Author Archives: CHS

‘$15 Now’ — Seattle marks ten year anniversary of a new path for the city’s minimum wage

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Marches and “fast food strikes” like this one in 2015 outside the First Hill McDonald’s were part of the push for the new minimum wage

By Domenic Strazzabosco

April marks the tenth anniversary of Seattle taking a new path on its minimum wage. On April 1, 2015, the city became the first in the United States to enact a $15 minimum wage and a process to lever the wage higher to account for rising costs and inflation. As of January 1st, Seattle’s minimum wage sits at $20.76 an hour.

It has been a long climb to get here. A look around Capitol Hill shows some of the impact.

CHS checked out local postings to see what employers were offering new workers come the decade anniversary of the legislation. Continue reading →

When will Capitol Hill-grown magic mushrooms be legal in Seattle?

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A wavy cap found on Capitol Hill (Image: CHS)

A home-grown culture of psilocybe cubensis (golden teachers). (Image: Colby Bariel)

By Colby Bariel/UW News Lab

A Capitol Hill expert has taught hundreds of people, from grandmothers to neuroscientists how to cultivate magic mushrooms guiding many into the world of psychedelics.

With years of teaching experience, they cover the responsible use of entheogens, contemporary psychedelic theory, and their therapeutic applications.

“Psychedelics are meaning-making chemicals,” the expert tells CHS. “Magic mushrooms are therapeutic, not medicinal.”

Their work is facilitated by a 2021 Seattle City Council decree decriminalizing the noncommercial cultivation of psilocybin mushrooms and several other entheogens. This decision has allowed Seattle residents to engage in home-mycology and explore the spiritual, religious, and therapeutic experiences offered by psychedelics.

But Seattle is not yet safe for psychonauts. And the shadows of the Trump administration have darkened the situation to the point where recent progress here is being slowed and rolled back.

While personal psilocybin cultivation is decriminalized, its use remains illegal. In February, a man on First Hill was busted for what police said was a “drug lab” with thousands of dollars worth of magic mushrooms set up inside a First Hill apartment unit.

Organizations like REACH (Responsible Entheogen Access & Community Healing Coalition) Washington are advocating for state-level entheogen decriminalization.

Oregon is already a step ahead. Continue reading →

Capitol Hill Community Post | Espresso Vivace celebrates its 37th Anniversary

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Screenshot

From Espresso Vivace

Espresso Vivace celebrates its 37th Anniversary with our Annual Espresso Tasting

David will be on bar!

Featuring shots of
Ugandan Rwenzori
Brazilian Yellow Bourbon
Indian Monsooned Malabar
And Ugandan Endele Swiss water Dcaf

Friday April 18th noon to 2pm at our Brix location
Saturady April 19th noon to 2pm at our SLU location

Come one and all to experience the bleeding edge of espresso perfection.

 

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Subscribe to CHS to help us hire writers and photographers to cover the neighborhood. CHS is a pay what you can community news site with no required sign-in or paywall. To stay that way, we need you.

Become a subscriber to help us cover the neighborhood for $5 a month -- or choose your level of support 👍 

 
 

Reverie Ballroom starts next dance on Capitol Hill with renovations, new paint, and plans for new connections like yoga, circus, and burlesque

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Opening night looked familiar at the Reverie (Image: Reverie Ballroom)

But change is coming with renovations, overhauls, and new paint (Image: Reverie Ballroom)

By Domenic Strazzabosco

Reverie Ballroom, housed on the second floor of the Capitol Hill’s Odd Fellows Hall on the corner of Pine and 10th, is up and running after taking over after 28 years of swing dance, waltz, salsa and more from the Century Ballroom.

“More than anything, I’m holding a vision of this place being a thriving arts center where people can come and try a little bit of all kinds of things,” said Eliza Wilder, the executive director of Reverie Ballroom.

CHS Seattle reported in January that Century Ballroom’s owners Hallie Kuperman and Alison Cockrill were not renewing their lease on the space and that a new group was stepping forward to continue using it in a similar fashion to the last three decades.

