Yearly Archives: 2014

Memorial walk to honor woman struck and killed by truck on First Hill

Posted on by

10590411_664654093617853_3286561185982884768_nOn July 21st a Cleanscapes truck driver struck and killed Rebecca Scollard,42, in broad daylight as she crossed 8th and James — an intersection known to be among the most dangerous pedestrian crossings in the city.

A memorial walk on Wednesday morning will honor the life of the Capitol Hill resident and seek to bring awareness to pedestrian safety issues. The walk is sponsored by Seattle Neighborhood Greenways, which has committed to organizing memorials whenever a person is killed walking or biking in the city. Following the walk, city representatives will hold a meeting to discuss how to make streets safer for pedestrians.

Witnesses at the scene of the collision told police that a large commercial truck struck Scollard and did not stop. Police later identified the driver.

Details from the event’s Facebook page:

The Memorial Walk for Rebecca Scollard will begin at 9:30 am on Wednesday, August 13 with a gathering in front of St. James Cathedral on 9th Avenue. We will carry signs and walk quietly to the site of Rebecca’s death at 9th and James, where we will hear a few words from people who knew and cared for Rebecca. Singer/songwriter Jim Page will offer a song or two, friends of Rebecca and City representatives will be asked to say few words.

After the Memorial Walk, we will move to Ozanam House at 801 9th Ave. to debrief and discuss ways that safety for people who walk, bike and use transit can be improved along James Street. We want to focus on the needs of the vulnerable people who live and obtain services in this neighborhood – older adults; homeless people; people with chronic mental illness and/or substance abuse; people recovering from traumatic injuries or living with chronic disease. Ozanam House is a residence for chronically homeless men, where Rebecca was known as a valued friend.

We have planned this event in coordination with Seattle Women in Black, who hold a midday vigil in recognition of homeless people who die in Seattle. Their vigil will be held from noon to 1 in front of the Seattle Justice Center at 5th and Cherry.

Thank you very much for your dedication to a City where all can live and travel safely.

 

Developers vying to build Capitol Hill Station housing+retail say properties are overvalued

Posted on by

Screen-Shot-2014-04-16-at-9.31.23-PMSiteMapv4-W-Map-1024x807-600x472-1Shortlisted firms vying to buy and develop four parcels of land above the future Capitol Hill light rail station are raising concerns that Sound Transit’s asking price for the properties is far too high, possibly even double what it’s worth. Sound Transit officials say it’s fair market value for some of the most prized property in the city.

The parcel most in question is the Broadway-facing Site A, where a large portion of the site must be reserved for a semi-public plaza to accommodate events like the Broadway Farmers Market, as stipulated in the project’s community forged Development Agreement.

At a Monday meeting with Sound Transit officials inside King Street Station, several developers said a potential $18.7 million price tag for Site A should be cut in half since only half of the parcel can be developed for residential and retail uses. Continue reading →

Pill Hill loses a drugstore as E Madison Rite Aid shutters

Posted on by

The Rite Aid on Madison in First Hill has closed after the chain drugstore’s management chose to not renew its E Madison lease, a company representative tells CHS.

The Rite Aid rep said the location in the midst of First Hill’s myriad medical facilities was underperforming and has moved all of its pharmacy prescriptions to the 201 Broadway E location. All the pharmacy clients were informed prior to the transfer, the company said.

The rep said Rite Aid employees from the First Hill branch have also been given positions at neighboring stores.

“It wasn’t reaching our expectations and goals,” the Rite Aid representative said. “We thought it would be best to consolidate to the other store.”

The closure won’t exactly leave local customers without options. There are two Bartell’s within blocks of the shuttered Madison at Summit location.

Man arrested for using a bat in possible gaybashing on E Pine

Posted on by

Seattle Police arrested a man Sunday night on Capitol Hill for striking a man with a baseball bat and verbally harassing the victim for holding hands with another man. The incident happened around 11 PM Sunday when two men were walking by Harvard Ave and E Pine while holding hands. When the victims passed a parked car, they told police the occupants of the car started heckling them and called them “faggots.” Two of the suspects got out of the car and started following the victims.

One of the victims grabbed a baseball bat from their own car to defend themselves, but one of the suspects took it from him and hit him several times on the back, according to police. The victim was not seriously injured. According to police, the attackers fled in a car but officers located the vehicle near 9th Ave and E Alder. One of the men was arrested and booked into King County Jail for malicious harassment.

