Looking for a place to have brunch today? Come into the original brunch place on Capitol hill, Rosebud Restaurant and Bar. We have been doing brunch for over sixteen years, find out why. Eggs Blackstone, Morning Pasta, great  omletes and wonderful specials. If you haven’t been for a while come in and try us out again.

Rosebud Restaurant and Bar, 719 East Pike Street

It was a typical month number wise for September’s residential burglary totals but — as usual — many of the accounts of the crimes were anything but ordinary. Here’s a rundown of the month including a reported theft of a safe containing $35,000 in $100 bills, several reports of laptop, digital camera and electronics theft and one sad man who lost a partial box of Milky Way candy bars.

First, here’s the 10th Ave East incident in which the $35 grand was reported missing that is pretty much impossible to adequately summarize. Here’s the SPD report on the incident:

On listed date and time, R/O was dispatched to investigate a residential burglary at 3   10 Av.E. R/O responded and arrived at the location and met with the victim identified as V/   V/   stated that on 08-26-10, he arrived home and discovered that someone had stolen his personal safe from inside of his residence.

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He stated that the safe was hidden inside of a large wooden file cabinet in his living room, and that only someone who knew where he kept the safe would ever know that his safe was there. He stated that he did not locate any tampering or forced entry surrounding his residence. He stated that there are two key lock doors to gain entry into his residence, and that he is the only person who has possession of those keys. V/   stated that he does have a circle of close friends that have knowledge of where he stores his spare keys, and that they all have had opportunities to remove his keys, and make copies, and then return the keys without him knowing  they were ever missing. V/   then named his circle of friends that had access and opportunity to steal his safe as stated that he has spoken with each of the listed individuals and none of them have come forward with regards of involvement or the whereabouts of his missing safe.

V/   stated that while all of the listed individuals are his closest friends, he believes that they all potentially could be involved in the incident. V/   stated that he saw and entered his safe on 08-20-10 when he went inside of it and retrieved two one hundred dollar bills and gave then to his friend   to go and make change for an upcoming yard sale he was hosting the following weekend. He stated that on 08-26-10 when he discovered his safe was gone, he stated that he questioned his friend, who was there the night before cleaning his residence. V/    stated that   had relocated the file cabinet to a different area in the living room. V/   stated that when he questioned   about the whereabouts of his safe, he stated that   told him that he did not see the safe inside of the file cabinet when he moved it.

V/   stated that the only persons who had knowledge of his safe and its contents are his listde friends, unless one of them told one of their friends, and did not tell him that they allowed a stranger in his house.

V/   added that on Monday 08-23, he received a suspicious call from   who asked him to respond to his house in West Seattle to help get into his house as he had locked himself out. V/   stated that while enroute,   called him back and stated that he was no longer needed as he was able to get into his house. V/   stated that he was gone for acouple of hours. V/   stated that on the following Wednesday on 08-25, he received a strange phona call from   asking him to respond  to the   for a ride for him and some friends. He stated that he responded and left his residence for approximately forty minutes before he returned. V/   stated that on both occasions, he had no knowledge if his safe was still home or not, and that he did not discover it missing until the next day on 08-26. V/   stated that the contents of his safe was primarily private personal papers, but more importantly his life savings of $35,000.00 cash all in one hundred dollar bills. V/  explained that he had recently cashed in his IRA savings bond to relocate and purchase a new home. He stated that he did not want to leave his money in his bank, and assumed that his personal safe in his residence would be secure until he placed his money into another account. V/   stated that he is absolutely positive that this incident was an “inside” job, committed by one of his closest friends or associates. He request that this case be assigned and reviewed by a follow up unit, and stated he would assist with prosecution as needed. V/   stated that he is available for further statement and has more in depth personal information on all of his listed circle of friends if and when requested. A case number was given to V/   at the scene.

