Common Nighthawk, originally uploaded by kingernorth.

It has been a busy week at CHS with lots of big news -- some of it quite heavy. Thanks goodness for this lovely little essay which fluttered in from CHS history contributor Dotty DeCoster. Even if the nighthawks were still living in Seattle, they'd have already migrated away from this wet and dreary Pacific Northwest weather until spring -- when they used to return and, now, you can miss them like Dotty does. We're glad the swallows still come back to keep us company.

I’ve been reading Edward B. Dunn’s memoir called 1121 Union recently, and he asks a question:  “We always had nighthawks in summer on First Hill and in the country, too.  Where can they have gone? . . . Anyway  I miss them.  They can outdive any airplane, and I used to love watching them swooping over the housetops and abruptly coming out of the dive with a thrilling roar." (p. 53) 

Dunn was born in 1904 at 1121 Union and lived there for several decades. (southwest corner of Union and Minor.)  My old friend, who lived as a child near Lake Union and most of her adult life near 17th and Denny, taught me to go looking for nighthawks at dusk above the rooftops near the top of Capitol Hill during the 1960s. They are gone now, gone completely from King County and only found rarely in Western Washington.

The Seattle Audubon bird web describes the common nighthawk (Chordeiles minor) as “a cryptic bird most often seen in flight, when it can be easily identified by the white bar across each long, pointed wing.  This mottled gray and black bird has large eyes.  It also has a tiny beak with a large gape. .  .”  They forage in flight on flying insects.  They have a loud, distinctive call.  At about 9 inches, common nighthawks are bigger than swallows and spectacular flyers.  They also have an odd habit while perching.  Rather than sitting on tree limbs or wires or rooftops facing you (with the perch on the horizontal) they sit sideways, aligned along the perch.  Called “goatsuckers” some places, they used to be a delightful addition to the August falling star show viewed from the Capitol Hill ridge crest.

They are odd birds that like open country (with lots of flying bugs) and don’t nest – they lay their eggs on gravel.  Both male and female birds help feed the young and care for them.  In the cities, they tended to like gravel or pebble roofs for reproducing, or infrequently disturbed gravel piles or alleys.  They seem to have been birds of a certain city development period.  They appeared here when the forest cover was opened up and disappeared once the gravel was smoothly paved over, the swampland drained, and the flying insects greatly reduced.  Peterson’s Western Birds says they winter in Argentina.  Apparently, nighthawks still are fairly common in eastern Washington, if you have an opportunity to go for a walk at dusk on the other side of the mountains you might see some.

In the meantime, swallows remain. They swoop over the large lawn in Volunteer Park between the art museum and the conservatory and you can see them during the day diving nearly to grass height as they catch insects mid-air.  At dusk they appear out of the ravine when one is standing at the overlook across from the cemetery entrance on 15th Avenue East.

The first of two Friday updates from King County Elections shows Mike McGinn has widened his lead over Joe Mallahan in the Seattle mayor's race. McGinn now leads his competitor by 1,209 votes.

Mike McGinn: 75,657 49.99%

Joe Mallahan: 74,448 49.19%

The next drop comes after 9 PM tonight. Seattle Post Globe reports that election workers decided to put in some extra work today instead of having to work over the weekend to produce a new count on Monday.

Not many details here, but it sounds significant. The Seattle PI reports that police have shot a person of interest in the Halloween killing of Office Timothy Brenton.

"Officers shot a man in Tukwila after being fired upon Friday afternoon while they served a search warrant, police said.

Seattle Police responded to Tukwila after receiving a tip that the man was connected to the fatal shooting Halloween Night of Seattle Police Officer Timothy Brenton, according to a police source familiar with the investigation. SWAT members were among those responding.

The warrant was being served in the 14300 block of 56th Avenue South, but it was not immediately clear what the warrant was for. Seattle police are taking over the scene investigation.

Some police belived the man shot had died at the scene, but that was not immediately confirmed.

The shooting occurred minutes after the memorial for Seattle Police Officer Timothy Brenton ended at KeyArena."

Breaking news in the hunt for the killer of Officer Timothy Brenton. Central District News is heading to the scene:

There's a massive police response down in Tukwila, where Tukwila police are reporting that a "person of interest" in Officer Brenton's shooting was shot by police while they were there serving a warrant.

This started about 25 minutes after the conclusion of Brenton's memorial at Key Arena.

