Another 100,000 marched again in 2018 as organizers started the event with a rally in Capitol Hill’s Cal Anderson Park and a sea of pink filled E Pine.

In 2025, it is time to get your pussyhats out again. Women’s March organizers this time are calling for a People’s March Seattle — Saturday, January 18th starting in Cal Anderson.

“This feminist-led, inclusive march is hosted by the Seattle Women’s March, in partnership with organizations that serve vulnerable communities,” organizers say. “The march will build community and amplify voices to promote collective liberation.”

You can learn more and help the group raise $12,000 to help support the planned rally and march from Capitol Hill to the Seattle Center here.

Organization of the marches has been a challenge that shifted from group to group over previous years as officials and organizers were unsure how many participants to expect. Predictions of around 25,000 marchers ballooned to more than 100,000 hitting the street in 2018. Continue reading →

Police: Missing 12-year-old last reported on Capitol Hill

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UPDATE: SPD says the missing juvenile has been located.

Seattle Police say a missing 12-year-old was last seen on Capitol Hill.

Police announced the search for Elijah late Tuesday night. He was last reported in the 1600 block of 12th Ave near the East Precinct, according to police.

SPD described the missing child as a white male, 5′ and 115 pounds with brown hair and hazel eyes. He was wearing a black Deadpool shirt over a red sweater and black pants. Police say Elijah is not a resident of the neighborhood, describing the child as “unfamiliar” with the area.

Call 911 if you can help.

 

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27 happy hellos and 18 sad goodbyes in 2024 Capitol Hill food and drink

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Aly Anderson of Pinoyshki Bakery and Cafe

As 2025 begins with a rush of closures and argument over the expiration of Seattle’s minimum wage tip credit for small businesses, the flurry of recent shutdowns — The Jilted Siren, Rapport, Plum, Jackson’s Catfish Corner  — can also be seen in a larger context. Every year, CHS looks back at the year that was to tally the new openings and sad closures in Capitol Hill area food and drink. Looking at this current burst of shutdowns in that context reveals the natural ups and downs of an industry with a notorious 80% fail rate. Every opening is a celebration. Every closure is a sad goodbye. The ones that last become beloved parts of their community. Here is a look back at 2024 in Capitol Hill food and drink.

Gulliotine

HAPPY HELLOS

SAD GOODBYES

 

HELP KEEP CHS PAYWALL-FREE
Subscribe to CHS to help us hire writers and photographers to cover the neighborhood. CHS is a pay what you can community news site with no required sign-in or paywall. To stay that way, we need you.

Become a subscriber to help us cover the neighborhood for as little as $5 a month. 

 

For the first time in five years, Seattle’s police department — barely — hired more officers than it lost

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A scene from a Seattle Police Department recruiting video

UPDATE: The mayor’s office has provided an updated version of this table with corrected figures — “The table of SPD officer statistics has been updated to show the accurate number of deployable officers and total officers for 2024 after a column was incorrectly transposed. The 933 deployable officers is as of August 31, 2024 to maintain consistency with previous methodology for calculation. We regret this error. “

Mayor Bruce Harrell says the city’s recruitment efforts including a streamlined testing process and relaxed requirements paired with better pay and retention policies are helping the Seattle Police Department turn the corner on growing its dwindling ranks.

For the first time in five years, Seattle’s police department hired more officers than it lost, the Harrell administration announced this week.

“The Seattle Police Department received over 4,300 officer applications in 2024, the most since 2013 and more than double those received in 2023, and hired 84 officers, the first-time hiring has surpassed separations since 2019,” the announcement reads. “Interested candidates can apply at SeattlePoliceJobs.com,” the mayor’s announcement added, reflecting the ongoing effort to continue the administration’s marketing around the hiring initiative.

It was a close race. The department reports 84 successful hires in 2024 — one more officer than it lost.

SPD has changed the way it hires with a new test and changes like allowing candidates to complete the “physical ability” test from home. There is also no age limit to apply. In 2023, a 62-year-old joined the force. Continue reading →

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 →