Monthly Archives: August 2024

Revival: Effort to restart Capitol Hill Community Council ready to take big step in September

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A 2013 Capitol Hill Community Council meeting (Image: CHS)

In a starting point to revive the Capitol Hill Community Council, resident Chris Paulus met with neighborhood councils across Seattle and contacted over 50 organizations, with the goal of understanding a community council’s work and importance. Since these year-long research efforts began, Paulus is building an effort for Capitol Hill residents to engage in restart efforts and overcome challenges that evaporated the council in 2021.

A revival of the Capitol Hill Community Council will meet for the first time in September.

“Community in and of itself is important,” Paulus told CHS. “This is signifying the importance of connection and community with each other. Sometimes these different types of neighbors getting together get focused around a single problem that needs to be addressed. This can be a good thing, but this causes long-term problems in what that issue is until resolved.”

Paulus said religious groups are more likely to be engaged in civic activities, so he reached out to every spiritual group he could find on Capitol Hill, amounting to over 25.

One thing that struck him during his research phase was that CHCC lobbied for the Rt 8 bus line to be created in the 90s.

“That caused a switch in my mind, removing the slow building of the community council to the ‘we need to build this as quickly as possible’ because myself and all of my neighbors are worse off everyday this sense of community doesn’t exist,” Paulus said. Continue reading →

A small sign of possible big changes at Broadway’s QFC grocery stores as federal trial to block merger begins in Portland — UPDATE

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Monday, the trial to determine if regulators can stop the merger of the nation’s two largest grocery chains began in a federal court in Portland, Oregon.

On Broadway, the company lined up to take over one of the street’s two QFC supermarkets has filed some of its first paperwork to make the transaction a reality.

The company formed by C&S Wholesale Grocers has applied to assume the liquor license for the QFC grocery store in Capitol Hill’s Harvard Market shopping center, public records show.

The filing is one of a flurry of similar filings by the company in the county and across the state as it begins the process of taking over the stores, according to the state liquor board. Continue reading →

First Hill Bank of America slated to close

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(Image: King County)

First Hill is losing a bank. The Bank of America at Madison and Minor is slated to close to start 2025, the global financial giant is telling customers.

In an automated message to bankers, B of A says the closure is planned for January 2025.

A check of city and county records show no changes in ownership and no redevelopment activity for the 1970s-built, one-story commercial building owned by Swedish.

CHS has reached out to Bank of America to learn more. Continue reading →

After deadly end to school year at Garfield High, city responds with $14.5 million plan focused on intervention, mental health, and ‘school-based safety specialists’

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Murphy-Paine was remembered as a dedicated athlete and friend gunned down as he tried to keep the peace. Police have not made an arrest in the murder. (Image: Converge Media with permission to CHS)

Mayor Bruce Harrell has announced a $14.5 million effort between the city and Seattle Public Schools with a focus on Garfield High School and ten other district schools “with the highest rates of violence in and around their campuses.”

The initiative comes in response to campus officials and families who called on the city and the district to act to respond to gun violence after student Amarr Murphy-Paine was shot and killed in the Garfield parking lot in the final weeks of the 23rd Ave school’s year amid a wave of shootings across the county involving both young victims and young perpetrators.

The initiatives do not include a plan to restore the Seattle Police “school resource officer” program at Garfield but the district will be deploying additional “school-based safety specialists.”

The announcement comes with the start of school for Seattle’s public system coming next week.

The strategy announced by the Harrell administration will include “school-based measures, violence intervention and community partnerships, and law enforcement support,” the city said, and includes more than $12 million in city spending plus another $2.3 million from public schools to increase access to mental health support, add enhanced school security, hire additional school staffing, and expand violence prevention and intervention services through community-based providers, the city says.

“Students and young people need to feel safe to learn and to grow – this comprehensive set of programs, investments, and actions will support the safety of our youth and community,” Harrell, who graduated from Garfield in 1976 as class valedictorian, said in a statement. Continue reading →

Capitol Hill and Madison Valley are waking up to Sleepless City Donuts

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(Image: Sleepless City Donuts)

If you are lucky enough to live somewhere around Madison Valley and Capitol Hill, you can enjoy Sleepless City Donuts, a handmade brioche donut pop-up that is helping customers leap out of bed with excitement on pick-up day.

Founder Enos Lewis says feedback shapes the rotating menu. “I thought raspberry was going to take the cake, but banana crème was a community favorite,” Lewis said.

Lewis along with girlfriend and co-owner Arriana Fitts began have worked to perfect their brioche recipe and started to grow with the help of Facebook foodie groups.

Each batch takes 48 hours to perfect, resulting in light, airy, and flavorful donuts. Lewis aims for a donut that is “soft and springy but not chewy,” achieved through quality ingredients and meticulous proofing. Continue reading →

Man dies in S. Jackson apartment shooting

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Police say a 44-year-old man was shot and killed in an altercation inside a S. Jackson apartment Saturday morning in the Central District.

SPD says it responded to the reported shooting just before 11 AM, Police say an altercation could be heard in the background during a 911 call.

