First Hill-born Sugar Bakery adding sweet new Capitol Hill cafe

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The First Hill counter (Image: Sugar Bakery)

Thanks to Jason in the CHS Facebook Group for spotting the new signage

A Capitol Hill cafe space left empty since a labor dispute ended with ownership pulling the plug will move back into motion with a breath of fresh First Hill baked air.

Sugar Bakery says it has been hard at work all year and is nearly ready to open along E Pine just below Bellevue Ave:

We’re very excited to announce that our newest location Sugar Bakery in Capitol Hill will be opening soon! We’ve been working hard on this location since the beginning of this year! More details on the opening date is coming soon! Thank you for your continued support!

Continue reading →

In East Precinct community meeting, residents flag traffic and mental health as the city’s top safety concerns, SPD blames staffing shortages

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A scene from a SPD recruiting video

A “Community-Police Dialogue” for the East Precinct was held this week to discuss the results of the 2024 Seattle Public Safety Survey and the current concerns of residents. Traffic and police capacity were the two top safety concerns listed in the report, and meeting attendees cited their desire to assist those experiencing behavioral health challenges, like one man who has been living on a resident’s dumpster, usually naked, for three years now. The response from several SPD officers? Call 911 and wait until staffing levels rise to see a reduction in crime and a rise in assistance for those with serious mental illness.

“One of the things that’s changing in the work that I do, and it’s changing for the positive, has to do with our engagement with people in behavioral health crises…Police have been the default agency that goes to anything that’s strange,” David Sullivan, who does crisis intervention for the East Precinct, said.

He added how police have increased training on behavioral health response, and that the King County Crisis Care Center levy has opened one center in Kirkland. Sullivan said officers in Seattle are doubling the use of this facility “for voluntary and involuntary detentions or crises.” Continue reading →

Judkins Park Station — and light rail connecting Seattle to the Eastside — now on track for 2026

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(Image: Sound Transit)

Thousands last weekend celebrated the opening of new light rail stations in Redmond as Sound Transit has now grown its Eastside line to ten stops. Connecting Seattle’s line across the lake via I-90 — and the Central District’s new Judkins Park Station — to join up with those new stations has been pushed back again to 2026.

Amid the Redmond celebrations, Sound Transit head Dow Constantine said this week that the latest time estimates have pushed plans for the 2 Line connecting from downtown through Judkins Park and across I-90 to “early 2026.” Continue reading →

sMALL Box making spaces for PJ’s Classic Creamery, The ShoreHouse, and more amid changes at 23rd and Cherry

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Michelle and Danielle Forbes of PJ’s Classic Creamery

(Image: sMALLbox)

By Matt Dowell

Hundreds of apartments now rise above 23rd and Union — 23rd and Cherry is the next Central District intersection lined up for massive change.

On the northwest corner, the inclusively developed, five and a half-story Acer House mixed-use affordable housing project is now under construction after breaking ground this spring.

On the southeast, bids have gone out for contractors for the $8.4 million Garfield Super Block project set to reshape the public space around the Garfield Community Center and Garfield High School with a new promenade, new public art, a renovated park, and new play areas for this core of the Central District.

Change and a smaller kind of growth is already underway on the northeast corner of 23rd and Cherry where an experiment in mixed-use development is underway.

Ron Rubin, long time Seattle real estate developer, has started transforming the twelve single car garages at his 705 24th Ave property into sMALL BOX, an “affordable micro-business incubator space” that he hopes will bring life and walkability to the block. In the last month, the first two businesses have opened: PJ’s Classic Creamery (ice cream-filled bon bons) and The ShoreHouse (shaved ice and coffee). No surprise, in an area flush with schools and kids sports games, the snack stands are early hits.

Rubin came up with the idea for sMALL (like “small mall”) after traveling to places like Bangkok and Amsterdam, where retail centers with hundreds of stores create something that Seattle is missing: neighborhood streets that are “buzzing with pedestrian-friendly walk-up micro-storefronts”. But as he and the new businesses move forward with what he’s calling “phase 2” of the project, the idea will be tested. Rubin will need to find more tenants willing to work in the small spaces which are only 180 square feet a piece. Once established, will the businesses attract the foot traffic that Rubin envisions? Continue reading →

‘Disruptive to the order of the council’ — Protest over proposed conflict of interest changes snarls Seattle City Council session

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Screenshot

Debate over a proposed major change to the Seattle City Council’s conflict of interest rules has former District 3 representative Kshama Sawant and her socialist supporters back in City Hall and Council President Sara Nelson on the defensive over the bill being floated for her Governance, Accountability & Economic Development committee.

