Tag Archives: first hill

Police investigate after shooter in a tux riding a scooter reported on First Hill

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Seattle Police were searching for a shooter in a tuxedo making his escape on a Lime rental scooter after gunfire Thursday afternoon near Freeway Park.

The James Bond-like scene was a serious deal. Police found multiple shell casings strewn across streets in the area. A check for victims around First Hill and at nearby Harborview fortunately turned up empty.

SPD says its officers were called to the area of Hubbell Place and University around 2:15 PM Thursday to reports of gunfire. Witnesses reported a shooter described as a white male in his early 30s, around 5’11” and thin with short blond hair, wearing a full tuxedo suit down to the black oxfords, and riding a rental electric scooter. It wasn’t clear who, if anybody, he was firing at. He was last reported headed south.

Police searched the area but found only the spent shell casings in the street. There were no arrests.

 

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The Broadway Whole Foods is, indeed, closing — UPDATE

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That’s the 2018 price, by the way

Company officials say “performance and growth potential” are behind the planned closure of the Broadway Whole Foods grocery store.

“Like any business, we regularly evaluate the performance and growth potential of each of our stores and make decisions to position the company for long-term success,” a Whole Foods spokesperson told CHS Saturday morning.

The company says “all team members will transfer to roles” at other area Whole Foods Market locations. The final day of business is planned for June 20th. Clearance sales begin now.

“Our stores remain an important part of our growth strategy, and we currently have more than 100 new stores in the pipeline and continuously explore new sites,” the spokesperson for the Amazon-owned grocery giant said.

UPDATE: Amazon’s exit coincides with the sale of The Danforth development. Bellevue-based property management firm Kennedy Wilson announced the $173 million acquisition of the apartment tower headed into the weekend. The property had been acquired by seller Vanbarton Group for $209 million in 2019. Amazon apparently decided to seize the opportunity to exit its lease.

CHS reported here on the October 2018 debut of the much anticipated two-level, 40,000-square-foot addition to the Capitol Hill-area grocery scene. Continue reading →

Norma and Terri — Women in First Hill senior community bus accident identified

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(Image: Hilltop House)

The community around Terrace Street’s Hilltop House senior living facility lost two neighbors this week. Friends, loved ones, and family are remembering Norma Luisa Versakos and Terri May Marble.

The King County Medical Examiner has identified the women as the victims in Tuesday’s terrible incident in which a shuttle bus serving the facility was backed into a smoking shelter in the Hilltop House parking lot. Both women died at the scene. A third narrowly escape injury. Police say the driver was evaluated and no signs of impairment were found.

Results of the state collision investigation will not be released for weeks.

Versakos was 77 and Marble, 66. Continue reading →

Two dead after bus reportedly backs over smoking shelter in First Hill parking lot — UPDATE

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Two people were reported dead after a bus struck a smoking shelter in a parking lot near Broadway and Alder in the First Hill neighborhood Tuesday morning.

According to emergency radio updates, a 911 caller reported the horrific incident and said a bus had backed over the shelter occupied by two victims just after 10:30 AM in the parking lot behind the Hilltop House retirement community.

Original reports described the shelter as a tent but SPD clarified that the structure is a smoking area behind the building.

SPD says a third elderly woman barely escaped without injury. Continue reading →

See yourself in art in the new Frye Parlor

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Installation view of Frye Parlor x Jayme Yen, Frye Art Museum (Image: Jueqian Fang/Frye)

Jayme Yen (Image: Colin Beam)

By Caroline Carr

The Frye Art Museum has long been one of the grandest spaces Seattleites could dare consider a third place. Short of a first Thursday, it is one of the only museums in Seattle to offer free admission, a personal value of its founder Charles Frye. In collaboration with a local artist Jayme Yen, the museum recently launched Frye Parlor, a new exhibit that engages in ambitious alchemy, fusing an art installation with a gathering space.

This new concept takes elements from a traditional art exhibit and places them in a lounge, inviting guests to stay a while, socialize, and see themselves as participants in the art. Located outside the museum’s cafe, the installation is Yen’s abstract take on Frye Salon, the ornate, floor-to-ceiling display of the museum’s founding collection. Continue reading →

‘In crisis’ — County makes case for Crisis Care Center on Broadway amid biz owner pushback

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Around 50 people attended last week’s meeting (Image: CHS)

By Matt Dowell

King County officials reaffirmed the value of a planned mental health Crisis Care Center on Broadway at a community meeting last week but members of the public pushed back — “Why here?”

Officials tell CHS the meeting was the next step in a process they say is both just beginning — and well under way. There is an offer for the property on the table. More community meetings are being planned.

