King County shifting plans for ‘zero youth detention’ at 12th Ave’s Judge Clark Children and Family Justice Center

King County’s four-year-old, $200 million Judge Patricia H. Clark Children and Family Justice Center on 12th Ave will remain open through and beyond a promised 2025 deadline as officials pursue establishing “a network of diverse community care homes” in a quest to change how Seattle moves forward on youth detention and addressing its disproportionate impact on communities of color.

King County Executive Dow Constantine’s office is pursuing only three of six recommendations from an advisory council formed to examine the “future of secure juvenile detention” and what changes should be made at the relatively new youth jail facility at 12th and Alder. None of the recommendations currently being pursued by Constantine’s office, according to a final report from the advisory council, include a 2025 end of secure detention at the facility.

Black kids continue to be disproportionately detained in King County, making up about half of the population housed at the facility or on home detention.

The new youth jail opened in the winter of 2020 with 16-cell living halls designed to look like dorms but secured for incarceration with electronic locks and state of the art surveillance systems, new classrooms, and an expanded visitation areas where youth offenders can meet with family and lawyers. There is a Merit Hall where detained kids can earn TV time and officials repurposed an “interview room” as a video game room. And there are courtrooms where legal proceedings can be carried out.

“As we move toward zero youth detention, how we can repurpose space?” one official said at the time. “As our population decreases, we can move our secure perimeter.” Continue reading

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

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

It has been anything but ‘rapid’ but RapidRide G bus transit project is now lined up for end of summer start

(Image: SDOT)

 

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With just over 150 days to a possible start of service on the line, the final efforts of construction workers and local legislators are aligning to begin RapidRide G bus service on the just under 2.50-mile, 10-station Madison route — maybe as soon as August.

Tuesday, the King County Council approved Ordinance 2024-0053 to establish service on the new RapidRide G connecting Seattle’s downtown to Madison Valley, passing through First Hill, Capitol Hill, and the Central District. The ordinance also officially revises eight nearby bus routes effective at the end of summer.

Officials say construction for the G Line is nearing completion with service on the new line anticipated to begin at the Fall 2024 service change — tentatively August 31st. The arrival of that milestone will be very welcome to transit officials facing skepticism about the return on investment for the surprisingly slow and costly to implement “bus rapid transit” that has been touted as a cheaper, faster, more effective solution than costly light rail and streetcar lines. Continue reading

School board holding candidate forum in wake of resignations over residency

Those vying to replace two Seattle School Board members who stepped down earlier this year over residency issues will participate in a candidates forum Wednesday night:

The eight candidates continuing as finalists will participate in a forum. The audience will listen as finalists share why they are interested in serving on the board and answer preselected questions by the School Board and School Board Student Members.

The forum is Wed., March 27, 6-8:30 p.m., at Lincoln High School. Lincoln is in the Wallingford neighborhood at 4400 Interlake Ave. N Seattle, WA 98103.

The forum will be live streamed on SPSTV.
How to watch the candidate forum:

  • SPSTV YouTube Channel
  • Comcast 26 (standard-def) 319 (hi-def)
  • Wave 26 (standard-def) 695 (hi-def)
  • Century Link 8008 (standard-def) 8508 (hi-def)

Continue reading

Hollingsworth committee hears reports on SPD surveillance tech

An old school “throw phone” being prepared for deployment at a Capitol Hill standoff

The Seattle City Council’s Parks, Public Utilities, and Technology Committee chaired by District 3 representative Joy Hollingsworth will hear required updates Wednesday from the Seattle Police Department on its use of two resources covered by the city’s “Surveillance Impact Report” requirements.

In Wednesday afternoon’s session, Hollingsworth’s committee will hear updates on SPD’s ongoing use of Callyo, a “cell phone identification masking and recording technology” that allows “undercover officers to mask their phone numbers and record conversations of suspects,” according to a council brief on the session. Continue reading

Just how Trump-y are you Capitol Hill Republicans, anyhow?


 

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In 2016, Trump had no clothes at the corner of E Pike and 11th

Gasp. There are real life Republicans living along the borders of the Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone. Along the eastern edge of Volunteer Park, for example, you will find at least 29 of them. There are at least 14 more living in the blocks around the neighborhood Safeway.

With Donald Trump again holding the party’s presidential nomination in a cynical, conspiracy-filled, hate-centered stranglehold, you have to ask — Just how Trump-y are you Capitol Hill Republicans?

In March’s Washington presidential primary, the answer was: not very.

Precinct data mapped by the Washington Community Alliance shows that Republicans in the wealthiest neighborhoods around Capitol Hill and the Central District were more likely to cast their March vote for challenger Nikki Haley than Trump.

In that Volunteer Park neighborhood around King County Precinct 29, for example, 21 Republican voters chose to support Halley vs. only seven for Trump and one lonely voter for Chris Christie. That Haley-led ratio was matched across much of the Republican vote around Capitol Hill. 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

18th Ave’s Firehouse Mini Park is getting a $781K overhaul

(Image: City of Seattle)

Seattle Parks and Recreation will host a community meeting next month to help shape designs for a $781,000 overhaul of 18th Ave’s Firehouse Mini Park.

Parks says the Saturday, April 6th meeting will provide an opportunity for the project’s designers to provide information about the planned upgrades and hear feedback on ideas for the play area next to the Byrd Bard Place community facility.

The city says the project will replace the existing play equipment and make accessibility improvements for the park including replacement of “the Engineered Wood Fiber” wood chip surfacing in the play area, renovations to the lawn area, planting enhancements and “site furnishing updates.” Continue reading

Washington sending two ‘uncommitted’ delegates to Democratic National Convention

Organizers of an “uncommitted delegates” protest vote against President Joe Biden’s handling of the war in Gaza are celebrating the placement of two delegates at the Democratic National Convention taking place this summer in Chicago.

The Democratic Socialist of America-aligned Uncommitted WA group, part of a nationwide effort to encourage Democrats across the country to withhold their votes from Biden in state primaries, say nearly 90,000 Democratic voters statewide submitted ballots for “uncommitted delegates” in Washington’s March primary, earning almost 10% of the party’s vote. Continue reading

Happy Capitol Hill Spring — Mezcaleria Oaxaca’s Patio Cielo is open for the season

 

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(Image: Mercado Luna)

Another Capitol Hill sign of spring is blooming. Mezcaleria Oaxaca’s Patio Cielo reopened for the season over the weekend.

The space is one of Capitol Hill’s most fun decks and crowns the restaurant which just marked its tenth year on Capitol Hill.

CHS reported here on the 2014 opening of Mezcaleria Oaxaca as the ambitious Graham Baba-designed project from the Dominguez-Perez family and sibling to their La Carta De Oaxaca original took shape out of a former auto garage. Continue reading