“We climbed far but we have farther still to climb. Now you go and you reach up and you pull us higher. You go, you rise up, you pull us higher.”
Now in its 43rd year, the annual celebration of Martin Luther King, Jr.’s life at Mt. Zion brings out dignitaries and community leaders for an afternoon of impassioned speeches and social justice oratory, along with a little prayer and soulful song.
Friday’s 2016 edition with the governor, mayor, and chancellor of the sponsoring Seattle College system on hand — and at the pulpit inside the 19th and Madison church — translated some of the causes of the recent Black Lives Matter movement through the history of MLK and, yes, state education policy and the minimum wage.
“Finally, every single child is going to get full day kindergarten. Those who need early child education are going to get it,” Governor Jay Inslee told the crowd Friday afternoon. “Those who need smaller class sizes are going to get it. And our African American and non African American students finally for the first time, and in the only place in the United State, are going to get a cut in tuition.”
Inslee said he believes the spirit of MLK can be felt in the effort to bring a new statewide minimum wage initiative to November’s ballot.
“We know that too many people aren’t able to have a living wage to keep a roof over their head and food on the table because of this rising income inequality,” Inslee said.
Keynote speaker Marcus Green, publisher of theSouth Seattle Emerald — “Southern Seattle’s only non-profit, reader supported, and community operated media and news outlet” — answered the 2016 event’s theme: “Are we there yet?” Continue reading →
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Seattle Police and medic units rushed to the Seattle Housing Authority building in the 600 block of Harvard Ave E Friday afternoon to a reported self-inflicted shooting inside an apartment.
Police say a man suffered injuries in the self-inflicted shooting around 2:20 PM Friday. Seattle Fire had been called to the scene for a report of a man suffering an unknown medical condition before the shooting happened. We do not have further information about the man’s condition.
The large response and presence of East Precinct commanding officers in formal dress uniforms caused concerns for people in the area. Capt. Paul McDonagh and others had just attended the MLK celebration at 19th/Madison’s Mt. Zion when the shooting was reported. A construction crew wearing hazardous material suits and working with yellow “police tape” nearby also caused concern. The crew, it turns out, is at work on the overhaul of the old Harvard Exit building next door.
Meanwhile, a male in his 20s on the sidewalk nearby on Harvard suffering from a suspected drug overdose was found by police responding to the suicide attempt. Seattle Fire was called to assist that victim.
For resources and help to prevent suicide, please call the national suicide-prevention hotline: 1-800-SUICIDE or the local crisis clinic: (206) 461-3222
After opening Stateside to much fanfare just over a year ago, the owners behind the E Pike Vietnamese restaurant are planning a brand new venture in a small space just next door. Stateside’s world-travelled chef/owner Eric Johnson tells CHS the concept and name of the project are still a secret.
“Stateside itself is not going to change at all,” Johnson said. “What’s happening next door is going to be its own thing.”
The new 756 square-foot bar space will echo the trend of recent Hill food and drink ventures rolling out smaller bars in accompaniment of their main restaurant space like Renee Erickson’s Bateau-Bar Melusine combo. Plus, for all the positive press Stateside has won in the past year, its cocktails sometimes get lost in the shuffle.
After rolling out a new brunch menu in November, being named Seattle Met’s restaurant of the year, and recording their biggest single day in sales last Saturday, Johnson and co-owner Seth Hammond are on a roll. With a consistent staff lineup and several mainstay dishes, Johnson said Stateside is now working to push the bar (of success) even higher.
“We’re just starting to hit that stride,” Johnson said. “We’re really focusing in on how good we can make everything.”
Expect more about the project and its planned opening date target to be announced in coming weeks. Continue reading →
A jobs program created to help African Americans in Seattle with criminal backgrounds and other “barriers to employment” find work that became a hot button issue during the election may have emerged as the biggest winner of the race for District 3.
Over the course of last year’s election season, funding for Career Bridge — a workforce re-entry program managed by the Urban League that connects men of color with barriers to employment (like criminal records or homelessness) to jobs and social services — was championed by the final two contenders for the District 3 seat: socialist incumbent Kshama Sawant and Urban League CEO Pamela Banks. During a September press conference on gun violence in Seattle, Banks said Sawant wasn’t prioritizing the issue and promoted her public safety program which included doubling the funding for Career Bridge. Sawant later praised the program at a District 3 candidates debate and, a few months later during the city council’s haggling over the 2016 budget, lawmakers voted to increase its funding.
Mayor Ed Murray’s original 2016 budget proposal didn’t include any additional money for the program, so council member Sawant — fresh from re-election — publicly went to bat for doubling the city’s allocation from the original $400,000 to $800,000. Some behind-the-scenes haggling went down between Sawant, former budget committee chair and council member Nick Licata, and Tim Burgess, who wanted $200,000 instead, telling CHS that the Urban League wasn’t in a position to effectively spend $400,000 in 2016 alone. Banks said Sawant’s office had not contacted the Urban League about her proposed $400,000 amendment. Licata negotiated a compromise, opting for Burgess’s $200,000 as well as an additional $200,000 for the City Human Services Department to allocate for general jobs programs — money which the Urban League can apply for. All-in-all, it was a win for Career Bridge.