Tuesday night during the Young Democrats at UW Candidate Forum, Nelson downplayed her involvement in the proposed changes, saying the proposal was suggested by the Seattle Ethics and Election Commission, not her but that she intended to move forward with the bill in her committee.

Under the proposal sponsored by Councilmember Cathy Moore, council members would be required to disclose conflicts of interest but would still be eligible to vote on legislation related to any disclosed conflict. Currently, members with a recognized conflict must recuse themselves from related votes. Continue reading →

Public Health warns of May 2nd measles exposure at Capitol Hill brewery

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If you are vaccinated you should not have to worry but the health department has put out an alert about a Canadian who “visited multiple public locations in Renton, Bellevue, Seattle, Everett and Woodinville while contagious with measles” in early May including a popular beer hall and brewery on Capitol Hill.

Public Health says the visitor arrived here April 30th and spent four days around the city and the Eastside before flying home out of Sea-Tac on May 3rd. Unfortunately, they had a very busy itinerary including a stop on Capitol Hill.

Officials say the infected person was at Capitol Hill’s Stoup Brewing at Broadway and Union from 4 to 8 PM on Friday, May 2nd.

“Measles virus can remain in the air for up to two hours after someone infectious with measles leaves the area,” local health officials said. “Anyone who was at the following locations during the times listed could have been exposed to measles.”

Health officials have not said if any new case have been connected to the exposures but did say the visitor’s case is not connected to any previous local measles cases.

Exposure alerts are likely to continue. Continue reading →

Sale of former Seattle Black Firefighters Association headquarters can stand, judge rules

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The group rallied at the house in January

The sale of a Central District home once the headquarters of the Seattle Black Firefighters Association has been upheld by a King County Superior Court judge.

The ruling Monday denied a request to overturn the sale of the 23rd and Pike property that had divided the association’s members.

CHS reported here on the legal battle and what is sometimes a house by house effort to hold onto remaining roots of the Central District. The association agreed to sell the property last year sparking outrage from some retired members and community groups.

The double-lot property, located in one of Seattle’s most rapidly gentrifying neighborhoods, was sold for $680,000 — far below its market value, the group said.

The group of retired firefighters and community members has expressed disappointment in the ruling. The group is considering an appeal, Converge Media reports.

 

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Capitol Hill’s Regent Bakery and Cafe is now (finally) Raku Shabu Shabu

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(Image: Raku)

(Image: Raku)

The mysterious, many month renovation at 14th and Pine’s Regent Bakery and Cafe has produced a major change. The Chinese food and whipped cream cakes are gone. In their place, you will now find the tabletop hot plates and vents of shabu shabu Japanese hot pot.

Raku Shabu Shabu is now open at 1404 E Pine meaning CHS readers passing by the corner can take a break — We don’t need another tip on this one!

After more than a decade on the block, the Capitol Hill expansion of Regent went dark into the winter and through the spring with only a paper sign in the window explaining the joint was closed for renovations. Typically, that kind of status for a neighborhood restaurant for more than a month or two means a permanent closure.

But the regent space is relatively unusual in Capitol Hill food and drink. Continue reading →

King County planning Crisis Care Center at Broadway and Union — UPDATE

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Capitol Hill property owners, businesses, and residents are preparing to push back on a planned King County mental health crisis center on Broadway.

Plans for a $1.25 billion network of five crisis care centers across the county include the former Polyclinic building at Broadway and Union, CHS has learned.

County officials are planning to hold a hastily organized meeting with community members Thursday.

Opposition to the Broadway center is already in place as rumors of the planned location have grown in recent months.

The massive 114,000-square-foot Polyclinic building now part of the Optum rebrand has been on the market for lease. A “rebuild letter,” also known as a “Zoning Verification Letter” and issued to confirm whether a property can be rebuilt to its original condition and use, was filed for the property in February. The letters are typically part of the process around a commercial property’s sale or refinancing. Continue reading →

Council weighs in on Seattle Police ‘pursuit mitigation GPS tracker launchers’

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(Image: StarChase)

The Seattle City Council’s public safety committee Tuesday is hearing details of the proposed addition of StarChase GPS “pursuit technology” to Seattle Police Department vehicles.

The addition of the GPS tracker launchers is funded by a $250,000 grant from the WA State Department of Commerce for pursuit technology hoped to eliminate the need for dangerous high speed chases. Continue reading →