Monthly Archives: July 2020

Police search for Capitol Hill dumpster fire arsonist

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Police were searching for a suspect seen lighting a dumpster on fire at Cal Anderson, the second dumpster fire reported at the Capitol Hill park Tuesday morning. Another dumpster blaze was handled by Seattle Fire Monday night on Harvard Ave.

The second Cal Anderson incident was reported around 10:20 AM with a caller reporting a white male with no shirt and wearing white pants was seen setting the fire. Seattle Fire was also called to the same area of the park around 9:15 AM to extinguish the burning trash.

Continue reading →

Capitol Hill Community Post | Lost Dog on Capitol Hill – “Regina” the chihuahua

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This dog has been missing since approx. 1 AM on Monday 7/27. Last seen at Thomas St. Mini Park. Her name is Regina. She has white spots but is otherwise brown, approx 7 lbs. She is friendly to people but aggressive towards other dogs. She was last seen wearing a blue leash and pink puppia harness.

If you have seen her please call Nigel at (203) 558-0327.

Capitol Hill Safeway redevelopment moves forward with plans for seven-story apartment project above new grocery

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The plan to redevelop the Capitol Hill Safeway at 15th and John and its giant surface parking lot as new mixed-housing above a new grocery store is moving forward.

Plans filed with the city last week show the grocery chain’s $11 million-plus, 100,000-square-foot property at the top of Capitol Hill is being planned for a new mixed-use development that will rise seven stories above a new, larger grocery store.

The Daily Journal of Commerce reported the filing Monday. CHS reported on the early planning on the effort in September as developers began the process of setting up community outreach for the design process. Continue reading →

Seattle will have boosted Seattle Transportation Benefit District sales tax on November ballot

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Seattle transit advocates breathed a sigh of relief Monday as the City Council approved a final plan for renewing a chunk of the city’s sales tax dedicated to funding for public transportation.

The Seattle Transportation Benefit District proposal will remain a six-year package and will be boosted to 0.15% as it now heads to the ballot for a decision by Seattle voters in November. Continue reading →

Founded on the belief that every day on Broadway can be brunch, Americana becomes a Capitol Hill COVID-19 closure

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(Image: Americana)

The chef who came out of the kitchen to take over and grow a Capitol Hill weekend brunch favorite into a Capitol Hill every day of the week brunch favorite says he plans to stay far away from the restaurant business.

Chef Jeffrey Wilson — a man who loves cooking so much he signs his email Cheffrey — has announced that Broadway’s Americana has permanently closed.

“The seating capacity was not our limitation,” Wilson said.

The restaurant capacity restrictions part of attempts to slow the spread of COVID-19 didn’t matter in the end for Americana, Wilson said. After taking on Ads Paycheck Protection Program loans to pay his workers as he kept the restaurant closed for weeks, Wilson reopened Americana as restrictions were lifted only to find that much of his dining business had disappeared.

His decision to close was made all the more obvious as he watched the numbers at the Broadway Alley restaurant. “The month leading up to it was a drastic decline in sales,” Wilson said. Continue reading →

In pandemic’s Zoom era, Seattle takes another look at municipal broadband

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From King County’s 2020 Broadband Access Study — the full study is embedded below

Devin Glaser’s goddaughter misses him.

Before all of this, Glaser could have popped over to visit her, but now they have to set up a Zoom video conference.

“I can’t imagine trying to predict the world where that’s the only way you can connect with your family,” he said.

Glaser, an activist with municipal broadband advocacy organization Upgrade Seattle, says the COVID-19 pandemic that has forced people to work remotely and students to learn online has only exacerbated the city’s need for a public, high-speed Internet system.

“It’s very obvious that Internet is all the more essential than it already was, and it was already essential,” Glaser said. He said that when his Internet goes out at night, he just goes to bed because there’s nothing else to do.

Meanwhile, after months of COVID-19 restrictions, the Seattle City Council conducts its public business online these days including massive conference calls that invite every citizen in Seattle to log in for public comment.

With that in mind, the council’s Alex Pedersen introduced a resolution requesting the city implement an action plan to provide affordable and high-speed Internet access to all in mid-May.

It might say a little about the city’s hopes for municipal high speed internet — and the power of the COVID-19 crisis and the past months of important Black Lives Matter protest — that the City Council is finally set to approve the resolution in late July.

