After a red carpet grand opening, 12th Ave wine shop La Cha-Bliss is ready for its first Pride.
CHS reported here on the new venture from Howard Russell who is building on a career performing as Ladie Chablis to create a new Capitol Hill wine store. Continue reading
12th Ave’s Byrek and Baguette doesn’t really need any hype or social media influencers to build its steady business from regulars and the kids from nearby Seattle University. A decade on this stretch of Capitol Hill will do that.
“We don’t do any advertising,” Natalie Gjekmarkaj said with a small laugh. “People just know us.”
Tucked in among the neighborhood’s busier corridors, the eatery doesn’t pop up on typical lunchtime sandwich searches. The focus here is byrek, the flaky, crispy, filled pastry of the Balkans.
“Even if somebody wants to come here and look for sandwiches, our restaurant doesn’t come up,” she admits. “But the people who know us? They’re coming. We have very loyal customers.” Continue reading
Seattle City Council president Sara Nelson will face off with the return of an old nemesis Thursday afternoon as her Governance, Accountability, and Economic Development Committee meets to debate proposed legislation that would turn the council’s ethics rules upside down and allow members to vote on bills in which they have a disclosed conflict of interest.
Former District 3 representative Kshama Sawant and her Workers Strike Back political group have made the proposed legislation a target, saying Nelson and the “conservative Democrats” on the council will use the change to roll back “renter victories” from the socialist council member’s three terms in office.
Last week, Sawant and supporters protested the proposed ethics bill during council public comment with Nelson leading the body to pause the proceedings over the cheering and chanting. More of the same has been promised during comment before Thursday’s session. Continue reading
(Image: HBO)
As the second season of HBO show The Last of Us prepares to unleash its finale this Memorial Day weekend, Seattle’s Capitol Hill is portrayed as a rainbow covered apocalyptic wasteland made even more dangerous by factions of warring zealots and a very dangerous public transit system.
Pretty realistic.
CHS reported last May on filming for season two’s Capitol Hill setting taking place in Nanaimo, British Columbia where the streets were transformed into war-torn scenes of the mass fungal infection at the center of the video game-inspired story. Continue reading
The old duplex is a goner
As the city debates a new growth plan and “Middle Housing” zoning changes that might someday allow a fourplex to rise in Madrona, the site of a 123-year-old, barely 2,000-square-foot house is being prepared to hold 25 new homes on one of the most densely populated blocks of the most densely populated neighborhoods on the West Coast.
Capitol Hill is not complaining — but it is carrying a great deal of the load that has pushed Seattle back into the top 5 for growth in the country’s major cities.
The Bejelit Capitol Hill Cohousing project slated for E Olive St. between Harvard and Boylston is being planned to rise eight stories on 3,312 square feet of land nestled between the massive 1940-built Lenawee apartments building and the smaller but still impressive 1917-built Porter Apartments.
The infill project not substantial enough to trigger the public design review process is a good representation of the state of multifamily housing development on Capitol Hill in 2025. Continue reading
(Image: Daily Journal of Commerce)
The Seattle Department of Construction & Inspections has issued its Director’s Decision approving the plans for a six-story development to rise on the block currently home to the old 15th Ave E QFC.
Just over a week remains for any possible appeals to be filed against the decision.
The process milestone marks nearly two years of meetings and debate about the development including the East Design Review Board’s approval last fall of a requested zoning departure to allow the building an extra story in exchange for a layout that will preserve a prized European hornbeam tree along E Republican while also transitioning the project to better mesh with the adjacent lower structures to the north.
Any appeals must be filed with the Hearing Examiner by May 29th. Continue reading
(Image: Secret Burger Kitchen)
(Image: Secret Burger Kitchen)
Born in the lobby of a Tacoma Holiday Inn, smashburger joint Secret Burger Kitchen has opened its second location on Broadway.
The new burger joint takes over the space left behind in new construction in the 500 block of Broadway above Seattle U where Instagram-worthy Korean fried chicken joint Bonchon helped kick off the KFC trend on Capitol Hill six years ago. Continue reading
As Seattle residents prepare to vote for Mayor, City Attorney, and City Council (District 2 and Positions 8 and 9) during the primary election on August 5 and the general election on November 4, voting is underway this spring to elect the Capitol Hill Community Council’s leadership board.
After going dormant roughly five years ago, the CHCC relaunched late last summer under Paulus’ lead. The new group’s first meeting drew 80 people to the Capitol Hill Branch Library on September 10. An equally large group gathered at the Hugo House on January 22 for CHCC’s Great Ideas Festival to brainstorm what they would like to see the neighborhood group pursue. The CHCC has an active newsletter, hosts regular public meetings and Happy Hour socials, and has adopted bylaws, shared information about the Neighborhood Matching Fund program and the Seattle Police Department’s East Precinct community safety and crime prevention efforts, and launched the Capitol Hill Appreciates Program, a monthly effort to thank the “various elements of society that make Capitol Hill the great place that it is today.”
Six candidates are running for positions on the seven-member board:
The Seattle Police Department says it arrested three people and seized fentanyl, meth, and cash in a narcotics operation on Harvard Ave E.
SPDS says the Thursday afternoon “narcotics/anti-crime operation” went down in the 200 block of Harvard just north of E Olive Way as East Precinct officers and SPD’s Community Response Group “made six proactive arrests, seized 65.5 grams of fentanyl, 3.5 grams of methamphetamine and seized 228 dollars in U.S. currency.”
SPD reports a 34-year-old man and a 23-year-old woman were arrested and booked in the operation. Police did not have information on the third person arrested. Officers also took three more people into custody who were “identified and released.”
There were no reported injuries.
The busts follow similar operations around Cal Anderson Park and Broadway and Pike. The alleys along Broadway including the stretch near Harvard and E Olive Way where Thursday’s operation took place have been a target for officials facing ongoing complaints about crime and drug use in the area.
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The Seattle City Council’s comprehensive code update committee led by District 3 representative Joy Hollingsworth is ready to vote on amendments to the legislation designed to ensure that Seattle meets the June 30 implementation deadline for the state’s Middle Housing bill and expanded zoning to allow a greater range of housing types in more parts of the city.
Wednesday afternoon at 2 PM, Hollingsworth and the select committee are scheduled to take up the amendments for a vote.
CHS reported last week on the proposed amendments that would put many of the development and zoning changes proposed over months of debate back on the table.
The interim proposal up for consideration is intended to form the structure of the comprehensive plan and Neighborhood Residential updates to implement HB 1110.
The specifics on the borders of the city’s new Neighborhood Centers will be a larger fight. Continue reading
