The Seattle University Spectator is a student-run publication covering the school. CHS features Spectator reporting as part of a community collaboration. A portion of advertising revenue generated by the collaboration is donated to area non-profits involved with media, journalism and social causes. You can enjoy the Spectator online at su-spectator.com.

The Young Democrats at Seattle University seem oddly quiet about this year’s presidential election. In such an important season, one would think they would be fighting hard for their party’s platform. One potential reason for the perceived radio-silence? The Young Democrats don’t seem to exist.

The Young Democrats and College Republicans are national organizations for college and university students who wish to actively support their respective parties’ platforms, acting in both a recruiting and informational capacity. These clubs have strong presences at most universities.

“For as long as I can remember working here, I don’t recall ever seeing the Young Democrats on campus,” said AndrewTadie, the faculty adviser for the College Republicans at Seattle U.

According to the group’s website, the Seattle U Young Democrats (SUYD) held their last event on August 11, 2001 at the Young Democrats National Convention in Tucson, Ariz.

“They have not existed as a club as far as I know since my freshman year, 2008, when the Young [Democrats] was run by the ex-girlfriend of the president of College [Republicans],” said Dominic Micco, the former president of Seattle U’s College Republicans. Micco is a recent graduate.

According to Micco, the general problem for any political club on campus is the lack of student interest.

The president of Political Science Club, however, does not agree with his assessment.

“I’ve actually been surprised by the amount of political involvement on campus this year. The election really helps to bring out political interest,” said Aly Girton, a junior majoring in political science at Seattle U.

Given the lack of a competitive drive between the Young Democrats and College Republicans, the Political Science Club aims creates a middle ground for students to be able to stand on either platform and be involved in political discussion and debate.

If Girton could have her way, neither partisan club would exist. “They tend to be less inclusive and aren’t able to foster the same level of debate,” she said. “Not having [them] encourages more open discourse.”

For Micco, the absence of the Young Democrats was bittersweet during his presidency of the College Republicans.

“It felt great that the College [Republicans] had been able to live on while the Young [Democrats] stopped being a club,” he said. “We had survived, and it was a small victory, but at the same time, it would have been nice having them around.”

Micco adds that his group would have enjoyed engaging in argument with the Young Democrats at club fairs and to be able to collaborate on events.

What’s more, it’s not just Micco who would like to see the clubs maintain a stronger presence on campus. Some students agree there should be two clubs on campus that represent the opposing parties so that they can be informed about the different platforms, especially for those who don’t identity with a certain party.

The current College Republicans were not present at a recent club fair. However, the group has been seen actively tabling at C-Street within the last two weeks.

“I would say that you need two different clubs for two different [parties] because people really need to learn about what’s going on,” said Joanna Hatter, a senior majoring in computer science. “Because depending on who’s running in the election, I may be a conservative Democrat or a liberal Republican.”

Needless to say, the desire to be informed about the different political platforms poses a problem to students when only one of the parties has a presence campus. The reason behind the apparent disappearance of the Young Democrats may be answered by looking at the demographics.

According to Micco, the campus demographics pose a problem for the Young Democrats to be active in an already liberal city.

“Seattle being so liberal makes it harder for the Young [Democrats]. It works against them,” he said. “Yet with the College [Republicans] having to survive in a sometimes hostile [environment], and other times [being ignored], helped bring out the true, passionate Republicans.”

The College Republicans describes themselves as “a club devoted to promoting conservative values, helping elect Republican candidates, and serving as a conservative voice in a liberal state,” according to their page on Seattle U’s Student Activities website.

Though no one could attest to it, the general purpose of the Young Democrats, according to its website, is to “promote political awareness and activism on the Seattle University campus. By involving ourselves in activism, inviting local politicians to speak and debate, and through educational activities, we hope to foster in SU students a life-long commitment to public service and social justice.”

Perhaps if Mitt Romney or Rob McKenna manage to seize victory in the upcoming election students might just see the Young Democrats emerge from their extended hibernation.

Chelsee may be reached at [email protected]

Whenever Seattle Restaurant Week rolls around, I wonder which of the many restaurants I’d like to give a try. This week and next, Sunday through Thursday, there are over 150 restaurants participating. All offer a three-course menu (appetizer entree, and dessert) for $28 (drinks, tax, and tip are extra); even better, a good number will feed you a three-course lunch for just $15.

Fresh ricotta gnudi with balsamic brown butter, Brussels sprouts, and squash

Chocolate hazelnut torte with caramel sauce and tart cherry gel – rich and sweet

While the restaurants tend to be especially busy for this two-week period, and though the three-course menus are limited–typically to three choices in each category, with the option to order additional items from the regular menu–Seattle Restaurant Week is a great (and affordable) way to check out a place that’s been on your must-try list for too long. For me, that meant finally getting to Restaurant Zoë.

