Monthly Archives: March 2016

City adds bike share stop to serve Broadway light rail riders

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186dbc75-f9d8-460d-820d-eb8687eca623Now that the City of Seattle is the proud owner of a bike share system, it’s hoping to show off a new, more flexible, more useful era for the human-powered transit system. Just in time for Saturday’s opening of Capitol Hill Station — and after a little advocacy — a Pronto station is being moved to the newly re-opened one-way Denny at Broadway:

You asked, we answered! As a part of ongoing efforts to place Pronto stations near transit hubs, we are relocating our Frye Art Museum (Terry & Columbia) Station smack dab in the middle of the new Capitol Hill U-Link Station at Broadway & Denny in time for tomorrow’s U-Link launch!

This move will make Pronto accessible to folks connecting to the light rail and streetcar stops surrounding the station. Added bonus? It’s right on the protected bike lane!

Sorry, First Hill.

Capitol Hill Pets | Mishka is not a little bear

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IMG_7751Mishka, or “little bear” in Russian, is actually a dog and not a little bear at all. She was rescued from a shelter in California but has no siblings and no one knows what kind of dog her mother was. Dominique, Mishka’s human servant, thinks the six-month-old is a Pomeranian based on her body type. But does it really matter?

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. Are you a Capitol Hill Pet we should know about? Drop us a line. Already sent us a note? We have a special Pets coming up soon!

Capitol Hill’s year in pizza: Pizzeria Ottantotto now open on Broadway

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The latest milestone in Capitol Hill’s year of pizza? Pizzeria 88 has opened on Broadway.

Call it Pizzeria Ottantotto. The wood-fired, Neapolitan pizza project from Magnolia restaurateur Karim Bonjrada took over the space where Corretto called it quits after an ownership rotation.

“You see a 12-inch pizza and think you can’t eat it all, but you can and more because it’s so light,” Bonjrada told us in January about his pies.

The basic Margherita runs $13, the ambitious lamb and mushroom Agnello, $18. Pizzas can be made gluten free — just add $4. There is also an antipasti menu and a surprisingly robust menu of small plates as well as desserts. Cocktails, beer, and wine? Of course.

Born and raised in Palermo, Bonjrada came to Seattle and Capitol Hill in the early ’90s. He’s been making pizzas and other Italian classics ever since, punching his neighborhood business passport along the way. Bonjrada opened Belltown’s La Vita E Bella in 1999, the now-closed DiVino in Ballard, and Queen Margherita and Mondello in Magnolia.

His new restaurant opened after a short overhaul and preparation of the wood-fired oven in the space.

Pizzeria 88 is open Sunday through Thursday, 5 to 10 PM and Friday-Saturday, 5 PM to 2 AM. You can learn more at pizzeriaottantotto.com.

Nickelsville campers relocate to UMOJA Center property in the CD

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IMG_4849 2The fallout from last week’s eviction of the Nickelsville camp near the intersection of Seattle’s two interstates has reached the Central District. Around 20 former Nickelsville campers have temporarily relocated to the UMOJA P.E.A.C.E Center property at 24th and E Spring. A dozen sleeping tents and a kitchen tent went up on the property earlier this week.

The now displaced residents of the sanctioned tent and tiny house encampment on Dearborn Ave. were evicted by property owners Coho Real Estate after the campers voted to disassociate from the Nickelsville organization and run the camp themselves, citing unfair treatment by the Nickelsville leadership. Coho had partnered with the Lutheran Church of the Good Shepherd to sponsor the site and lawfully host it on its property.

After the vote, Coho said alcohol and drug use in the camp had made the camp untenable. Nickelsville maintains strict sobriety rules for residents. The UMOJA encampment appears to be taking a more lenient approach. Patacara Community Services, which is offering assistance and its nonprofit status to the temporary campers, outlined the camp’s policies in a statement this week: Continue reading →

Blotter | Driver rape charge, Miller mugging, Harvard robbery

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See something others should know about? Email CHS or call/txt (206) 399-5959. You can view recent CHS Crime coverage here.