TV chopper coverage is showing a covered vehicle in the parking lot of the apartment complex where today's shooting occurred, and it appears to be of the shape and size of a Datsun 210, the suspect vehicle in the Halloween shooting.

SPD homicide personnel are said to be on the scene in Tukwila, but so far SPD isn't talking about what might be going on.

More as we get it.

The Seattle Times is reporting the suspect was shot in the head by Seattle Police. Reports are that the suspect has been transported to Harborview.

SeattleCrime.com is reporting that the man who was shot has died. survived.

Tukwila police say two other people have been taken into custody in the incident.

I've been reviewing bathrooms in Seattle for a couple of months now. I'm not trying to create a comprehensive index and definitely don't want to spend a lot of time in nasty ones; I want everyone to know about the nice ones. I'm always looking for new ones to review, and am especially interested in hearing from business owners, because if I'm working with them, they can let me into the women's restrooms and tell me interesting stories. The blog is here, and all the entries are tagged by location, so you can view just the Capitol Hill entries if you like.

These cigar-chompin' ladies want to watch you pee. Indulge them next time you go to Coastal Kitchen.

CHS will be covering the memorial procession to honor Seattle Police Department officer Timothy Brenton as it passes across Capitol Hill this morning. The more than 1,000 vehicles and thousands of police, fire and emergency personnel expected to participate in the procession leave the University of Washington's Husky Stadium parking lot starting at 9 AM. They are expected to begin passing through the Capitol Hill area after 10 AM on their way to Key Arena where the memorial will be held.

• A map of the route can be found here.
• There is no street parking along the route and bus service will be disrupted. Seattle Transit Blog has a list of planned re-routes. Metro says to expect delays.
• If you have a report from your morning's bus experience to share, leave a comment here or Tweet to #caphillbus

Watch this post for updates and pictures from the procession. Our news partner the Seattle Times is also updating an interactive map and timeline of today's events . You can watch live video coverage from KING-5 here .

UPDATE:

Photo: Scott Durham/Central District News

Central District News has coverage of the memorial ceremony at Key Arena . You can also check out photos of the procession's path through the CD here .

A wind-driven lightning and hailstorm that quickly passed across the city also rumbled across Capitol Hill late tonight. The storm arrived on Capitol Hill around 10:42 if you believe Twitter -- about 5 minutes after reports started spreading across the social messaging service's Tweets from the West Seattle area. In the 15-minute window around the storm's coming and going, there were 1,267 Tweets about 'thunder' in the Seattle area.

Here's what a few of you had to say about it:

moohaha: Seattle Cap Hill: huge lightening + thunder. Cloud covered Space Needle in <5 min. Now it's hailing

SEATTLE

eliranderson: Wicked hail storm on Cap Hill.

Seattle, WA, USA

Power on the Hill is still on (fingers crossed) but there are reports of outages in Leschi and Queen Anne was dark earlier this evening. The Western Washington forecast says to expect more of the same blustery wet weather through Friday and into Saturday.

Here's a video of the heavy downpour from...

Consider this your Friday morning, crowd-source Capitol Hill transportation bulletin. With all due respect to the officer and the department Friday's memorial procession honors, there is a lot of confusion about transportation in the Capitol Hill area as the streets will be blocked and Metro's buses delayed and rerouted. Metro's bulletin on the service disruptions lacks specifics and the promised reroute information has not been posted as of 10:45 PM. It's for a good cause -- we'll just need to make the best of it. UPDATE: Seattle Transit Blog has reroute info.

So, why not harness social media for something a little more useful? Might still leave this post in place given likelihood things won't be smooth. Please post your experiences, questions and tips here in the comments or to Twitter with the hashtag #caphillbus so they automagically appear in the post.

Metro Bulletin<...

First we had the Neighborhood Plan Status Update Meetings: most neighborhoods got one, Capitol Hill was so special it got to have two.  Now it's time for Neighborhood Plan Status Checks, which will be summaries of what the community told the Planning Commission and the Neighborhood Plan Advisory Committee to change in our Neighborhood Plans during the aforementioned Update meetings. In short, it's time to find out if the city was paying any attention to what we were saying.

The Capitol Hill/ Central District/ Eastlake/ First Hill/ Pike-Pine/Belltown/ Queen Anne-Uptown Neighborhood Plan Status Check will be on November 10th from 6-8pm at Seattle Central Community College, Rm. BE 1110/1111. If you'd like to attend a Status Check meeting for another neighborhood, see below.

During June and July, many neighbors joined in meetings and many other hundreds participated in on line questionnaires to review the Draft Neighborhood Status Reports and comment on changes— good, bad, and unexpected —that have occurred since...

