Broken glass, plywood, and security doors — 23 burglaries a day in the East Precinct

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Monsoon added new security doors on 19th Ave E (Image: CHS)

It might feel like there is a rash of broken glass at Capitol Hill and Central District restaurant and shops but, unfortunately, the numbers show it is business as usual this fall for burglars.

Attention has been raised by break-ins targeting favorite area venues including a burglary before the Thanksgiving holiday in which a masked thief busted glass and stole the cash register at Golden Wheat Bakery in the Central District. Fans and neighbors rallied to raise money to help the bakery overcome the break-in.

On Capitol Hill, La Cocina & Cantina suffered a damaging recent burglary that a CHS reader says cost the Broadway favorite thousands in damage and stolen booze. Continue reading →

After a year in Capitol Hill’s tumultuous street food scene, Tacos Cometa will open on Broadway in 2026

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(Image: Tacos Cometa)

(Image: Tacos Cometa)

Tacos Cometa is moving inside. The street taco venture from brother chefs Rey and Osiel Gastelum that has grown a devoted following this year at Nagle and Pine on the edge of Cal Anderson Park as part of the neighborhood’s wild — and delicious — nightlife street food scene will open as a brick and mortar taqueria on Broadway in 2026.

Rey Gastelum tells CHS Tacos Cometa isn’t leaving Capitol Hill’s street scene behind.

“There should be a better path. I wish there had been a better path for us as well,” Gastelum said. Continue reading →

The Wilson administration: Here is the team Seattle’s new mayor is bringing to City Hall

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Surratt

As a 60-member transition team is shaping first priorities for the administration, Mayor-elect Katie Wilson has named her senior staff that will accompany her at City Hall including a second-in-command who has been active in addressing inequity and displacement in the Central District.

Tuesday, Wilson announced Brian Surratt will serve as the new administration’s sole deputy mayor. The former director of the Office of Economic Development and policy lead on the city’s minimum wage who is also part of leading Wilson’s transition team, was most recently CEO at Greater Seattle Partners. His work with OED to help develop the Liberty Bank affordable mixed-use project at 23rd and Union is considered a model for equitable development in the city. Continue reading →

15th Ave E merchants to host Capitol Hill Holiday Wine Walk

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The 15th Ave E business community is holding a new holiday event this year to celebrate the season and the neighborhood.

The Capitol Hill Holiday Wine Walk will take place next week with a Thursday night of pop-up tasting rooms hosted by the street’s shops and small businesses:

Capitol Hill Holiday Wine Walk

Thursday, December 11, 2025

5:00 pm – 8:00 pm

Tickets: Advance – $30 | Door – $40 (If still available)

Get your Holiday spirit going early and taste some of Washington’s finest wines while checking out local merchants on the bustling 15th Ave. E District in Seattle’s Capitol Hill neighborhood. Attendees receive tasting tickets to redeem for the wines of their choice from 15 local wineries located at pop-up tasting rooms hosted by area retailers featuring a variety of regional wines. A fun activity to do with friends during the holidays and the perfect opportunity to buy your loved ones delicious gifts that they can share with you – all tax-free!

15th Ave E’s stretch of shopping destinations is also on CHS’s 2025 Shop the Hill map along with walkable shopping areas across the Hill:

Haunted Burrow

15th Ave E

  • Windthrow: A shop specializing in “nice things for outside,” featuring functional and stylish outdoor gear and apparel.
  • Haunted Burrow Books: A new independent bookstore focusing on horror, weird fiction, and the occult.
  • Ada’s Technical Books: A destination for science/tech books, puzzles, and geeky-chic gifts.
  • Station 7: A home and gift shop in a converted fire station, selling vintage items and art.
  • Thistle & Poppy: A family-run shop with kids’ goods, toys, and “reloved” vintage.
  • Creature Consignment: A stylish, boutique-like consignment shop for women’s clothing.
  • The Shop Agora: A European-style market with an excellent retail selection of wine and specialty gifts.
  • Red Balloon: Toys, gifts, cards, and, yes, balloons.
  • EVS — UPDATE! : “Best wine shop in Seattle…”


Shop local, shop the Hill: 60+ places to walk and shop on Capitol Hill

 

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Please don’t chop down your Christmas tree in a Capitol Hill park

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Thanks to a reader for the tip and picture at the scene of the crime

Capitol Hill’s park spaces are facing all sorts of challenges heading into winter including trouble with Volunteer Park coyotes and fences around Seven Hills.

Now, someone has chopped down a Christmas tree in Miller Park.

The reader who alerted CHS to the problem says the little conifer was cut down Monday.

A Seattle Parks spokesperson says the person who swiped the tree broke the law:

As outlined in the Seattle Municipal Code 18.12.070:

It is unlawful for any person except a duly authorized Department of Parks and Recreation or other City employee in the performance of his or her duties, or other person duly authorized, to remove, destroy, mutilate or deface any structure, lawn, monument, statue, planter, vase, fountain, wall, fence, railing, vehicle, bench, shrub, tree, geological formation, plant, flower, lighting system, sprinkling system, gate, barricade or lock or other property lawfully in any park, or to remove sand, soil, sod, or water from any park.

“Please leave plants, artifacts, flowers, and features for everyone to enjoy!,” the parks spokesperson requested.

