Monthly Archives: June 2019

Former e-bike shop lined up as planned new home for Central District post office

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There is a plan for the Central District to get its post office back.

In a letter to Mayor Jenny Durkan, the United States Postal service says it is working on agreement with the property owner of The Central building at 2207 E Union to take over the space being left vacant by the exit of electric bike dealership Electric Lady.

“If this location is not adequate or an agreement cannot be reached with its owner, the Postal Service will consider other sites within the preferred area as shown at the May 2, 2019, meeting,” the letter reads. Continue reading →

CHS Pics | Partly cloudy with Thunderpussy — but no rain — at the 2019 Volunteer Park Pride Festival

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With fairy wings, rainbow swimsuits, hip-hop funk, blues, and rock and roll, the Volunteer Park Pride Festival brought Seattle’s celebration of LGBTQ+ to Capitol Hill Saturday as part of a busy month of events in the neighborhood culminating with a weekend of parties around Pike/Pine and Broadway before the city’s annual parade on June 30th.

“The event being in the backyard of where I grew up is such a huge thing for me. I’m so proud to be on stage singing my heart out for the Seattle queer community,” J GRGRY, one of the musical artists who performed at Saturday’s festival told CHS. Continue reading →

What the Capitol Hill auto row-inspired project planned to replace Hilltop Service Station will look like

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The concept for the 523 Hilltop project (Images: Studio Meng Strazzara)

The last time this Capitol Hill developer and the architects from Studio Meng Strazzara hooked up, they created an eight-story project designed to set the standard for Pike/Pine preservation and redevelopment. On 15th Ave E, Hunters Capital won’t leave any motor car history to work with as it prepares to demolish the Hilltop Service Station and continue the work to slowly repair the soils beneath from decades of contamination — but the proposed design for its coming 523 Hilltop building is inspired by Capitol Hill’s auto row past.

https://www.capitolhillseattle.com/event/design-review-523-15th-ave-e/

The Hunters Capital project takes its first pass by the East Design Review Board Wednesday night. Continue reading →

Seattle set to ban rental bidding platforms… again

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It’s been more than a year since Seattle put in place a one year ban on rental bidding platforms so it could better study the impacts from startups like Rentberry. Monday, the Seattle City Council is set to extend the ban another year to give City Hall more time to study the impact of the services.

The full City Council is expected to approve CB 119507 to establish yet another “one-year prohibition on use of rental housing bidding platforms.”

UPDATE: The move follows recent court victories that favor the city’s argument. In one, a judge upheld the first ban instituted by the council in spring of 2018 over concerns the bidding platforms that create “transparent” rental auctions where potential tenants have “the ability to submit custom offers” were being used to jack up rents in the University District. In another, a 9th Circuit Court of Appeals  set important precedent that bidding platforms don’t fall under First Amendment protections. (We’ve updated details of the legal decisions for clarity.)

Last year, CHS reported on the few Capitol Hill properties utilizing the services and the concerns raised about the practice in the Bay Area real estate market. One report on the Rentberry service quoted the company’s founder taking credit for raising rents 5% above listing prices in the already ultra-expensive San Francisco and San Jose markets.

Continue reading →

911 | Student says robbed at gunpoint on Seattle U campus

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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. Hear sirens and wondering what’s going on? Check out Twitter reports from @jseattle or tune into the CHS Scanner page.

  • Campus stick-up: A Seattle University student told campus police he was robbed at gunpoint early Sunday morning in the middle of campus. Seattle Police were called to the scene near the Cisco Morris Biodiversity Garden by school security just after the 3:30 AM incident in which the adult student said he was held up by a male with a pistol. The suspect was described as a male with a dark complexion, around 5’10” with a thin build, and wearing a dark hoodie. Police detained one person near the robbery scene but he was released after the victim said he was not the suspect. The victim was not seriously injured in the incident. Continue reading →

‘New buildings should support and enhance places as they grow’ — Seattle to set new guidelines for Capitol Hill development

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The Seattle City Council is poised to approve a new set of guidelines that will shape what Capitol Hill looks like in years to come.

