Racing for mayor, Senator Murray wins endorsement on home turf

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Murray celebrates his endorsement (Image: CHS)

Murray celebrates his endorsement (Image: CHS)

Ed Murray showed Tuesday night that he’ll be a contender in the race for Seattle’s mayor thanks to his strong base in the city’s core. In a vote by nearly 200 residents of the area, Murray walked away with the sole endorsement for mayor of Seattle from the 43rd District Democrats.

“We can only do it if we can come back together,” Murray said of his promise to return to the “Seattle way” and end what he called a ”divisive” term in office for incumbent opponent Mike McGinn. Continue reading →

Coffee co-op hopes balance of rules, responsibility will help it keep place on Hill

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IMG_4481Sunday, E Pine’s only anarchist-friendly cafe collective, Black Coffee Co-op, hosted a Punk Prom. Predictably, it was a little noisy and ran late into the night. And, predictably, neighbors in nearby apartment buildings and businesses weren’t happy about it. But one of Black Coffee’s four founding worker-owners tells CHS that the co-op has charted a new course to be better neighbors and, yes, even implement “policy” as their experiment in community-minded business continues.

“Word had gotten out that you won’t be kicked out. People were coming in to just hang out,” Black Coffee’s Scott Davis tells CHS about complaints in recent months that the co-op wasn’t doing enough to stop blatant drug use in its bathrooms and was becoming a hangout for thugs and criminals.

East Precinct commander Capt. Ron Wilson confirmed the complaints but declined to provide specifics of any investigations related to the coffee shop:

All I can share with you at this time is that over the past several weeks we have received several complaints about activity at Black Coffee. Some of the complaints deal with City and State code and/or regulation compliance issues, while some deal with public safety issues.

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Capitol Hill’s Simply Measured named Seattle’s top start-up

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(Image: GeekWire)

(Image: GeekWire)

Capitol Hill is home to Seattle’s start-up of the year. Belmont Ave’s Simply Measured took home the title last week at the 2013 GeekWire Awards.

CHS talked to Colin Henry, the company’s director of engineering, last summer about the amazing growth the company has seen since launching its analytics platform two years ago and running a start-up on Capitol Hill:

We found the right size space that we can grow into. There are meetups that meet on the Hill like Seattle RB. Seattle Interactive Developers Meetup usually happens at our offices. We’ve got three major coffee shops, a couple of great bars, lots of lunch opportunities. The Hill has a lifestyle and culture that very attuned to how we operate. I’m probably the most dressed up guy in the office, and I still have tattoos. I really, really like the Hill, it’s a great place to work. Continue reading →

Capitol Hill food+drink | Appeal in The Social liquor case as club’s partners move on

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IMG_4253, originally uploaded by Lookin4TallGuys.

One year ago this week, The Social nightclub and its joined-at-the-hip restaurant counterpart EVO debuted on E Olive Way. This May, they’re both long gone.

And probably not coming back.

CHS has learned that while one partner of the shuttered club will go up against the Washington State Liquor Control Board next week to make her case in an appeal against the body’s decision not to grant The Social a long-term liquor license, it does not appear the maneuver is related to reopening the club.

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Capitol Hill Housing Day declared in honor of grant award

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405728_10151403824601017_1069336205_nThe mayor declared Monday, May 20th Capitol Hill Housing day in Seattle as the non-profit developer was announced as a recipient of a $150,000 grant for its 12th Ave Arts project currently under construction at the former site of the East Precinct parking lot.

Earlier this year, Pike/Pine was honored by ArtPlace group behind the grant as a top neighborhood for the arts.

The 12th Ave Arts project that combines affordable housing with office space and theaters broke ground in February.Screen shot 2013-05-20 at 6.39.22 PM

Capitol Hill Housing Receives $150,000 Grant from ArtPlace America for 12th Avenue Arts

Prestigious national funder selects inventive partnership as only recipient in
Puget Sound Region

Seattle, WA — ArtPlace America announces today the award of a $150,000 grant to Capitol Hill Housing for 12th Avenue Arts. This project was chosen from over 1,200 applications as an exceptional example of creative placemaking. Continue reading →

As city considers strengthened rules for Pike/Pine, developer says 8-story project is how preservation should be done

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Preservation of a 40-foot stretch of masonry wall qualifies this 14th Ave project for an extra floor of apartments (Image: CHS)

Preservation of a 80-foot stretch of masonry wall qualifies this 14th Ave project for an extra floor of apartments (Image: CHS)

Meanwhile on E Pike, a leading Capitol Hill developer says his project will be a model for preservation (Image: Hunters Capital)

Meanwhile on E Pike, a leading Capitol Hill developer says his project will be a model for preservation (Image: Hunters Capital)

Last week, the final design plans were approved for the eight-story building at Melrose and Pine that benefitted from generous incentives for melding a modern apartment structure with two auto-row era buildings. One of Capitol Hill’s leading developers says he can do it better.

