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 Miles of Aisles, originally uploaded by sea turtle. It's rumor season on Capitol Hill. Last week, it was Elliott Bay Book Company pondering a Capitol Hill move. Now, CHS has gathered rumors about a massive new Capitol Hill grocery store being planned that will likely dominate the Hill and command the lion's share of your Capitol Hill grocery dollars. A person in the real-estate industry with knowledge of the situation confirmed that a major player in the local grocery scene is considering a new Capitol Hill home and has a location picked out in the heart of the Hill. If the project comes to fruition, it will be a significant development for Capitol Hill. The new store would join a crowded Capitol Hill grocery environment with no clear leader. The QFC inside the Broadway Market has been upgraded from its old Fred Meyer days. The produce section is expanded and the company hosts wine and beer tastings that you won't find in the typical QFC across the state. Broadway's second QFC down in Pike/Pine is more typical of the chain's offerings. Both stores are infamous for their near-daily reports of shoplifting. Meanwhile, there are Safeways at 15th and John and 23rd and Madison and Madison's Trader Joe's also keeps Capitol Hill pantries well stocked. As for Capitol Hill's indie markets, there is only one large player left. Madison Market celebrated its 30-year anniversary last October. 15th Ave's Rainbow Grocery went under in spring 2007. The new store would likely eclipse all of these existing grocery providers when it opens in 2010. CHS is working to get more details before we reveal the rumored name and location. Please add anything you've heard in the comments or send e-mail to chs@capitolhillseattle.com UPDATE 7:45 PM:
Aaron goes on to tell the Times that he is talking with the owner of the Globe Building about a rent reduction and is considering moving to "elsewhere in downtown Seattle, Ballard and Capitol Hill." Original Post:
For Elliott Bay, moving to the Pike-Pine area of Capitol Hill could be a new lease on life. It could put them in the thick of the action for the next generation of urban development, in an area that is undertaking both a renewed emphasis on preservation and adaptation of older buildings. Density would offer the potential for more nearby customers and fewer problems trying to keep a struggling business afloat in a neighborhood that is wallowing, and that will struggle even more as work on SoDo, Waterfront, and downtown surface streets gets more fully underway. And for Pike-Pine and Capitol Hill, Elliott Bay would be a great catch, a major cultural institution that is a destination book lovers.... Mallahan - "Density is an environmental and social justice imperative" McGinn - "one of the reasons Capitol Hill is so desireable" Mallahan - "we just don't have enough units of housing" McGinn - "places that have lots of parking tend to be dead-er places" Mallahan - On Streetcars McGinn - "Neighborhood planning is not just about buildings" Mallahan - "The Ave is a scary place" McGinn - "We can allow things to be a little bit more organically developing" Mallahan responds to a critic of the tunnel a couple of disclaimers 1) this isn't meant to be a summary of the whole forum (I'll leave that to the experts ), these are just the clips I found most interesting and/ or relevent to Capitol Hill. 2) I intentionally avoided most of the tunnel discussion because I think that's been covered enough. 3) I had to leave early, so I missed some of McGinns Q&A with the audience. 
With candidate Mike McGinn taking on a fight on turf he seems to have already won, Saturday's Capitol Hill mayoral candidate forum was an opportunity for Joe Mallahan to chisel away at McGinn's issues and inflict more damage to his challenger's citywide battle plan. His method: establish himself as a liberal -- but not too liberal -- democrat, establish McGinn as an out-of-touch lefty.
"I don't make promises that I can't keep so I don't make many promises," Mallahan said.
More Mallahan volleys:
"In Seattle, we love to think about ourselves as progressive. Driving a Prius and recycling our garbage aren't enough. By the way, I'm the one who drives a Prius. Mike rides a bike."
and, explaining why McGinn's anti-waterfront tunnel position is bad for Seattle's economy:
"Not everybody does their job on a laptop in their pajamas. Putting working family jobs at risk is risky."
At stake, the nearly one-third of Seattle voters who say they are still undecided, according to the Publicola poll linked to above. Capitol Hill Snapshot 02 - Thomas Street P-Patch from David Albright on Vimeo .
I followed Justins suggestion this time and went with a community garden, the Thomas Street P-Patch (although I realized after the fact that I didn't shoot much of the actual garden...). And if you missed it last week, the first one was Cal Anderson park. In Seattle, we love to think about ourselves as progressive. Driving a Prius and recycling our garbage aren't enough. By the way, I'm the one who drives a Prius. Mike rides a bike. We'll have full coverage of Saturday afternoon's forum including a write-up, photos and a CHS video. In the meantime, you can catch most of the action in these videos posted by Tenacious Ventures.