Meanwhile, a letter sent to District 3 representative Joy Hollingsworth protesting the consideration of the Broadway at Union property for the new center has made waves in the neighborhood business community.

Meeting attendees inside Seattle U’s Wyckoff Auditorium and organized by the county and the GSBA chamber of commerce Thursday pushed for keeping the crisis center out of Capitol Hill and shifting the focus to a new location. Ice cream entrepreneur Molly Moon Neitzel took the mic.

“I’m Molly Moon, I’ve lived on Capitol Hill for 22 years. I have gone from a partying kid on one side of the Hill to a mom on the other side of the Hill. I’ve [operated] a thriving business in the Pike/Pine corridor for 16 years. I located that business there in a thriving time for the Hill. Our neighborhood is in crisis.”

“I think probably everyone in this room supports the mission of the Crisis Care Centers and believes that they need to exist,” Neitzel said. “The need for first responders to have the ability to take these folks in need to a Crisis Care Center — we can all give a standing ovation to that mission.”

“Do they need to come to a neighborhood in absolute dire crisis for the last five, six, seven years? No they do not.”

“I would encourage you to look at a site that is in a neighborhood that doesn’t have so much crisis going on right now.”

CHS broke the news last week on the county’s plans to open a facility in the former Polyclinic building at Broadway and Union as part of the $1.25 billion Crisis Care Centers measure approved by voters in April 2023. The nine-year levy calls for a network of five facilities that provide walk-in behavioral health care. The first opened in Kirkland in March. Continue reading →

King County planning Crisis Care Center at Broadway and Union — UPDATE

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Capitol Hill property owners, businesses, and residents are preparing to push back on a planned King County mental health crisis center on Broadway.

Plans for a $1.25 billion network of five crisis care centers across the county include the former Polyclinic building at Broadway and Union, CHS has learned.

County officials are planning to hold a hastily organized meeting with community members Thursday.

Opposition to the Broadway center is already in place as rumors of the planned location have grown in recent months.

The massive 114,000-square-foot Polyclinic building now part of the Optum rebrand has been on the market for lease. A “rebuild letter,” also known as a “Zoning Verification Letter” and issued to confirm whether a property can be rebuilt to its original condition and use, was filed for the property in February. The letters are typically part of the process around a commercial property’s sale or refinancing. Continue reading →

New plaza and support for Town Hall: City finalizing public benefits deal for alley vacated to make way for First Hill 32-story apartment towers

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Ovation Apartments

The vacation of public right of way for a major new double tower apartment development next to First Hill’s Town Hall Seattle is bringing neighborhood improvements including a new public plaza plus new financial support for the Seneca St. cultural center.

Legislation finalizing the way for the city to hand over the alley space between Seneca and Spring in exchange for a $5.3 million roster of public benefits was approved earlier this week by the Seattle City Council’s transportation committee including D3 rep Joy Hollingsworth. The bill will now move on to the full council for final approval. Continue reading →

Police seek man in connection with deadly shooting at First Hill drug squat — UPDATE

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UPDATE: SPD has provided a more clear photo of Mohamed

The Seattle Police Department has issued a “WANTED” bulletin in the search for the suspect in a deadly April shooting inside a First Hill apartment building.

SPD announced Tuesday detectives are searching for Ayub S. Mohamed, also known as “IU,” in connection with the April 2nd shooting that killed 40-year-old David Chuyeshkov.

CHS reported here on Chuyeshkov’s killing. A person with direct knowledge of the situation told CHS that Chuyeshkov was not a leased resident of the building but that a ground floor unit of Summit Ave’s Tuscany Apartments had become a difficult to evict “drug squat” with regular trespassers. Continue reading →

The Harborview cafeteria: delicious, affordable, and kind of a secret

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Down a hallway and tucked into the basement of Harborview Medical Center, an affordable and unexpectedly delicious culinary scene unfolds every day.

What looks like a typical hospital cafeteria is, in fact, one of Seattle’s most surprising hidden food destinations. The Harborview cafeteria, however, is not a total secret.

“We get outside guests just come here to eat the food because they appreciate it and always tell us how good it is compared to other hospitals,” said Chris Tharpe, retail manager at the medical center.

The cafeteria’s growing fanbase includes everyone from hospital staff and patients’ families to construction workers and local residents making the trip just for lunch.

The driving force behind Harborview’s surprising deliciousness is Executive Chef Vanessa Gray, who brought a bold vision—and a non-traditional résumé—to the job.

“I come from sports and entertainment… I wanted to make our cafeteria a fun place to eat with surprising food, not the same thing, hamburger, hot dog, pizza, kinds of things you see in a lot of cafeterias,” Gray said. Continue reading →