According to police, officers arrived to find the victim unresponsive inside the apartment, He later died at the hospital, police say.

SPD says there were no immediate arrests and that detectives were working to determine what led to the shooting.

 

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Capitol Hill ‘closed temporarily’ notes: Cherry Street Coffee, Local Bigger Burger, and Nékter Juice Bar

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Thanks to a CHS reader for the picture

The end of summer can be a chaotic time for small businesses with planned summer breaks to rest and recharge colliding with staffing challenges. Here are three recent food and drink closures on Capitol Hill with stories that will stretch beyond summer. Have a question about a “summer break” at your favorite neighborhood business? Let us know in comments and we can check into it.

  • Cherry Street Coffee: Reported issues over staffing and work conditions at the Seattle coffee chain have spilled over with a “temporarily closed” sign up at the company’s E Pine Capitol Hill location. We’ve reached out to the company to learn more but have not been able to connect with ownership. A thread posted to Reddit earlier this month lays out some reported issues with owner Ali Ghambari. Cherry Street expanded onto E Pine in 2014 after first coming to this part of the city on 12th Ave two years earlier. Efrem Fesaha and the “Mother Africa’s finest coffees” of Boona Boona now call that 12th Ave cafe home. Cherry Street hasn’t announced the E Pine temporary closure publicly so there aren’t any details about when they might be planning to reopen. We have also reached out to try to find out more about the reported labor issues but have not yet heard back. Cherry Street did not appear in a check of recently resolved investigations from the city’s Office of Labor Standards.
  • Local Bigger Burger: Why was the Broadway burger joint only accepting payment by Venmo? The bizarre payment setup was short-lived as the location is also now listed as “temporarily closed.” CHS reached out for details and a representative for ownership asked for discretion, saying they turned to Venmo as they were selling the restaurant “and instead of going dark during the transition, we have elected to continue to serve guests.” With the restaurant closed, we’re letting readers know what’s up. Debuting in late 2020 in a former burger chain space, Local Bigger Burger looked at the time like it might be the first in a chain of its own. But the business never took off and it has been part of a challenged group of investments by its ownership in restaurants and cafes across the city that have left a small trail of court proceedings and judgments in its wake. Last December, the parent company behind Local Bigger Burger, Alki Beach Cafe, and South Lake Union’s Local Coffee Spot was hit with a $40,972 default judgment over unpaid rent at the Broadway location. The company has two other cases pending litigation including a tangle with supplier Sysco over unpaid services. Meanwhile, earlier this year, the city issued a determination of a violation against Local Coffee Spot for violations under the Wage Theft Ordinance. The company was dinged $2,552.24 owed to the affected employee and $1,829.58 to the City of Seattle over the transgression, according to city records. State records show that Local Bigger Burger will live on with a new owner set up to take over the business and its sole Broadway location.
  • Nékter Juice Bar: Just as it seemed the mix of small businesses in the sprawling development above Capitol Hill Station finally had a toehold, one of the first small ventures to open above the transit station is going kaput. CHS reported here on the plans for the juice bar from franchisee Christina Miller as her small business led the way in the extremely slow start for Capitol Hill Station retail caused by pandemic delays and development red tape. One of the last pieces to complete the retail puzzle all-day cafe Seasmith finally opened to begin this summer.” But now as the puzzle was finally more complete, Nékter’s hole will need to be filled.
  • Don’t panic — this is good news about Carmelo’s: On the other end of the spectrum is a coming soon (finally!) Broadway opening. Yes, the signs have finally gone up for the new Carmelo’s Tacos on Broadway across from Capitol Hill Station. CHS reported here to start the year on the plan for the Summit Ave-born taco provider to expand into the former Broadway/Denny Starbucks location. Watch for the new Carmelo’s opening… soon.


 

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KOMO: Teen linked to Capitol Hill Safeway shootout arrested

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The Seattle Police Department has reportedly arrested one of the suspects in the shootout that locked down the Capitol Hill Safeway earlier this month — a 15-year-old who reportedly fled the scene at 15th and John on a scooter.

KOMO reports SPD says it spotted the teen Thursday night in the Yesler Terrace neighborhood. The kid reportedly fled on a scooter to a nearby 1100-block E Fir apartment building where police engaged in a short standoff believing the teen to be armed. “A family member who lived at the apartments calmed the boy down and got him to surrender,” KOMO reports. Continue reading →

Court proceedings detail deadly Madison Valley carjacking including suspect’s Summit Ave address

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The King County Superior Court found probable cause Thursday to hold Jahmed Haynes jailed for Murder in the First Degree and Animal Cruelty in the First Degree in Tuesday’s deadly carjacking in Madison Valley.

80-year-old dog walker Ruth Dalton was dragged and killed in the incident. Dalton’s dog was also stabbed to death. Police say witnesses attempted to intervene to stop the attack including one man who tried to stop the carjacking armed only with a baseball bat.

According to the police information filed in the case, Haynes was arrested Wednesday after being tracked down by police at 15th and Pine just blocks from his residence in a Summit Ave weekly hotel. Continue reading →