Tag Archives: montlake

SPD standoff in Montlake at burning home with reported stabbing victim inside — UPDATE: Suspect and woman dead

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(Image: SPD)

UPDATE 1:20 PM: Police say the suspect in an assault and a woman were found dead as flames spread in a burning house in the Montlake neighborhood Wednesday morning:

When officers knocked on the door of the home, the man inside informed police he was armed and refused to come out. The suspect then told police the woman in the house was injured, and officers made entry into the home. The man barricaded himself inside a room and showed police he was armed with a knife. Officers then discovered the residence was on fire. Because of the risks posed by an armed suspect in a burning home—and reports of a possible gunshot at the scene—SPD SWAT, equipped with oxygen tanks, entered the home to locate the suspect and any possible victims.

Police say they found a dead male believed to be the suspect inside the home and later also located a dead woman in the fire damaged structure.

Original report: Seattle Police responding to a reported stabbing assault and fire at a Montlake residence Wednesday morning faced a possible armed person inside the burning home.

Police were called to the 2200 block 25th Ave E residence around 9:30 AM near the north end of the Washington Park Arboretum and reported a person and a possible “casualty” victim inside, per radio updates.

SPD reported a man possibly in crisis was reported armed with a knife and inside the burning home. Police said they believed another injured person was also inside the residence.

As SPD responded, flames were reported inside and spreading through the structure and threatening nearby homes. Continue reading →

520 closure part of busy weekend of construction projects on Seattle freeways

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The Montlake lid (Image: WSDOT)

Seattle’s highways will be a bit tied up this weekend including a full closure of 520. Meanwhile, an important 520 off-ramp for Capitol Hill-area drivers will begin a long-term closure as the westbound Roanoke exit from the freeway will begin a 55-day shutdown for construction.

Over the weekend, 520 will be closed from Friday night into Monday as crews place bridge girders over the freeway as part of the Montlake lid project:

At 11 p.m., Friday, SR 520 will close around-the-clock until early Monday morning, July 11. Part of the SR 520 Montlake Project, the closure is needed to place bridge girders over SR 520 in the Montlake area.

Major construction is also planned on I-5 this weekend:

Beginning at 7:30 p.m. Friday, July 8, crews will reduce southbound I-5 to two lanes near the stadiums. All traffic will go through the collector/distributor lane. The eastbound and westbound I-90 ramps to southbound I-5 will be closed. Those ramps will open for two hours after stadium events.

Meanwhile, area drivers will not have access to the westbound 520 Roanoke exit for around three months.

For more details and information about the 520 Montlake Project, visit wsdot.wa.gov.

 

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City will save some cash in deal with Seattle Prep to replace sports field turf at Montlake Playfield

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The Seattle City Council is expected to approve Tuesday afternoon an agreement with  Seattle Preparatory School that could save the city as much as $850,000 by handing over the project to replace artificial turf on the sports field at Montlake Playfield to the Capitol Hill’s private high school.

Under the agreement, Seattle Prep would enter into a new 12-year deal with the city to replace the turf and be “responsible for all costs related to the planning, design and construction of the new athletic field.” In return, the school would have priority access to schedule and utilize the field for its football program’s practices and games. Continue reading →

Oxbow now providing bagels and baked goods — and a place to get out of the Montlake flow — on 24th Ave

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Traffic still roars through Montlake but the neighborhood is regaining spaces to pull over and enjoy a quieter moment — or better yet, walk in, and grab a few bagels.

Turns out, the name of the new Sea Wolf Bakery project CHS first reported on back in summer of 2020 is Oxbow — perhaps a reference to the rounding curve of busy 24th Ave through Montlake where crews tenaciously work on to create the new freeway lid over 520 and reshape this busy transportation and transit interchange. Montlake’s road diet won’t ever really happen — but there have been changes hoped to make the area safer for drivers, pedestrians, and bikers. Meanwhile, the city’s school zone speeding cameras continues to dole out tickets at record pace.

Hopefully your own diet has room for baked goodness including bagels, special breads, and, eventually, pizza. Continue reading →

With plans for more Central Seattle students, modernized campus coming for Montlake Elementary starting in 2023

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A rendering of the project from DLR Group

By Hannah Saunders

 

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Friday marks the final day of the public school year and the start of summer vacation for thousands of students in Seattle. Next summer will bring a major expansion to one Central Seattle elementary school that will eliminate its long dependence on “temporary” classrooms while opening new opportunities to connect with the history of the land.

Where will all the new Montlake Elementary students come from? Central Seattle still has kids. The expansion is needed to make space for the school’s nearly 200 students — and up to 500 in the future.

Montlake Elementary School, a Seattle landmark, is in the process of undergoing a major renovation after Seattle voters approved the Building Excellence V Capital Levy (BEX V) in 2019. The school currently sits in the design development phase, which will last until the fall.