Below, you’ll find a selection of accounts from the September reported burglary files. The 24 or so reported burglaries on the Hill were pretty close to the recent three-month Hill average of 25.5 reported incidents. Here are some of the reports from north to south across the Hill:

September’s reported burglaries. View details at SeattleCrime

• Sept. 12, 2400 block East Federal: More than $600 worth of tools ripped off from empty residence being remodeled.
• Sept. 14, 2300 block East Federal: Victim said somebody entered house through unlocked door and stole a ring.
• Sept. 16, 2200 block East Federal: Victim said somebody entered home and ransacked her closet taking undisclosed items.
• Sept. 9, 1600 block Broadway East: Victim reported theft of $2,700 in wine (and $20 in quarters) from an apartment laundry area storage room.
• Sept. 24, 1000 block Belmont Ave East: Couple reported guitar, DVD player, camera and other items ripped off from their apartment. They reported seeing a suspicious man on cell phone waiting outside their building the morning of the theft but he kept his back turned to them so they were not able to provide a description.
• Sept. 20, 900 block 11th Ave East: A woman reported that she returned home after being away for 15 minutes to find the back door of the house open and that somebody had stolen her purse from the kitchen counter. Police found that the house had been rifled through but the homeowner said nothing else appeared to have been stolen. Given the short timeframe for the theft, police concluded that the burglar had been casing the home.
• Sept. 29, 1400 block East Prospect: A burglar alarm woke a couple up around 7 in the morning but they entered the code and went back to sleep. When they went downstairs at 9:30 AM, they found that somebody had broken out a glass panel from their door and opened it but that nothing had been stolen from a home. Officers were able to collect a blood sample from the broken glass.
• Sept. 15, 2500 block East Galer: A couple returned home to find their front door open, a bathroom window smashed out, and their two passports and a diamond ring missing.
• Sept. 10, 200 Belmont Ave East: A man went to bed with his front door unlocked for two friends that were supposed to be staying with him that night but had not yet arrived. When he awoke in the morning, the man found his laptop, and iPod, a digital camera and his watch had been stolen from his apartment while he slept. The report notes that the man said his friends never arrived.
• Sept 18, 700 block East Olive Street: A man lost his MacBook and an iPad when he fell asleep on his couch with the door to his residence open so his cat could get out. The man said he woke around 5 AM to find an unknown male in his living room grabbing the computers. The man chased as the burglar ran away but was unable to catch up.
• Sept. 15, 1400 Boylston Ave East: A man said a burglar stole his laptop and a checkbook and had since unsuccessfully tried to cash two $300 checks.
• Sept. 18, 1200 block East Union. A man said his apartment was burgled. From the report: 

His flat screen TV that he was not using and that he kept under his bed was missing.  A silver wrist chain and half a box of Milky Way candy bars were missing.  V/   gave no one permission to take these items.  He does not know who may have taken them.

• Sept. 19, 1400 block East Union: A man reported his Xbox and three controllers were stolen from his apartment while his brother slept.
• Sept. 17, 1400 block 15th Ave: A man reported that sometime between the 9th and the 17th, his residence had been burgled of a laptop and an old military medal keepsake.

We can’t really explain any of this other than Romiette Lindsley appears to be a Capitol Hill artist who makes monstersand she has entered her work in a contest to go to NYC and decorate a window for H&M. Oh, and she needs your help. Go here to vote for her.

We’ve reminded you that, yes, Capitol Hill does have a hardware store. But Pacific Supply Hardware has been getting some extra exposure this college football season after serving as the set for a University of Washington commercial. Here’s the “making of” clip:

Thanks to Linder for the tip!

Some 70 days later, the work crews are still hard at it on 10th Ave E. There’s another detour planned for this weekend’s northbound traffic, SDOT says. If you forget what they’re working on, here’s an overview. Here’s this weekend’s update from SDOT:

The Seattle Department of Transportation (SDOT) and its contractor will continue work on street improvements on 10th Avenue East this weekend. The street will be closed to northbound traffic from East Boston to East Lynn from 7 a.m. on Saturday until Sunday evening. One southbound lane will remain open.

A substantial detour will be in place: Vehicles heading north will be detoured at the north end of the Broadway commercial district and directed to use E Roy Street to Belmont Avenue E to Lakeview Boulevard E to Boylston Avenue E to E Roanoke Street.

