Tag Archives: john

The Capitol Hill Department of Transportation? Rogue stop signs un-installed along busy E John

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(Image: CHS)

The Seattle Department of Transportation’s $1.55 billion levy plan for 2025 includes Broadway safety improvements, an E Union “Revival,” and transit safety investments. But few of those projects will be more than planning this year.

The guerrilla Capitol Hill Department of Transportation?

It works faster — though its projects don’t tend to last.

Over the weekend, someone completed the latest rogue addition to the neighborhood’s streetscape, secretly installing stop signs on the busy intersections along E John above 12th Ave where pedestrians hoping to cross are often left waiting — or sprinting — to get to the other side. Continue reading →

After five years of paperwork, ‘Master Use Permit’ issued for five-story Capitol Hill Safeway redevelopment

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(Image: Weber Thompson)

The development project to create a new Safeway grocery store and mixed-use apartment complex at the corner of 15th and John has overcome its final regulatory hurdle.

The City of Seattle issued a Master Use Permit for the long-planned project on Halloween day, records show.

The issuance is the final major step in the city’s development process for a project from developer Greystar and the Weber Thompson development team to create two new five-story buildings including a new grocery, around 330 market rate apartment units, some new, smaller retail spaces, and an underground parking lot for more than 300 cars on the Safeway property at 15th and John.

The development has been in the works for years. CHS first broke the news on the plans in 2019. Plans had called for a start of construction in 2024 and a possible 2026 opening of the project. Continue reading →

SPD investigates double stabbing in Capitol Hill Halloween nightlife fight

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Two people were reported stabbed in an altercation early Friday morning amid remaining Capitol Hill Halloween nightlife crowds.

Seattle Police were called to E John at Bellevue just north of E Olive Way around 2:25 AM to a report of a man stabbed in the neck and upper body in a fight outside a nearby bar.

As officers arrived and called Seattle Fire to the scene to assist the injured man, police were called to a second victim reported stabbed in the neck and in need of assistance outside E Olive Way bar Revolver.

Seattle Fire reports it transported a 36-year-old man in stable condition to Harborview and a 30-year-old man was taken to the hospital by a private ambulance from outside the E Olive Way bar.

Seattle Police reported the second victim was highly intoxicated and uncooperative with police and medics.

Police were looking for a suspect described only as a heavyset black male wearing all black.

There were no reported arrests.

 

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Suspect held in Queen Sheba fire

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Thanks to a CHS reader for this image from the scene of the arrest

A suspect chased down by police remains jailed and Seattle Fire says investigators have determined the fire was intentionally set in Saturday’s blaze that damaged the former Queen Sheba restaurant across from Capitol Hill Station.

The Seattle Police Department says it took a 42-year-old man into custody Saturday afternoon in the aftermath of the incident that brought a large response to Broadway and John to battle the stubborn basement fire.

Police say the man was arrested a short distance from the fire for reckless burning, obstruction, and a weapons violation. A witness reportedly saw the suspect and another man fleeing the burning building.

According to court records, the suspect was released from Jail in August to await trial in a malicious mischief case stemming from thousands in damage inflicted on a delivery van in a Harvard Ave parking lot in July. The newly re-jailed suspect is slated to stand trial in that case later this year. Continue reading →

Fire damages former Queen Sheba restaurant tabbed for overhaul — UPDATE

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Thanks to a CHS reader for this picture of the response filling the intersection of John and Broadway

Seattle Fire knocked down a stubborn basement fire before it could more damage to a shuttered Capitol Hill restaurant Saturday afternoon.

Crews were called to the former Queen Sheba restaurant just after 1 PM to a report of smoke and flames coming from the two-story building in the 900 block of E John. Fire trucks and emergency vehicles filled the area around Broadway and the Capitol Hill Station light rail facility during the response.

SFD said it was able to bring the basement fire under control and there were no reported injuries. The Seattle Fire Marshal was investigating what caused the blaze.

CHS reported here on the closure of the longtime Ethiopian restaurant tucked into a converted 125-year-old house just off Broadway. The property’s owner said the plan was to rehab the building and find a new restaurant to take over the space.

UPDATE: Witness reports described two men seen possibly leaving the Sheba building after the fire was first spotted. Police took at least one person into custody near the fire scene.

