Tag Archives: I-5

Wanna ride bikes? The I-5 Colonnade Park is getting two new pump tracks this spring

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This pump track in Port Angeles is an example of the setup’s appeal for riders small and large (Image: City of Port Angeles)

The Colonnade (Image: Evergreen Mountain Bike Alliance)

Construction has started on a bicycle pump track project including a new paved track for young riders in a $314,000 overhaul of the city’s I-5 Colonnade mountain bike skills park below the busy freeway on the slope between Capitol Hill and Eastlake.

Seattle Parks and Recreation and the Evergreen Mountain Bike Alliance announced the project is moving forward with construction slated to be completed before summer.

“One beginner-friendly, aMTB-friendly paved pump track; and one larger, steeper paved pump track are expected to be completed by the end of May,” the Alliance says.

The Alliance has been working to improve the bike recreation area challenged by homeless camping, litter, and the area’s steep slopes. It designed and built the Colonnade as “the first urban MTB skills park to open in the United States” when the space debuted in 2005. The Alliance began seeking funding for the new tracks in 2018. The group has been holding work sessions to help prepare the area for the new effort. Continue reading →

How long to lid I-5 between Capitol Hill and downtown? Years and years and years — but the plan is being shaped now

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(Image: Lid I-5)

A view from the new lid over 520 in Montlake (Image: Lid I-5)

Last month, the new SR-520 bike and pedestrian bridge opened to counterbalance the flow of motor vehicles traveling across the new Montlake Lid. Longstanding hopes to cover freeways in other parts of the city are also taking shape. Between Capitol Hill and downtown, the Lid I-5 group has been working on its initiative long enough that its years-old utility pole flyers have become part of the area’s gritty urban landscape. The effort has a $2.2 million boost to work with in 2025.

John Feit has been part of the group pursuing the lidding of I-5 through downtown to cap noise and pollution, and to reconnect neighborhoods while filing gaping holes in the city—like the affordable housing supply. Now, the U.S. Department of Transportation awarded the city $2 million and the state legislature added another $200,000 in planning grants. Lid I-5 and other proponents of Seattle lids are pushing forward.

“We’re going to use that recent money to come up with an urban design vision, which means understanding what the people of Seattle would like to see with the lid accomplished,” Feit told CHS.

A rendering of a Lid I-5 concept that includes park space and new buildings (Image: Lid I-5)

Continue reading →

GRIDE, WESH, and DOTCOM — Seattle officials announce ’34 felony criminal cases against 17 defendants’ in tagging crackdown

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From Make It Rain, a Seattle Graffiti Documentary cited in the investigation

The King County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office is touting the filing of “34 felony criminal cases against 17 defendants” for tagging calling the crime “acts of vandalism that have causes thousands of dollars in damages across King County.”

Officials said this week the charges come after “a months-long effort” from the Seattle City Attorney’s Office, Seattle Police, the King County Sheriff’s Office and the Washington State Patrol to crack down on taggers and the MSP and BTM graffiti crews that work up and down the I-5 corridor. Police say the taggers behind marks including GRIDE, WESH, and DOTCOM are part of the investigation. Continue reading →

911 | Woman critical after 12th Ave crash, man survives I-5 fall, Broadway bike lock cutter works fast

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The Broadway bike lock cutter at work

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.

  • 12th Ave crash: A woman was reported in critical condition after Seattle Fire rescuers cut open the roof of the car she was driving to remove the unconscious patient from the vehicle in a crash involving multiple vehicles Wednesday night in front of Seattle University. Seattle Police and SFD were called to the crash scene just before 11:30 PM to a report of a woman trapped unconscious inside a vehicle following a collision with another car that also damaged multiple cars parked in the area. A Seattle Fire rescue crew was able to extract the 26-year-old and she was rushed to Harborview in critical condition. 12th Ave at Marion was closed to traffic during the response.
  • 10th Ave hatchet arrest: A man was taken into custody Saturday night after reportedly causing chaos with a hatchet at a 10th Ave supportive housing facility. Police were called to the Downtown Emergency Center facility just before 10:30 PM to a report the man was chasing people and trying to chop down doors. Police used a non-lethal taser to subdue the man and take him into custody, according to East Precinct radio updates. Seattle Fire was called to the scene to provide treatment.
  • I-5 fall: A 50-year-old man survived a plunge onto I-5 from Melrose Thanksgiving afternoon. According to East Precinct and emergency radio reports, a man reportedly leapt onto the E Olive Way exit from I-5 just before 3:30 PM Thursday. Seattle Police officers first on the scene reported the man was conscious and alert after the fall. Seattle Fire was called to the scene to provide aid and transport to the hospital in serious condition for further treatment. No vehicles were reported involved in the incident. The exit was closed to traffic during the response. Resources to help those in need: National suicide-prevention hotline: 800-273-8255. Local Crisis Clinic: (206) 461-3222. If you need immediate assistance, call 911.
  • Broadway bike lock cutter: How fast can someone cut a bike lock? This video shared by a member of the CHS Facebook Group last Monday shows a man using a cordless power tool to cut away the lock on a parked electric bike in under 60 seconds before awkwardly riding from the scene as passersby try to sort out what they’re seeing. How fast? This fast:

 

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There’s an art exhibition opening this weekend below the I-5 freeway between Eastlake and Capitol Hill

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Artist Matthew Offenbacher has chosen an unusual gallery for a painting exhibition in his neighborhood spanning Capitol Hill and Eastlake set to open this weekend.

