Monthly Archives: October 2022

With movable barriers and flimsy signs, Central District Stay Healthy Streets ‘under review’

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The neighborhood turned E Columbia into a giant hopscotch route in 2020

SDOT says these purple-dashed CD’s Stay Healthy Streets are “under review”

Created during the pandemic to give more people safer options for walking, running, and biking but implemented with movable barriers and frequently ignored signs, the city’s “Stay Healthy Streets” routes across the Central District are either under review or already marked to revert to simpler “neighborhood greenway” setups, the Seattle Department of Transportation has announced.

In its update on the program laying out plans for the existing routes in the city and a few new additions being planned, SDOT says some Central District streets in the program including the key route on 22nd Ave connecting to neighborhood greenways on Capitol Hill and giving bikers and walkers an alternative to the 23rd Ave traffic artery are set to have the Stay Health barriers and signage removed.

Other streets in the CD, SDOT says, including stretches of E Columbia and 25th Ave are now “under review.”

“Over the next few weeks, we plan to visit all existing Healthy Street locations to check on the condition of signs and repair or replace them as needed,” the SDOT update reads. “We’ll also remove signs on Healthy Streets that will become neighborhood greenways like they were before the pandemic.” Continue reading →

Pikes/Pines | That sound you heard over Capitol Hill in the middle of the night might have been a bird

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A bird’s eye view of Capitol Hill at night (Image: CHS)

Despite sirens, airplanes, and the overall hum of the city, it is still possible to hear them traveling overhead at night. Not every bird calls during migration, but I expect to hear the thin “seeps” of sparrows and plaintive whispers of thrushes when I step outside on an ideal night in the spring or fall. The weeks between the end of September and just about now are peak travel times for birds pouring south for their wintering grounds. The night before writing this, around 300,000 birds moved over King County.

On a good night, with a full moon, you might even be able to peer at it with binoculars and catch a few birds passing by. One time I caught a small heron, probably a Green Heron, highlighted by a full moon. But that’s not how an estimate of migrating birds happens. In this case I logged into an incredible new website called BirdCast, which uses weather, radar, and a big ol’ heap of machine learning and big data to both forecast and understand migratory patterns of birds. Continue reading →

This week in CHS history | D’ La Santa opens, Sitka and Spruce closes, secret goldfish pond below Stevens Elementary

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

2021

 

Safeway retail and housing development’s four-year plan: Two years of planning, two years of construction, and sorting out how best to fit in with 15th Ave E’s complicated relationship with Capitol Hill


Continue reading →

Peloton ‘Cafe Bike Shop’ expands on E Jefferson

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After seven years as E Jefferson’s only combination cafe, bar, and bike shop, Peloton Cafe has expanded.

“I love this neighborhood,” owner Dustin Riggs tells CHS.

Riggs’s success showed him what he knew, that growth was needed, but space was limited. “The kitchen was tiny,” Riggs said, but he had a hard time imagining moving away. “We were looking for a new spot, talking to some real estate people, but we did not want to leave.”

So, they waited, and in 2021 they decided to expand. With Nate’s Wings and Waffles closing next door in August of 2020 due to the pandemic and increased costs, Peloton approached the landlord while they were showing off the space and asked to see it. They signed a lease and according to Riggs, “we just sort of threw ourselves into it and got in over our heads and forced ourselves to actually do it.” Continue reading →

Mayor pushes for budget support for Unified Care Team plan ‘to make neighborhoods and public spaces clean and accessible’

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The Harrell administration is making the case for new spending to support a proposed Unified Care Team plan that would help maintain “clean and accessible Seattle neighborhoods, parks, and open spaces” including sweeping encampments and clearing tents from public spaces like parks.

The proposal comes as part of Mayor Bruce Harrell’s focus on public safety and cleanliness that he has coupled with proposals to provide more services and housing to address the city’s homelessness crisis.