“It’s clear during the recent uptick in development, especially studying the larger projects going through [Master Use Permitting] that there are loopholes and shortcuts in how the current Pike/Pine Overlay language was written,” reads a statement from Michael Malone’s Hunters Capital sent to CHS about incentives in place since 2009 that trade the right for developers to build larger and higher in exchange for preserving the facades and basic dimensions of historical structures in the Pike/Pine neighborhood. Continue reading →

Pink Pistols? Gay-focused pro-gun flyers pop up across Capitol Hill

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954712_10102042573882468_1723188421_n (1)As one LGTBQ group prepares for a Wednesday night march and rally to launch a new “block watch” program on Capitol Hill, someone else has taken to the utility poles of the neighborhood to spread a much different message.

“Some people dislike gays, others dislike guns,” one posted sheet reads. “We should not base our laws on personal dislikes.”

The rather large leap of an equivalency looks a little like a renewal of a national campaign from the mid-2000s that got some attention on Capitol Hill known as the Pink Pistols. We talked to one person familiar with the group from the days when Pink Pistols “first fired up” who says it is still active in the area but he is not sure if this is a case of old members reviving their efforts or a younger generation of gun activists picking up the torch. We have not yet heard back from our effort to reach a representative for the group. Continue reading →

Capitol Hill pizza driver held up after giving chase to Belmont Ave car prowler

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A Capitol Hill pizza delivery driver reported having his phone taken from him at gunpoint after he tried to chase down a woman who he found prowling his car during a middle-of-the-night delivery on Belmont Ave E.

According to the report on the Saturday morning incident, the driver said he was making a delivery after leaving his locked car in the 300 block of Belmont Ave E around 2:30 AM when he was returning to the vehicle and saw the driver-side door open and a woman rifling through the vehicle. The driver told police he yelled at the woman and began chasing her as she made a run for it.

The driver said he quickly caught the woman and was holding onto her when two men armed with a pistol and a bike chain arrived and yelled at him to let the woman go. According to the driver, he tried to make a phone call but one man pointed the gun at him as the other was swinging something that appeared to be a bicycle chain.

The driver said the men and woman then took his phone and fled from the scene “in all directions,” according to the report. The driver returned to his restaurant and called police.  A search of the area did not produce any of the suspects.

After East Precinct testing, SPD rolling out system to identify crime hot spots

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Screen-Shot-2013-05-17-at-2.06.07-PM-1024x451Though there are no datasets released yet that suggests it is working, the Seattle Police Department is rolling out “predictive policing” software it has been testing in the East Precinct to alert officers to areas of the Hill “to forecast potential areas where property crimes like burglary, car prowling and theft might occur.”

According to SPD, the PredPol software produces maps with red-line boxes to alert officers where crime hot spots are emerging.

Despite implementation of the technology in the East Precinct, there has been an increased concern about crime around Capitol Hill. This week, a rally and march is planned as a new “block watch” program is launched among Capitol Hill businesses. Police say the new software could eventually be extended to identify danger zones for increasing violent crimes like assaults and robberies.

The full announcement on the roll-out is below. Continue reading →

First Hill group tries to scale back 24-story apartment building

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Screen shot 2013-05-19 at 6.20.55 PM

Weber Thompson’s design for 1321 Seneca

A group of neighbors has its turn in front of the Seattle Hearing Examiner in an attempt to scale back a 24-story apartment building planned for 1321 Seneca on First Hill.

The complaints and requested relief, below, call for additional conditions to be placed on the building, more study of the project’s potential impact on traffic and parking in the area, reducing the height of the building by shrinking rooftop amenities and changing the layout.

The neighbors also want construction work — currently permitted to go until 8p — to end at 6: Continue reading →