Monthly Archives: January 2018

Ready, player? Full Tilt Capitol Hill now open

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We don’t know why big coffee Starbucks surrendered but we do know who to thank for Full Tilt coming to Capitol Hill’s 15th Ave E.

“This building was built for them 25 years ago,” Full Tilt’s Justin Cline tells CHS. “When they decided to move, Linda Derschang called and said she wanted us to be her neighbor.”

Full Tilt Capitol Hill debuted with a “quiet opening” Thursday night in the former 15th Ave E Starbucks space next to Derschang’s bar Smith. Expect louder nights to come. The fifth Full Tilt in the city, the 15th Ave E edition is now the chain’s largest and the only location with a reservable party room. You will also find a freezer full of typically delicious, uniquely Full Tilt flavors (including vegan varieties) straight out of its South Park ice cream factory. Continue reading →

Capitol Hill Community Post | Count Us In 2018 will take place on Friday, January 26th

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From All Home King County

The core purpose of our annual Point in Time (PIT) Count is to collect data on the needs of people experiencing homelessness in our community. The count also provides an excellent opportunity to increase awareness of homelessness and to spark action. A successful and accurate PIT Count is an essential component to informing our system response to the need in our community and to ultimately making homelessness rare, brief and one-time. For questions about the PIT count, please contact [email protected].

We are now accepting volunteers for Count Us In 2018. 

Volunteers will be asked to work in teams of 2-3 to conduct a visual count of individuals experiencing homelessness across King County. Teams are comprised of community volunteers and expert guides (individuals currently/previously experiencing homelessness), who will walk/drive all over their assigned routes beginning in the early morning hours (specific times to be determined). Volunteers are expected to have a cell phone, and to walk approximately 2-3 miles if necessary. Volunteers with cars will be asked to help transport their team members on the day of the count. Continue reading →

CHS Ink | Elizabeth and Talia’s hands

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Just outside of Kaladi Brothers on E Pike, we caught up with Elizabeth Moore Symmeson and Talia Antone who got friendship tattoos from Sara Purr at Rabid Hands in Ballard. With both working with women and children, the decision to get tattooed at a fundraiser donating money to a women’s domestic violence center was an easy one to make. After they got back from Standing Rock, they wanted to get tattoos of hands because Elizabeth slipped out of her zip-ties while on the bus to jail and helped to “scratch itches and move all the hair out of their face” of those who were still tied up. Continue reading →

Developers collecting ideas for ‘public square’ at 23rd and Union

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Later this month, the redevelopment of 23rd and Union will continue with the first design review for the huge “inclusive development”-focused project from Lake Union Partners, Capitol Hill Housing, and Africatown set to rise above the corner currently home to Midtown Center. As the planning comes together for the mixed market-rate and affordable development, there is an opportunity for neighbors to start shaping a key element of the design.

Developers are collecting feedback on plans for a “public square” at the center of the four apartment buildings being planned for the site:

Most prominently, the project includes a public square almost 9,000 sf in size. The square is accessible from East Union Street and both 24th and 23rd Avenues. Surrounded by active retail users, the square is intended as a community gathering space during the daytime and evening hours, with special event programming from local community groups.

You can learn more about the plans and provide your suggestions for the square’s features at courb.co/midtown.

Patrick Foley of Lake Union Partners tells CHS this the first time his firm has used the coUrbanize platform on a project. Continue reading →

Mayor says Seattle Police won’t be part of any legal pot crackdown

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Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan says her police department will not be part of any crackdown on the city’s legal pot businesses as reports spread of a plan to rescind a federal policy that has been key to state legalization.

“Let’s be clear: Our Seattle Police Department will not participate in any enforcement action related to legal businesses or small personal possession of marijuana by adults,” Durkan said in a statement released Thursday morning in anticipation of the planned move by Trump administration Attorney General Jeff Sessions.

“Federal law enforcement will find no partner with Seattle to enforce the rollback of these provisions,” Durkan said in the statement. “I have full confidence that Seattle, our Attorney General, and our Governor will lead to ensure our businesses, residents, and visitors are protected from this overreach.” Continue reading →

New regulations threaten short term/long term mix at Capitol Hill’s St. John’s Apartments

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A 22-unit Capitol Hill apartment building at Harvard and Pike is affordable to locals, accessible to mostly culturally conscious visitors, and — so far — sustainable as a real estate investment. Over the past 13 years, management of the St. John’s Apartments might have stumbled upon a novel solution to a small part of Seattle’s affordability crisis.