Update (8/12): On Monday a King County judge found probable cause to continue jailing Ivan Prokhorin, 22, in the alleged attack, according to court documents. Bail for the Auburn man was set at $75,000 and Prokhorin is next scheduled to appear in court on Wednesday.

According to police reports, one suspect said he was from Russia, one said he was from Ukraine, and one said he was from Kazakhstan. Here’s SPD’s Blotter.

Bike-In movie night at Cal Anderson cranks up bike theme for 9th annual event

Posted on by

LhOzRGu4InH4Ln9OfiD7VvZcOxNjPqQ-lJ7xAb7KV-YszlrwhJ_k8xq6NVHgkVRaViS9pd6-ZZYt4l54gm57hI_oVb72OrSdj5s_EbbIUNJ9tlsKiupi-5p3UmFSiy58sMb4BUxiFX4lP4EsN9cuHtnNqCSYN1IkUxvK8wINLA2wdfWz2PIsa3l8xcoHaL8gNO85gFLjYqaeuGdAgUxuy4sBiking over to Cal Anderson Park on a warm August evening to take in an outdoor movie is practically a summer tradition on Capitol Hill. On Saturday, the Northwest Film Forum’s 9th annual Seattle Bike-In will be even bikey-er as it screens Joseph Gordon-Levitt’s bike chase thriller Premium Rush! as well as eight bike film shorts. The Bike-In is free and starts at dusk.

Meanwhile, regularly scheduled programming continues at Three Dollar Bill Cinema’s outdoor movies in Cal Anderson with Clueless this Friday. Here are more Bike-In details from NWFF:

Named as one of the reasons Pike/Pine belongs in the “Top 12 Art Places in America,” the Seattle Bike-In has become a staple of the summer outdoor movie calendar. Our annual event in Cal Anderson Park on Capitol Hill celebrates sustainable transportation, urban community and summer nights! Grab your bike and your friends for a free outdoor film—summer nights never felt so right to be on two wheels.

This year’s program includes a lineup of bike film shorts, plus the Joseph Gordon-Levitt bike chase thriller Premium Rush!

PREMIUM RUSH
(David Koepp, United States, 2012, 91 min)

A dashing bike messenger rogue named Wilee must fly on two wheels through Manhattan to deliver a message to Chinatown, before a dirty cop catches him!

Joseph Gordon-Levitt fixees his way through choreographed bike chases in this hilarious B-movie fueled by pure adrenaline and Tex Avery-style zaniness! If you ever dared to dream the French Connection’s climatic show down could be paired performed with environmentally friendly vehicles, your wish has come true.

Continue reading →

CHS Pics | Summit Block Party 3 keeps the party on the block

Posted on by

SONY DSCSONY DSCThe anarchic bohemia of drinking an ice cold Rainier from a brown paper sack on a city street powered the third annual Summit Block Party to another successful free and wonderful and slightly later than planned crescendo Saturday night. Pictures of the fun times are below.

Admission was free except for those who also attended Capitol Hill Block Party — their $61.11 admission price for the July festival has now been prorated to $30.56.

CHS told you here about the past, present, and uncertain future of the annual DIY and fully local block party. And here we visited the Summit Inn — symbolic clubhouse of the avenue where halfway houses and Capitol Hill-relative affordable apartment living meet. Saturday as temperatures reached the 80s, revelers and residents found mini-skate ramps, Parker Edison performing atop a van, the Bad Tats stripping in the street, and The Pharmacy playing its final show ever. If you’d like to get involved supporting the annual event, check out summitblockparty.com for more information.
SONY DSCSONY DSC

Continue reading →

Russian hacking suspect makes first Seattle court appearance for Broadway Grill data breach

Posted on by

The Russian man accused in a widespread hacking operation that affected many on Capitol Hill in 2010 made his first appearance in a Seattle courtroom on Friday afternoon.

Roman Seleznev, 30, was arraigned in the downtown federal courthouse after a federal judge in Guam ordered his transfer from the island to Seattle earlier in August. He was ordered to remain in custody and no further court dates have been set, according to court documents.

Seleznev was indicted in Seattle in 2011 for hacking into point of sales systems at Washington restaurants, including a data breach in 2010 that involved stealing credit card information from hundreds of customers of Capitol Hill’s Broadway Grill.

While Seleznev was indicted in 2011, he wasn’t taken into custody until July 5th. DOJ representatives won’t say how the suspect was ultimately captured or how he ultimately arrived in Guam. The arrest of Seleznev, the son of a member of Russia’s Duma, set off international protest as his home nation called his seizure a kidnapping part of a string of disputes with the US over cybercrime.

