Tag Archives: cal anderson

Seattle Presidents’ Day protest planned for Cal Anderson Park

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A planned Presidents’ Day demonstration in Cal Anderson Park will be joined by more protests in Seattle Monday including a planned rally outside the downtown Federal Building protesting the Trump administration’s wave of firings of government employees.

Organizers are calling on demonstrators to gather in the Capitol Hill park through the day Monday beginning around noon as part of the nationwide “50501” — 50 protests in 50 states on one day — effort.

It is unclear how many will attend the Seattle demonstrations. Protests in the city and on Capitol Hill have so far drawn smaller crowds than the strong backlash the grew in response to the start of the first Trump administration nine years ago. With a central location and proximity to downtown plus strong public transit, Cal Anderson has remained a center of activity. Continue reading →

911 | SPD reports two surprise drug busts as fire turns up magic mushrooms on First Hill, cops spy fentanyl and meth in Cal Anderson

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See something others should know about? Email CHS or call/txt/Signal (206) 399-5959. You can view recent CHS 911 coverage here. Hear sirens and wondering what’s going on? Check out reports from @jseattle or join and check in with neighbors in the CHS Facebook Group.

  • First Hill magic mushroom bust: A fire in a First Hill apartment building turned up what police says appeared to be a “drug lab” for thousands of dollars worth of magic mushrooms set up inside the unit. Seattle Fire called its hazmat team to the 8th Ave building around 5 PM Saturday to investigate the lab that was discovered during an unrelated small fire.
    While rendering the scene safe the SFD used a chemical tester to check for hazardous/explosive materials and found the presence of cocaine. There also appeared to be drug manufacturing equipment present in the apartment.
    SPD says it obtained a search warrant and was seizing the cocaine and “illicit mushrooms” when the resident of the apartment returned. SPD says the suspect was placed under arrest for possession with intent to distribute narcotics and says 1,046 grams of mushrooms were recovered along with a trace amount of cocaine. “It appears the other chemistry equipment in the apartment was being used to sterilize containers for the distribution of the mushrooms and/or cocaine,” SPD says. In 2021, the Seattle City Council passed a resolution “declaring that the investigation, arrest, and prosecution of anyone engaging in entheogen-related activities should be among Seattle’s lowest law enforcement priorities.”
  • Cal Anderson drug bust: SPD says its officers were “proactively protecting the Seattle community and removing dangerous drugs from the streets, holding drug dealers accountable” Saturday night when a group made the job easy:
    At 1826 hours, officers were patrolling around Cal Anderson Park, near the intersection of East Denny Way and Nagel Place, when they noticed a group of individuals gathered closely together on a concrete structure in the park. While observing the group, the officers saw a small clear plastic box containing a white powdery substance resting on one suspect’s lap. Additionally, they noticed the suspect holding a small clear baggie, which the officers believed was intended for packaging narcotics.
    SPD reports officers took the suspect into custody, “and during a search incident to the arrest, they found 101.9 grams of fentanyl, 8.5 grams of methamphetamine, and $655 in cash inside the suspect’s bag.” “Based on their experience, the officers concluded that the suspect was likely involved in selling and/or delivering drugs,” the report concludes.
  • E Cherry DUI arrest: SPD says it arrested a 57-year-old “prolific DUI driver” for crashing into a pole in the Central District:
    On Feb. 14 at about 2 a.m., a police Lieutenant was on patrol near 23rd Avenue and East Cherry Street when he witnessed a single-vehicle collision. The driver exited a parking lot, drove across four lanes of traffic, through a crosswalk, and hit a pedestrian signal pole on the northeast corner. The Lt. determined the man was driving under the influence (DUI) and arrested him. He has a felony conviction for DUI, and previous convictions for Driving While License Suspended 1st Degree and an Ignition Interlock Device Violation. The suspect was transported to the East Precinct for DUI processing. Officers conducted an analysis of his breath, and he was impaired by alcohol more than double the legal limit. He was booked into the King County Jail for DUI-Four or More Prior Offenses, and Ignition Interlock Violation.
    “Noteworthy is that the driver had been arrested/released for felony DUI, IIL, and DWLS-1 in the past 48 hours by KCSO, his second DUI arrest in 2 weeks,” SPD reports. Police say the suspect was being held on $750,000 bail after the arrest.
 

