Jubilee is located on Capitol Hill and Wesa and I (along with other CHS community members probably) donate time and money to this worthwhile hood charity.

Rough transcription below (begins at 3:26 in video)

Narrated by Maria Hinojosa

Quotes by Kathryn Barnard

A growing segment of the homeless population are middle aged women whose children are all grown up.  In Seattle, photographer Kathryn Barnard met the residents of Jubilee Women’s Center which houses dozens of homeless women over 50.  Many of them have decades of work experience.  “Jubilee is located on the backside of Capitol Hill in Seattle, and it is in one of the more upscale posh neighborhoods and to see the dichotomy of these homeless women in this neighborhood was pretty fascinating." 

Many of the women have never experienced homelessness before and have to be taught how to get services.  “It was really interesting because she had never known how to get food stamps or how to get bus passes or how to...

With Siam on Broadway closing shop after more then 20 years in business, the row of Broadway storefronts between Poppy and The Brix is all but abandoned. Harem, retailer of 'alluring accents', now stands alone.

What comes next for the strip is not yet clear -- it's too early in the business process for the developers who own the various parcels to show their hands. CHS talked to Allan Jones this afternoon, owner of the building that Siam called home. He would not comment on his plans for the building. "I'm not at liberty to discuss details on the property at this time," Jones said. A call to the property management company for Fortuna Sequitir, the group listed in tax records as owning the parcels to the north and to the south of Jones', was not returned.

UPDATE: After this posted, I talked to Craig Swanson who manages the Jade Pagoda property and other buildings in the area including the recently rehabbed Lewis Building across the street. He said there are plans afoot to put the property to better use but details...

There is a lot about to happen on 12th Ave. As much as Pike/Pine is the Hill's flashpoint for preservation, and Broadway's light rail transition represents infrastructure and redevelopment, 12th Ave is emerging as the Hill's next bounds of change. The initiative to create a housing, retail and community development in the space now filled by the East Precinct's parking lots, the possibility of the streetcar route including 12th, the continued growth of Seattle University -- all of these forces are pushing the area forward. A group of people doing a lot of this pushing will be assembled for Capitol Hill Housing's Annual Forum - The Future of 12th Ave, Wednesday, Aprill 22nd at Northwest Film Forum.

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Here is the panel:
Michael Killoren, Director; Seattle Office of Arts and Cultural Affairs
Liz Dunn, Pike/Pine Property Owner and Developer, Director; The National Trust for Historic Preservation Green Lab
Elizabeth Linke, Property Owner; Northwest Film Forum and 1621 12th Ave. Buildings
Kate Stineback, Housing & Community Developer; 12th Avenue Initiative, Capitol Hill Housing
Michael Kerns, Associate Vice President for Facilities; Seattle University
Tenaya Wright, President; Squire Park Community Council

We tell you about the forum now so you have time to RSVP if you are interested in attending. We'll also be there to cover the night's discussion and ask a few questions about the future. Something you'd like us to ask? Leave a comment.

Capitol Hill Housing Annual Meeting
Wednesday April 22, 2009
5pm Reception
6pm Annual Meeting and Panel Discussion

Northwest Film Forum
1515 12th Ave
Seattle,
Space is limited. Please RSVP to: rsvp@chhip.org
Or call 206-329-7303 x112

As the connective point between Hilltop and Broadway and Pike/Pine and Seattle U., the development of 12th Ave is a critical component of the changing culture and character of Capitol Hill. It's exciting, then, to hear about some of the changes coming for 12th Ave especially when they include plans to turn a police department parking lot into a place for people to create art, work, live and still give the police officers a place to park their cruisers.

Capitol Hill Housing is pushing forward a plan to convert the East Precinct's parking lot on 12th near Pine into a mixed-use, low-income housing development with retail components that emphasize the arts, culture and community. I've attached a PDF describing their efforts on 12th.

Here's the current state of the location:

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We wrote about the revived planning about this project back in October. Now, that the effort is starting to be ramped up, you can attend a meeting of the 12th Ave Stewardship Council on Feb. 25th to get involved and learn how to support the effort. In addition to gathering support at the local level, Capitol Hill Housing has started an effort to secure federal funding to help drive the project.

I've decided that my favorite Seattle  / Capitol Hill building style is what you might call the "cottage courtyard" development.  There are two examples next door to each other on my old block of 10th Ave E.  One is a condo called "The Bungalows" and the other is a rental called "Broadway Court."  I  also like "bungalow court" as a generic name for these things, although I've seen many other terms used in ads like "Hollywood style bungalows".  I understand they're quite common in LA but I won't hold that against them. 

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So these things have become a recent obsession of mine and I've done a little research. The Seattle Department of Neighborhoods has some cool historic info on single story cottage buildings  at 1801 18th Ave and 406 Summit Ave E.  There are also some cool multistory buildings that might be seen as hybrids of the cottage style and flat style apartments, like 1516 E Republican. This is one of many developed in the '20s by the Anhalt company. Assessor's information shows that some units are multi-story townhouse style and others are single story flats.

Another variation is the cluster of small detached cottages, a famous example being the Pine St Cottages just across Madison in the CD.  Ms. Final and I saw a craiglsist ad for one recently and wanted to move in really bad. One blogger makes a good case for their "living small" virtues. 

I also dug up this document that Seattle Planning Department produced around 2003 in which they considered promoting cottage style development.  Tall 4-pack townhouses won out in the last building boom but maybe we should reconsider the cottage style for when the development activity someday starts up again.  They don't have the square footage of the modern townhouse but I would have to say they make for a much nicer streetscape. 

So I'm wondering what these things are like to live in...This one at 13th and Mercer might be my number 1 fantasy pick of a place to live on the hill. 

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• Implement a coordinated program to reduce youth violence and increase public safety for all Seattle residents.
• Review and decide on a proposal for renewing the Housing Levy.
• Make sure that initial neighborhood plan updates are effective and responsive to communities.
• Partner with the Seattle School District to strengthen our public schools and ensure that all of our children achieve academic success.
• Bring City and community organizations...

I rode the bus with a colleague yesterday and we had a good laugh about our (relatively) identical Capitol Hill residential trajectories.

CHR 1.0: Basic apartment, west of Broadway
CHR 2.0: Nicer apartment, between Broadway and 15th, possible co-hab
CHR 3.0a: Similar nice apartment, east of 15th, can't afford to buy but want something "quiet"
CHR 3.0b: Condo or small house, east of 15th, first home purchase and want something "quiet"

Feel free to share your CHR!

In your experience, what is the best/worst month to look for a new rental on this hill?