Vehicles heading westbound on E Boston Street will be detoured around the construction using Federal Avenue E to E Lynn Street.

Detour routes will be clearly posted. Police officers will be on site to keep traffic moving. Pedestrian access to all businesses and residences will be maintained.

Crews will build a concrete lane on the east side from the East Lynn Street to East Boston Street.

More information: George Frost, (206) 615-0786, [email protected]

Media contact: Marybeth Turner, (206) 684-8548, [email protected]

John T. Williams, originally uploaded by krulich.

A new mural of John T. Williams, the man killed by a Seattle Police officer at Boren and Howell last month, has appeared on the 11th Ave poster wall. We wrote about some of his Capitol Hill connections here. Thanks to krulich for adding the picture to our CHS flickr pool. The October 22 Coalition organized a march in September protesting the killing. The Seattle rally location for their national 10/22 protest against police brutality is Seattle Central starting at 5 PM.

As we reported last week, Volunteer Park Cafe’s application to have the zoning changed for its 17th and Galer Capitol Hill location has been turned in to the Department of Planning and Development. This Thursday, the land use bulletin was posted (both online and, per requirements, at the restaurant) and the two-week public comment period on the application has begun. CHS has reviewed VPC’s application — and a two-inch stack of support letters the cafe submitted with the application — and has details below as well as information about how you can add your support to the VPC stack, voice your concerns about allowing the change of use, or both.

We’ve included images of pages from Volunteer Park Cafe’s application here. DPD doesn’t yet provide digital copies of applications and VPC has not, yet, made the document available. If you would like to review the documents, you’ll need to make a trip downtown to the Seattle Muni building to visit DPD’s Public Resource Center. Ask for Project #3011437.

The key pages of the application for neighbors and community members who have voiced concern about the growth of the cafe contain this summary list of the 9 mitigation measures VPC is proposing to convince planners to grant the change of use:

Here are more pictures of a few key segments of the mutli-page document. It’s best viewed in full screen.

As we noted, the DPD folder for Project #3011437 also contains a big stack of letters from the initial June plea for help from VPC sent to followers of their e-mail newsletter, posted in the cafe and published on CHS. Most are from neighbors and people from across the city lending their support and describing what they like about the cafe. There are a few hillebrities in the mix — Dave Einmo from Head Like a Kite, for example — and a few key allies. A letter from the neighbors living directly across the street from the cafe says that family does not side with the “complainants” and that they like having the restaurant on their street. We also found a letter from the Capitol Hill Chamber of Commerce. Director Michael Wells was brave enough to get involved in the controversial issue where neighbor rights mix with commercial development.

We talked to Wells now that the application is in and more of the neighbor complaints have been brought to light. He says he still supports the cafe. “We sent a letter of support because we obviously support what Volunteer Park is trying to do to build a healthy, sustainable business there,” Wells said. But he also is eager to see VPC work out a good solution with its neighbors.

“I’d hate to see this successful business not find a way to adapt to the concerns of the neighborhood,” Wells said.

According to Wells, the Chamber has offered to help with mediation between neighbors upset with the expanding cafe and Volunteer Park’s owners, Ericka Burke and Heather Earnhardt who are Chamber members. Wells said, so far, nobody has taken him up on the offer.

How to add your comment
Public comment on the application may be submitted to DPD through October 13th. You can submit your comments online here. Once feedback is collected, DPD planner Scott Kemp will conduct an analysis, weigh feedback and write a decision. After the decision is published, there will be another 14-day period for additional public feedback. Any appeals will be heard by the city’s hearing examiner, not DPD. DPD staff have told CHS that it will likely take months for a decision on the application. In the meantime, Volunteer Park Cafe will be able to continue to operate.

Our beautiful patio is waiting for you to enjoy with one our great lunches, such as, Chorizo sausage sandwich with roasted red peppers and onions and Harvati cheese served with a green salad for only $8.00. We also have a cream of mushroom soup, not to be beat. Come on down.