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Seattle anti-Trump protests including ‘PUNCH A NAZI’ illuminated display continue at Cal Anderson Park

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January 24th: Light projection artist @lightguerrilla illuminated display at Cal Anderson Park. (Image: @streetphotojournalism)

Demonstrators marching off the Hill Wednesday afternoon from a video of the protest posted to the CHS Facebook Group

“Yup, F Donald Trump,” says a Capitol Hill resident in their video posted to the CHS Facebook Group showing a hundred or so chanting protesters streaming by Wednesday afternoon on E Denny Way.

The afternoon demonstration starting in Cal Anderson Park had been promoted online as a warm-up for a larger rally planned on March 15th in a post encouraging demonstrators to march “for our reproductive rights,” healthcare, trans rights, and “to bring awareness to the housing crisis.” The marchers headed through the city to Seattle Center and kept mostly to the sidewalks to avoid conflicts with traffic and police. Continue reading →

With smaller crowds but lots of resistance, People’s March Seattle crosses Capitol Hill

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By Domenic Strazzabosco

The People’s March Seattle gathered Saturday morning in Capitol Hill’s frost-covered Cal Anderson Park, 48 hours before Donald Trump was set to be sworn into his second non-consecutive term in office. An estimated 3,500 people marched down Pine and toward the Seattle Center.

A much smaller event than the demonstrations eight years ago from the Seattle Women’s March organizers, those who showed up Saturday as part of marches across the country still wanted their voices to be heard and their signs seen.

“I have goosebumps just seeing all the like-minded people coming together,” said Mariah Doty, who attended the rally with a friend. “It absolutely feels powerful.”

Tom Schleichert, when asked about what he hoped his young daughters would gain from attending the rally, said, “To know that they’re not alone.” Seeing so many people come together to speak about women deserving power and equality, he described as empowering and special. One of his daughter’s signs read “No Mean Laws” and the other, “We Vote For Girls.” 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 →

Group planning ‘No to Banishment Zones!’ rally in Cal Anderson against city’s Stay out of Drug Area law

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The Seattle chapter of the National Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression is planning a protest and flyering rally Saturday in Cal Anderson Park against the city’s establishment of new exclusion zones including the new Capitol Hill “Stay out of Drug Area.”

“These measures voted in by the Seattle City Council in September – despite a room full of community members speaking up against it – bar anyone with a prostitution or drug-related conviction from entering entire sections of the city,” the group claims. “Both sex workers and drug users are already heavily marginalized and criminalized groups of people. All the city council has done is put them out of sight and out of minds of the people who claim to represent us!” Continue reading →

City’s next moves for addressing Capitol Hill public safety: Possible Pike/Pine police surveillance cameras, new Broadway CARE Department facility, Capitol Hill ‘community safety coordinator’

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Representatives from the mayor’s office told a crowd of business and community reps that public safety initiatives are working — and more are coming (Image: CHS)

Deputy Mayor Tim Burgess says a city pilot could bring surveillance cameras to Cal Anderson and Pike/Pine and that measures including a new service center for the city’s CARE mental and behavioral health emergencies team inside a former bank at Broadway and Pike are also hoped to help make Capitol Hill a safer neighborhood in 2025.

“We know the police can’t solve all these problems,” the close aide to Mayor Bruce Harrell on crime matters told a group of Capitol Hill business and community representatives at a public safety meeting organized heading into the Thanksgiving holiday by the GSBA.

“They do a great job. We need them. But these other investments are critically important, especially if we were to talk about some of the root causes of why people get involved in criminal behavior later in life. That’s on all of us as a society to address,” Burgess said, flanked at the session by Natalie Walton Anderson, Harrell’s Director of Public Safety, Davonte Bell of the city’s new CARE Department dedicated to crisis response, and District 3 representative Joy Hollingsworth.