According to the city’s tree database, the area of Miller Park where the tree was taken is home to a handful of smaller Lawson’s Cypress trees and a trio of large Douglas Firs.

The illegal timber harvesting near 19th and John is an unusual issue but the area saw a similar heist last year. In that case, a rare Tibetan Cypress was cut down and stolen from the Arboretum’s Pinetum collection. The Arboretum tree was around seven years old. There was no public report of an arrest.

To get a holiday tree on Capitol Hill without landing on Santa’s naughty list, check out the Stevens Elementary Tree Sale this weekend.

 

$5 A MONTH TO HELP KEEP CHS PAYWALL-FREE

Subscribe to CHS to help us hire writers and photographers to cover the neighborhood. CHS is a pay what you can community news site with no required sign-in or paywall. To stay that way, we need you. Become a subscriber to help us cover the neighborhood for $5 a month -- or choose your level of support 🖤 

 
 

Seattle’s ‘World Cup Host City Final Draw Watch Party’ to be held on Capitol Hill

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World Cup fans on Capitol Hill in 2014

Seattle’s organizing committee for the 2026 Men’s World Cup will be on Capitol Hill Friday with a few local soccer legends for a Final Draw watch party as the groupings for the global soccer tournament get mostly banged out.

Seattle FIFA World Cup 26 announced it is holding its Friday watch party at Capitol Hill’s Stoup Brewing:

WHAT: Seattle FIFA World Cup™ Host City Final Draw Watch Party
WHO: Local soccer legends, Community leaders and officials of the SeattleFWC26 Local Organizing Committee. Speakers for the event will be available for comment and will include:
  • Peter Tomozawa, CEO of Seattle FWC26
  • Peter Fewing, former Seattle University Soccer coach
  • Lamar Nagle, former Seattle Sounder
WHEN: Friday, December 5, 2025, Doors at 8:30am, program begins at 9:00am
WHERE: Stoup Capitol Hill, 1158 Broadway, Seattle, WA 98122

This spring, a few more teams will qualify and the full groups will be fleshed out but Friday will be a big day for the 2026 cup. With an expanded field, 48 nations will be split into 12 groups of four for the group stages when all is said and done. Continue reading →

Roots and thorns: Chris Persons on 18 years of building affordable housing on Capitol Hill and across Seattle

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Persons, holding the ribbon on the right, to celebrate this summer’s opening of The Devonshire in Belltown (Image: Community Roots Housing)

Some of the Community Roots Crew marking Persons’ last day falling on Halloween (Image: Community Roots Housing)

By Matt Dowell

There is still much to be done about affordability in Seattle. The buildings of Community Roots Housing can’t talk. But Chris Persons can.

Persons celebrated his final day as CEO of Community Roots Housing, the affordable housing developer that’s serviced our neighborhood since 1976, on Halloween. His successor is in place. Seattle community leader Colleen Echohawk is now at the helm as Community Roots projects move forward — including the eight-story apartment building under construction at Broadway and Pine as part of the Constellation Center affordable housing, youth education, skills training, and employment academy project in partnership with YouthCare.

Persons’ 18 years leading the affordable developer saw Community Roots through a Seattle construction boom, a growing mission (they were Capitol Hill Housing when he started), and the delivery of hundreds of affordable housing units to the city.

Persons talked with CHS about his first hand experience with Seattle’s struggle to build enough housing. He has thoughts on how we can do better.

But first, a round of roses and thorns. Retirement is a time for reflection, after all. What could have gone better in the last 18 years?

“So much,” he sighed.

Persons came to Seattle from the midwest, which may explain the self-deprecation. But it belies CRH’s track record through his tenure of driving forward sizable housing projects across Capitol Hill, the Central District, and the International District. Continue reading →

Church breaks ground on affordable New Hope Family Housing and Clean Greens Farm and Market in the Central District

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(Image: Katie Wilson for Seattle Mayor)

(Image: Katie Wilson for Seattle Mayor)

A project in the works for more than five years to add new housing around the Central District’s New Hope Missionary Baptist Church broke ground over the weekend with Mayor-elect Katie Wilson joining church elders and affordable housing leaders to celebrate the milestone in a neighborhood still marked by the city’s history of racist redlining. Continue reading →

City monitoring coyote incidents reported at Volunteer Park

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Seattle Parks and Washington Dept. of Fish and Wildlife officials say they are aware of reports of aggressive coyote encounters in Capitol Hill’s Volunteer Park including a reported incident over Thanksgiving weekend.

You can help by being aware on walks in the area — and doing your part to keep the animals wild.

The incidents are happening as a coyote that showed signs of having been fed by humans was trapped and killed earlier this month in the Arboretum.

The most recent Volunteer Park incident was reported by Q13 as a man described a coyote that “stalked” his dog. Continue reading →

SDOT levy update: 460 potholes, 12 bridges repaired per month in 2025 — New dashboard coming in 2026

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The Seattle Department of Transportation is briefing the Seattle City Council Tuesday morning on its progress this year improving oversight and executing projects under its millions in annual levy spending.

In 2024, Seattle voters approved the city’s latest transportation levy, a $1.55 billion plan focused on streets, transit, sidewalk, and bike lanes for the next eight years. CHS reported on the details of those projects here in February. Continue reading →