The fairly new space at 14th and Union in Capitol Hill boasts an open kitchen and a door that opens to a garden courtyard, while the dining rooms feel both classic and contemporary. Despite a fairly full house, service was spot-on; the food was quite good, and with some of the entrees running a la carte for close to $28 alone, absolute a good value. From the opening focaccia bread to the chocolate truffles accompanying the bill, dinner at Zoë was enjoyable–and sure to turn some newcomers into regular customers. That, in some ways, is what Seattle Restaurant Week is all about.

Seattle Restaurant Week starts up again next week and runs October 21st through October 25th. This year, there are 16 Capitol Hill restaurants to choose from.

The SunBreak is an online magazine of news & culture. A conversation about the things on Seattle’s mind.

(All Images: Humans of Capitol Hill)

Elisa Bronstein is the photographer behind Humans of Capitol Hill.

I have always had a desire to capture what I see on a day-to-day basis and share it with the public. I have done this with great mediocrity for the last 10 years through varying social media platforms. We each have a really important story to tell and so frequently those stories are confined only to the social circles we find ourselves in most naturally. When I ride the bus, travel to foreign lands, or just venture to the grocery, store I am consumed with wanting to know more about many of the people I see.

I moved from Boston, MA to Seattle, WA a month ago. I knew I was moving to an area that was starkly different than New England and that I would likely have surroundings worth documenting. About a week before I moved here I created a Facebook Page- Humans of Capitol Hill Seattle. I planned to post engaging photos of my new home there. When I launched the page I had no idea how this project would impact my life or the lives of those around me.

While I’ve always enjoyed talking to others, and yearned to hear everyone’s tale, I never knew how to do it without seeming odd. So I often didn’t do it at all unless the circumstances were just right. I soon realized that with a camera and a blog to post the pictures to, people are more open to talking. I can approach unique characters, ask for a photo, hear their story and share it with others.

With that, I’ve set out on the Hill, snapping photos of people and listening to what people have to say (even if it is just a microcosm of the whole). In turn, I’ve created a community celebrating Capitol Hill both on and off the world wide web. The fans on my page are enthusiastic, and engage with the photos and with one another there. And on the streets, many whom I’ve photographed now stop to say, “Hi” when we pass each other. This endeavor brought to light the fact that I am not alone in my desire to hear what strangers have to say and more important, that we all have a story worth sharing.

While I am just one person among many who has tail-spun off Brandon Stanton’s wildly popular page, Humans of New York, my experiences are unique to Seattle and the Hill. The people here are different, their stories profound and the imagery a mere glimpse into all the stories that grace the streets of the great Northwest. I hope you’ll join me on my pages and who knows, you might be next!

You can follow along here humansofcapitolhill.wordpress.com

Sound Mental Health has been providing behavioral and mental health services in Seattle for close to 50 years. There are thirteen locations around Seattle, with the administrative headquarters on East Olive here on Capitol Hill. Part of what SMH does is help people transition from a life in prison to a life back in society. They offer behavioral and mental health services to thousands of people throughout Seattle. After making a personal commitment to their recovery, and maintaining that recovery for some time, some of these people are given the opportunity to give back as Peer Counselors. Their stories often help people in similar situations, and they have a unique insight that often helps others seeking help.

CHS met with Patrick J Ciminera at the SMH administrative office where he shared his story. He’s a middle aged man with a runner’s physique, a good amount of grey in his goatee, and shoulder length hair. He spoke quietly, telling a story that he’s shared many times in the hopes of helping others.

Ciminera (Image: TomM)

Ciminera is in the process of incorporating a new nonprofit to raise funds to battle stigma surrounding mental illness and to provide assistance to further already successful programs that deal with the mentally ill. While he has not secured a 501c3 yet, he is asking for donations to help build the infrastructure and process the appropriate paperwork and such

If you would like to give to get this new venture started, you can contact him by email at [email protected].

Ciminera is an example of the reality around us — we need to live with and work with mental illness.

Ciminera was the youngest of six. He was born in Georgia, but grew up in California. His dad was out of the picture at the beginning, but then he came back. His view is that he had a typical childhood. He was raised Lutheran, went to a great school. He was a black belt in karate. “I was an outsider jock,” Criminera said. In high school he started drinking pretty heavily. This was between the years 1982-84. This was fairly common behavior, so it went fairly unnoticed.  

After high school he earned his AA in philosophy at junior college, and then he attended UC Irvine, which is where the real troubles started. “Irvine had a bar on campus. I picked it for that,” said Ciminera. “My viewpoint was ridiculously skewed.” He started using narcotics and ended up dropping out. 