Though the transition happened on April 1, there wasn’t a single day when dance classes weren’t available. Wilder noted that since so much of the Seattle dance community relies on the rooms, she feared that even one day off would be too much for everyone. Continue reading →

Kaiser Capitol Hill’s empty 15th Ave retail spaces falling short on agreement with neighborhood

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Kaiser’s 15th Ave streetfront is not completely empty — Moli Bento and Overcast Coffee continue to hold down the fort (Image: CHS)

By Matt Dowell

On 15th and Denny, across from Aviv Hummus Bar and the neighborhood 7-Eleven is a stretch of darkened windows — unoccupied retail space on Kaiser Permanente’s Capitol Hill campus. Up past Thomas in Kaiser’s North Building across from Safeway, more storefronts have gone vacant.

A longstanding agreement with the neighborhood holds Kaiser accountable to renting the space out and keeping the streetfront an active space. But the integrated managed care consortium may not holding up its end of the 15th Ave bargain.

“Kaiser appears uninterested in filling these spaces,” said David Dahl in an email to CHS. Dahl has been part of the Implementation Advisory Committee for Kaiser’s Major Institution Master Plan since its formation in 2018. Seattle requires universities, colleges, and hospitals to have MIMPs, which try to balance the institutions’ needs for special zoning rules with the needs of adjacent communities. The IAC represents the neighborhood in this arrangement.

Kaiser’s MIMP dates back to 1988, when Group Health owned the property. As part of the agreement Kaiser inherited, they’re on the hook for a few promises to the neighborhood. Continue reading →

Broadway’s Comedy/Bar is now Emerald City Comedy Club and is taking on A-list renovations

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Hesseldahl confronting the old walls before the club’s opening in 2023

By Calvin Jay Emerson

Some jokes go over better than others. Broadway’s Comedy/Bar is gone. With the Emerald City Comedy Club, a new start is underway.

If you ever walk north from Capitol Hill Station, you’ll likely pass under an unlit neon arrow. Wrapped around it is a swirling black ribbon, labelled “High Line”, indicating its former purpose. Given that the dive bar of the same name closed five years ago, it now only serves as a reminder of the changes at 210 Broadway E.

Its most recent identity was as Comedy/Bar, a comedy venue that, despite attracting national controversy, has maintained a friendly following. They’ve provided a space to go for a reliable laugh and discover new comedy talent.

However, owner Dane Hesseldahl knew that the club hadn’t reached its full potential. Continue reading →

‘We’re the same squad’ — Break Away grows from vintage on the street to a shop on Capitol Hill

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(Image: Break Away)

By Matt Dowell

This weekend will bring a celebration of the continuation of a mission of reuse and community on Broadway as Magpie Thrift hosts its grand opening.

On E Pike, the guys behind a vintage shop that opened on the street last year are also trying to build something new. They have a few things they’d like to clarify. Though their brick and mortar spot is new, they’ve been in the neighborhood for awhile.

And their name — Break Away— has nothing to do with the split from their co-tenant next door at Late Night Vintage.

And their prices are negotiable!

“There’s a big misconception. People think we broke away from Late Night,” laughs co-owner Eddie Duran. “But we were Break Away before this store was even a thing. We’re still friends [with the Late Night crew]. We hang out.”

Break Away Vintage Market has taken the east half of the upstairs space in the auto-row era building that has been home over the years to cafes and nonprofits before its latest incarnation in retail. Someday, a nine-story mixed-use building will stand at the corner. These days, the spacious former auto showroom is now divided down the middle by a makeshift wall of clothes racks separating Break Away and Late Night Vintage.

Break Away was one of the original vendors at Late Night’s vintage clothing market when it opened on E Pike in 2022. They stepped out from the Late Night umbrella last October. Besides the upstairs room, Break Away has also filled out a cavernous downstairs, another fun space to explore.

“It’s like a maze,” said Duran, “We have so many different rooms.” Continue reading →

King of the Hill: Back on the job and fully stocked with love for E Olive Way

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(Image: CHS)

 

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Subscribe to CHS to help us hire writers and photographers to cover the neighborhood. CHS is a pay what you can community news site with no required sign-in or paywall. To stay that way, we need you.

Become a subscriber to help us cover the neighborhood for $5 a month -- or choose your level of support 👍 

 
 

(Image: Google)

By Domenic Strazzabosco

A year and a half after undergoing emergency brain surgery, Aklilu “Abe” Abraham — the owner of King of the Hill Market on E Olive Way — is back on the job and endlessly thankful for the neighborhood’s emotional and financial support throughout his surgery and recovery.