Banks partially attributes the council’s support for the program to the attention Career Bridge got on the campaign trail. “It was a campaign issue so it was pretty darn easy [to get more funding],” Banks told CHS. “They supported it more because of the campaign.”
But while more funding for Career Bridge wasn’t exactly a hard sell for last year’s council, the program has faced cautious skepticism from city lawmakers over the course of its budding three-year lifetime.
The program was conceived under the wing of former Mayor Mike McGinn, who, after a spike in gun violence in 2012 and meetings with organizations, advocates such as the Black Prisoners Caucus and Village of Hope, and leaders in the African American community, allocated $210,000 in the 2013 city budget for a week-long pilot of Career Bridge with fifty participants to be jointly managed by City’s Office of Economic Development and the Human Services Department. An audit of the program was also ordered along with the initial funding, which continued its review through 2014. In the spring of 2014 management of the program was transferred to the Urban League, and a hike in funding to $400,000. Then McGinn lost his reelection bid to Ed Murray in the end of 2014, ushering a key anchor for the program out of City Hall.
“After McGinn lost, I had to reach out [to the Murray administration] and say don’t kill this,” said Banks. “There was some hesitancy [on the old city council]. That’s the reason the audit was done.”
But the audit report came back in the summer of 2015 with a glowing review of the pilot, with 81% of the initial batch of participants from 2013 and 2014 finding employment after graduation of the brief course. More specific and recent numbers follow the same trend. Continue reading →
In 1852, a gentleman named Etienne Leopold Trouvelot settled in Medford, Massachusetts. He was a portrait artist by trade, but had a strong interest in entomology. In particular he was interested in identifying native silk worms for silk production, which encouraged him to delve into rearing moths. In the 1860s after a visit to France, Trouvelot accidentally let some European gypsy moth caterpillars escape. This escape was relayed to authorities, but it appears nothing was done and the matter was largely forgotten for the time being. After this, Trouvelot drifted from entomology to astronomy, gaining accolades for his celestial illustrations done while teaching Astronomy at Harvard, even having a crater on the moon named after him. In 1882 he returned to France, right about the time people started noticing a bunch of caterpillars in Medford.
Troubelot’s little blunder has had lasting, devastating effects. Gypsy moths caterpillars are incredibly voracious and not terribly picking, having been documented eating over 300 species of trees and shrubs. Being non-native they lack some of the normal controls they’d have in their native range in Europe and Northern Africa, so they’ve had few problems spreading across the great hardwood forests of the Northeast, nor defoliating entire orchards (according to the US Forest Service between 1970 and 2010 they defoliated a cumulative 80.4 million acres of plants). To make things worse, the caterpillars use their silk to catch the wind and sail to greener pastures. Continue reading →
Dania is a 4 1/2-year-old “city dog” of the yellow Lab variety. Dania is very friendly but very protective and will pick out the people she likes so she can greet them. She is an all around good dog.
We ask photographer Alex Garland to follow marchers in the rain and do crazy things like trying to make yet another picture of yet another huge apartment building look interesting. We thought we’d ask him to do something a little more fun. Capitol Hill Pets is a semi-regular look at our furry, fuzzy, feathered, and finned friends found out and about on Capitol Hill
Capitol Hill architecture firm Board and Vellum has an intriguing project to design — its new 15th Ave E office.
Principal Jeff Pelletier tells CHS his firm is moving into the former credit union building on 15th Ave E joining Seattle Area Support Groups and Community Center upstairs.
“It’s just a great speed,” Pelletier said of the firm’s plans to stay on 15th Ave. “It’s Capitol Hill but a little calmer, quieter.”
Board and Vellum designs residential and commercial projects. They’ve been working out of the 15th Ave E building also home to Sur 16 and Dance Underground.
Their new office will fill the ground floor of the former Salal Credit Union. Pelletier said to expect a bright and white space with reclaimed furniture that appeals to the residential clientele that are such a big part of their work. You may have also seen Board and Vellum’s designs nearby insideAda’s Technical Books.
Upstairs, SASG has moved in and is back to work supporting community groups focused on HIV issues and other recovery assistance like addiction after 26 years nearby in the Dunshee House. The old house, in the meantime, was purchased and is slated for demolition and redevelopment as townhouses. Maybe the future residents will put Board and Vellum to work designing their living spaces.
This weekend around Capitol Hill brings the January edition of the revamped art walk, and remembrances of two great men of peace and love with MLK celebrations and David Bowie tributes.
In December, we told you about the overhauled effort around the Capitol Hill Art Walk with a financial boost from the Capitol Hill Block Party, Starbucks, and the Capitol Hill Chamber of Commerce and an artistic life from Ghost Gallery. Witness the fruits of their labor this second Thursday: Continue reading →
Here are the top stories from this week in CHS history:
