Tag Archives: chop

‘A big percentage’ — Marking CHOP’s real borders as Capitol Hill tuned in to Trump-Harris debate

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When are the people that burned down Minneapolis going to be prosecuted or in Seattle? They went into Seattle, they took over a big percentage of the city of Seattle. When are those people going to be prosecuted?

CHS was going to stay out of this but even the Seattle Times can’t quite get it right. 15.7 acres is not a “big percentage” of Seattle.

During Tuesday night’s presidential debate while trying to deflect on his role in the January 6th United States Capitol attack, Donald Trump put the Capitol Hill Occupied Protest back in the news.

Fact check: Of course he was full of shit. But the responses and maps from Seattle media don’t really get it right either. Continue reading →

With a story stuffed with Korean food, Hugo House, and CHOP, Oma Bap ends its 10-year run on Capitol Hill

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(Image: Oma Bap)

Korean food has become ubiquitous here in the time since food and drink entrepreneur Peter Pak first brought Oma Bap to Capitol Hill. Thursday marks the final day of service at the last location of the local “fast casual” chain. The neighborhood’s bibimbap and bulgogi scene lives on.

The shadows of the CHOP protests of 2020 are also part of Oma Bap’s story.

“While this chapter may be coming to a close, please know that this isn’t goodbye forever! We have made the difficult decision to take a step back in order to prioritize our families, our health, and exciting new opportunities at Microsoft,” the restaurant’s message to customers announcing the closure reads. Continue reading →

Veteran journalist who covered Capitol Hill Occupied Protest new owner at Seattle Gay News

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(Image: Renee Raketty)

Raketty, center, appeared on a Trans Journalists Association panel at the Society of Professional Journalists regional conference in Seattle earlier this year (Image: Renee Raketty)

Seattle Gay News, one of the oldest queer news publications in the nation, is celebrating its 50th year of bringing LGBTQ+-news to the Pacific Northwest.

While the passing of longtime editor George Bakan in 2020 led to years of change, writer, leader in the trans journalism community, and current editor of SGN Renee Raketty has officially taken ownership.

“There is no doubt that this paper has been a lifeline to the LGBTQIA+ community in Seattle and the Pacific Northwest. I’ve been told we are the nation’s third-oldest LGBTQIA+ newspaper. I’ve dedicated nearly a decade of my life to SGN, but I’m just one of many people who have contributed to the paper over the last 50 years,” Raketty told CHS. “It is truly an honor that Mike has chosen me to lead the paper into the next 50 years.”

Prior to his death, publishers and Capitol Hill character Bakan created arrangements for his family to take over as owner and publisher but SGN was sold last fall to Stratus Group to add to its LGBTQ+ newsmagazine business with publications including Coastal Pride of Ocean Shores, Washington and outlets in Bellingham and Spokane.

But changes in life plans has put the SGN on the move again. Stratus owner Mike Schultz and his husband are moving to California to be closer to family. After being associated with the paper on and off for a decade and a tour of duty as managing editor under the Stratus ownership, Raketty has the opportunity to lead the Seattle queer newspaper into a new era under her ownership.

It comes after Raketty has built a distinguished career in journalism that included work covering the 2020 Black Lives Matter protests and the police clashes around CHOP that took place on her home Seattle turf. Continue reading →

CHOP Salad: Yes, a Sweetgreen really is opening at 11th and Pine

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(Image: Sweetgreen)

(Image: CHS)

11th and Pine was the battleground for some of the most intense clashes between police and demonstrators during the CHOP occupied protest. Four years later, it will be the turf of two warriors of the fast-casual restaurant start-up struggle.

Salad chain Sweetgreen has made a splashy start of its preparations to finally open on Capitol Hill with signage and posters plastered across the corner’s windows some three years after CHS first reported its plans for 11th and Pine. Continue reading →

Seattle reaches $10M settlement with 50 plaintiffs harmed by police response to 2020 Black Lives Matter and CHOP protests

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The city will pay $10 million to protesters harmed during the Seattle Police Department’s response to the 2020 Black Lives Matter protests in the city and the CHOP Capitol Hill protest camps, settling a sprawling lawsuit and bringing to a close one of the last major legal battles from the period of unrest and heavy response from law enforcement.