In many ways, it feels like he can’t show his appreciation to the people and businesses around him enough.

“I’m really thankful to be around the Hill. And I didn’t know until I was sick,” Abraham, who is often referred to as “The King,” said.

In September 2023, Abraham became ill and was rushed to the hospital, where a CAT scan revealed that he had bleeding in his skull that was putting pressure on his brain. A week after he had surgery, a fundraiser was launched to raise money to help pay for the excessive medical bills he was set to accrue. It was largely supported by repeat customers, neighbors, and former residents of Capitol Hill. Over $30,000 was raised.

Aside from donations, the comments on the fundraiser revealed just how beloved The King was to the neighborhood’s residents. They go something like this: “The neighborhood isn’t the same without you;” “Abe is the true king of the hill. He always makes everyone’s day;” and “Abe is such an important part of our community. Sending our best to him and to his family.”

Looking back, he describes the store, customers and neighborhood like a piece of gold he didn’t realize he had. Continue reading →

Magpie Thrift ready for new beginning in longtime Broadway thrift shop space

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By Caroline Carr

When Lifelong announced it was getting out of the thrift business in January, they were naturally met with disappointment from the community. At the time, they couldn’t yet reveal what would come next for the Broadway thrift shop that had been a quintessential Capitol Hill spot for more than twenty years.

The Lifelong nonprofit will be moving away from retail to focus its efforts on an expanded kitchen and meal services mission doubling its size in Georgetown, making way for a new effort in reuse and recycling: Magpie Thrift.

The new beginning on Broadway starts next week.

Magpie will be a thrift store that encourages patrons to reuse, recycle, and make do with less.

“Although we are sad and have been grieving the loss of that identity, life is about moving forward and creating new things,” said owner Tamara Asakawa who previously served as the longtime director of Lifelong Thrift.

The new store will be a space for shopping along with upcycling workshops, senior downsizing assistance programs, and community events.

Magpie will begin as a for-profit venture that will fund the launch of Everly, a nonprofit created by Asakawa. In time, she hopes to raise the money to merge the two entities and return the thrift back to its roots as a nonprofit. Asakawa was intent on transparency with the store’s new for-profit status, and is confident that this is both necessary and temporary. Continue reading →

Why construction cranes and design review meetings have disappeared — and higher rents will keep appearing — on Capitol Hill

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A construction crane towers above Capitol Hill in 2018

By Matt Dowell

Seattle’s affordable housing crisis is still here but construction cranes have pretty much disappeared from the Capitol Hill skyline. According to local housing developers, that’s because we aren’t building much these days.

“There is almost no new construction happening in Seattle right now,” said Ben Maritz of Great Expectations, a Seattle-based real estate firm.

Permit application trends on the city’s dashboard support the observations, showing a 47% year-over-year decrease last year in residential units under application. A statement from a spokesperson for the city confirmed that “Design Review and all other land use review permit volumes are down across the entire city.”

This 2024 UW study on the effects of City housing policy noted that a slowdown in permits is a precursor to a slowdown in units entering the market, and it takes a couple of years to feel those effects. The report showed a decline in permit issuance for multifamily housing since 2021.

According to the report, it’s market conditions in the last few years that “have had a chilling effect on housing production in Seattle.” Local developers agree.

Michael Oaksmith from Capitol Hill-based Hunters Capital, behind the recently finished Capitol Hilltop Apartments on 15th and Mercer, told us, “The recent run up of interest rates really makes it hard for a property to pencil. Most developers I know, including us, have slowed their expectations for projects and their appetites for projects have gone down as a result of not being able to pump out an acceptable return.”

“Most experts are looking at pretty flat [interest] rates over the next twelve months which does not bode well for a flurry of activity,” he said. “It’ll be a year or two of “sitting on our hands.”

Hunters is, meanwhile, preparing to redevelop 15th Ave E’s old QFC block with a new six-story, mixed-use apartment building — one of the few Capitol Hill projects to come in front of the East Design Review Board in 2024.

Real estate developers rely on investor money to get projects built, but investors aren’t signing up. Continue reading →