Flurry of Seattle public safety meetings includes Councilmember Hollingsworth’s session this week on Capitol Hill

Harrell at last week’s mayoral public safety forum (Image: City of Seattle)

With reporting by Hannah Saunders

A flurry of community meetings are adding to efforts to address a spate of gun violence that left a student injured and a woman killed in separate Central District shootings last week.

Tuesday night, District 3 representative on the Seattle City Council Joy Hollingsworth will hold her first community safety meeting with constituents since the shootings in a session at Capitol Hill’s Seattle Central College.

Hollingsworth stepped forward to take the microphone at a public safety forum held by Mayor Bruce Harrell that had been organized before the shootings but ended up being dominated by the issues related to gun violence in the city.

“When we can’t keep our kids safe, it’s a failure on us as adults and I really take that very seriously being in this role,” Hollingsworth said at Harrell’s forum last week. “Any time a child is hurt—especially at school—I take that very personally.” Continue reading

This week in CHS history | Jonathan Caradonna murder, 2020 COVID ‘stay home’ restrictions, the Canterbury’s end


Here are the top stories from this week in CHS history:

2023

 

‘DO NOT BLOCK BIKE LANE’ — Latest Seattle guerilla street safety project finds signs alone no match for drivers looking for a place to park on Capitol Hill


Continue reading

‘YOU DESERVE A SWEET LITTLE TREAT’ — Shikorina Pastries now open on E Pike

There is a new organic bakeshop and cafe in the heart of Pike/Pine. Shikorina Pastries celebrated its “grand re-opening” and is now settled in on E Pike.

“Cake is back!,” the latest social media post for Shikorina exclaims. “Chocolate chiffon w/ strawberry jam and vanilla buttercream,” the hand written sign promises.

CHS reported here last month on the plans from baker Hana Yohannes to move the Black, queer, and woman-owned “organic, sustainable Central District bakery” off of E Union and into the heart of E Pike in the space left empty by the exit of Portland vegan Jewish deli chain Ben and Esther’s.

The move is an opportunity to leave lease, financial, and personal challenges behind, Yohannes said. Continue reading

Elections! Biden suffers small ‘uncommitted’ protest vote dent, battle for Seattle citywide Position 8 begins (again)

Their totals will climb but groups backing an “uncommitted delegates” protest vote over Gaza against Democratic incumbent Joe Biden in the Washington presidential primary only dented the president’s Election Night tally.

Meanwhile, Seattle is turning its attention to the start of a 2024 political race that will be a big deal for the city.

Statewide in Tuesday night’s first count, Biden landed with just under 86% of the Democratic vote. The “uncommitted” ballots landed at just over 7%. For comparison, in 2020’s Washington primary, Biden finished neck and neck with challenger Bernie Sanders, each with around a third of the vote. Continue reading

‘G’ is for gelato: Soon, new Madison Valley Fainting Goat will only be a RapidRide away

(Image: Fainting Goat)

Thanks to a reader for the picture

On this rainy “Spring Forward” Monday, let us turn our attention to thoughts of summer bus rides to Madison Park — and a gelato stop in Madison Valley along the way.

Fainting Goat Gelato is expanding south of the Montlake Cut with a new shop in Madison Valley. You can also find Fainting Goat in Fremont. The Wallingford shop is currently listed as “temporarily closed” as they work on a new location. Continue reading

Regional Centers, Urban Centers, Neighborhood Centers, Industrial Centers, and Urban Neighborhoods — Outreach and feedback process begins on Seattle’s next 20-year growth plan

Officials are asking for people to weigh in and emphasizing five new “place types” in Seattle that they say will bring opportunities for new population growth in more neighborhoods as they roll out a proposed update to the city’s 20-year comprehensive plan.

CHS reported here on the Harrell administration proposal that will continue to lean hard on the densest cores of Capitol Hill and the Central District while making small steps forward in allowing multifamily-style housing across the city.

The Office of Planning & Community Development is launching an outreach and feedback process: Continue reading

Between Capitol Hill and downtown, it is now west on Pine, east on Pike

(Image: SDOT)

West on Pine, east on Pike.

Pine Street is now one-way between the base of Capitol Hill and downtown. The Seattle Department of Transportation says crews were working this weekend to finalize the overhaul to make Pine the westbound component in the new couplet configuration with Pike.

CHS reported here on the $17.45 million project to transform Pike and Pine into one-way streets below Bellevue Ave with protected bike lanes and safety improvements including wider sidewalks as part of the city’s waterfront improvements. 18 months of scheduled work on the project began late last year. Continue reading

International Working Women’s Day march to step off on Capitol Hill

An International Working Women‘s Day march is planned to step off on Capitol Hill Friday night.

The International Working Women’s Day Coalition says it is organizing the event to mark the day commemorating “massive strikes by largely immigrant women garment workers in New York City on March 8 in 1857 and 1908.”

“Seattle’s public observance of International Working Women’s Day is being organized by a strongly international combination of organizations, including feminists from Palestine, Iran, Afghanistan, and the Philippines, as well as communities of color, reproductive justice activists, and others from the U.S.,” the group said in its announcement. “The action will express a commitment to survival, equality, labor rights, and justice for women, LGBTQI+ people, and allies around the world, with a special focus on opposition to Israel’s war on Gaza.”

The Friday, March 8th march will begin with a “speak-out, info fair, and cultural activities” in the AIDS Memorial Plaza above Capitol Hill Station from 4 to 6 PM. “At dusk, a dramatic night march will circle the area for approximately an hour,” organizers say, with plans for “several hundred people” to participate.

 

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King County adding treatment facilities, relaunching Seattle sobering center to take on fentanyl crisis

A fatal overdose in Cal Anderson (Image: CHS)

At 10:30 AM on Monday, the Seattle Fire Department responded to a reported overdose in a Boylston Ave apartment. The city’s fire chief says his department is responding to an average of 15 drug overdoses a day driven by a surge in fentanyl use.

Officials this week say King County is launching a new “multi-part strategy across five priority areas” to address the crisis beginning this year that will include a new residential treatment center plus five new Crisis Care Centers paid for by the $1.25 billion property levy approved by voters last year along with new initiatives to increase access to overdose antidotes and drug testing.

Previously shuttered services are also being restarted including the reopening of the county’s sobering center that provides a desperately needed facility for people suffering from addiction and heavy drug or alcohol use.

“Substance use disorder is complex, and there is not one single cause, nor one simple solution. That’s why King County is connecting people to treatment and lifesaving interventions that are proven to work, and clear paths to recovery for all,” King County Executive Dow Constantine said in a statement. “The increasingly dangerous drug supply across the state and nation, dominated by fentanyl, is contributing to a devastating increase in deaths. There is so much more to do, which is why King County is also working upstream to help prevent substance use disorder, inform and educate the community, elevate early intervention strategies, and provide services and treatment for anyone who needs it.”

The investments range from the new facilities to resources already put in place like the county’s buprenorphine prescription hotline that is staffed 24 hours a day to help people get access to the drug used as a safer replacement in the treatment of opioid dependence.

Five Priorities for Action to Prevent Overdoses in King County in 2024

Priority 1: Treatment and community-based, recovery-focused care for all. Continue reading