Author Archives: CHS

Police looking for driver after woman raped in Capitol Hill apartment in Sunday attack

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Seattle Police say they are looking for a driver after a woman was attacked and raped inside her Capitol Hill apartment Sunday.

According to police, the victim said the attack happened after a Seattle ride-share driver “forced a woman into a Capitol Hill apartment and sexually assaulted her for hours” after picking her up Sunday afternoon.

Below is the SPD brief on the attack and investigation.

Police tell CHS that additional information like the physical description of the driver and the ride service he was driving for are not currently being released per the discretion of the investigating detectives.

Police Investigating Ride-Share Driver for Rape
Police are investigating a report that a Seattle ride-share driver forced a woman into a Capitol Hill apartment and sexually assaulted her for hours on Sunday.

Shortly after the victim, a woman in her 20s, was picked up by the ride-share on Capitol Hill on Sunday afternoon, the driver cancelled her ride and told her she would not be charged. He then reportedly drove her to an apartment near the 1700 block of Summit Avenue on Capitol Hill and forced her into an apartment, where he raped her for several hours until she was able to get away.

The woman contacted police the following day and investigators are now working with victim and the ride-share company to confirm the identity of the suspect.

 

SPD is urging customers of services like Uber and Lyft “to be aware of any attempts by a driver to cancel a ride while you are in the vehicle” and to “ensure the vehicle and driver match with any notifications you receive from the ride-share company.”

“If you have a crime to report involving a ride-share driver, please call police and file a complaint with the ride-share company as soon as possible so the driver’s information will be flagged for authorities,” SPD says.

 

2017 Primary Election Results: Durkan, Moon, Oliver lead in mayor’s race

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Former U.S. Attorney Jenny Durkan showed off her political strength and Seattle’s progressive left now knows who it will need to rally around to defeat her following Tuesday night’s first counts in the August primary. Meanwhile, history was also a winner Tuesday: Seattle is now on its way to electing its first woman mayor since 1926.

Urbanist and civic leader Cary Moon is on track to join Durkan in the November race to lead the city after garnering 15.56% of ballots tallied, leading Nikkita Oliver by only around 1,400 votes. The top two candidates will advance through to November’s General Election.

You can read more about Durkan our CHS Q&A with the candidate here and our interview with Moon here. CHS spoke with Oliver about her candidacy here.

For the complete results including Port of Seattle and Seattle school board positions, visit kingcounty.gov.

Capitol Hill Community Post | Central Ridge Neighborhood Greenway Most Promising Route

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From the City of Seattle

You may have recently received an invitation in the mail to one of our upcoming events for the Central Ridge Neighborhood Greenway. I wanted to also reach out to a wider group of community stakeholders with a personal invitation to attend a pop-up event on Thursday afternoon at Firehouse Park near Swedish Cherry Hill Campus.

We’ll also have a booth at this year’s Umoja Fest at Judkins Park and an option to participate online if you can’t make it.

Learn more at our project website and on the attached mailer and factsheet. Our online survey will be open from July 27 to August 20.

Public events:

  1. Pop-up lemonade stand
    Thursday, July 27: 4 – 6 PM
    Firehouse Mini Park, 712 18th Ave
  2. Umoja Fest table
    Saturday, August 5: 11 AM – 3 PM
    Judkins Park, 2150 S Norman St

We’ve been working with community members from Capitol Hill, First Hill, Central Area, and Judkins Park since winter 2017 to identify routes for a new north-south neighborhood greenway to be built as soon as 2019. We also asked for input on route options between Lowell Elementary School and Meany Middle School (opening fall 2017). Continue reading →

Capitol Hill Community Post | Melrose Promenade Community Crosswalks Project

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From Mel Burchett

The Melrose Promenade Community Crosswalk Project is finally moving forward, and we need help spreading the word within the community.  If you have time and are willing to assist us, we’d really appreciate it!

The Artist Selection Committee has hired an excellent artist, Sara Snedeker, to develop 3 design concepts for us.  We are on a super-rigid timeline to get a concept(s) selected and submitted to SDOT by August 1st.

We have created an online survey to help us collect feedback: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/FZTCV7W

More information about the Community Crosswalks project can be found here:

https://melrosepromenade.com/2017/07/21/public-art-hits-the-melrose-promenade/

Capitol Hill Community Post | Affordable Seattle: Housing for People, Not Profit!

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From Kshama Sawant

Friends,

The for-profit housing market is failing the majority of Seattleites: 92% of new units built in the last 10 years have been Luxury units! We need a Seattle that benefits the many, not the few on Wall St. 

To fight skyrocketing rents we need to build a movement, like we did to win $15 an hour minimum wage, to challenge the big developers and landlords.  Kshama Sawant and Socialist Alternative initiated Affordable Seattle to organize our communities to fight for a Seattle affordable for all.

Come join us at 1:00 on Saturday, July 29 for our official campaign launch at Washington Hall (153 14th Ave) to learn how you can get involved! 

Since the beginning of June, the Affordable Seattle Campaign have gone to hundreds of doors across the city to build support for three demands for addressing the affordable housing crisis: Continue reading →

Capitol Hill Community Post | ‘We believe Mayor Murray should complete his term in office’ — Former Seattle mayors open letter

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From Charley Royer

The undersigned former Seattle Mayors released the following statement regarding the balance of Mayor Ed Murray’s term:

“We have been saddened by the recent allegations against Mayor Murray. He made the honorable, but personally painful decision to drop out of his re-election campaign, a decision that underscores his commitment to Seattle.”