“It really was calling to me. It’s very much like a lot of spaces the city has been sweeping encampments from,” Offenbacher says of the liminal space of the I-5 Colonnade, the sloping, 7.5 acre park beneath the echoing freeway.

Offenbacher’s Charms exhibition includes seven paintings mounted on columns that support the elevated freeway between Capitol Hill and Eastlake.

“I made these paintings using aluminum foil, holographic film and glitter, and am thinking of them as protection charms for the city,” Offenbacher writes about the showing.

A visual artists who has been creating and organizing in Seattle for more than a decade, Offenbacher said the new show is a return to creating inspired by the 2020 protests, the Seattle police and prison abolitionist groups Defend the Defund, and the Seattle Solidarity Budget.

“I took a big step back and reevaluated my role as an artist,” Offenbacher said. “This show is a first attempt at how to bring these things together.” 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 →

Man reported tossing debris onto I-5 below Capitol Hill taken into custody after long standoff

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(Image: @lkearneyish)

Northbound I-5 through Seattle came to a crawl Friday night after multiple lanes and the Olive Way exit to Capitol Hill were closed during a long standoff with an armed man throwing debris onto the freeway, reportedly striking vehicles and a state trooper.

The area around Pike and Boren was locked down around 6:30 PM as Seattle Police Hostage Negotiation Team and SWAT units along with King County Sheriff deputies “assisted Washington State Patrol in apprehending a suspect that was throwing items onto the Northbound lanes of the I-5 freeway and assaulted a Trooper,” SPD reported.

According to SPD tactical radio updates, the suspect was seen with what were reported as two “makeshift” knives as law enforcement attempted to contact him and take him into custody over the two hours.

As crowds formed around the locked-down area and traffic backed up on I-5, police finally reported the man in custody just after 9 PM.

 

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Victim in deadly Olive Way hit and run identified

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The victim left to die in the roadway in last month’s Olive Way hit and run has been identified.

The King County Medical Examiner says Taylor Reid died of “multiple blunt force injuries” in the Friday, May 24th incident at Olive Way and Minor just west of I-5 from Capitol Hill.

Reid was 36 and a resident of a nearby apartment building. Reid’s dog Frito survived and was reportedly being tracked down from animal control to be re-homed. Continue reading →

Seattle’s I-5 lid hopes get $2M federal ‘research and planning’ boost

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(Image: U.S. Representative Pramila Jayapal)

(Image: Lid I-5)

Seattle’s hopes for someday lidding I-5 through downtown capping noise and pollution while re-connecting neighborhoods and creating millions in dollars of new development opportunities are getting a federal boost.

U.S. Representative Pramila Jayapal representing the WA-07 district including Capitol Hill and much of the city’s central and northern neighborhoods says she has helped secure $2 million in federal funding “for the City of Seattle to continue their research and planning of a project to construct a lid over Interstate 5 (I-5) in downtown Seattle.” Continue reading →

911 | I-5 falls, Seattle cold weather deaths

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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 Twitter reports from @jseattle or join and check in with neighbors in the CHS Facebook Group.

  • I-5 fall: Emergency crews treated a man who jumped or fell onto the Olive Way exit from I-5 Saturday morning. Seattle Fire reported responding to the incident along northbound freeway lanes just before 9 AM. A spokesperson says a 56-year-old male survived the fall and was in stable condition for transport to Harborview for further care. The I-5 overpasses below Capitol Hill are regularly the scenes for mental crisis calls and medical incidents including accidental falls from people trying to cross lanes of traffic or walk along narrow walls to access areas used for camping. Earlier this month, Seattle Fire responded to a fall onto northbound I-5 below Pike where it treated a 31-year-old man who suffered serious injuries in the incident. The man was taken to Harborview in critical condition in what was reported a mental health crisis call. We do not have an update on that incident.
    Resources to help those in need: National suicide-prevention hotline: 800-273-8255. Local Crisis Clinic: (206) 461-3222. If you need immediate assistance, call 911.
  • Cold weather deaths: The January cold snap that saw the lowest temperatures on Capitol Hill in 10 years was deadly. At least five people died from hypothermia in Seattle during the freezing January weekend, KUOW reports. They include this 63-year-old who died in a vehicle outside the Ballard Library. Another death was reported below I-5 on First Hill’s Seneca street where the King County Medical Examiner says Adam Elknation died outdoors of hypothermia and environmental exposure. Elknation was 37. The deaths occurred even as the city’s homelessness and shelter resources including emergency locations were mobilized to help give people warm places to stay. The health department says there were 31 emergency medical responses to cold-related incidents across the county on the January 12th weekend.
  • 14-year-old busted for car theft: SPD says it arrested a teen after tracking a stolen vehicle to Capitol Hill Sunday night:
    Shortly before 5:00 p.m., officers were notified that a stolen vehicle was tracking near the intersection of 15th Avenue South and South Lander Street. While officers were responding, dispatch advised there was a disturbance involving the vehicle, friends of the owner and multiple juvenile suspects. When officers arrived, they contacted the vehicle owner’s husband who found his wife’s stolen car and confronted the occupants. The husband told officers the driver attempted to flee the scene and crashed into another vehicle. After the crash, the husband fought with a passenger of the stolen vehicle. During the altercation, the driver of the stolen vehicle was able to drive away. Officers continued to track the stolen vehicle to a parking lot in the 300 block of East Olive Place.
    SPD says it caught up with the teen on a King County Metro bus. The juvenile was arrested for possession of a stolen motor vehicle and transported to 12th Ave’s Judge Patricia H. Clark Children and Family Justice Center.
 

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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 $5 a month -- or choose your level of support 👍