Since 1999, when then Captain John Diaz (now the city's interim police chief) left the East Precinct following a lengthy tenure, there have been eight — count ‘em, eight — East Precinct Commanders minding the fort on 12th and Pine. I think I can do this from memory, so here goes the captain roll call since then: Toni Malliet, Nick Metz, Mark Evenson, Fred Hill, Mike Meehan, Landy Black, Paul McDonagh and, beginning on October 28, Jim Dermody. Counting Diaz that's nine commanders in ten-and-a-half years. Of those who've held the post after Diaz' moved up, McDonagh's tenure, roughly two-and-a-half years, is the longest. Seems like quite a lot, yes? Yes. It is a lot. Because leaving aside the particular merits of each individual, such a revolving door calls into question whether the common good is as well served as it could and should be. So many transitions in such a short period of time by definition makes it harder for... While we're talking Capitol Hill business rumors, the Slog is kicking around a juicy one:
CHS is poking around to see what we can do to either confirm or deny the speculation but don't have much to advance the story. We did find out that the 10th Ave property where Elliott Bay is rumored to be starting its Capitol Hill chapter is going to be available for a new tenant starting December 1:
Capitol Hill also is already home to a handful of independent bookstores though nothing on the scale of Elliott Bay's 22,000 square feet of book retailing space in Pioneer Square. The Pioneer Square location also includes a a cafe and performance space. This July 2000 Seattle Times article lays out details of the ownership team behind Elliott Bay. CHS has e-mails out to EB's owners. Elliott Bay's immigration would be another in a series of businesses moving to Capitol Hill from other areas of the city. While it's a positive sign for the Capitol Hill local business environment and a boon for Cap Hill shoppers and diners, too many more of these and we're not going to be very popular with the rest of the city's 'hoods. When the Capitol Hill light rail station opens for business in 2016, there's a good chance the Hill's weekly farmers market will be right around the corner. Sound Transit officials are moving forward with a recommendation that a planned extension to Nagle Place be made available to the Neighborhood Farmers Market Alliance to host their Capitol Hill market. Ron Endlich, deputy project manager for the Capitol Hill station, said that talks are ongoing but that Sound Transit believes it can make the extension of Nagle between Denny and John available to the farmers market group at an affordable rate. With coordination with the city's department of transportation, it's possible the market would also utilize Denny Way, Endlich said.
The Broadway Farmers Market is on the hunt for a new home as SRM Development prepares plans to construct a mixed-use project at the market's current Sunday location in the parking lot at 10th Ave E and E Thomas. SRM's effort has been on again, off again but CHS has been told that the project is in motion once more and the public process of design review will begin soon. What happens to the market in the meantime while the light rail station is constructed isn't yet clear. Here's what NFMA's Chris Curtis told CHS recently:
2016 is going to be a big year for Capitol Hill. Let's hope we can keep it together in the meantime. Sound Transit talks about the Nagle extension and, equally important, parking plans for the light rail station at the next Transit Oriented Development forum on October 27 at Century Ballroom. 
The Capitol Hill Community Council offered a full plate of park, highway, and garbage discussions at Thursday night's meeting. Speakers from WSDOT, Seattle Parks & Rec, and waste contractor CleanScapes were present to talk about the 520 transformation, Cap Hill park land acquisitions, and a new waste reduction competition. Park land acquisition Seattle Parks' $24 million park acquisitions fund brought the idea of a new park to the meeting; and idea that is always welcomed in the Capitol Hill area . Adding to the new spaces Summit & John and 16th & Howell, Capitol Hill is near the top of a list of 20 neighborhoods qualifying for funds to acquire new park and green space property. A 5 step acquisition process begins with selecting a site, which was the main reason why Donald Harris from Seattle Parks was at yesterday's meeting. Harris explained some of the criteria: Approximately 10k Sq. Ft., flat terrain, under utilized, good sun orientation, properties with no or minimal relocation costs, frontage on key pedestrian...
Another mystery nightclub is for sale on Capitol Hill. Which one do you think this is? Established Capitol Hill Nightclub $800,000 2 bars; Special amenities; Great lease; turnkey Gross $1.12M. Clues indicate it is a currently open, high volume establishment. Let's start with eliminating contenders: not Neumos (3 bars, right?) not King Cobra (they were only asking $500K earlier this year). Which "nightclub" with "special amenities" do you think this is? The Garage? The War Room? Chop Suey?
Rosebud $295,000; India Express $190,000; and Swoon $65,000. Slightly off-Hill listings include: Quiznos (Madison) $179,000; and Plaza Select Foods (Madison) $60,000. And now for the bonus round: 
See the attached brochure for all the details, or pick up a paper copy at the Center (330 - 19th Ave. E.)