A reminder that tomorrow morning's procession to honor Seattle Police Department officer Timothy Brenton will cross Capitol Hill and pass by East Precinct headquarters at 12th and Pine. The precinct HQ will likely be a congregation area for many to observe the procession and pay their respects to the fallen officer. Seattle University has encouraged students to gather there and along the route which will enter the Hill from Madison, down Pine past the East Precinct to Broadway and then, down Denny on its way to Key Arena.

SPD has asked for the public's assistance in solving the Halloween night murder of the veteran officer and has released pictures from police car cameras that show the suspect's car and also made an extensive psychological profile of the suspect available.

CHS will be moving along the Capitol Hill portion of the route and broadcasting pictures and updates to the site from the streets. We'll also feature coverage from Central District News and our news partner, The Seattle Times.

Parking will not be allowed along the route and bus service will be 'disrupted,' Metro says. The agency did not list specific delays or reroutes but said to expect both if you are traveling in the area of the procession which stretches from Montlake to Key Arena.

SPD announcement about the procession:

During the procession, which is expected to last from 9:00 a.m. to noon, other traffic will not be allowed on the route and will not be allowed to cross it. The Seattle Department of Transportation (SDOT) advises travelers to expect severe congestion near its path, especially as mourners are also anticipated along its course.

The memorial procession will use the following route: begins at the University of Washington’s E-1 parking lot; south on Montlake Blvd NE to 24th Ave E; south on 24th to 23rd Ave E; south on 23rd to E Madison St; west on Madison to E Pine St; west on Pine to Broadway; north on Broadway to E Denny Way; west on Denny to 1st Ave N; north on 1st to Key Arena. Staging will begin in the E-1 parking lot (north of Husky Stadium on Montlake Blvd NE) beginning at approximately 8:00 a.m.

View Brenton Memorial Procession in a larger map

Parking will not be allowed along the route and temporary “No Parking” signs will be emplaced. Officers from the Seattle Police Department will manage all intersections for the procession.

Here are the latest totals from King County Elections and the state for the mayor's race and R-71. You can see all the races here. Make sure to track your ballot to make sure it's been counted. See a problem? Contact the elections office:  http://www.kingcounty.gov/elections/aboutus/contactus.aspx

Various news sources are calling the R-71 race over -- here's what Publicola had to say about the victory. Congratulations to everybody on the Hill who worked so hard on the campaign.

Regardless of the outcome of the still undecided Mayors race, one of the biggest stories coming out of this election cycle is the grassroots, all volunteer campaign run by Mike McGinn.  McGinn was outspent and out staffed by the Mallahan campaign and rarely led in the polls, but won the primary and is currently in the lead after the first three batches of votes have been counted.  I went to the McGinn Campaign Headquarters yesterday to talk to the volunteers to find out what it was like working on the groundbreaking campaign. 

The new face of the poster-covered Sunset Electric building is slowly coming to light. Wednesday night's Early Design Guidance meeting at the new Seattle U AA building was the second in a long process to develop the property where the brick building has stood since 1916. As the first development project to go through the city's design review process under Pike/Pine's new conservation overlay district, the Sunset represents a test for the city and the Capitol Hill community of how to best redevelop the area without losing the historical character of the neighborhood.

If you haven't been following the process, here's a quick run-down of developer Pryde + Johnson's stated plans for the historic building:

• Retain and restore the existing two-story facade and use as retail space.
• Create a 7 story structure, building on top of the historic area, and filling 5 floors with 92 units.
• LEED Silver certified
• 20% Workforce Housing
• 36 Stalls of underground parking.

Wednesday night's meeting unveiled a revamped design for the project as Pryde + Johnson has brought in a new architecture firm on the project.

"The new concept will save the existing character, but not imitate it," said Dwayne Kohler, of Kohler Architects, Wednesday night. 

A detailed description of the project can be found here,  with a link to the full design proposal here.

(Photo: Lucas Anderson/Neighborlogs.com)

Community members responding to the proposal at the meeting had both praise and criticism for the designers. Capitol Hill resident Dennis Saxman was concerned with the height of the building, describing a towering 7-story building amongst its currently smaller neighbors. Saxman, like many others, was concerned about the use of the garage as a parking space instead of an art or community space. However, Saxman, a well known neighborhood watch dog, said the proposal was "One of the most responsive designs I've ever seen...and I don't say that easily." 