 

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Goodbye to Capitol Hill’s Queen Sheba

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(Image: Queen Sheba)

(Image: King County)

A rare outpost of Ethiopian cuisine tucked into a converted 125-year-old house in the heart of Capitol Hill, Queen Sheba has permanently closed.

It had been an inconsistent couple years for the E John Ethiopian restaurant after two decades serving the neighborhood with the relatively affordable and vegetarian-friendly cuisine just off Broadway.

The restaurant survived years of nearby construction for Capitol Hill Station across the street and lived on to become part of the food and drink bustle around the busy transit center but also faced business challenges over costs and rent.

CHS’s attempts to talk with ownership about lease struggles in recent years were not answered. Continue reading →

KOMO: Teen linked to Capitol Hill Safeway shootout arrested

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The Seattle Police Department has reportedly arrested one of the suspects in the shootout that locked down the Capitol Hill Safeway earlier this month — a 15-year-old who reportedly fled the scene at 15th and John on a scooter.

KOMO reports SPD says it spotted the teen Thursday night in the Yesler Terrace neighborhood. The kid reportedly fled on a scooter to a nearby 1100-block E Fir apartment building where police engaged in a short standoff believing the teen to be armed. “A family member who lived at the apartments calmed the boy down and got him to surrender,” KOMO reports. Continue reading →

Gunfire locks down Capitol Hill Safeway — SPD investigates shooting victim found injured in Central District

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(Image: CHS(

Seattle Police locked down the grocery store and the corner of 15th and John after a reported exchange of gunfire at the Capitol Hill Safeway early Sunday evening.

No victims were found at the scene.

25 minutes later, a 911 caller reported a male with a gunshot wound to the leg at 12th and Fir.

Police were called to the reported 15th and John shootout just after 5 PM as people in the parking lot and customers inside the store scrambled for cover. Continue reading →

Broadway protected-lefts, ‘BUS ONLY’ lane join busy mix of transit, bikes, pedestrians, and cars at Capitol Hill Station

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(Image: CHS)

 

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It took years — plus a few extra months — to make it happen but the “Broadway and John Street Signal” project is transforming the busy intersection’s traffic patterns.

The new “BUS ONLY/ONLY BUS” markings are applied restricting left turns onto Broadway from John to only transit. The rest of the project includes new protected left-turns on Broadway along with all the necessary markings and signal changes required to make it work.

CHS reported here in June on the planned two-month construction project’s long-anticipated start. The Seattle Department of Transportation couldn’t exactly explain why the work dragged on four months — “Project construction was originally anticipated to last approximately 3-4 months,” a spokesperson said, despite what the department said this summer. “The start of work was delayed about one month due to finalizing the signal design and weather,” they added.

The original vision has been boiled down by time and shifting funding sources after originally being raised as a community priority to improve safety in the area around Capitol Hill Station.

The final project has included rebuilding the traffic signals at the intersection of Broadway and E Olive Way/E John, adding new “left turn pockets” and a “separated signal phase” for eastbound traffic on E Olive Way, installing a new transit-only left turn lane for westbound E John, and removing an area of in-street bike parking “to accommodate transit turning movements.” Continue reading →

After years of plans, new ‘protected left’ signals and transit-only turn lane coming to busy intersection of Broadway, John, and E Olive Way

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(Image: CHS)

The Seattle Department of Transportation is finally ready to complete the long-awaited “Broadway and John Street Signal” project. Construction will begin later in June on a two-month project to create new protected left-turns and a “transit only left-turn lane” at the heavily used intersection fronting Capitol Hill Station and the concentration of Metro bus stops serving the area.

Boiled down by time and shifting funding sources, the proposal born years ago from community feedback will finally take shape this month to make the busy mix of pedestrians, bikers, and drivers at the intersection of Broadway, John, and E Olive Way a safer space.

Starting the week of June 19th, crews will begin work to rebuild the traffic signals to have protected left turns “where left turning drivers have the red while people walking and biking as well as oncoming traffic have the green,” SDOT says.

The project will include rebuilding the traffic signals at the intersection of Broadway and E Olive Way/E John, adding new “left turn pockets” and a “separated signal phase” for eastbound traffic on E Olive Way, installing a new transit-only left turn lane for westbound E John, and removing an area of in-street bike parking “to accommodate transit turning movements.”

For people on foot and bikes outside the busy transit station, the changes are hoped to bring more time and safer crossings while the new transit-only lane will help ease the way for buses. Continue reading →