He got clean while in a relationship that lasted a few years, but when that ended, he went back to Irvine and got back into drugs. Things got out of control, and his family came and convinced him to move back home. This didn’t last. He was beginning at this point to feel the day-to-day effects of living with what would later be diagnosed as schizophrenia. He moved to Washington State at this point, where he had an aunt and uncle, and became increasingly paranoid and symptomatic. 

At 26, Ciminera had his first psychotic break. “I broke into a house and tried to kill and old man,” he said, as if describing the actions of some other person. Undiagnosed, he entered the Washington State correctional program. The judge recommended mental health treatment, but that was still a ways away for Criminera.

While in the Monroe Correctional Facility he had his second psychotic break, and he was finally given some psychological treatment. In 1998 he was diagnosed with Schizoaffective Disorder, and he spent 1998-2002 in the Special Offenders Unit. Then he was transferred to general population. “Jail wasn’t horrible,” he said. “It’s like a two-star hotel these days.” 

There was never a conversion moment, or sudden insight. Ciminera’s improved state of mental health came slowly. They went through several different medications trying to treat his schizophrenia, finally finding one that worked for him. Habits he had known for years had to be changed. It was a long, slow process shifting his view from thinking that nothing and nobody could help. “I wanted to hear what people did to help,” he said. That was the decision that has informed every decision he’s since made. 

(Image: Alex Garland/CHS)

“June 23, 2004, I got out and put together a life of meetings,” said Ciminera. He entered the Dangerous and Mentally Ill Offenders Program and he got into transitional housing. In 2005 he began attending Seattle Central Community College. In 2006 SMH helped him get into an apartment, and in 2008 he completed his second AA, His success story, his charisma, and his desire to help others led to Ciminera being asked to work with SMH as a Peer Counselor. 

Next year he plans to run across the state as part of the Stampede Over Stigma. These days he’s a marathon runner. His goal is to run in five races this year. So far he’s done four. He likes to organize events for SMH clients, like taking people fishing and going to Mariners games.

“The Mariners know how to help people as an organization,” Ciminera said. They’ve offered an ever increasing number of free tickets to help out SMH, and these are always utilized. “I wish I could get people to donate fishing gear,” he said.

In Part 2 of this series (Part 1 here), The SunBreak’s Northwest Earthquake Correspondent Arne Christensen checks in with John Schelling (@jdschelling) of the Washington Emergency Management Division about earthquake preparation, in advance of the state’s ShakeOut preparedness drill on October 18th.

Arne has also written a previous series on earthquake preparedness in the tech sector, and the psychology of readiness. He also maintains this Nisqually Quake site, which collects stories on the subject. 

The ShakeOut, the largest-ever earthquake drill in Washington, is coming up on October 18th. I’m sure a lot of schools have signed up for it, but is it hard to get adults to participate in these sorts of drills? Do you hope that kids will recruit their parents into preparedness after doing a ShakeOut at school?

One of the central tenets of the ShakeOut is to get families, friends, and neighbors to talk about what they did at school, home, work, etc., during the ShakeOut earthquake and tsunami drill. This helps foster conversations about preparedness and reinforces the need to get drop, cover, and hold into our muscle memory–and running to high ground after the shaking stops if you’re near the water.

So, if kids come home from school and talk about what they did at school today and parents talk about what they did–and they both participated in the ShakeOut–it can lead a great discussion about how well the family is prepared, and encourages them to follow through on anything they still need to do to. If you haven’t registered to be part of the largest earthquake drill in history, The Great Washington ShakeOut, it’s not too late to sign up.

There’s no doubt that getting kids to participate in school is easier, but that in and of itself is so vitally important for a couple of reasons. First, it will promote the discussion that I mentioned previously and may encourage parents to support participation in the workplace during future drills. Second, it leads children to become better prepared adults and promoting earthquake safety within their own families.

As for [workplaces] looking at the drill as a distraction, the drill itself takes less than a minute to run through using the 57-second recording we have provided. Companies can play the drill notice over their PA systems and have people practice Drop, Cover, and Hold under their desk. A two-minute or less disruption to daily business operations is a good investment in keeping a company’s human capital safe.

We have big and small businesses alike signed up for the ShakeOut this year, and our goal will be to continue to promote earthquake safety and encourage participation to the greatest degree possible. My goal is to double participation in our businesses community during next year’s drill.

I’m sure social media (the ShakeOut is on Twitter!) and smart phones have really changed the way you do disaster education. What are the major advantages of the new technology? And are there any significant problems created by it?

Social media and the creation of smart phone apps have opened up so many new opportunities to engage people in disaster preparedness. It allows public educators to help spread the word to people and groups much more directly and much more quickly. It also allows users to only receive the information of interest to them.