“Cyber-criminals should take heed: distance will not protect you from the reach of justice. We will investigate, we will locate, and we will bring foreign hackers to stand trial,” U.S. Attorney Jenny Durkan said in a statement. Continue reading →

Capitol Hill food+drink | Inès Pâtisserie: pastries you can sink your teeth into, no baguettes

Posted on by
(Images: Rayna Stackhouse for CHS)

(Images: Rayna Stackhouse for CHS)

The French pastry shop Ines Patisserie opened on Friday at its new location where Madison meets 11th. We gave it each and every one of its proper French doohickeys in the headline.

Owner Nohra Belaid and her staff will be having an “understated soft opening for the month of August,” then will kick things into full gear once fall begins.

Belaid sold her old location on Madison and 29th earlier this year and took three months to set up the new home on the western, currently sun-drenched side of the new Viva building.

The new shop is “more modern, cleaner, in terms of aesthetics, and a little feminine,” says Belaid. The interior is all white with pops of color from the pastries on display and candy in delicate glass jars.

Belaid wants to build a community where people come to treat themselves to a coffee and a pastry while interacting with one another. Warning laptop jockeys: The shop has only three power outlets and Belaid says this is by design. A majority of the time on Friday morning, Belaid was in front of the counter sitting down with customers she knows and meeting new ones. Continue reading →

Q&A with Sally Clark at East District Council

Posted on by

mapThe East District Council is one of 13 in the city “for local neighborhood groups to share information” and to help the Seattle Department of Neighborhoods “rate citizen applications for Neighborhood Matching Funds.” It meets monthly from 5:45 to 7:45 PM in the Capitol Hill Library on the second Monday of the month. Lucky you, August 11th brings the body’s next meeting — and the body is bringing Seattle City Council member Sally Clark to Capitol Hill.

You can warm up for the Q&A session in comments, below.

We have the distinguished honor of hosting Seattle City Councilwoman Sally Clark who will be updating us on City Hall issues as well as taking questions and comments.
All are welcome – board member please let me know if you will be late or unable to attend.

6:00 – 6:10 Welcome and introductions (Chair)
6:10 – 6:15 New Business (All members)
6:15 – 6:45 Yesler Terrace Park Project update (Pam Klimente, Parks and Rec)
6:45 – 7:15 Seattle City Councilwoman Sally Clark (updates from City Hall and Q and A)
7:15 – 7:30 Other Business, Public Comments
7:30 – Adjourn

Bus Stop | The 43

Posted on by

14857992744_f5c8d0513d_cEveryone has a favorite bus route, and mine is by far The 43.

As with most loves, it is complicated. My love for this bus has nothing to do with speed; while on the schedule a trip from downtown to the Ave takes approximately the same amount of time on the schedule as the University Bridge-bound 49, around 25 minutes, we all know that this doesn’t always play out in reality. The Montlake Bridge and traffic on Montlake Boulevard can frequently lead to long stretches sitting on this bus.

It has nothing to do with comfort. There are fewer streets in need of resurfacing as much as 23rd Avenue. The corridor project planned to overhaul it will not include any portion of the 43’s route north of John Street, so relief in this area is not in sight.

14860118922_623e08c67c_cPerhaps the reason I love the 43 is because rather than heading straight through Capitol Hill via Broadway like the 49, it takes a more ambling route connecting the Hill’s neighborhoods from Olive Way and Summit Slope, to Broadway, up to the more affluent areas around 15th Ave and 19th Ave, and then onto 23rd Ave and out Capitol Hill’s backdoor into sleepy Montlake.

The main reason the 43 is my favorite bus, however, is the people on it. Everyone rides the 43: people of every socioeconomic stripe and variation. I met Rita, above, waiting for a 43 on Bellevue Ave near City Market. She told me that she has found the 43 to be very dependable recently as opposed to in the past, when it has not come on schedule. She asked us to only use her photo if she looked good in it, and we think she looks lovely.

Another reason I like the 43: There are no planned service cuts coming to this route. The 43 will likely take over quite a few 47 riders after that route is deleted in September and will become the only route serving Olive Way from Downtown. For one of the densest neighborhoods in Seattle, this is a big task. With new trolleybuses for routes like this coming next year, at least all of the buses will have air conditioning. The future looks breezy for the 43.

Previously on Bus Stop