The meeting came as part of what is planned to be a new series of gatherings involving the GSBA chamber of commerce and Hollingsworth who has pledged to hold quarterly public safety meetings like it beginning in January.

At the November gathering held at Broadway’s Stoup Brewing, Burgess praised initiatives shepherded by Hollingsworth through the city’s 2025 budget process that will bring new spending on Capitol Hill public safety initiatives including $125,000 for a new Capitol Hill community safety coordinator position with the GSBA beginning in 2025 and $150,000 to support a new street Ambassador Program in conjunction with the chamber group on Capitol Hill in 2026. Continue reading →

Hollingsworth shepherds D3 priorities through to Seattle’s final 2025 budget including $10M reallocation from Black Lives Matter ‘Participatory Budgeting’

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(Image: Garfield Super Block)

(Image: Garfield Super Block)

District 3 representative Joy Hollingsworth sat out much of the debate Tuesday as the Seattle City Council shaped the final plan to change how it will spend $250 million in revenue from the city’s JumpStart payroll tax on its largest employers — but it was a big day for her office as the first-year legislator shepherded millions of dollars in Capitol Hill and Central District-focused line items to the finish line of the 2025 budget season.

Hollingsworth initiatives include a $10 million reallocation from the city’s Participatory Budgeting program to better support the city’s Black and disadvantaged communities along with a roster of spending to address public safety on Capitol Hill.

Hollingsworth successfully advanced a batch of community-driven line items including $125,000 for a new Capitol Hill community safety coordinator position and $150,000 to support a new street Ambassador Program on Capitol Hill that are part of the final package approved Tuesday by the council’s budget committee.

The D3 representative sat out much of Tuesday’s debate centered on changes to the JumpStart tax, choosing to abstain on a raft of amendments seeking to soften the blow of raiding the tax and directing the spending to help patch the city’s predicted $250 million deficit. Continue reading →

Student demonstrators holding election ’emergency rally’ in Cal Anderson

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A student-led demonstration planned before Election Night’s surprisingly convincing Donald Trump victory will rally in Capitol Hill’s Cal Anderson Park Wednesday night.

Organizers from University of Washington Students for a Democratic Society and the Freedom Road Socialist Organization announced the demonstration Tuesday.

Wednesday as Kamala Harris conceded, the organizers said protest groups would meet Wednesday in the Capitol Hill park to “chant, mourn, and hear speeches about the political situation and upcoming period of instability.”

Organizers are planning for students to gather in the University of Washington quad before joining others on Capitol Hill. The rally in Cal Anderson is scheduled to begin at 6 PM.

Wednesday’s planned demonstration follows Election Night arrests on Capitol Hill as a small group of black bloc protesters marched on the East Precinct and were vandalizing and spray painting graffiti in areas of Cal Anderson and on nearby buildings. SPD was quick to move in on the group, making multiple arrests and breaking up the march within an hour of its start.

 

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‘Capitol Hill Business Safety Social’ — Group hopes better connection with city officials start of needed changes for Pike/Pine

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The spring tour is hoped to be the start of needed changes for Pike/Pine

The GSBA chamber of commerce says it is working with a Pike/Pine property owner to build on neighborhood efforts over the summer that are driving change at Seattle City Hall to address the neighborhood’s public safety issues.

A batch of community-driven line items including $100,000 for a new Capitol Hill community safety coordinator position and $150,000 to support a new street Ambassador Program on Capitol Hill are on the table as District 3 representative Joy Hollingsworth works with the Seattle City Council this week to finalize the city’s budget.

Those asks, the GSBA says, are the direct result of the new efforts to connect with city officials.

“There’s so much frustration with residents and business owners that it helps to see the people who are in power,” the GSBA’s Laura Culberg says. “Let’s just be in the same room.” Continue reading →