In the end, we remember only what we pay attention to. Here is a look back at 2022 around Capitol Hill, the Central District, and nearby neighborhoods through the prism of CHS’s most-read stories for each month of the year. Thanks for reading!

JANUARY

1. January 25th — It’s like combining Seattle Smoke Season with Seattle’s Coldest Day in 23 Years — Air stagnation advisory issued: 2022 started with apocalyptic winter skies as Seattle and the region were socked in with cold, smoggy fog.
2. January 18th — With 49 buildings at highest risk across Capitol Hill and Central District, Seattle pushes for 2022 progress on mandatory earthquake retrofits: Seattle’s 40-year quest to shore up unreinforced masonry buildings continued.
3. January 23rd — ‘We have decided to end our tenure on our terms’ — Cafe Pettirosso to close after 27 years on Capitol Hill: CHS broke the news that owners Miki and Yuki Sodos were shutting down the much-loved hangout.

FEBRUARY Continue reading →

Hey, CHS readers, the Seattle Public Library has provided its rankings of the most-borrowed books in its system in 2022 in both physical and e-book format along with lists for nonfiction and also audiobooks. One of the most-read involves the haunting of an independent bookstore, naturally, while the nonfiction ranks will make you want to give Seattleites a hug on their quest to find love and eat better. CHS was happy to see Seattle Walk Report’s Secret Seattle: An Illustrated Guide to the City’s Offbeat and Overlooked History make the lists. We talked with Susanna Ryan about her work way back in 2018. Happy reading.

WHAT SEATTLE READ IN 2022: THE SEATTLE PUBLIC LIBRARY’S MOST CHECKED-OUT BOOKS OF THE YEAR

Curious about which books Seattle’s insatiable readers turned to in 2022? Need a little inspiration for that 2023 book list you’re already making? The Seattle Public Library has you covered.

The most popular fiction book checked out from The Seattle Public Library from January through November 2022 was “The Sentence,” by Louise Erdrich. It’s a novel about a Minneapolis bookstore haunting and much more set in 2020, a “year of grief, astonishment, isolation, and furious reckoning.” The most checked out e-novel was “The House of Broken Angels” by renowned Mexican-American author Luis Alberto Urrea, the selection for the Library’s 2022 Seattle Reads program. Seattle’s community of e-audiobook listeners checked out “Braiding Sweetgrass,” read by author Robin Wall Kimmerer, more than any other e-audiobook.

Several books by Northwest authors also ranked high in popularity in 2022, including “Secret Seattle,” by Library staff member Susanna Ryan; “Red Paint,” by Coast Salish author Sasha LaPointe; The Final Case, by David Guterson; and “Grains for every Season,” by Oregon chef Joshua McFadden (with Martha Holmberg).

Here are the other most popular fiction and nonfiction books, e-books and e-audiobooks among Library patrons last year. Please note that these lists were compiled from anonymous checkout data collected from January 1 through November 30, 2022.

THE LIBRARY’S 10 MOST POPULAR ADULT FICTION PHYSICAL BOOKS

1. The Sentence, by Louise Erdrich
2. The Maid, by Nita Prose
3. Sea of Tranquility, by Emily St. John Mandel
4. The Final Case, by David Guterson
5. The Swimmers, by Julie Otsuka
6. Book Lovers, by Emily Henry
7. One Italian Summer, by Rebecca Serle
8. This Time Tomorrow, by Emma Straub
9. Remarkably Bright Creatures, by Shelby Van Pelt
10. The Candy House, by Jennifer Egan Continue reading →

Part of CHS’s core mission is helping our readers with change. Here is a look back at 2022 through the prism of change to come as new waves of development have returned to Capitol Hill after a pandemic lull. Below, you will find the planned mixed-use development and housing projects CHS covered around the Hill through the past year. We’ve organized them from largest to smallest by unit count. There are also new forces at play. New affordable development should hopefully move forward more quickly with new design review exemptions for low income housing. Meanwhile, there is a robust pool of public funding available to shift new projects planned as market-rate apartments into the city’s growing pool of affordable housing. There is also work to undo some of the injustice and inequity of the past with efforts like the William Grose Center for Cultural Innovation and Enterprise, Africatown’s center for “economic empowerment and community-driven development,” that opened in the Central District this year. The stories of these new developments — and the stories of the people who will call the new buildings home — will come in 2023 and beyond as the waves of change continue reshaping the neighborhood.

• 400 units — 1410 E John: “The new project will replace the existing 44,000-square-foot Safeway and its adjacent surface parking lot. The Safeway was built in 1998 and as of 2021, had an appraised value of $39.48 million, according to county tax records. In its place, developer Greystar and architect Weber Thompson propose a new, 50,000-square-foot Safeway, about market rate 400 apartment units, some new, smaller retail locations and an underground parking lot for about 350 cars, according to the design review proposal…” Continue reading →