Tag Archives: north capitol hill

Operation Nightwatch a growing Capitol Hill presence with Broadway Street Ministry, plans for new emergency shelter at St. Mark’s

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An Operation Nightwatch volunteer (Image: Operation Nightwatch)

Capitol Hill’s St. Mark’s will add a new women’s emergency shelter facility from Operation Nightwatch as it moves forward with a plan for new affordable housing to be developed on its North Capitol Hill campus.

Plans filed with the city describe construction of a “limited use emergency shelter with 20 beds and limited hours of operation” in the 1950s-era addition to the 10th Ave E property’s landmarks-protected St. Nicholas building.

CHS reported here earlier this year on a planned development and adaptive reuse project envisioned to create more than 100 affordable homes in a transformation of the nearly 100-year-old building.

In the meantime, the new shelter from Operation Nightwatch will call the St. Nicholas addition home. Continue reading →

‘Loud and clear’: Capitol Hill’s Stevens Elementary off the list — for now — as district has new plan to close fewer campuses

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(Image: Seattle Public Schools)

Capitol Hill’s Stevens Elementary might have the opportunity to change its name, afterall.

The North Capitol Hill campus is off the list — for now — as Seattle Public Schools has changed its plans from cuts that would have sliced more than 20 campuses to a cutback that will shut down five following public outcry over the district’s efforts to overcome a looming budget deficit.

Superintendent Brent Jones announced the new, less aggressive plan for cutbacks Tuesday, saying his office heard complaints about the initial planned closure of up to 21 elementary school campuses “loud and clear.”

“We know we need the support of our students, families, and staff to uplift a large-scale change such as this,” Jones said in the announcement. “My hope is that we can work together to re-establish a level of trust that allows us to move forward in a way that honors our school communities.” Continue reading →

Your Capitol Hill neighbor Melinda French Gates loves the neighborhood for the same reasons you do

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Capitol Hill has a lot going for it over the mansions of Medina.

In a June interview with Time Magazine about the philanthropist’s life after divorcing the world’s fifth-richest person, Melinda French Gates sounds quite a bit like the rest of us when it comes to describing what she loves about her new life in the city:

“I live in a neighborhood. Now I can walk to little stores. I can walk to the drugstore, I can walk to a restaurant,” she says. “I absolutely love it.”

Where is this lovely slice of city living? Capitol Hill. Business Insider reports that French Gates purchased “a cottage in the North Broadway neighborhood of Seattle weeks before the former couple filed for divorce in 2021” for $1.2 million. Continue reading →

Density, powerlines, and development: Here is why it still goes dark on North Capitol Hill

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(Image: CHS)

Day-long power outages from June-uary winds and rain that hit over 7,000 Seattle City Light customers in northern Capitol Hill earlier this month didn’t have enough of an impact for the city to consider installing underground power lines. The location of Capitol Hill power outages follows a pattern: in areas where multifamily housing development is less prevalent, power lines sit above ground and are left vulnerable to high winds and storms.

“The recent, sustained high wind event caused many outages throughout our service area including Capitol Hill,” Jenn Strang, media relations manager of SCL, told CHS.

Power outages are frequently caused by fallen trees, wind and ice. Strang said some instances are easier to fix than others, like the outage at 15th St and E Olive St.

“In the case of Monday’s outage at 15th Street East and East Olive, multiple wire spans and crossarms needed to be replaced and repaired which required different crews to complete the tasks,” Strang said.

Installing power lines underground to lessen the risk of outages in the area isn’t an option without larger scale housing development.

For one, it’s expensive — and the city wants developers to pay for it.

Nicholas Rich, client executive at IMEG—a national engineering and design consulting company— said many owners of newly built apartments want City Light to bury overhead power lines underground.

“If you put those underground you really improve the reliability in that respect locally,” Rich told CHS. “Usually a new developer won’t want to do that because City Light is perfectly happy keeping those overhead lines just the way they are.” Continue reading →

St. Mark’s affordable housing and adaptive reuse development on agenda at Seattle Landmarks Preservation Board

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A rendering showing the planned massing of the new structure (Image: Atelierjones)

The Seattle Landmarks Preservation Board will be briefed this week on the planned redevelopment and adaptive reuse project envisioned to create more than 100 affordable homes on the St. Mark’s Cathedral campus on northern Capitol Hill.

The project would transform the landmarks-protected St. Nicholas building that has stood on the property for 98 years. CHS reported here on the project taking shape with designs calling for 109 affordable apartment units in a development that would create a new twin to the historic building.

