Tag Archives: black lives matter

City says annual repainting of Capitol Hill Black Lives Matter street mural to take place this month — if weather cooperates

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(Image: CHS)

The City of Seattle and the group of artists that shepherd the creation are hoping for a run of dry October weather for the annual repainting of the Capitol Hill Black Lives Matter street mural.

The Seattle Department of Transportation says the collaboration with the Vivid Matter Collective to care for the mural remains intact along with help from the Seattle Office of Arts & Culture to gather every year to clean up and repaint portions of the street-tall E Pine mural.

SDOT crews were spotted at work on the the clean-up around the mural in September but a planned repainting event never took place due to rain, the collective said.

The city says the repainting “to restore the mural’s colors and vibrancy” requires good weather and is hoped to take place the weekend of October 19th or October 26th depending on the forecast. Current forecasts call for stretches of drizzle that could further delay the effort.

Vivid Matter Collective has yet to announce a new date for its 2024 effort

The Vivid Matter Collective shepherds the long-term responsibility of maintaining the Black Lives Matter mural created by artists and activists in 2020 in the first days of the protests in Seattle. Continue reading →

SDOT includes E Pine Black Lives Matter mural touch-up in late summer round of maintenance on Seattle streets

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Thanks to a CHS reader for the pictures

CHS has received a lot of worried inquiries around the presence of a work crew at the E Pine Black Lives Matter mural. Don’t worry. They’re just sprucing it up.

Thanks for the questions and reports from the scene. Crews are cleaning and touching up the pavement artwork as part of Seattle Department of Transportation work across the city. Continue reading →

‘Was Summer Taylor negligent?’ — State not liable in lawsuit blaming troopers for Black Lives Matter protester struck and killed on I-5

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Taylor and loved ones (Image: Stritmatter Firm)

A jury has found the State of Washington was not negligent in the death of protester Summer Taylor who was struck and killed in July 2020 on I-5 by a motorist who had driven around state patrol blockades.

One of the final major legal cases around the fallout from the damage, deaths, and flawed law enforcement responses to Seattle’s 2020 Black Lives Matter protests, the Taylor case was brought on behalf of the Capitol Hill resident’s family and blamed the state’s “failure to properly and fully close the freeway that night” for allowing the driver to enter the roadway by driving the wrong way up an off-ramp before striking and killing Taylor as a group of protestors filled I-5. Continue reading →

Wrongful death trial blaming state for Black Lives Matter protester struck and killed on I-5 set to begin

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Taylor (Image: The Stritmatter Firm)

The wrongful death trial against the State of Washington in the crash that killed activist Summer Taylor in a 2020 Black Lives Matter protest on I-5 is set to begin, the law firm representing Taylor’s family announced.

The Stritmatter Firm says that the state’s “failure to properly and fully close the freeway that night” allowed the driver that struck and killed Taylor as a group of protestors filled I-5 to enter the roadway in the deadly incident.

“The state could have prohibited protests on the freeway. Instead it allowed the protests, told the protesters it was closing the road, but failed to fully close the road,” the firm wrote in an announcement on the case, adding that the state “closed the freeway on 30 different occasions to allow the protesters to occupy the roadway on 19 different evenings.” Continue reading →

Hollingsworth joins in raising red, black, and green of the Liberation Flag for Seattle’s Black History Month

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(Image: @CMJoyHollings and @CMRobSaka)

Seattle City Council representative for Capitol Hill and the Central District Joy Hollingsworth marked Black History Month by joining in a ceremony with Mayor Bruce Harrell to raise the red, black, and green Black Liberation Flag above Seattle City Hall Tuesday afternoon.

Hollingsworth was joined in the ceremony by West Seattle rep Rob Saka. The two first-year city legislators are the first Black councilmembers in Seattle since Harrell left office in 2019. Continue reading →

After Black Lives Memorial Garden removal, UW studio taking academic approach to sorting out community uses in Cal Anderson

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(Image: Juan Jocom)

By Juan Jocom

The Black Lives Memorial Garden has been cleared from Cal Anderson Park but efforts to mark the events of the 2020 protests and create a lasting connection to the movements and communities that centered around this Capitol Hill public space that summer are continuing.

