Monthly Archives: May 2014

Capitol Hill web series gets the big screen treatment at Central Cinema

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Capitol Hill follows "follows an innocent young girl, named Roses Smell, who escapes the terrible backwater hell-hole of Portland, Oregon and comes to beautiful Seattle, Washington, in hopes of a better life."

Looks like PDX! Capitol Hill “follows an innocent young girl, named Roses Smell, who escapes the terrible backwater hell-hole of Portland, Oregon and comes to beautiful Seattle, Washington, in hopes of a better life.”

Follow the exploits and exploitation of Roses Smell with an audience as web series Capitol Hill comes to the big screen later this week at Central Cinema:

CAPITOL HILL: FEATURING CAST AND CREW Q & A
May 22, 2014 at 8:00 PM
Central Cinema

The screening will include surprise performances and will be followed by Q&A

Tickets are $15.

CHS wrote here about the latest project from Wes Hurley and Waxie Moon depicting “a slightly more ridiculous version” of Capitol Hill “replete with soap opera histrionics and 1970’s-style sitcom hijinks.” You can also follow the series of seven-ish-minute episodes via YouTube.

Murray picks O’Toole as police chief to reshape SPD

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Murray and O'Toole Monday morning via the Seattle Channel

Murray and O’Toole Monday morning via the Seattle Channel

O'Toole (Image: Boston College)

O’Toole (Image: Boston College)

Seattle has its chief to lead an embattled police department into what city leaders hope is a new era of public safety — and public trust.

Mayor Ed Murray ticked off another of his first term goals Monday morning when he named Boston’s police commissioner from 2004 to 2006 and veteran of the Boston Police Department Kathleen O’Toole as his candidate to become the new Seattle Chief of Police. O’Toole, 60, is poised to become the first female to lead Seattle’s police force.

Murray called O’Toole “the best candidate to move this department forward and to move public safety forward.”

“I promise the community that I’ll work tirelessly on behalf of this city,” O’Toole said.

The Massachusetts-born candidate for police chief also called the Seattle selection process “very robust.”

“This isn’t a stepping stone for me,” O’Toole said later in the announcement’s press conference.

Murray said he will ask that O’Toole receive a $254,000 annual salary.

Murray said he considers O’Toole a “talker” willing to share information and discuss issues. The mayor said he has found SPD’s opaqueness his “biggest frustration” since being elected.

Murray’s choice to lead the department must still be approved by the Seattle City Council but is unlikely that body will stand in the way of finally moving forward on real, substantive change at SPD. The council is expected to finalize the appointment by the end of June. Continue reading →

Another view of Capitol Hill homeless stats shows shift from downtown

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After CHS's report on Broadway homelessness, a popular camp spot at the old Broadway Grill building was gated off (Image: CHS)

After CHS’s report on Broadway homelessness, a popular camp spot at the old Broadway Grill building was gated off (Image: CHS)

Since 2012, Capitol Hill’s share of the city’s trespass incidents has risen steadily while downtown and Belltown have seen a decline at nearly the same rate. One explanation is there are just more homeless people camping out along Capitol Hill’s storefronts and sidewalks. But the trend may also indicate more homeless people are being moved up the Hill.

The statistics come to light after CHS’s report earlier this month that showed Capitol Hill’s growing share of Seattle trespassing incidents as East Precinct put its most commonly used citation to deal with the neighborhood’s homeless problem to use on a more and more frequent basis.

This new look at the stats compares the growth on Capitol Hill with the trends in the downtown core where business leaders have been pressuring the the city to do more to curb crime and create a more shopper-friendly environment around Westlake Center.

In the first quarter of 2012, 13.6% of the city’s trespass incidents occurred in Capitol Hill’s East Precinct, while 49.3% occurred in the West Precinct, which includes downtown and Belltown. In the first quarter of 2014 East Precinct’s share rose to 26.8% while West Precinct’s dropped to 36%.

(Source: CHS/data.seattle.gov)

(Source: CHS/data.seattle.gov)

Continue reading →

Seattle’s microhousing rules — including design review for aPodments — finally moving forward

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The Cortena micro-style apartments stand at 227 Boylston Ave E (Image: Matthew Gallant Photography)

The Cortena micro-style apartments stand at 227 Boylston Ave E (Image: Matthew Gallant Photography)

A legislative process to regulate microhousing that has played out over the past year will move forward Monday with a public hearing at the Seattle City Council chambers in City Hall.

In February, CHS reported on a decision by the Seattle Hearing Examiner to reject an appeal of the Department of Planning and Development’s approval of the new regulations designed to define and provide some level of environment and design review for the density-friendly, congregate housing type. The Examiner rejected the appellate’s argument that intensive development will overwhelm Seattle’s environmental and civic resources and that the new legislation proposed to further regulate the housing will open the floodgates for aPodment-type developers.