Others agreed on the need to reconsider the parking situation, looking ahead to long term uses of the building. "I hope that the space would be able to be adapted in the future for a better use," one attendee said. The Review Board agreed with this sentiment, but Rutzick noted that the parking issues (which Kohler stated was a "marketing, leasing, and financing" issue) were to be discussed during Environmental Review sessions.

The design board's final recommendations included a closer look at both the parking situation and the relationship between the old and new parts of the new development, as well as further investigation into the center courtyard that divides the residential portion of the building: Will it be just a rain catcher, a dark tunnel, a compromise of privacy, or just benefit those on the first floor?

According to City of Seattle project planner Lisa Rutzick, the next steps for the project are for the architect and the developer to continue to evolve the design in response to the Capitol Hill Design Board’s guidance and develop the plans for the Master Use Permit application. The next official step is to submit the Master Use Permit application to the city's Department of Planning and Development, which will initiate DPD’s formal review of the zoning, environmental and design issues. Once all of these reviews have occurred and requirements from DPD are responded to by the developer, the Design Review Recommendation meeting will occur. And that's how a development project is born in Seattle.

As the first project to be considered under the new Pike/Pine conservation overlay district ordinance, the project is setting a precedence for future, similar buildings, Rutzick said at the meeting. 

In exchange for preserving and enhancing the historic building, the developers are allowed to build the structure higher, while still complimenting the original design. Yet debate arose over whether the new design is too similar to the nearly century old look of the first two stories. The board did not want a cheap look-alike stacked atop the old building, and had support from some audience members. "Build something that is of its time, that is not imitating some other era," one citizen said.

Sherry Wolf, author ofSexuality and Socialism: History, Politics and Theory of LGBT Liberation[1], analyzes why the right won in its campaign against LGBT equality in .

November 5, 2009

IN STARK contrast to the surge of pro-LGBT activism, and legislative and legal progress in recent months, voters overturned equal marriage rights on Election Day by a margin of 53 percent to 47 percent.

Voter turnout of nearly 50 percent, local efforts by 8,000 volunteers--many of them straight--and a national blitz of phone banking to try to sway Mainers to uphold equal marriage was not sufficient to retain same-sex marriage in that state. 's Question 1--similar to 's Proposition 8 that reversed same-sex marriage rights in that state exactly a year ago--once again placed civil rights on the ballot, this time in an off-year election.

In state, a new law that greatly expands the rights of LGBT couples--though doesn't grant marriage itself--was approved by voters, but by an unexpectedly narrow margin of 51...

I sat down and talked with Michael Wells this morning about the closure of his bookstore, the future of the publishing industry, and the changes he's seen in Capitol Hill in his 20 years with Bailey Coy.

Connection to Capitol Hill
Michael explains why Bailey Coy couldn't have existed in any other neighborhood, and how being on Capitol Hill affected Bailey Coy.

Changes in the publishing industry
Michael discusses the changes in the publishing and bookselling industries, which he says started about 10 years ago with the arrival of big box bookstores, and amazon.com.

Why Bailey Coy is closing
Michael explains why Bailey Boy couldn't hold on any longer, and responds to a CHS commenter that said he was stuck in the 80's, agreeing that he should have done more to move into the online space.

Changes in the neighborhood
Michael discusses the changing retail climate of Broadway and Pike/Pine, impact of the redevelopment currently underway in North Broadway, and the growing sense of community in Capitol Hill.

History of Bailey Coy
Michael tells the story of how Bailey Coy came to find it's home on Broadway, and how he ended up acquiring the store in 2003, after working there for 14 years.

Courtney Love
"Michael, there's a 6 foot tall drag queen out here and I think she's stealing books"

Elliot Bay Book Company
Michael explains why he hopes the rumors of Elliot Bay moving to Capitol Hill are true.

Pilot Books
Michaels thoughts on micro-independent bookstore Pilot Books, which recently opened near Bailey Coy, and where it fits into the future of bookselling.

Wake

Michael talks about his plans to hold a wake, to mark the end of Bailey Coy.

McGinn's lead has dropped from 910 to 462 (less than the # of write-in ballots counted). Your vote really is going to count this time. King County lets you follow the path of your ballot through the system, which you might care to do.

See a problem? Contact the elections office:  http://www.kingcounty.gov/elections/aboutus/contactus.aspx (many ways to contact them)

While you're there you can check the number of votes still to be counted (King County 129,000 on 11/4). Seattle Times estimates that about half the mayoral votes have been counted.