The existing building is 22,447 square feet. A new, 80,500 square foot three-story building will be added to provide permanent space for up to 500 students for the next 50 to 100 years. The new building is expected to match the height of the historic building, as well as including features that match the historic building in terms of size and scale, such as window pattering. The modernization of the campus will also address seismic needs and earthquake safety.

Montlake Elementary School currently holds 188 students, however due to a lack of classroom space, many of these students have been learning in portable classrooms.

“The portables have been there since I went to elementary school there,” said Paul Wight, construction project manager for Seattle Public Schools. Continue reading →

Seattle’s busiest School Zone Traffic Safety Cameras about to get some help with new installations near Garfield High School

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(Image: City of Seattle)

The camera enforcement of 24th Ave E speeders near Montlake Elementary doled out 9,295 tickets in 2021. In 2022, it will get some help.

New School Zone Traffic Safety Cameras have been installed a few miles away near Garfield High School and were awaiting activation.

The Seattle Department of Transportation tells CHS the plan to turn the cameras on in January was delayed due pending work by Seattle City Light to provide power to the new systems.

But the cameras are in place and waiting for you. UPDATE: Well, the city tells CHS, there’s a bit more to the story. CHS has learned the Seattle Department of Transportation project is one thousands of projects around the region on hold due to an ongoing cement workers strike. A city spokesperson reached out to CHS after this story was posted to clarify the situation. “This is a challenge and SDOT supports a fair resolution among the parties,” the city spokesperson said.

Continue reading →

Inslee’s proposed budget would fill in most of 520’s funding gap including money for a new Portage Bay Bridge and Roanoke Lid

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Design concept for a new bridge over Portage Bay

By Ryan Packer

As work in Montlake to create a new boulevard and park space on top of a new highway lid continues, state lawmakers will need to act relatively soon to keep the rest of the 520 bridge replacement project on track. The designs for a new Portage Bay Bridge and second lid at Roanoke are moving forward, but as of now, they aren’t fully funded. The budget proposal that Governor Jay Inslee released in advance of the January start of the legislative session includes a $400 million allocation to the 520 “West End” projects, an amount that should enable nearly all elements of the project to be completed, according to the latest cost estimates.

But those estimates have climbed. Continue reading →

Bookkeeping | Reaching for good reads amid Cafe Lago’s top shelf flavors

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(Image: Rod Huntress)

By Kimberly Kinchen

For our final edition of Bookkeeping and a look at the books local businesses love so much they keep them in easy reach, CHS ventures to Montlake for another chat with a member of the Lago family. Way back in July, we stopped through Portage Bay for a perusal of the shelves inside Little Lago. At  sibling Cafe Lago in the lowlands of Montlake, owner Carla Leonardi and chef Lucas Neve reach high to draw on Italian classics served in an accessible style.

How does a book make it onto these shelves? Neve: A lot Carla has collected over the years. A number are the pasta chef’s [Justin Dissmore]. Most of mine stay at home…. Sometimes we need recipes that we borrowed from in the past. A lot of them are just reference points, especially pasta and bread books. We bake our own bread here so we need to troubleshoot sometimes or find a new pasta shape for this week’s special …. They are mostly all purchased for home use. You’ve read it a couple times, and then it ends up on our shelf here. Continue reading →

Sea Wolf’s new bakery will extend ‘golden age of Capitol Hill bagels’ to Montlake

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(Image: Sea Wolf Bakers)

CHS reported this week on the richness of bagel offerings currently available on Capitol Hill with the opening of a Rubinstein Bagels on 15th Ave E joining Loxsmith, Westman’s, Eltana, and Dingfelder’s to keep the area well-stocked with fresh, crispy, chewy circles.

Those chewy circles, it turns out, will also be the focal point at a new, coming soon bakery project in Montlake. Continue reading →

Lid construction milestone start of big Montlake Boulevard changes

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There are still two more years of construction ahead to finish the project but an important milestone for creating the new Montlake Lid across 520 has come — and it will bring a major motor vehicle traffic shutdown for the weekend while the area will remain open to people walking and biking.

WSDOT work crews will spend the weekend shifting surface traffic lanes onto the recently completed eastern portion of the new lid to prepare for construction of the new structure’s western half:

We are shifting Montlake Boulevard onto the new Montlake lid this weekend, Aug. 27-30, so we can remove the old street crossing over SR 520 and build a new, improved overpass. During the weekend traffic shift, access to arterials and SR 520 ramps, as shown in the map below, will be greatly limited in the Montlake area.

Crews will shift Montlake Boulevard onto the Montlake lid with work from 10 PM Friday until 6 AM Monday. During these work hours, Montlake Boulevard will be closed to cars between Roanoke Street and Hamlin Street, along with all SR 520 on- and off-ramps serving Montlake Boulevard. Continue reading →