This week, Harrell has called on the Seattle City Council to support the plan including nearly $40 million for “clean city, trash mitigation, encampment resolution, and RV remediation initiatives” —

  • $38.2 million to maintain and improve current levels of service for clean city, trash mitigation, encampment resolution, and RV remediation initiatives. This will ensure communities do not see a reduction in service levels by providing ongoing funding, and replaces current temporary jobs with permanent, full-time roles. Continue reading →

New QT Mart ‘Queer Community Market’ to debut at Neighbours

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As Neighbours changes ownership and prepares for upgrades and another 40 years on Broadway, the nightlife venue will be put into motion by day this weekend for a new community market bringing together queer creators of “jewelry, pottery, original art, chainmail, hand poured candles, stickers, lingerie, vintage clothes, tarot readings, clubwear, and so much more!”

The new QT Mart from Sapphic Seattle, QTPOC Seattle, and BeautyBoiz will take place Saturday, October 15th from 1 to 8 PM at the Broadway dance club. Continue reading →

Should Washington fight the Bolt Creek Fire to protect Seattle’s air? — UPDATE

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We may be breathing in the last smoky days of 2022 on Capitol Hill but get used to them. Seattle is seeing more unhealthy air than ever — and state fire suppression efforts don’t prioritize air quality.

Meanwhile, as much as the smoke and haze is a concern, Seattle also now has too many days when the bad air has nothing to do with wind currents and burning forests in places like Skykomish.

Recent measurements from IQAir show Seattle logging more than twice the allowable number of days with unhealthy air, according to US Environmental Protection Agency guidelines.

Those bad air days fall into two categories — half of them, IQAir says, are due to particulate matter in the air from events like longer, more intense wildfires.

The Washington Department of Natural Resources which manages state fire suppression efforts including controlled forest burning says the response to the Bolt Creek Fire which has dragged on due to a historically dry October is by the books despite the wildfire’s impact on air quality around the more densely populated areas of Puget Sound.

A DNR spokesperson tells CHS the response strategy comes down to suppressing a fire in a remote area where homes and property around Skykomish are not threatened. Continue reading →

Business group to hold ‘Who’s Who on Capitol Hill’ talk

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As we noted in our recent report on the relatively new community force in the neighborhood, the Capitol Hill EcoDistrict, Capitol Hill no longer has a community council and its chamber of commerce is dead and gone.

Who is in charge here, anyway?

Next week, the Greater Seattle Business Association will host a “Who’s Who on Capitol Hill” forum to help connect you with people “working and organizing for the benefit of Capitol Hill.” Continue reading →

Seattle streets still deadly — but safer for kids, feds say

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Wednesday, city officials including Mayor Bruce Harrell marked “Walk to School Day” with a walk to Dunlap Elementary (Image: City of Seattle)

Seattle has a street safety problem. In 2021, the city hit its highest number of traffic-related deaths since 2006.

But the federal government says Seattle has started to figure things out when it comes to kids and schools, awarding a city program creating networks of crosswalks and safer streets near public school campuses with national “Vision Zero” recognition.

While it still has plenty of work to do on its streets, Seattle is making good progress on making it safer for kids to get around the city, the U.S. Vision Zero for Youth Leadership Award committee said.

“Seattle is working hard to prioritize safe walking and biking for the city’s youth,” Nancy Pullen-Seufert, Director of the National Center for Safe Routes to School and Senior Research Associate at the UNC Highway Safety Research Center said in statement on the recognition. Continue reading →

New mural of Stonewall queen Marsha P. Johnson rises off Broadway

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(Image: Broadway Business Improvement Association)

A new mural of Marsha P. Johnson, the drag queen of Stonewall, now stretches down a block of Capitol Hill at Broadway and Harrison.

The Broadway Business Improvement Association project on the side of the street’s Crossroads Trading building is part of new LGBTQIA+ art and banners coming to Broadway over the next couple of months, the organization says.

Artist Jiéyì Zhou created the work with support from PrideFest in the project funded by the BIA and retailer Crossroads which has included the 1940s era building in its real estate portfolio since 2008. Continue reading →