Designated as a protected landmark in 1982, the St. Nicholas structure’s protections include the “entire exterior of the 1926 building” and “the entire site” but the restrictions do not extend to the structure’s interior. Continue reading →

St. Mark’s northern Capitol Hill affordable housing plan would create new four-story twin to adaptive reuse of old St. Nicholas building

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A four-story addition would rise behind the old St. Nicholas building under the plan

(Image: City permit filings)

Capitol Hill’s next major affordable housing development may come on the holy ground of North Capitol Hill.

Early permit filings show a plan for a four-story adaptive reuse project with around 109 affordable apartment units in a development that would create a new twin to the landmarks-protected St. Nicholas building on the grounds of the St. Mark’s Cathedral along 10th Ave E.

CHS reported here in November on renewed efforts around the long-planned development effort as Saint Mark’s Episcopal Cathedral announced it received a $100,000 grant from Trinity Church Wall Street, an organization that helps churches and faith organizations fund feasibility and predevelopment costs.

For St. Mark’s, proceeds from the development would provide crucial funding while also furthering its social mission by providing much needed new affordable housing in the city. Continue reading →

CHS Pics | Enjoy the blossoms of the Akebono Cherry trees of 21st Ave E

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Far from the crowds wandering the quad at the University of Washington is a Capitol Hill street that also blooms beautifully in spring.

21st Ave E — just north of Aloha and south of Prospect — is home to one of Capitol Hill’s best blooms of cherry blossoms. The old trees line a couple blocks and draw small crowds of their own to swirl feet through the pink and white drifts and take pictures. Continue reading →

Red Cedar Elementary — The long path to rename a Capitol Hill school has families and staff closer to achieving their goal

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Gen. Isaac I. Stevens died at the age of 44 leading Union troops at the Battle of Chantilly

For decades, families and staff at Stevens Elementary School have talked about hopes of detaching the North Capitol Hill school from a figure with a fading place in the state’s history and to give respect back to Duwamish and Indigenous Peoples.

Now, some 167 years after Isaac Ingalls Stevens finished his term as the Governor of the newly formed Washington Territory, organizers at the school feel 2024 is the year to finally make change.

“When people finally realize that their school and the name ‘Stevens’ is actually Isaac Stevens, and as kids learn in history about Isaac Stevens, they would question why they are named after this person,” Michelle Martine, a first grade teacher at the school, tells CHS. “There has always been a push to change the name, but it has never felt as right as it does right now.”

Martine said renaming has been a conversation with children and families who come through the school. A petition was launched earlier this month and currently has a total just under 100 signatures in favor of a proposed name change to Red Cedar Elementary.

The organizers spent much time, effort and thoughtfulness researching, listening to and learning from Indigenous Peoples to uncover the perfect name. Continue reading →

Seattle City Light: 5,000 out across northern Capitol Hill, 10,000 across city — UPDATE

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A breezy and wet Saturday afternoon left more than 5,000 customers in the dark around northern Capitol Hill and Eastlake.

Seattle City Light said about 10,000 customers were out across the city as of just after 3 PM Saturday.

For the Capitol Hill area outage, the cause of the failure was still being investigated but Seattle City Light said crews had been dispatched for repairs and restoration.

SCL provided a service restoration estimate of 10 PM — though it’s not clear how the department generates its predictions without a cause already determined.

UPDATE: City Light says it has restored power to some for the Eastlake area outage and that it expects full restoration by around 7:15 PM. It is blaming a tree for the failure. One report described a tree falling on wires near the Colonnade park under I-5.

UPDATE x2: SCL says the outage has ended:

The outage on north Capitol Hill/Eastlake affecting approximated 2,800 customers has been restored. We thank our crews for their work and for your patience as we continue to restore power across our service area.

You can check for updates via mobile at seattle.gov/city-light/outages.

 

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Next District 3 Community Safety Meeting will take place next week on North Capitol Hill

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District 3 representative Joy Hollingsworth will be joined by officials from the mayor’s office and the Seattle Police Department at a community meeting next week on Capitol Hill to discuss ongoing efforts to address public safety concerns.

The Tuesday, February 20th meeting follows a session held last month in the Central District as Hollingsworth has pledged to host monthly community gatherings around the district to address concerns ranging from deadly gun violence and drug overdoses to day to day property crime and street safety.

“Most of the email we get in from our email box is public safety,” Hollingsworth told the Central District crowd last month as the first-term councilmember and her office staff fielded questions and concerns from attendees, tried to offer some information and solutions, and pledged to continue listening to the issues. Continue reading →