Parks was unsure when exactly the store would close doors, but said the owners had a target date during the after-christmas downtime in late december. "When the buildings built, we move."

The owners of the building were not available for comment. 

View Larger Map

UPDATE 12:30 PM:
The incident is closed and units are leaving after only twenty minutes so sounds like a minor incident. We'll give SFD a call to find out what happened. Here's more information on Olive Ridge. It's a low income apartment complex operated by the Seattle Housing Authority.

Original Post:
There is a large Seattle Fire Department response underway at a reported fire in the Olive Ridge apartments at 1700 17th. No details yet several units are still at the scene. We will update as information comes in.

For multi-family structures, rollouts are almost always large so the number of units responding doesn't necessarily indicate a significant incident.

View Larger Map

Scan-091103-0013-Edit, originally uploaded by picsbysomeguy.

With Peter Holmes victorious and Susan Hutchinson dispatched and Tim Eyman chewing his mock turtle neck in defeat, Capitol Hill lovers of democracy turn to two crucial races that will continue to unfold with this afternoon's next batch of results around 4:30 PM and through the week.

Here are some links to chew on in the meantime:

• Erica Barnett from Publicola says to expect more good news for Mike McGinn this afternoon.
• The Seattle Times says R-71 comes down to Pierce County. Puyallup, Tacoma, Orting... do the right thing.
• Seattle Gay Scene crunches the numbers on R-71.
• To get you pumped up, check out Cheesecake's video of McGinn's speech at the War Room last night:

McGinn Election Night Speech from David Albright on Vimeo.

vigil, originally uploaded by mik.nei.

A memorial procession of up to 1,500 police and emergency vehicles will travel across Capitol Hill on Friday en route to the ceremony to honor slain Officer Timothy Brenton at Key Arena, the Seattle Police Department has announced.

During the procession, which is expected to last from 9:00 a.m. to noon, other traffic will not be allowed on the route and will not be allowed to cross it. The Seattle Department of Transportation (SDOT) advises travelers to expect severe congestion near its path, especially as mourners are also anticipated along its course.

The memorial procession will use the following route:  begins at the University of Washington’s E-1 parking lot; south on Montlake Blvd NE to 24th Ave E; south on 24th to 23rd Ave E; south on 23rd to E Madison St; west on Madison to E Pine St; west on Pine to Broadway; north on Broadway to E Denny Way; west on Denny to 1st Ave N; north on 1st to Key Arena. Staging will begin in the E-1 parking lot (north of Husky Stadium on Montlake Blvd NE) beginning at approximately 8:00 a.m.  

View Brenton Memorial Procession in a larger map

Parking will not be allowed along the route and temporary “No Parking” signs will be emplaced. Officers from the Seattle Police Department will manage all intersections for the procession.

Kids living near Volunteer Park are now in Lowell Elementary territory. The biggest change for Capitol Hill area schools in the district's revised boundary maps released this afternoon is the lopping off of a finger of land around Volunteer Park from the Stevens Elementary zone. That area is now in Lowell Territory. Here is the revised map and, below it, the original proposed update that was released in October.

The full-city revised map is attached to this post. No explanation for the change was included in the 'change request overview' document provided by the school board. We'll give them a call tomorrow to ask them about the change.

Nov 3rd Revision

Original Update

Halloween is a fantastic holiday. You aren’t expected to be thankful for anything and you don’t have to buy anyone presents. All you have to do is get a cheap bag of candy (or leave your porch light off) and let your inner child shine.

Although it may look like Halloween on any given day on Broadway, the rest of Capitol Hill actually dressed up for the occasion.  I attended two parties and saw a healthy dose of adult-concocted costumes. There were the usual trite costumes that appear every Halloween, with a significant boost in “Wild Thing” Max’s and a depressing decline in pirates.

I personally appreciate homemade costumes the most, like the six-foot tall robot completely encased in foil. But fear not party goers, there was a tube connected from the side beer holder into the robot so fuel could be properly consumed. My personal favorite: the Fruit Stripe Gum zebra handing out strip after strip of that delicious treat. I went as the H1N1 virus and my partner in crime was the out-of-stock H1N1 vaccine (we didn’...

This just in from the Slog:

Although some election watchers think R-71's approval has good odds, Friedes is concerned that it could fail if young urban voters don't mail their ballots. But whether it’s rejected or approved, the campaign has accelerated gay-rights organizing more than if the bigots hadn’t put the referendum on the ballot.

Here's how.