A University of Washington professor who successfully helped lead the transformation of the International District’s Hing Hay Park with community elements and expanded features is continuing a process to harness student ideas and design concepts that could someday do the same in Cal Anderson.

Jeff Hou, Landscape Architecture Professor at University of Washington and the director of the Urban Commons Lab, is moving forward on a studio project this winter to take action on creating inclusive solutions for Cal Anderson.

“We need to be respectful of multiple interests and identity and we want to bring as many people to the table and making sure that the design can serve a wider audience,” says Hou.

Others aren’t waiting for a design studio.

Late last Thursday night, Seattle Police stood by as Seattle Parks rangers cleared the park in a rare enforcement of Cal Anderson’s posted 11:30 PM closure time. A “mutual aid” group that had put up canopies and a fire pit near the area of the cleared garden refused to budge.

Continue reading →

City clears Black Lives Memorial Garden from Cal Anderson Park

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(Images with permission to CHS)

The Black Lives Memorial Garden has been cleared from Capitol Hill’s Cal Anderson Park.

Seattle Police blocked off streets as city crews cleared the garden’s structures and plots from the fenced-off area on the south end of the park on Wednesday morning of the quiet holiday week.

There were no reports of garden supporters or protesters during the work and no reported arrests. The garden was established by volunteers and demonstrators during the Black Lives Matter and CHOP protest in the summer of 2020. Continue reading →

Seattle shapes $27M in community projects including new public restrooms — but no plan to continue ‘participatory budgeting’

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Six projects including a new Duwamish-centered community center and a push for new public restrooms in the city have been chosen by community members in Seattle’s $27 million “participatory budgeting” process born out of the 2020 Black Lives Matter protests. Implementing the projects will be the next project. Continuing the process? That appears to be off the table.

The results were announced last week following a month-long online ranking process in which the Office of Civil Rights says 4,000 votes were cast.

The city says the ranked choice process gave people “who live, work, or play in Seattle” the opportunity to vote on 18 ballot items by selecting their top four proposals. Five winning projects will be fully funded and the remainder of the $27.25 million will be allocated to the 6th place project.

Top Participatory Budgeting Projects

  • Native Youth: Past, Present, Future ($7,200,000) 
  • Focus Area: Youth & Children
  • A Duwamish centered community center would offer recreational, educational, and cultural programs that foster community engagement, promote well-being, and support cultural preservation. It will serve as a vibrant hub of activity, facilitating connections within the urban native community, while also extending a warm welcome to individuals from diverse backgrounds.
  • People Not Police Crisis Response Team ($2,000,000)
  • Focus Area: Crisis and Wellness
  • Funding for trained mental health professionals to be first responders to mental health crises. Marginalized community members are more likely to be harmed when police respond to mental health crises, public outbursts (usually need- or trauma-driven), or behaviors not always explained or understood. A culturally competent, trauma-informed, compassion-based, peer-supported response promises better outcomes, long and short term. Continue reading →

Cops and clearance crew move Black Lives Memorial Garden campers from Cal Anderson — UPDATE

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(Image: Matt Mitgang/CHS)

Seattle Police and members of the city encampment clearance workers were at Cal Anderson Park’s south end Wednesday morning to move tents and tell campers around the Black LIves Memorial Garden to move along. A notice provided a phone number for campers to call to find out more about shelter options.

Wednesday’s efforts appeared focused on the tents and campers and did not involve the arrival of any heavy equipment like the type that was delivered by Seattle Parks to the area in late October. Continue reading →

Seattle Parks backs down — for now — as heavy equipment moved in for BLM garden removal from Cal Anderson Park

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(Image: Matt Mitgang)

(Image: Matt Mitgang)

Seattle Parks crews backed off and Seattle Police stood by after a small but spirited crowd of supporters gathered Tuesday morning to stop the removal of the Black Lives Memorial Garden from Capitol Hill’s Cal Anderson Park.

The early morning standoff played out around the so-called “sun bowl” area of the park where heavy equipment had been rolled in for the removal of the garden that was established during the Black Lives Matter and CHOP protest in the summer of 2020. Continue reading →