  • Driver charged in sex assault: A car service driver has been charged in the rape of an intoxicated woman he drove after she was kicked out of a Capitol Hill club in March 2015. Dereje Kebede, 40, faces one count of second degree attempted rape. Police say Kebede is a driver for Uber and Lyft but that he did not record a fare when he picked up the heavily intoxicated victim outside a club in the 1400 block of Broadway last March and drove her to a motel in Tukwila where they had sex. The victim told police the last thing she remembered was drinking and dancing in the club before waking up in bed with Kebede. Police say Kebede believes the sex was consensual and said he has had sex with women riders before:Screen Shot 2016-03-18 at 1.59.10 PMThe Seattle PI has more on the case.
  • Miller purse robbery: Police are searching for a suspect driving a “lime green” van and with a proclivity for public teeth brushing after an elderly woman was robbed of her purse Tuesday morning outside the Miller Community Center on 19th Ave E: Screen Shot 2016-03-18 at 1.21.55 PMAccording to the SPD report, the woman suffered a knee injury and a scrape when she was pushed to the ground. A good samaritan let the victim wait inside a car while she waited for police to arrive. There were no arrests. Continue reading →

What they’re saying about Capitol Hill Station: NYT ignores, Seattle transit 1975, Stranger cover, room for ‘giant crowds’

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It probably says something about the media that the opening of a Starbucks roastery on Capitol Hill got more national coverage than the hype this week leading up to the opening of Capitol Hill Station and U-Link.

The New York Times, Washington Post, and Los Angels Times probably see the opening as a major extension of Seattle’s existing light rail infrastructure.

We’re biased but we’re pretty sure this is more than an extension. Saturday’s opening represents a major shift in how the line can be used with the University of Washington and Broadway and Pike/Pine now within its reach. Maybe the trend-highlighting, feature stories are coming next week. Or maybe they’re not.

You can see what CHS has to say about it all here in our LIGHT RAIL 3/19 coverage. Here is what the other locals are saying about it.

  • Seattle Transit Blog plays it cool — We like how the train nerds have stood back and taken this on like just another day in boomtown. Here is STB’s no nonsense review of the preview ride to Capitol Hill Station. Of course, STB is already looking to what’s next: “Immediately north of the UW platform, we were also given a look at the retrieval shaft where tunnel boring machine (TBM) Brenda will arrive in a couple weeks.” How will they celebrate the launch of U-Link? A “Blog Open Thread,” naturally. Continue reading →

Grand opening: a CHS user guide to Capitol Hill Station

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North (Image: Don Wilson for Sound Transit)
West (Image: Don Wilson for Sound Transit)
South (Image: Don Wilson for Sound Transit)

Capitol Hill Station party planning is in full swing for U-Link light rail’s grand opening which will connect Capitol Hill to the University of Washington and the rest of Seattle’s light rail line.

Depending on how you look at it, the grand opening can be extended well beyond the $1.9 billion, 3.1-mile U-Link extension. If the major purpose of a light rail system is to connect downtown to the airport, we celebrated that in July, 2009. But if you strive for more — say, creating dependable connections between vital areas of your city — the debut of UW Station and Capitol Hill Station might just be Sound Transit’s true light rail grand opening.

Saturday’s celebration includes two parties connected by two miles of tunnels and includes music, games, parades, and food trucks. The schedule and roster of participants has been posted to ulink2016.org. The first train pulls into Capitol Hill shortly after 10 AM and will be greeted by a Mayor Ed Murray-lead countdown and confetti cannon celebration.

Saturday revelers patient enough for what are expected to be long lines will be able to travel back and forth between the Capitol Hill Station and the UW Station parties. Free ticket holders can present a printed ticket or an image of the ticket on their phone. “Golden ticket” winners and members of the workforce that built the line will get an early ride from the UW prior to Capitol Hill’s explosive grand opening. Sound Transit is also holding a VIP ride and ceremony Friday evening.

Regular Link hours are 5 AM to 1 AM. Six-minute frequencies are planned for rush hours on weekdays with ten-minute waits planned for “off-peak” hours. But before you party down and start riding, here is what you should know about Capitol Hill’s brand new train station.

