Monthly Archives: May 2018

Facing Pioneer Square rent and construction challenges, neighborhood butcher Rain Shadow Meats to focus on Capitol Hill

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(Image: Rain Shadow Meats)

Capitol Hill’s neighborhood butcher is now even more focused on its Melrose Market shop. Rain Shadow Meats announced that a big jump in its Pioneer Square rent and sagging business due to construction in that neighborhood has forced the company to pare back:

After five years of operation, Rain Shadow Meats Squared is closing its popular restaurant location in Pioneer Square. The closure is due in part to a significant rent increase, coupled with a recent drop in sales as a result of debilitating construction surrounding the immediate area. Business owner Russell Flint has decided to get back to his original mission statement by focusing solely on his Melrose Market butchery program, while expanding his newly launched Home Delivery Service. The Capitol Hill full- service butcher shop will continue to remain open with regular business hours 10am-7pm every day.

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911 | Arrest after shots fired in reported 13th Ave armed 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.

  • 13th Ave armed robbery arrest: At least one suspect was arrested after three were detained in a reported armed robbery near 13th and Spring early Saturday morning. According to East Precinct radio dispatches, several 911 callers reported gunshots in the area just after 1 AM. Police arrived and located a victim nearby on 12th Ave who reported running during the attempted robbery and hearing gunfire ring out. Police found at least one shell casing at the scene and began searching for a getaway vehicle described as a white sedan marked with a distinctive tattoo-like symbol. An officer spotted the vehicle near MLK and Cherry where police made the stop and detained three people from inside the car. At least one person was arrested. Continue reading →

Environmental nonprofit Nia Tero ready to put down roots with new Pike/Pine office

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Peter Seligmann (Image via Twitter)

A nonprofit dedicated to helping indigenous people efficiently manage the environment is coming to Capitol Hill. The nonprofit Nia Tero looks to move into offices being renovated this summer at 501 E Pine.

The organization will work with indigenous people around the world to help them continue to act as stewards of their land.

“For millennia, indigenous peoples have thrived through connection with their territorial lands and waters. These connections between people and place have shaped societies that sustain some of the most vital natural systems on the planet. Nia Tero exists to support and amplify this guardianship through equitable partnerships with indigenous peoples to sustain and govern large-scale territories,” says the group’s website. Continue reading →

Seattle looks at insurance on Downtown Transit Tunnel traffic in Convention Center expansion deal

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The future of Boren at Olive

The $83 million “community package” of public benefits including cash for affordable housing, bike infrastructure improvements, and Freeway Park enhancement will go in front of the Seattle City Council Monday afternoon for final approval in a move that should clear the way for the vacation of city right of way needed to construct the $1.6 billion Washington State Convention Center expansion in downtown Seattle at the foot of Capitol Hill.

There is, however, one small point to consider on the vote necessary to allow the project to begin construction of the expansion later this year with a goal of opening the new 1.2 million-square-foot structure in 2020. The City Council will consider an insurance plan of sorts on the the traffic impact from moving buses out of the downtown transit tunnel. “If the WSCC sends a request to King County to close the Downtown Seattle Transit Tunnel (DSTT) to buses in March 2019, the WSCC shall provide $50,000 to SDOT when the closure request is sent to King County,” the proposed substitute version of the bill up for vote Monday reads. “SDOT shall use the funds to analyze the impacts of closing the DSTT on transit service on 2rd, 3rd, and 4th Avenues between Jackson and Stewart Streets.” Continue reading →

Street Critic | On Capitol Hill, the Pleasure of the Sign(s)

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Hopvine Pub Capitol Hill SeattleHopvine Pub Capitol Hill Seattle
15th Avenue East