“Any building like ours in any dense urban environment should try it,” manager Bryce Montgomery tells CHS. “We are able to subsidize long term rentals with short term visitors.”

But the model might not last once Seattle’s new regulation of the short term rental market kicks in at the end of the year. Maybe there is still time to consider a St. John’s amendment. Continue reading →

Step 1: Dream up $90K Capitol Hill, First Hill, or Central District parks & streets idea

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2017 proposals like these will also roll into the 2018 process. You can view the live map here

Step 2: enjoy your improved neighborhood. The city’s annual Your Voice, Your Choice process is starting up again. You have until February 2nd to take part in the first phase of helping decide how to spend $3 million on park and street improvements in Seattle.

Need inspiration? These were the District 3 winners in 2017.

DISTRICT 3  

  • Capitol Hill: Crossing Improvements at I-5 Exit on to Olive Way (Cost: $75,000, Total Votes: 240)
  • Central District: Traffic Calming on 17th Ave S between E Yesler Way & S Jackson St (Cost: $15,000, Total Votes: 200)
  • Judkins Park: Improved Connections to Judkins Park from S. Dearborn St (Cost: $90,000, Total Votes: 173)
  • Capitol Hill: Crossing Improvements at 19th Ave E & E Denny Way (Cost: $83,000, Total Votes:  171) 

City departments were to include the winning proposals in their annual budgets with plans to implement the projects in 2018.

The process to collect new proposals ends Friday, February 2nd. Your ideas should adhere to three simple values. Your proposed District 3 projects should:

  • Benefit the public
  • Add a physical or capital improvement project in Seattle’s parks or streets
  • Not exceed a budget of $90,000

Add your proposal here

There is also a map of the project ideas from 2017 that will roll over to the 2018 process. “These are ideas that were submitted in 2017 and considered potentially feasible, but not funded through the 2017 process,” the city says.

After the hundreds of proposals are collected, Project Development Teams in each district will “turn ideas into concrete project proposals,” the city says. Over summer, the final proposals for each district will be put up for a vote.

Each of the city’s seven district will be eligible for up to $430,000 in projects.

Blotter | Cops seize ‘multiple firearms’ in Leschi domestic violence arrest

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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.

  • Domestic violence arrest yields multiple firearms: Seattle Police confiscated a ridiculous number of rifles and handguns in a domestic violence investigation following an incident in the Leschi neighborhood Sunday night. SPD posted photographs of the firearms seized as part of the investigation and said the cache would be “placed into safekeeping while the investigation continues.”

    Officers responded to a home in the East precinct Sunday at 8:50 p.m. for a report of a domestic violence disturbance. When officers arrived they spoke with a woman who said that she had just broken off a seven-year relationship with her now ex-boyfriend. The suspect, a 45-year-old man, had reportedly been drinking all day before he threw a flask hitting the victim. The man then made threats to shoot himself and to blow up the neighborhood.
    The suspect has not yet been charged.

  • Bus knife threats: Police armed with non-lethal weaponry took a man into custody who had been threatening people with a knife aboard a Metro coach in a December 21st incident. According to the SPD report on the arrest at E Thomas and Broadway, police were called around 10 PM and found that the incident had poured out of the bus and into the street where the reported assailant had been removed from the bus:
    Officers armed with a taser were able to take the suspect into custody without further incident. He was arrested and booked for investigation of assault.
  • St. Joe’s stabbing: Police and Seattle Fire were called to the area near St. Joe’s at the corner of 19th and Aloha on the night of December 21st after a stabbing at homeless shelter facility hosted by the church. According to the SPD report on the incident, the victim suffered a 2-inch gash to his face in an altercation with another man staying at the facility. Police took the suspect into custody and recovered a switchblade knife. He was booked into King County Jail.
  • 15th Ave E threats: Employees at a 15th Ave E store called police after being threatened with a knife on the morning of December 21st by a woman who has acted strangely with them in the past:
    The victims told police the woman pulled a knife when they asked her to leave the store. Police searched the area but were unable to locate the suspect.
  • E Pine body slam: A man reportedly harassing customers at an E Pine restaurant early on the morning of Christmas Eve got a rude gift. According to the SPD report on the 2 AM incident, police arrived to find the man down and bleeding from the head in the crosswalk at Boylston and Pine. According to a witness, a male was see “body slamming” the downed male before leaving the area. The injured man was taken to the hospital for treatment. There were no arrests reported.
  • CD crash and search: Police spread across the area around 29th and Washington in the Central District on the afternoon of December 29th after a suspect crashed a stolen vehicle and fled from police on foot. SPD officers and a K9 unit searched the area for more than an hour but were unable to track down the suspect. Two handguns were recovered from the crashed car. Detectives were also called in to investigate a large quantity of marijuana packaged for retail found in the vehicle.