Where is it?
Located 65 feet underground, the train platform runs along the east side of Broadway between E John and E Denny Way. The station is accessed through three street level entrances.

The north entrance at the corner of Broadway and E John is the main gateway to the underground train platform. A smaller south entrance is on Denny Way, accessed at the corner of Nagle Pl. and offers a direct connection to Cal Anderson Park. An even smaller, Seattle Central College-friendly west entrance is on Broadway just south of Denny Way and is accessed next to Annapurna Cafe. Continue reading →

7th District race for Congress gets going with labor-focused debate

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With the race for his old seat in the 43rd getting crowded, Capitol Hill’s Brady Walkinshaw faced his first debate with opponents to claim Seattle’s 7th Congressional District seat in Washington D.C. this week. It was much more a cozy forum and less of a debate.

The three mostly like-minded candidates for the 7th position being vacated by retiring veteran congressman Jim McDermott gathered Wednesday night at the forum organized by Working Washington at the King County Labor Temple in Belltown. It was the first time the threesome — One America founder and current State Senator representing the 37th legislative district Pramila Jayapal, King County Council member Joe McDermott and house representative for the 43rd legislative district Walkinshaw — have been put on the stand to sell themselves before voters.

Walkinshaw played up his parents Cuban immigrant roots and his childhood in in rural Whatcom county where he worked in agriculture, noting his efforts to push through legislation in Olympia to improve farm worker safety following the death of a Yakima Valley dairy farm worker who drowned in a pond of manure.

“This is a personal issue for me,” he said. “I worked in the fields picking berries. I still have the pay stubs from that first job in rural Whatcom county.” Continue reading →

Tiny Resto seeking new ways to turn Capitol Hill neighbors into customers

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Cho hanging out in his tiny but busy kitchen (Images: CHS)

With so much of the city’s attention this week on the light rail tunnels to the heart of Capitol Hill, one of the smallest, more off the beaten track players in the neighborhood’s food and drink scene is marking three years of staying alive in the restaurant business with plans to do even more to draw in its neighbors and make them customers.

“It’s going to be the same place, just more chances to enjoy,” said Johanna Robinson of her plans for Resto, on E Thomas between Summit and Bellevue.

For these first three years, Resto has kept things exceedingly simple, open only for dinner service, with typically 20 or so customers per night from 6  to 10 PM, Tuesday through Saturday. Patrons make a reservation on the restaurant’s website and pay a flat $60 fee per person for the restaurant which prides itself on steak and seafood. Then they show up and eat whatever the chef feels like making — no menus. Continue reading →

On the List | Capitol Hill Station celebration, Irish Wake for Lost Seattle Places, APRIL Book Expo

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Photo by Don Wilson Capitol Hill Station 2016

What could be more green than a new $1.9 billion light rail extension that will give thousands of people every day an alternative to driving? Saturday, celebrate the luck o’ Seattle with Sound Transit’s two parties separated by two miles of twin tunnels — and free rides all day between the festivities:

We’re kicking off U Link service with a free community celebration March 19 from
9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Stations and train rides open at 10 a.m. Here’s a sample of what we have in store at each station:

  • Self-guided tours of University of Washington and Capitol Hill stations
  • A variety of live music, including instrumental, jazz, rock and hip-hop
  • Wave of the Future Pavilions featuring games, photo booths and more
  • Food for purchase from your favorite local food trucks
  • Farmer’s market at Capitol Hill Station
  • Free commemorative items (while supplies last).

At Capitol Hill Station, the 9 AM to 5 PM fun will include DJ Riz Rollins and street musician Pasquale Santos, giant Jenga, a temporary tattoo parlor, and a “Eurodance Party” parade (we don’t even know what that means!). You’ll be invited to take a “self guided” tour of the stations, enjoy some interpretive videos, and get your hands on special commemorative stars made from the wood of the big red construction wall.

UPDATE! This just in from Sound Transit. You might want to make sure to be at Capitol Hill Station by 10 AM for “confetti cannons” and a countdown with Mayor Ed Murray. Continue reading →