Capitol Hill is a busy place and the below isn’t the half of it when it comes to interesting things happening in our area every weekend. But, hey, it’s a start. Saturday’s gathering in Cal Anderson Park to raise awareness about childhood sexual abuse might sound like a bit of a solemn affair but there’s a lot of energy going into the 6 PM Turn the Light On rally and the plan includes music and, yes, free glowsticks.

Friday October 01 2010
03:00 PM – 08:00 PM	1st Friday Wine Tasting and Sale! 1st Friday Friday October1st 3:00 to 8:00 This is always our biggest tasting and for good reason; excellent wines at quite affordable prices! We shop… (more)
07:00 PM – 09:00 PM	Aleister Crowley’s The Rite of Mercury On Friday, Oct 1 and Saturday, Oct 2, Eleusyve Productions will present stage performances of The Rite of Mercury: A Rock Opera! The music for this presentation… (more)
07:30 PM – 07:30 PM	Working Gurl! BAD ACTOR PRODUCTIONS PRESENTS: WORKING GURL! WHAT: Bad Actor Productions is going to clock in with a parody of the 1980s favorite, Working Girl. A… (more)
07:30 PM – 09:00 PM	There is a Field: Global Call to Theatrical Action As the second Intifada erupted in the West Bank and Gaza, demonstrations also began in Arab villages inside Israel. In October 2000, 12 Palestinian citizens… (more)
09:00 PM – 12:00 AM	Local Sightings Opening Night Party From Northwest Film Forum: Party like it’s 1995! Join us for our 15th Anniversary Bash and Local Sightings Opening Night Party. Come dressed like it’s… (more)

Saturday October 02 2010
02:00 PM – 04:00 PM	Feed the Soul 2010 Local Chefs Collaborate to Fundraise for Community Kitchens Benefitting the Homeless… (more)
02:00 PM – 06:00 PM	New Northwest Wines Tasting! New Northwest Wines! Saturday October 2nd 2:00 to 6:00 A great deal of new Northwest wine is making their way onto our shelves and I mean some really… (more)
03:00 PM – 06:00 PM	Katie King CD Release Party Jazz vocalist Katie King celebrates the release of her fifth CD, “Driving Home to You” — a blend of jazz, blues and retro pop — at Tula’s. King, a longtime… (more)
05:30 PM – 09:00 PM	Raising our voices, 100 years of women voting in W This year’s auction takes place October 2, 2010 starting at 5:30 p.m. at the Renaissance Seattle in their newly renovated grand ballroom! Tickets for… (more)
06:00 PM – 08:00 PM	REDdrawers Swimsuit Extravaganza Say GOODBYE to summer … jump in and out of the mud puddles … we are going to have one last swimsuit and underwear part’ay! We encourage you to buy… (more)
06:30 PM – 08:00 PM	Turn the Light On Childhood Sexual Abuse Join us Saturday, Oct. 2 at Cal Anderson Park from 7 to 8 p.m. and Turn the Light On childhood sexual abuse. Make your voice heard as an advocate for… (more)
07:00 PM – 09:00 PM	Aleister Crowley’s The Rite of Mercury On Friday, Oct 1 and Saturday, Oct 2, Eleusyve Productions will present stage performances of The Rite of Mercury: A Rock Opera! The music for this presentation… (more)
07:30 PM – 09:00 PM	There is a Field: Global Call to Theatrical Action As the second Intifada erupted in the West Bank and Gaza, demonstrations also began in Arab villages inside Israel. In October 2000, 12 Palestinian citizens… (more)

Sunday October 03 2010
11:00 AM – 03:00 PM	Broadway Farmers Market Entrances to the market are on Broadway, Thomas and 10th Ave. East. There is a small lot with free parking next to the market, and inexpensive pay lots… (more)
01:30 PM – 03:30 PM	Hamlin Robinson School Community Open House We are kicking off another year and in a brand new school! Join us in celebrating our new location and our wonderful students, teachers, staff, parents,… (more)
02:00 PM – 06:00 PM	Argentine Wine Tasting! Argentina Rocks! Sunday October 3rd 2:00 to 6:00 There seems to be no end to the flow of delicious Argentine wine into and just as quickly out of the… (more)
04:00 PM – 06:30 PM	The One Gathering IV The One Gathering is a multi-sensory experience to encompass and support the expansion of consciousness. This is achieved through the means of a 2.5 hour… (more)
07:00 PM – 09:00 PM	Naked Boys Reading Great Female Authors! NakedGirlsReading Seattle presents Naked Boys Reading Great Female Authors! Following in the footsteps of NGR New York, NakedGirlsReading Seattle is… (more)
07:30 PM – 09:00 PM	There is a Field: Global Call to Theatrical Action As the second Intifada erupted in the West Bank and Gaza, demonstrations also began in Arab villages inside Israel. In October 2000, 12 Palestinian citizens… (more)

August’s totals for Capitol Hill area sales didn’t do anything to change what has been a tough summer for real estate. Our area’s numbers match larger trends as sales continue to drop. Overall, August saw 12% fewer sales on the Hill than July’s already soft numbers. But there are some anomalies in the Capitol Hill August real estate dataset provided to us by Redfin.

The most significant is inventory. Capitol Hill as a whole is unusual in that there was an increase in the number of properties for sale in August in comparison with a year ago. In most of the country, the number of properties for sale continues to drop as sellers would rather hold on to their investment and not brave the market. Capitol Hill’s Stevens neighborhood with its predominance of single family homes exhibits this trend with a 24% drop vs. 2009. But there’s something interesting happening in the areas dominated by condos in the Hill’s dataset. In those areas, there’s actually more property on the market than last year — even with demand dropping.

You can see that drop in demand pretty clearly in August’s Hill condo sales totals, below, as only 14 units were sold out of the hundreds that listed during the month. The other weird thing about the Hill’s condo market is ongoing jump in prices. The key is that the sold price data only represents a subset — basically, prices on the most desirable units. Not shown here but from the Redfin data (xls), you can see that Capitol Hill condo list prices are actually down more than 10% vs. 2009.

For single family homes, the sample is getting pretty small as sales slipped farther from last year’s levels. The good news for homeowners thinking about eventually selling is that prices are actually stable on what is being sold. And those lucky folks in Montlake actually were able to move one more house than they did last August. When that marks a hotspot, you know things are cold cold cold.

If you’re looking for a condo or a home right now on Capitol Hill, let us know what you’re finding. Also, if anybody has ideas for how to take a similar look at the rental conditions on the Hill, we’re all ears.

We see a lot of strange but not quite newsworthy items in the East Precinct’s crime reports. SeattleCrime sheds some light on a few thefts we noticed over the summer involving people stealing large amounts of items like soap, lotion and, yes, detergent:

According to SPD records, on August 13th, Police arrested Timothy Pruitt, 44, at a Capitol Hill QFC after he tried to leave the store with $102 worth of Tide detergent hidden in a suitcase.

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Store security tried to stop Pruitt, who dropped the case and fled on foot. Security officers were able to chase Pruitt down and detain him while they called police.

Security staff told officers that Pruitt had been involved in at least six other similar thefts at other Safeway and QFC stores in the East and South Precincts—including the QFC on Broadway and Pine, and Safeways on Madison and Rainier Ave S—between June and August. more…

So, what does a man do with $102 worth of Tide? Sell it, of course. But who buys it? “These type of items…are known to be popular products for smaller stores to buy for re[sale],” SeattleCrime quotes from a SPD detective’s report on Pruitt’s thefts. Now we know.