Kind of sad to find out about these kinds of events in weekend traffic slowdown bulletins from the city but that's how many residents experience a protest. The city's weekend traffic report notes this protest starting Saturday afternoon at Seattle Central:
It's been a decade since Seattle's 38 neighborhood plans were approved so this year the Seattle Planning Commission decided to check in with residents to measure the success, and frankly relevancy, of the Neighborhood Plans today. You may remember CHS encouraging you to fill out a survey on this topic and beat Ballard as the most politically engaged neighborhood. Unfortunately they won. But we had more fun right... Anyway, today the Planning Commission released its report on those surveys, combined with a few poorly attended public meetings it held over the summer, in an executive summary. An important thing to note is that with respect to the neighborhood plans, Pike/Pine and Capitol Hill are separate neighborhoods. For Capitol Hill the city received 273 online surveys along with 10-20 meeting attendees. According to the Executive Summary, this is what we said:
Hacker geek hangout and coffeeshop Metrix:Create Space is slated to open for business Thursday at noon. The space will mix technology, DIY ethos and good old fashioned commerce -- Metrix features 'equipment and supplies not typically stocked by the casual hobbyist,' as CHS wrote last week in this profile of the new venture. Here is a look at the shop's centerpiece MakerBot in action:
Metrix is located at 623 Broadway E, below the DeLuxe and next to the Seattle Museum of the Mysteries. Here's what the geeks are saying about it:
From Central District News coverage of Wednesday night's fire:
Seattle can't name a permanent police chief until after the election but East Precinct officers patrolling Capitol Hill are getting a new commander. Lieutenant Jim Dermody, a 19-year veteran of the Department, is being promoted to the rank of captain and will take over as the new East Precinct commander, according to an announcement from interim Seattle Police Department Chief John Diaz.
According to the release, Captain Dermody will assume command of approximately 88 officers assigned to Patrol Operations, including a Community Police Team, and a plain-clothes Anti-Crime Team. Captain Dermody has previously served in Homicide, as both the watch commander and Operations Lieutenant for the West and Southwest Precincts, SWAT, and Anti-Crime and Patrol. This will be Captain Dermody’s first precinct command. Dermody will replace Captain Paul McDonagh who is being promoted to the rank of Interim Assistant Chief in charge of the Special Operations Bureau. McDonagh has been the precinct commander for two years and is a 26-year veteran of the Seattle Police Department. According to the announcement, he will now oversee the Special Operations Bureau, which consists of the Criminal Intelligence, Homeland Security Section, Arson and Bomb Unit, SWAT, Mounted, Traffic, and the Seattle Police Operations Center. Chief Diaz, meanwhile, continues to lead SPD in an interim capacity. He took over the role when Gil Kerlikowske stepped down to take a position in the Obama cabinet as the nation's drug czar. The appointment of a new permanent chief became a political issue recently when it was revealed that current mayor Greg Nickels asked mayoral candidates Joe Mallahan and Mike McGinn for their agreement to start the hiring process prior to the election. The McGinn camp agreed but, according to this report from the Seattle Times, Mallahan did not. Dermody inherits a precinct experiencing an upswing in crime along with the rest of the city. Latest stats for Capitol Hill showed a 17% jump in July's crime totals vs. 2008 while the Central District weighed in with a 10% jump. The Seattle Department of Transportation has provided a list of eight Capitol Hill-area locations where cameras will be installed as part of a citywide 'intelligent traffic system.' We reported previously on one of the new cameras being installed at Broadway and Roy. SDOT spokesperson Peg Nielsen also passed along info on where the money for the new system is coming from -- the Feds. Here are the details from Nielsen's e-mail to CHS:
The cameras will be used to detect congestion and accidents and monitor roadway conditions, Nielsen told CHS previously. The system won't be activated until March 2010 with the cameras becoming available online for everybody to view in the "later phase" of the project, Nielsen said. 