The Capitol Hill Neighborhood Design Guidelines are essentially recommendations to developers of what neighborhood residents would like to see in new buildings. The neighborhood-specific guidelines were adopted in 2005. The update began in 2017, and was undertaken by city staff in conjunction with a 14-member working group of residents and representatives of various groups around the hill.

A draft was printed in May 2018. But the update was shifted to the back burner as the city wrestled with adopting the Mandatory Affordable Housing program. A new draft was released in January of this year.

Monday afternoon, the full council is prepared to approved the update. Continue reading →

CHS History | Pike/Pine ‘speakeasy’ drug bust, Capitol Cider debuts, Canterbury reborn

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Here are the top stories from this week in CHS history:

2018

 

Video shows reported racial harassment at Capitol Hill QFC

Here’s why there are no Pride banners on Broadway


Continue reading →

911 | Big response to E Denny crisis, right-wing ‘march’ on Capitol Hill, IHOP melee charges

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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. Hear sirens and wondering what’s going on? Check out Twitter reports from @jseattle or tune into the CHS Scanner page.

  • E Denny crisis: A large police response was joined by crews from Seattle Fire Friday after a man apparently suffering a mental health crisis reportedly broke through a window of a Capitol Hill apartment building and caused a major disturbance inside. According to East Precinct radio dispatches, police were contacted just before 5 PM to the report that a man had smashed through a first floor window and entered the Pantages Apartment building in the 800 block of E Denny just off Broadway. Responding police found smoke in the building as they tracked down the suspect in a fifth floor unit where he was taken into custody. It’s not clear what the source of the smoke was. Seattle Fire says its crew did not find a fire in the building. There were no reported serious injuries. Earlier in the afternoon, a man with a similar physical description to the suspect had contacted police to report he believed he was being followed by a large group of Hispanic men. UPDATE: Capitol Hill Housing tells us the initial report that a man busted a window was not correct and that he pushed through a screen to gain entrance. Meanwhile, the smoke turned out to be “material from a fire extinguisher being expelled.”
    Continue reading →

From the man who helped create Top Pot, small batch Half and Half Doughnut Co. to open on Capitol Hill this summer

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(Image: CHS)

The entrepreneur who helped turn Top Pot into the largest scale doughnut operation in the city is, indeed, getting back into the fried dough business with a new small batch shop on Capitol Hill.

Half and Half Doughnut Co. — or, Half n Half as it appears on the signage — is being readied to open on E Pike with daily small batch doughnuts made in house and coffee and lattes to go. Half and Half will  offer filled raised varieties and cake doughnuts along with “savory options,” according to Jeanine Sbisa, director of operations. Continue reading →

Ginsberg poetry festival and art installation to join Volunteer Park’s Pride 2019 festivities

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If You Want To See Something Look At Something Else by Geoffrey Farmer

With Saturday’s Volunteer Park Pride Festival again bringing the celebration of queer love and civil rights to the northern Capitol Hill green space, two Seattle arts groups are planning a new Pride event for the historic Capitol Hill park.

Hugo House and Western Bridge announced this week they will host a poetry festival celebrating Beat poet and LGBTQ icon Allen Ginsberg  later this month in Volunteer Park. The festival will include local and visiting poets, writers, and artists, and a photographic installation by Canadian artist Geoffrey Farmer titled If You Want To See Something Look at Something Else, displaying images of Ginsberg.

Tree Swenson, executive director of Hugo House, believes the festival captures how Ginsberg’s advocacy for the LGBTQ community remains prevalent in 2019 through exhibitions of art, photography, spoken word.

“Ginsberg’s politics along with his loving kindness allowed him to advocate for acceptance in many different ways. He led the way to showing how make acceptance a reality, which is still important in 2019, given the threats we’re facing echo some of the threats his book Howl faced in the late 1950s.” Swenson said.

https://www.capitolhillseattle.com/event/ginsberg-poetry-festival-and-art-installation-if-you-want-to-see-something-look-at-something-else/

Continue reading →