It would be a bold assertion if any designer stated they could replicate the visually tumultuous, yet spectacularly successful assembly of signs on 15th Avenue East. With no sign resembling its neighbor, it is in fact the signs’ varieties of shapes, colors, and sizes that contribute to 15th Avenue welcoming public realm. The signs add a transparent and varied – even enveloping – secondary scale within which pedestrians and seated patrons can take comfort. That they have accomplished their raison d’être with ease and even a bit of dash doubtlessly has to do with their organic and intuitive arrangement. The patina of age, be it faded paint or a bit rust add to the signs’ many charms, as well as to 15th’s historic narrative. Furthering this narrative are the varied fonts, colors, and artistic flourishes of the signs. Despite this variety of attributes, no single sign draws undo attention – an intriguing show of unity through dissonance. Hopvine Pub, Angel’s Shoe Repair, and Jamjuree are but a few of 15th’s well-loved contributors. Continue reading →

CHS Pics | Melrose Ave’s new ‘Poem Dazzle’ community crosswalks

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The Melrose Promenade group threw a spur of the moment party Thursday night after a Seattle Department of Transportation work crew needed only one night to install new “community crosswalks on the street the organization is dedicated to improving.

“Thank you to our artist Sara Snedeker for her design, Seattle Department of Transportation and Berger Partnership PS for their partnership, everyone in the community for helping select this public art, and Promenade team member Patrick Jones for always being in the right place at the right time with his camera!,” the Melrose Promenade note about the community party read. Continue reading →

25 years of Rudy’s Barbershop on Capitol Hill — and, why they called it Rudy’s to begin with

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Eight million haircuts. Rudy’s, the Capitol Hill-based haircutting empire, is celebrating its 25th anniversary this year, and the company estimates they’ve given more than 8 million haircuts in that time.

The first Rudy’s was opened in January, 1993 on E Pine, by friends Alex Calderwood, Wade Weigel and David Petersen. According to company lore, the trio was looking to make a place where they could hang out with their friends.

In those grunge-era days, Capitol Hill was a very different place in terms of the demographics, and sheer numbers of people, but that was starting to change. Rudy’s opened, along with now-stalwart Linda’s, and once-beloved Bauhaus coffee. Those three were one factor in changing the neighborhood into the one we recognize now, said Danny Segal, director of marketing and brand for Rudy’s. Or at least they were a factor in changing it into the neighborhood we used to recognize, but now don’t anymore, depending on how long you’ve lived here. Continue reading →

Capitol Hill Chamber to hold roundtable with Council members on business tax proposal

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The debate over the proposed Seattle business tax has turned into a fight. Next week, the Capitol Hill Chamber of Commerce is bringing neighborhood business representatives for a “roundtable discussion” with City Council members on the proposed tax:

https://www.capitolhillseattle.com/event/capitol-hill-chamber-roundtable-discussion-with-council-members-re-tax-on-business/

“It is important that small business SPEAK UP as Councilmembers finalize their proposal,” the Chamber implores.

The proposal from the council’s Lorena Gonzalez and Lisa Herbold aims to raise at least $75 million annually to address the twin crises of affordable housing for the city’s most vulnerable people, and the increasing number of people living unsheltered. It comes in two parts: an ordinance that enacts the tax, and a resolution that lays out the spending plan.

CHS Ink | Kaylee’s hand

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Kaylee, 21, was visiting Seattle from Texas for the first time and celebrated by getting a paper airplane tattooed on her right hand. “Not only is this my first time to Seattle, it’s my first time on an airplane,” she said. No stranger to an inked needle, her other hand holds a palm tattoo with the word “Mom.” Eric Eye from Dark Age Tattoo was the artist on her 22nd tattoo.

Translations, still the largest transgender film fest in the world, returns to Capitol Hill

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A scene from They, a story of “the hauntingly beautiful journey of J, a nonbinary youth in the Chicago suburbs”

The world’s largest transgender film festival returns to Capitol Hill this week with 50 films from 15 different countries including Kenya, Japan, Brazil, Ukraine and the Netherlands.

https://www.capitolhillseattle.com/event/translations-seattle-transgender-film-festival/

This year’s Translations, the 13th edition of the annual film festival from Three Dollar Bill Cinema, features “a plethora of fun non-film events” including performances and workshops at 12th Ave’s Velocity Dance, an All-Bodies & All Genders Swim at Rainier Beach Pool, a Speed Friending event, a stand-up comedy night, and a return of our How To Be A Trans Ally workshop “for folks who are new to the community.” Continue reading →