“We firmly believe Mayor Murray should continue to lead the city through the remainder of his term. A transition merely months before electing a new mayor would be messy and time consuming, and would present serious challenges to the day-to-day operations of the city. As former mayors, we know transitions are long, difficult, and important processes, which is why Mayor Murray and his team have already begun the job of preparing for the new mayor to be sworn in next year.”

“We should now thank the mayor for his service to our city and look forward to him coming to work every day on behalf of the people of Seattle throughout the remainder of his term and an orderly transition.”

Capitol Hill Community Post | Mayor Murray signs Executive Order requiring body cameras on patrol officers

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From the City of Seattle

SEATTLE (July 17, 2017) – Today, Mayor Ed Murray, working with City Attorney Pete Holmes, signed an Executive Orderrequiring all Seattle Police patrol officers to wear body-worn video cameras (body cameras). The order requires the SeattlePolice Department (SPD) to equip West Precinct bike patrol officers with cameras by July 22 and all West Precinct officers bySeptember 30, putting the department on track to fully implement a program that has undergone multiple pilot programs. All other officers will get body cameras on a monthly precinct by precinct basis. Mayor Murray is directing prompt implementation of the program to ensure no further significant uses of force by police officers go undocumented by a video record. Continue reading →

Capitol Hill Summer 2017: Garage Sale Day, Mercer x Summit and Outdoor Project Block Parties still to come

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Pride has come and gone and Capitol Hill Block Party returns for its 21st* year next week but there are still lots of other free and cheap events coming up to keep your Capitol Hill summer rolling. Below, you’ll find a roster of upcoming highlights from the CHS Calendar including a busy slate in Volunteer Park this week — music, a picnic… and Shakespeare.

UPDATE! — We’ve added events with more free/cheap summer fun on Capitol Hill including Linda’s Fest 2017, the fourth annual Seattle Acoustic Festival, and the return of summer movies in Cal Anderson Park from Three Dollar Bill Cinema.

We’re also happy to tell you that the much-loved Capitol Hill Garage Sale Day is set to return with a community sale centered in Cal Anderson Park and yard, parking strip, garage, etc. sales across the Hill. Mark your calendar for Sunday, August 29th.

Capitol Hill Garage Sale Day 2017

CHS is again working with the Cal Anderson Park Alliance to make Garage Sale Day a great event to benefit CAPA and its efforts to activate the park year-round. In 2017, Capitol Hill Eco District has joined to lead the effort.

Details on that and more upcoming summer 2017 Capitol Hill fun, below. Anything we missed? Add your event to the CHS Calendar. Continue reading →

Capitol Hill Community Post | Redhook Brewlab to Open in Capitol Hill August 17

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From Redhook Brewlab

(Image: Redhook)

Redhook Brewery is opening the doors of its new brewery and pub, called Redhook Brewlab, in the Pike Motorworks Building at 714 E. Pike Street in Capitol Hill on August 17, 2017.

A Grand Opening Party with Redhook’s radio partner KEXP will take place on August 17 from 3:00 to 10:00 p.m., with live music and a one-of-a-kind taplist featuring 16 collaboration beers brewed with some of Redhook’s friends in the industry.

The Beer

Redhook Brewlab will feature 16 taps of rotating small-batch beers, brewed on site by Redhook Head Brewer Nick Crandall, an eight-year brewing veteran who has spent his time at Redhook focused on innovation and new beer development, including two pub-favorite IPAs in Redhook’s line-up, the reformulated Big Ballard Imperial IPA and the hazy Bicoastal IPA.  Continue reading →

Capitol Hill Community Post | Council Approves City Income Tax on High Earners

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From the City of Seattle

Council unanimously approved legislation today creating a city income tax on high-income households to move Seattle toward a fairer, more progressive tax system. The legislation (Council Bill 119002) is intended to reduce regressive taxes such as property taxes, and finance priorities like addressing the homelessness crisis and offsetting federal budget cuts.  The legislation will place a 2.25% tax rate on income over $250,000 year for individuals, or $500,000 for married couples filing jointly.  The tax will not affect any income earned below those thresholds, and is estimated to generate $140 million per year.

Councilmember Lisa Herbold (District 1, West Seattle & South Park), the legislation’s co-sponsor, said, “Seattle is a progressive city, but you wouldn’t know it by looking at our regressive tax structure, and that includes the taxes paid by small businesses.  When our poorest households are paying 16% of their income in state and local taxes while our highest earners are paying only 2.4%, we have a very clear problem.  Today we are taking a step in the right direction, toward tax fairness.”

Councilmember Kshama Sawant (District 3, Central Seattle), the legislation’s co-sponsor, said, “We live in a deeply unequal society. Throughout history, it has been mass movements of ordinary workers and young people, not the political representatives of big business, that have won change. Since I first ran for office, Socialist Alternative and I have organized for a $15 minimum wage, taxing the rich, and rent control. Our growing movement has now won $15 and taxing the rich. We can continue organizing to win not only rent control, but a world free of exploitation and oppression.” Continue reading →