SEATTLE CITY COUNCIL
PLANNING, LAND USE, AND SUSTAINABILITY COMMITTEE*
AGENDA – SPECIAL MEETING
Monday, May 19, 2014
5:30 p.m. 

Monday’s hearing will be an opportunity for developers, urban density advocates and slow growth groups to have their say — once more — on the topic that has dominated much of Seattle’s public discussion on affordability and density even as developers continue to build microhousing and other topics like rent control have yet to find a larger audience in the growing city.

As part of the new rules, the city is proposing to institute a trigger of the design review process based on the size of the proposed development, not the number of dwelling units that currently trigger the process.

A memo from City Hall staff on the proposed legislation is below.
Continue reading →

CHS Pics | The curtain rises again at The Egyptian with award for Wild at Heart star

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IMG_1848_2IMG_1807The Egyptian Theatre returned to service on Capitol Hill this weekend as the venue reopened to host an award ceremony honoring veteran actress Laura Dern and kick off its month of screenings as part of the 40th annual Seattle International Film Festival.

Dern appeared Saturday to receive her Dale Chihuly-designed SIFF award for outstanding achievement in acting and to take part in an on-stage interview session as part of a special screening of the David Lynch classic Wild at Heart.

Thursday, SIFF officials made it official and announced the nonprofit arts organization had inked a 10-year lease for the shuttered theater and would embark on a summer renovation with plans for a full reopening of the venue this fall.

Saturday, Dern thanked the crowd and surprise presenter Eddie Vedder and added that the people of Seattle were getting back a beautiful and historic theater in the form of the old Egyptian.

In the meantime, The Egyptian (SIFF schedule) along with The Harvard Exit (SIFF schedule) will host dozens of films in coming weeks as the 2014 festival plays out.

IMG_1842

CHS (again) named best local site in Washington (Plus: Alaska, Oregon, Idaho or Montana!)

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Thanks for the pic @RavennaBlog!

Thanks for the pic @RavennaBlog!

CHS was recognized Saturday for two Excellence in Journalism awards presented by the chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists representing the Pacific Northwest.

  • First, we were selected again as the top hyperlocal news site in the region for our work to cover the communities of Capitol Hill in 2013. It is our second win in the category. CHS was also recognized as the top community news site for 2009.
  • CHS was also awarded for the year’s top online spot news reporting for our work to cover the chaotic and tragic police standoff and officer involved shooting that locked down the area around Bellevue and Denny Way on July 5th, 2013.

It is very humbling to have CHS again recognized by its peers from among so many worthy candidates. You can see the full list of this year’s SPJ Region 10 honorees (PDF) here.

Thanks so much to the many writers, photographers and others who have contributed to CHS over the years. It is an honor to work with you, learn new things with you and tell stories with you. Without your work, there wouldn’t be a CHS. Thanks!

Note: This will also (probably) be our final self-congratulatory post of 2014.

Pikes/Pines | Don’t smoke these Capitol Hill weeds

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(Image: @everywhereist via Twitter)

(Image: @everywhereist via Twitter)

What exactly is a weed? According to Merriam Webster a weed is: a plant that is not valued where it is growing and is usually of vigorous growth; especially :  one that tends to overgrow or choke out more desirable plants. How do we decide what’s not desirable?

Washington State and many counties including King, have Noxious Weed Control Boards.  They define and prescribe control of noxious weeds, a legal term for species that are difficult to eradicate, excel at spreading, and pose threats (note: noxious doesn’t mean poisonous). They have a tendency to take over landscapes and are graded based on their occurrence and potential in Washington. Having a specific legal term for troublesome weeds is necessary. “Non-native” doesn’t necessarily infer the need for applied control. Continue reading →

One year ago this week on Capitol Hill

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IMG_5673Here are the top CHS posts from this week in 2013:

  1. Hello Robin and Molly Moon’s to join Tallulah’s on Capitol Hill’s 19th Ave E
  2. Coffee co-op hopes balance of rules, responsibility will help it keep place on Hill
  3. Appeal in The Social liquor case as club’s partners move on
  4. You there, person using cash to board a Metro trolley or bus on Capitol Hill…
  5. ‘Embraced,’ Tacos Chukis stretching out in Broadway Alley
  6. As city considers strengthened rules for Pike/Pine, developer says 8-story project is how preservation should be done

CHS Community Post | Parklets: Creating {Mini} Spaces for Community

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140330 conceptual design sketch (small) (1)There’s a new type of space coming to Seattle – it’s tiny, but packed within its small stature are all kinds of good qualities. Residents are reclaiming the public right-of-way (i.e. roadway), traditionally taken-up by parked cars, for open and green space. It’s called a parklet and like the name suggests, the easiest way to describe them is as “mini open space.” And yet that term just doesn’t quite capture the breadth and beauty of these little spaces because they’re so much more than a plaza or patch of green space.

Continue reading →