Name: Sima
Location: E Pine and 13th Ave
Artist: Ben at Stylistic Ink in Albuquerque, NM
Previously on CHS Ink
Monthly Archives: February 2014
You can’t dance the Panevino but restaurateur behind Tango, Rumba making move onto Broadway
(Image: Panevino)
Born in the extended Via Tribunali family, Broadway’s Panevino will have familiar new ownership this March. Capitol Hill food and drink entrepreneur Travis Rosenthal has agreed to purchase the nearly four-year-old trattoria and bar.
“I think Francesco (the current owner) has done a great job creating a popular spot in the 80 year old building,” Rosenthal told CHS by email about the major transaction. “I am really not sure what changes will be made until I get in there and meet the guests, taste the entire menu and work with the current staff.” Continue reading
Happy customer appreciation day — Love, Lifelong
Yes, the neighborhood is getting its very own Capitol Hill Goodwill. But there is already plenty of vintage love to go around. Some basic old “cheap stuff” love, too. Friday is E Union’s Lifelong Thrift Store annual customer appreciation sale:
Everything will be at least 50% off! It’s our thanks to you for doing good just by shopping. Your purchases support Lifelong’s work delivering services to people living with chronic serious illness. Thank You! http://www.llaa.org/
lifelongthrift
Maybe you can find something to wear to Lifelong’s Gay Bingo fundraiser Saturday in Fremont.
Even more love for Seattle Pride as new Capitol Hill street festival joins weekend
Last summer’s street food festival on 11th Ave paved the way for a new Pride event (Image: CHS)
Capitol Hill will be even more Pride-full this June. Organizers of the Seattle PrideFest events have announced plans to add *another* street festival on Capitol Hill on Seattle Pride weekend.
“There are so many people on Capitol Hill, there’s more than enough to go around for everyone,” PrideFest producer Egan Orion told CHS before unveiling the plans publicly Wednesday at the City of Seattle’s monthly special events meeting.
The Capitol Hill Pride Festival will return on Broadway in 2014 (Image: CHS)
Orion’s company inaugurated the PrideFest Family Day in Cal Anderson Park in 2013 to create a kid-friendly celebration in the midst of the weekend’s festivities. The new PrideFest Capitol Hill Street Festival will accompany Family Day in Cal Anderson by filling the adjacent 11th Ave with food trucks, a beer garden and a performance stage. There will, of course, be a DJ.
“We wanted to have something that would make Pike/Pine a little more festive on the day,” Orion said. “We also wanted it to be free.”
The 4 PM til dark street festival will join the regular bar and club beer gardens that blossom throughout Pike/Pine during Pride including Wildrose’s annual party. Meanwhile on Broadway, the 21st annual Dyke March will continue. Capitol Hill Pride Festival will return for another year with stages, pet contests and vendors. The Broadway Pride street festival, organized by former Broadway business owner Charlette LeFevre, has grown into a big part of Capitol Hill’s annual LGBTQ celebration but closing Broadway won’t be an option once work on extending the First Hill streetcar toward Volunteer Park begins.
Sack races at the 2013 Seattle Pride Picnic (Image: CHS)
The new street festival is another in a line of additions to Pride weekend on Capitol Hill years after the big parade moved downtown. The Seattle Pride Picnic in Volunteer Park celebrated its fourth year in 2013 while a new Trans* Pride event marched to Cal Anderson for the first time.
Now Cal Anderson’s 2014 part in Pride is lining up to be even busier. While it wasn’t designed for the purpose, 11th Ave appears to be taking shape as a de facto festival street for the area. Orion said the success of last summer’s Street Food Festival Capitol Hill debut on the street opened his eyes to 11th Ave’s potential while also helping organizers to better plan being good neighbors to residents in the area.
“For me, attending the Seattle Street Food Festival, seeing the reaction, it clicked that a Pride event would also work,” he said.
You can learn more and watch for updates at seattlepridefest.org.
Did gay men gentrify Capitol Hill?