This Sunday, October 18th Grace Kim of Capitol Hill's own Schemata Workshop will be hosting an event called, "Curious About Cohousing" at SU's new A&A building . The event is aimed at familiarizing people with cohousing and determining if their is sufficient interest for a cohousing community in or around Capitol Hill. For many people, including myself, the idea of cohousing conjures up images of free frolicking individuals milking cows and hosting drum circles under the full moon. But in reality, cohousing is a healthy alternative to standard home ownership and can be great way to have more control of your living situation. According to the Cohousing Association of the US, the most defining characteristic of cohousing is that residents are, "consciously committed to living as a community" . Of course, this does not mean that individuals only get a small closet for privacy; many cohousing communities are made up of full single family homes or townhouses with all the private amenities one could need. But there...  bird and wires Originally uploaded by linder_seattle An 18-month, $2 million project that will overhaul Capitol Hill's electrical system is about to get underway. Seattle City Light is currently in planning stages for a series of projects across the Hill that will focus on wiring upgrades, replacement of old equipment and moving much more of the Hill's electrical wires underground. The work will ultimately result in better electrical service on the Hill, said City Light spokesperson Scott Thomsen."The goal is to keep the system reliable and dependable so you won't experience unplanned outages." But getting there requires a year and a half of work and increased planned outages on Capitol Hill. "Any time you go through to do maintenance work, there is going to be service interruptions," Thomsen said. "If we're going to take out the transformer, there's nowhere else to bring the power in from." Thomsen said there will be notifications sent out in project areas in advance of any planned service disruptions....  crawl space - shadowy steps Originally uploaded by chromatography A note sent out by Summit Ave's Crawl Space Gallery says the Capitol Hill nonprofit is breaking up after its next show:
This 2008 Capitol Hill Times article profiles the gallery and notes the hiring of respected director Jennifer Campbell. This Stranger blurb from its 2008 Genius Awards nomination says the group formed in 2003: "Amazingly, the changing roster has been able to maintain this inconveniently L-shaped and out-of-the-way Capitol Hill gallery as a place where, if you miss the show, you'll regret it every time." A camera installed at the intersection of Broadway and Roy will be part of an "intelligent traffic system" being activated citywide, Seattle Department of Transportation spokesperson Peg Nielsen tells CHS. The Broadway camera is not online yet but will be use to detect congestion and accidents and monitor roadway conditions, Nielsen said.
"If we have a snow event, we can see what is happening this time," Nielsen said. She said the cameras will be used for traffic monitoring only. Nielsen said she will provide a list of additional cameras to be installed and said that eventually, the new cameras will be added to the roster of city traffic cams available for anybody to view. The citywide system is not expected to start being used until March 2010 with the cameras becoming available online in the "later phase" of the project, Nielsen said. Nielsen is also looking into and will contact CHS with information regarding the budget for the program and how it is being paid for by SDOT. The department's expenditures are under scrutiny as the 2010 city budget is being finalized and political campaigns kick into the homestretch before the November election. Capitol Hill is no stranger to city surveillance cameras. In 2008, the mayor's office authorized installation of cameras in Cal Anderson Park. Recently, Medina added cameras to keep track of every car entering the tony eastside community. In the original version of this post, the program was incorrectly referred to as an 'intelligent transportation system' by SDOT. We have corrected the post.
The first thing that strikes you when strolling the beautiful central walkway of Seattle University is how utterly removed it feels from the surrounding urbanity. Not to say this is bad, its a great place to escape the chaos of our modern metropolis. But when you look at Seattle University from either 12th or Broadway you can't help but feel like your looking at its back; its as if the University has no interest in the community it calls home. But according to Director of Facilities Michael Kerns, over the next few years SU hopes to reshape itself and become an integral part of the rest of the neighborhood. The area around SU was entirely different when the college first began. Much of the land was industrial, or owned by the city. In this context SU worked hard to create a welcoming place in the midst of its campus. But now, as the surroundings have become much more dynamic Kerns says its time that SU became a more prominent part of the neighborhood.
Nothing embodies this more than SU's new Admissions and Alumni Building, or as Kerns likes to put it, the "relationship" buidling. He says the building was designed to promote a comfortable environment for anyone engaging with Seattle University. Unlike most of the University's buildings, the A&A building actually faces the commercial street of 12th Ave. With a minimal set-back and lots of transparent glass windows, the building stands in stark contrast to the University Services Building, set far off the street and nestled in thick landscaping. The corner of the A&A building was designed as a community gathering space. The layout, with tables on one end, couches on the other, and benches around the perimeter, allow it to easily accommodate any style of community event. The huge windows are intended to engage the outside world, allowing people to easily see whats going on inside, and even join if its public. Even before next week's official opening, at least 3 different community groups from Capitol Hill and the Central District have held events here. SU has also agreed to offer all future Capitol Hill Design Review meetings in the building, a much better venue than the hard-to-find classrooms somewhere in Seattle Central Community College.
Other features of the building also embody the community spirit. Much of the space that faces 12th Ave is a public gallery with paintings and art pieces visible from the street. People are invited to come in and view the art anytime during building hours. In the back of the building there is also a small public plaza with an entrance on Marion. While there are design features that delineate the building space from the public right-of-way there is no fence or gate that is closed after hours. While the A&A building is the most visible, Kerns points out that there have been other projects SU has done over the summer to improve its presence in the neighborhood. The old Coca-Cola building on 14th Ave was turned into the Interim Library, compelling students to explore a bit farther out than SU's central campus. They also painted Ballermine Residence Hall, hoping to break up its imposing facade. SU is already in the process of constructing another building on 12th. A new student housing structure is going up at 12th and Cherry and will have retail uses as well as open up to the new park on the lot just to the South. As reported earlier there are also plans to adapt the huge warehouse at12th and Madison into a more pedestrian-friendly structure.
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