Continue reading →

More protest on Capitol Hill following Saturday ‘riot’ — UPDATE

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UPDATE 8:51 PM: After hours of back and forth around the East Precinct on the night of the hottest day so far this year in Seattle, demonstrators rallied at Broadway and Pine with dozens of protesters and makeshift plywood shields when organizers began urging the crowds to head home. Not all left the area but the crowd thinned considerably as large groups of police and bike officers waited nearby.

ORIGINAL REPORT: A day after a massive protest march turned riot on Capitol Hill in which 47 people were arrested and the Seattle Police Department says 59 of its officers were hurt with injuries including “abrasions and bruising to burns and a torn meniscus,” a smaller crowd of demonstrators again formed Sunday evening on the Seattle Central lawn to make plans for another night of calls for Black Lives Matter causes including cutting the city’s police budget in half. There is, of course, no official count of how many protesters were injured Saturday.

Earlier Sunday, SPD moved early on protest organizers who had planned a rally and march against the federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement wing of the Department of Homeland Security by making arrests and removing several support vehicles from downtown’s Westlake plaza. Meanwhile, signs went up at Capitol Hill’s Cal Anderson announcing the park’s closure. City parks department officials have not returned our calls for explanation of the closure. That didn’t stop another crowd of protesters from gathering there Sunday night.

Early reports had the crowds leaving their gathering places and hitting the streets around 6:45 PM. Continue reading →

Police: Child dies after thrown from parked van in Madison Valley collision

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Police believe a young child was playing inside a family van parked in front of a Madison Valley home when the three-year-old was thrown from the vehicle and killed Sunday afternoon after its was struck by a driver in a FedEx delivery truck.

Police say they and Seattle Fire were called to the scene just off MLK just before 4:45 PM and found a young child believed to be around 3 years old who had suffered a major head injury in the crash. The responders attempted CPR but the child died at the scene, SPD says.

SPD detectives believe the driver of the FedEx truck struck the parked van the child had been playing in.

“When the collision occurred the child was thrown from the vehicle,” the SPD brief on the terrible incident reads.

A neighbor said the large delivery-style van was regularly parked in front of the house. It could be seen pushed partially into a driveway Sunday following the crash, its sliding door still open as Seattle Police and Seattle Fire waited at the scene.

Police say a drug recognition expert tested the FedEx driver but did not find signs of impairment.

 

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Weeklong Chilean protest exhibit opens — outside — at Volunteer Park

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This image from Sonia Rossel López is part of Chile Woke, an exhibition of documenting protests across Chile

Before the Volunteer Park Amphitheater as we know it gets torn down and upgraded as part of an end-of-summer replacement project, nonprofit organization Chile Woke is using the space for an art exhibition precisely because of its old, slightly dilapidated brick wall. The fresh air and social distancing opportunity of Volunteer Park is also, of course, key.

Rebeca Sanchez and Marcela Soto, two Chileans living in Seattle, formed Chile Woke as a way to showcase the work of artists documenting protests across Chile in response to widespread economic and social inequality.

Starting Sunday, Chile Woke is putting on its first large-scale, free exhibit: The Uprise of Chilean Graphics and Street Photography.

“Our idea is to try to bring the feeling of what is going on in Chile and specifically how posters and messages have been taking over the walls in the streets and becoming kind of like the people’s bulletin board,” Sanchez said. Continue reading →

‘Tough days ahead’ — Seattle braces for ‘solidarity w/ PDX’ clashes — UPDATE: Saturday big march and fire at the youth jail leads to riot on Capitol Hill

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Saturday’s protest carried into the night. More updates below.

UPDATE 7/25/2020 4:15 PM: A massive march from Broadway and Pine circled the East Precinct and rallied as more protesters joined Saturday in a solidary action with Portland that included more targeted property damage including large fires set to the ongoing construction site at the 12th Ave youth jail and broken windows and smoke inside a Starbucks on 12th Ave. Broken windows were also reported at other nearby businesses.

The large crowd numbering in the thousands began its march around 2 PM and rallied with groups including .Wall of Moms rallying support for protesters in Portland and calling for a list of Black Lives Matter demands in Seattle including defunding the Seattle Police Department. Continue reading →