A study highlighted by The Atlantic Cities site says that there is a connection between “Gayborhoods” and gentrification:
The results of the study do point to a connection between gay neighborhoods and some of the markers of gentrification. Across the board, the researchers found neighborhoods that began the decade with larger concentrations of gay men saw greater income growth, and, especially in the Northeast, greater population growth as well. This last finding, perhaps one of the most significant in light of current debates about gentrification, largely backs up research done a decade ago by UCLA’s Gary Gates. (However, several of the study’s other conclusions, including the finding that gay couples were no less likely to live in racially or ethnically diverse neighborhoods, contrast Gates’s research from the 2000 Census).
Of course, the study is also filled with confounding takeaways when considering Capitol Hill’s development:
Contrary to popular perception, there was little evidence that gay or lesbian households were more likely to live close to downtown. Gay men, however, were more likely to live in neighborhood tracts with older, historic housing stock.
OK, the classy old housing stock fits the narrative.
The more interesting question might be where in Seattle are gay men “gentrifying” the neighborhood next? Looks like a neck and neck race between West Seattle, First Hill and the Central District.
UPDATE: Just in case it’s not clear, it would be absurd to pin the “gentrification” of any area on any one group or factor — yes, even tech workers. In the meantime, The Seattle Times has posted a look at the areas of the city that have “gentrified” the most.
How much will it cost your kids to live on Capitol Hill?
Thursday, Seattle’s City Hall is filled with discussion about the people who can afford to live in the city — and the people who will be able to afford to live here in the future. CHS will have more on the Seattle Workforce Housing Forum soon but you can read through some of the reports assembled for the forum today:
Supporting Documents:
a. City of Seattle Housing Needs Data
b. Incentive Zoning Presentation (Cornerstone)
c. Draft Benchmarking and Best Practice Report (Otak Inc.)
d. Speaker Bios
e. Seattle Cornerstone Report
f. Otak Presentation
While there is much to be done about providing affordable rents in the city, the datasets included also address home ownership in the increasingly expensive city. Last fall, CHS reported on the harsh reality on Capitol Hill’s home ownership market — most of the people currently living in the neighborhood cannot afford to buy a house here. There aren’t many condos you can buy, either.
Meanwhile, the story of climbing rents on Capitol Hill continued for buildings old and new.
We’ve embedded the “Housing Needs Data” report below that documents existing conditions in the city and documents what rent various earning levels can afford. The 2014 HUD Area Median Family Income — MFI in the document, below — is $88,200. Continue reading
Family says driver in E John rollover ready to go home
(Image: Steve J. Garrod with permission to CHS)
The driver in a rollover crash on E John last month nearly died of a massive heart attack, a family member tells CHS.
The man in his 50s, whom CHS has agreed not to identify, is ready to be discharged from Harborview where he has been recovering from the heart attack and crash. His family member posted this update in the comments on the CHS coverage of the wreck:
I appreciate the people wishing my Uncle the best. Yes it was my uncle in the truck he had just left his dr. office and had a major heart attack. He was dead for ten minutes but thanks to the awesome response from the fire department and medical aid not to mention the incredible hero’s at Harborview he’s coming home tomorrow. God bless those who blessed us,
The driver’s nephew says the family would like to thank the unknown person who originally called 911 to report the crash. “If not for that call who knows how things would have turned out,” the nephew told CHS.
Linda’s, a Pike/Pine constant, turns 20
A picture of Linda from the early 2000s hangs hangs behind the bar (Image courtesy Linda’s)
If Instagram were around in the early 1980s, Linda Derschang’s feed would be filled with pictures of her skiing in the Colorado Rockies and grabbing post-slope drinks inside log-constructed bars in small mountain towns.
Maybe it would be a neon sign, or a wooden booth, or an arrangement of stylish people sitting at the bar, but somewhere would have been the germination of the idea she would build a decade later into Linda’s Tavern. Linda’s celebrates its 20th anniversary on Capitol Hill next week.