Jody Hall’s Goodship edibles gobbled up by pot-focused private equity firm — UPDATE

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Hall greeted Mayor Jenny Durkan on her tour of Capitol Hill businesses. She also handed Durkan a Goodship bag with some branded merchandise, but “no product,” she promised.

Capitol Hill entrepreneurs know a little bit about the industries of helping people party — and sometimes relax. So it wasn’t a surprise to see some of the Hill’s captains of industry get involved with the early days of Washington’s nascent retail marijuana economy. But just as the entirety of the West Coast has now legalized retail pot, one of those captains has marked a major entrepreneurial milestone, selling her marijuana edibles brand to a Seattle-based private equity firm.

Privateer Holdings announced last week that it had acquired The Goodship, a company launched by Capitol Hill resident and Cupcake Royale owner Jody Hall in 2015. “You should bring this to a dinner party like you bring a nice bottle of wine. I’m calling it sophisticated good times,” Hall told CHS at the time.

Hall tells CHS the acquisition won’t mean more free time in her schedule — she and her Goodship team are aboard for the ride. Continue reading →

20+ Capitol Hill bars and restaurants to look forward to in 2018

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Aaron Barthel, right, and Karl Mueller of Intrigue Chocolate Co.
Salt and Straw
Full Tilt
The menu at the original Rocket Taco

In 2017, CHS tallied 33 new restaurant, cafe, and bar openings around Capitol Hill. We noted that, in contrast with the big project-studded previous years in this round of the neighborhood’s food+drink economic boom times, the 2017 openings were a smaller, ambitious-er, gay-er group highlighted by CHS reader choice “rookie of the year” Queer/Bar. Number five in the CHS vote is a good starting point for a look ahead. Westman’s Coffee and Bagel didn’t open in the final weeks of 2017 so we get to double hype the E Madison walk-up counter concept with an entry here on our round-up of restaurant, cafe, and bar openings to look forward to in 2018.

  1. Lao Bar — Despite busy food and drink careers, restaurant veteran Carrie Bowen has never been able to work with her chef sister Oula Sakounthong. That changes with Bowen’s coming soon Lao Bar project destined for the squirreled away corner of the Broadway Alley mall below Tacos Chukis where Vaca Loca gave it a go before closing shop. “The Alley doesn’t have a full bar,” Bowen says and adds that “people will find something very different” at Lao Bar. “There’s a lot of Vietnamese. A lot of Pho. A lot of Thai.” She tells CHS that the new bar will specialize in authentic Laotian fare leaning toward street style preparations including skewers and lots of veggie dishes. Expect booze and, hey, Laotian brunch. Expected: February!
  2. Westman’s Coffee and Bagel — Can you forgive everybody for being excited? Monica Dimas was excited. Molly Westman was excited. CHS was excited. But excitement doesn’t go far when it comes to the logistics of opening a new walk-up bagel shop that can operate in a tidy 300 square feet. It’s coming people, trust us. Expected: Next week-ish!
  3. Lil’ Neon Taco — The first thing to know about yet another Monica Dimas project coming to the area is that Boren’s Lil’ Neon Taco will actually be pretty big. It will also be open for lunch. We wrote here about the original Neon Taco snuggled inside Broadway’s Nacho Borracho. Expected: January or February
  4. Rocket Taco — In another timeline, Rocket Taco was born on Capitol Hill. But fate lined up for a family project from industry veteran Steve Rosen and wife Jill Rosen to launch from sleepy Whidbey Island. Now the fast and efficient taco concept is touching down in the Rosen’s neighborhood on the sleepy side of Capitol Hill. Rocket Taco will put the overhauled bones of the old Kingfish Cafe to use with “quality, affordable, hand made food” with fresh, house-made tortillas and an emphasis on speed, consistency, and accessible pricing. Expected: January (hey, that’s like now!) Continue reading →