This time, the goodbye to Capitol Hill’s Metro Route 47 looks permanent

By Cormac Wolf — CHS Reporting Intern

Route 47, the storied ride along Summit and Bellevue Ave on Capitol Hill’s western slope, was shuttered during the pandemic. Now it seems likely King County Metro will restore service to the dense neighborhood, but without the 47. It’s hard to find anyone upset by the probable change.

As CHS reported earlier this month, Metro is shifting buses around in anticipation of the coming RapidRide G line on E Madison. They’re currently soliciting public opinion on whether to lend more buses to routes 10, 11, 12, and 49 (option A), or extend route 3 to include route 47’s old territory (option B). Option B would essentially revive route 47, serving Summit Slope residents every half hour.

We reached out to several community groups aiding riders to see what their consensus on the choice is and asked around about the line. We didn’t find much enthusiasm about saving the 47.

Central Seattle Greenways, the contingent of Seattle Neighborhood Greenways which works in Capitol Hill, was split on the potential options. Continue reading

Capitol Hill ‘mini park’ to be cleared amid Seattle’s continued, smaller homeless encampment sweeps

Thanks to a CHS reader for the picture from the mini park

The pace of Seattle homeless encampment sweeps has picked up under Mayor Bruce Harrell’s administration including clearances of small camps sometimes nearly as quickly as they take shape. The new pace will bring a clearance this week of one Capitol Hill encampment apparently formed by an individual camper at the Thomas Street Mini Park.

The latest clearance has been announced for the area around the 300 block Bellevue Ave E park on Thursday morning where city workers and outreach contractors are planned to be on scene to provide assistance and clear away any remaining belongings and debris.

“The City is addressing this encampment as it impedes access to the park and open space for neighboring communities,” a Seattle Parks spokesperson tells CHS about the planned clearance.

It isn’t the first time in the current pandemic wave of Seattle’s homelessness crisis that the park has been swept — CHS reported here on a clearance last September — but the small camp targeted for clearance this time is indicative of the increased and more rapidly deployed resources for removing encampments from public spaces under the Harrell administration as COVID-19 restrictions fade. Continue reading

Analog Coffee: after a decade on Capitol Hill, still focused on Summit Ave

After the pandemic, Hayden is ready for anything — even 25 more years on Summit Ave

With photos and reporting by Alex Garland

Ten years ago on Summit Ave, coffee slingers Danny Hanlon and Tim Hayden set out to bring new energy to Seattle’s cafe scene with a new joint on Capitol Hill and a simple, straightforward approach that was more about fostering the vibe of a favorite neighborhood bar than creating a caffeine corporation. They vowed a decade ago that Analog Coffee would be the only coffee shop they would ever open.

“When we started having those talks in 2008/2009, the Seattle coffee scene seemed like it needed some new blood,” Hayden told CHS this week when we came calling to wish the cafe congratulations on its decade on the Hill. “it was full of great coffee shops but most were roasters. There weren’t a lot of strong independent shops at that time. We really value that independent shop model, we weren’t interested in being roasters. We love interacting with people and creating a special spot in the neighborhood. We decided we would try to make our own version of our favorite shop through Analog.” Continue reading

Goodbye to the 47 — UPDATE

Some obituaries of the COVID-19 pandemic will never be recorded. CHS is here to bury Bellevue Ave’s Metro Route 47.

It has been dead and gone for months but we never reported on its passing and, as the economy more fully reopens and increased levels of vaccination have more of us on the move, more neighbors around the western slope of Capitol Hill are asking, “What happened to the 47?”

It was more than the pandemic. The 47 was one of King County Metro’s COVID-19 sacrifices, part of a handful of suspended all-day routes and overall service reductions required due to the plunge in ridership and fare revenue during the health and economic crisis.