“People say ‘of course you know it’s going to be successful.’ No I don’t. I’m not easygoing about success,” Derschang told CHS as the anniversary approaches. “I’m the person that thinks it could all close up at any moment,” she said. “I don’t know, time will tell.” Continue reading
On the List | Search for Meaning Book Fest, Capitol Hill Arts Walk, dog adoption
Seattle U hosts the annual Search for Meaning Book Festival on Saturday. The fest brings together over 40 authors of fiction non-fiction, and poetry for keynotes, presentations, book signings and interactive experiences. The event offers opportunity to listen, learn, interact, and reflect on their own ability to contribute to a more just and humane world. All events are free and open to the public, however a ticket for entry is required. Get yours here.
A slew of art shows are opening on Thursday as part of the Blitz Capitol Hill Art Walk. The show we’re most looking forward to is at Vermillion, titled Touch Me – I Am Violent. Why? Because we are encouraged to touch the artwork. OMG we can has art feels! Other highlights on the art walk include the dual show at Photo Center NW exploring the Black male community and images from men of African diasporal descent; and the photography of by Paul Dahlquist and Almendra Sandoval at Blindfold Gallery. Get the full list of venues and shows on the art walk website, or pick up a printed map at any of the venues.
Frequent CHS photo contributor Aaron Brethorst will have an exhibition on display at 15th Ave E’s Liberty:
It’s called City in Motion, and it’s a series of long exposure landscape photos of Seattle. The exhibit consists of six really large giclée prints on canvas (like, measured in feet large), and four black and white prints. The exhibit is part of the Capitol Hill Art Walk (or Blitz, or whatever), and runs from 5-8pm at Liberty. There’s more information on my website, including smaller versions of the six canvas giclée prints: http://www.
aaronbrethorstphotography.com/ .
Are you thinking of adopting a dog? May we suggest Valentina Karpov, a martini-drinking master chess playing dog, or Coach Tracker, a surfing tree surgeon canine. Meet Valentina, Coach, and more dogs at the Expawdition Club event at Creature office on Saturday and Sunday. Seattle Salty Dog Rescue will have dogs available for adoption; these special pets come with backstories and artifacts courtesy of Creature. Mud Bay has donated treats, toys, and accessories to accompany the pooch characters to their new homes.
Continuing theater productions this weekend include Ed, Downloaded at Washington Ensemble Theatre and Black Like Us at Annex Theatre. Oscar-nominated shorts continue screening at Harvard Exit theater, too.
Our Capitol Hill calendar has much more: dance performances, author readings, Valentine events, comedy, a fun run, plus, plus. What are you waiting for? Get outta the house already.
Broadway Bikeway gearing up for May opening — Yesler Hill Climb ahead
The future Yesler Hill Climb
The First Hill streetcar might not have its cars finally manufactured until the fall but the (mostly) complete Broadway Bikeway could be open as early May. Meanwhile, Seattle Bike Blog also has news of a potentially excellent addition to the area’s biking infrastructure — the under the radar Yesler Hill Climb.
First, SBB reports that the bikeway is likely to be fully open by May:
The Broadway Bikeway is getting so close to being paved all the way to Yesler, but it may not be fully opened until project work wraps up in May. This late opening is to avoid situations where people encounter unexpected closures due to continued construction, as has been a problem at the north end of bikeway.
In January, CHS reported on the ongoing construction on the Capitol Hill Station pedestrian underpass beneath Broadway that will lop off the northernmost reaches of the bikeway even after the possible May opening. Still, as the Bike Blog notes, the opening of the bikeway will still create “a protected space to bike all the way from Yesler Way to Seattle Central Community College.”
And, when yet another swarm of area construction and development project is complete, Seattle Bike Blog says there will be a new connection to the bikeway and streetcar route’s southern reaches.
Here is what the future home of the Yesler Hill Climb looks like today. The image up top is how planners hope it will look in the future. You can learn more about the climb from SBB.