“A historic legal battle of epic proportions brought by 50 George Floyd/BLM Peaceful Protesters against Seattle and its Police Department has ended,” the Stritmatter Kessler Koehler Moore announced Wednesday.

“This decision was the best financial decision for the city considering risk, cost, and insurance,” Seattle City Attorney Ann Davison said in a statement on the deal. “The case has been a significant drain on the time and resources of the city and would have continued to be so through an estimated three-month trial that was scheduled to begin in May.”

Davison said the city “admits no wrongdoing in the case, which was significant in scope, with plaintiffs alleging injuries sustained during the protests.”

Included in the plaintiffs is the estate of Summer Taylor, the Capitol Hill resident and protester who died in a July 2020 crash on I-5 as a driver attempted to speed through a demonstration on the freeway. In September, CHS reported on the plea deal that brought a 6 1/2 year sentence for the driver in that case.

That sentence and the newly announced settlement mark some of the last major legal maneuverings as the City of Seattle has been tied up in court for years in battles over civil rights and wrongful death lawsuits stemming from the protests in the wake of the police killing of George Floyd and the flawed Seattle Police response. 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 →

Black Star Farmers holds community gathering to save garden in Cal Anderson — UPDATE

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UPDATE: With volunteers remaining at the site through the weekend, the “turf restoration” work, so far, has been on hold

 

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As they did in August for a stewarding event where they gathered medicinal herbs from Cal Anderson Park, the Black Star Farmers group is inviting a gathering at the park’s Black Lives Memorial Garden hoped to span all of Friday. It’s the same day the Seattle Parks Department said it was planning to begin its “turf restoration” process that will remove the garden first created during the 2020 Capitol Hill Occupied Protest that filled the area with camps and demonstrators.

“Gather in the garden tomorrow – FRIDAY OCTOBER 13 đź‘» Community members are planning a full day of activities in support of the garden,” the group’s invitation reads. “We will start the morning with Communi-Tea & Yoga from 7-10AM and have an all-ages Garden Party from 12PM-10PM where we will have potluck food, garden stewarding, music, speakers, art making and an art gallery! Please bring plates, utensils, & grillables to share if you can!!” Continue reading →

Call to save the Black Lives Memorial Garden after city announces Cal Anderson ‘turf renovation’ plan — UPDATE: two weeks notice

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The garden in October 2023 — from the CHS Facebook Group

The garden in June, 2020

A Seattle Parks project to restore grass to the amphitheater bowl on the south end of Cal Anderson Park will bring an end to a community garden shaped during Seattle’s Black Lives Matter protests. The Black Lives Memorial Garden has been one of the few enduring monuments to the Capitol Hill Occupied Protest of the summer of 2020.

A Seattle Parks official confirmed the department will begin the turf restoration project planned for this week but declined to provide more information citing the Indigenous Peoples’ Day holiday at Seattle City Hall.

A letter reportedly posted by the Black Star Farmers group that has grown around the garden is calling for the city to back off its plans, saying city officials reached out to “request that we relocate the garden to Rainier Community Center in South Seattle.” The letter calls on supporters to gather at the garden for organizing meetings and “occupy the space.”

“Of course, showing up to the garden in the upcoming week and continuing to care for and occupy the space is always an option to show directly that we reject their plans to remove the garden,” it reads. “Now is the time to show up and get organized.” Continue reading →

No charges over Durkan, Best deleted texts from 2020 protests

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No charges will be filed against former Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan and Police Chief Carmen Best over deleted text messages from the time of the 2020 protests, saying a King County Sheriff investigation did not find evidence of criminal intent to destroy public records.

King County Prosecutor Lisa Manion’s announcement ends the investigation launched in 2022 after a whistle-blower revealed thousands of texts exchanged between Durkan, Best, current Seattle Fire Chief Harold Scoggins and more officials during the 2020 Black Lives Matter and anti-police protests had been deleted from city-owned devices.

The deleted texts became the centerpiece of a lawsuit brought against the city by Capitol Hill property owners and developers with claims of “Spoliation of Evidence” and intentional subterfuge.

The city has claimed the deletions were caused by factory resets, 30-day auto deletions, and manual deletions.

But some of the explanations bordered on the comical including a Durkan oceanic mishap: Continue reading →