But as Metro has bounced back, the 47 has been left permanently behind. Continue reading

Checking in: 20 years of Pretty Parlor on Capitol Hill

(Image: CHS)

Banana and crew (Image: CHS)

By Gabrielle Locke

While we’re thinking about Capitol Hill fashion and beauty that may end up being nothing more than plans due to the COVID-19 crisis, one neighborhood center of fashion, beauty, and more is doing everything it can to hang on through the pandemic and celebrate its 20th anniversary in style.

When COVID-19 first hit, Pretty Parlor owner Anna Banana turned to doorstep delivery to local customers, focused on her Etsy shop, and created an e-commerce store attached to her website — graceful but major shifts for a business that has been in motion since the turn of the millenium.

“In the beginning, I would do doorstep delivery and sometimes, if I knew the customer well, I’d pick them up a Dicks burger and friends, because why not!” Banana says of the early pandemic delivery effort. Continue reading

Part of Capitol Hill’s class of 2020, Cornelly’s craft pizza and pasta now part of the neighborhood on Summit Ave

Brett Phillips has some Summit Ave pizza for you

With 2021 so far taking a “hold my beer” approach to outdoing 2020 in the stress over things you can’t control department, the comfort of a hot pizza from a neighborhood joint should not be overlooked.

Cornelly’s opening last year down on Summit Ave may have been missed by a few — it ranked inside the top 10 of Capitol Hill newbies in our review of 2020 in food and drink but in only ninth place — but you can make up for that now that the new year is here. Continue reading

Design review: Belmont Commons ‘co-living’ building will rise eight stories and squeeze 78 units into Capitol Hill’s dense core

(Image: Hybrid)

When CHS wrote about the first round of approval for this eight-story, 78-unit project on Belmont Ave E the most densely apartment-ed heart of Capitol Hill in October of 2019, we noted that design reviews in the area had slowed to a trickle. Little did we know that things were about to get much slower.

Still, somehow the East and Central Area Design Review Boards have managed to review around a dozen projects through the pandemic. Wednesday night will bring the next online session as reviewers could make the final sign-off on the Belmont Commons project,

The project from developers Kamiak Real Estate and architects from Hybrid will replace a two-story, eight-unit apartment house built in 1910 in the 400 block of Belmont between Republican and Harrison. The building will not include parking. Continue reading

Design review: Board asks for better greenbelt connection in Lakeview slope condo development

A condominium development proposed for the literal edge of Capitol Hill’s westernmost slope will return this week for a second round in the early phase of the city’s design review process.

The virtual design review session will look at the latest plans for 1578 Lakeview Blvd E — a planned six-story, 40-unit development along Lakeview Blvd E that is also envisioned as a way to hold back at least one small stretch of the eroding, crumbling slopes of Capitol Hill’s western edge above I-5. Continue reading

Cornelly set to open early fall, bringing handmade pasta and ‘naturally leavened’ pizza to Capitol Hill

(Image: Cornelly)

Comforting pizza and pasta flavors are coming to the Hill this fall as new restaurant Cornelly finishes a buildout of its Summit and Mercer space and prepares for a takeout-centered opening.

Flanked by coronavirus-related delays, first-time restaurant owners Brett Phillips and Sam Carroll have spent the past five months perfecting the recipes and aesthetics of their new eatery that will join a surprisingly robust block of Capitol Hill food and drink home to Top Pot Doughnuts, the Summit Pub, Single Shot, and Sol Liquor Lounge.

“We wanted to do a neighborhood pizza and pasta place where we focus on doing naturally leavened pizza dough, handmade pastas, extruded pastas, and then really hyper seasonal vegetable plates,” Phillips said. Continue reading

Coming full circle, Toscana Pizzeria returns to Summit Ave

You can clean up, change your look, develop new relationships. But sometimes it is best to just accept who you really are. The Summit Ave food and drink path that led from Toscana to Itto’s to A La Vida has circled back to pizza.

“We’re back!” the sign in the window at 601 Summit Ave E proclaims. As a handful of loyal CHS readers will tell you, Toscana Pizzeria is, indeed, back on Summit. Continue reading