What we have seen is that when misinformation is initially spread within the user community, other users quickly step in to make corrections. Social media has also empowered people within their communities to connect virtually and create neighborhood preparedness groups online through Facebook and other social sites. A great example of this grassroots effort in Pacific County is Eye of the Storm. This group originated through Facebook and is now organizing annual preparedness fairs to promote earthquake and tsunami preparedness within their community!

As for drawbacks, I think it’s important for preparedness educators and emergency management organizations to recognize that the digital divide still exists and not everyone has a smart phone or uses mobile applications. There are people out there who don’t own a computer or use the Internet, and we still have many places throughout Washington State that don’t have cellular or mobile data coverage, so it’s essential that we continue to reach out to everyone–regardless of their expertise with or access to technology.

In addition, it can sometimes be challenging to provide a response to user communities that operate on a 24/7 basis with employees that are scheduled to work from 8 to 5. However, these are not new issues and are to be expected with any new technology. I’m confident that individuals and organizations will adapt to meet these needs.

The SunBreak is an online magazine of news & culture. A conversation about the things on Seattle’s mind.

(Image: Lit Crawl Seattle)

With the return of the cloud blankets, so Seattle returns to indoor literary pursuits. This Thursday October 18th, the first ever Lit Crawl Seattle arrives as part of the City Arts Festival’s “Topographies” program. This completely free night of readings, performances, and other events literary will start in downtown, move though First Hill, and finish on Capitol Hill, with the after party at the Richard Hugo House. It’s billed as “Seattle’s most anticipated literary night of the year.” This is a chance to interact with a large cross section of Seattle’s literary community, from magazine editors, to local authors, poets, and performers alike.

The night begins at 5p with a happy hour at Culture Club at 411 Union, and then the next three hours are split into three “phases.” With each phase come several choices. 

View Lit Crawl Seattle, October 18, 2012 in a larger map

• Phase one (6-6:45) has three options for events. The University Bookstore Presents Funny Ladies, with Brangien Davis of Seattle Magazine hosting at Town Hall. There will be a poetry and fiction reading sponsored by the small press APRIL the Quarter Lounge, and the Four Horse Men of the Interrupture will be at the Hideout. From here on out it becomes much more Hill-centric. 
• Phase two (7-7:45) has six events taking place on the Hill at venues ranging from bars to sex toy shops. Debut Lit at the Pine Box will feature new works from new local authors. Dark Coast Press will feature writers from that publisher at Spine and Crown Bookstore. Nearby at Babeland will be another APRIL reading, including a literary burlesque performance. The Bent Writing Institute will be at the LGBT Library at Gay City. Finally, there will be Poetry+Motion at St. Johns Bar, and a one man show with Carlos Andrés Gómez at Elliott Bay. 
• How about a poetry reading at the Comet? Phase three has the final APRIL reading there, with poet Zachary Schomburg. Tin House will feature Portland writers at Vermillion. The Seattle7Writers at Barca will read seven paragraphs from page seven. (Not sure of the theme on this one.) Up the Hill at Bluebird there will be poetry and conceptual art with James, Tolbert, Marin and Moony, and at Porchlight Coffee Mark Baumgarten will discuss his new book, Love Rock Revolution: K Records and the Rise of Independent Music. 

Finally the after party at Hugo House will feature readings by Elizabeth Austen and Peter Mountford, as well as a performance from Book-It Repertory doing excerpts from Denis Johnson’s Jesus Son. This will be the chance to hobnob with the performers and participants, talk literature, and of course, enjoy libations.

The complete Lit Crawl Seattle schedule is here.

For those looking to continue the crawl, CHS has the details on an event taking place in the days following. Storytelling in the Furniture Store features Ilvs Strauss and Wesley K Andrews and uses the metaphor of Capitol Hill real estate development to talk about personal growth in the loft space of Retrofit Home. While having lots in common with the Lit Crawl, this is a separate City Arts event, and costs $10. 

Storytelling In The Furniture Store

Part of City Arts Fest

October 17 – 19 at 7:00 PM, October 20 at 1:00 PM

Location: Retrofit Home, 1103 East Pike Street  Seattle, WA 98122

Community Posts can be created by anybody with a CHS account. Quality contributions may appear on the CHS homepage. If you would like to post to CHS, you can begin the process here. — jseattle

The only part of a charter school that is a public school, according to this initiative, is the use of tax payer funds.

• Initiative 1240 circumvents our State Constitution because it would set up an alternative state school system not under the supervision or oversight of the Superintendent of Public Instruction or the local school board.

• The Washington State PTA voted not to support Initiative 1240 because the initiative did not meet the WSPTA’s “criteria for local oversight.”

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• According to the fiscal impact report of Initiative 1240, the projected implementation costs are estimated to be $3,090,700.

In addition to the $3M, “School districts that choose to become authorizers of charter schools will incur costs to solicit and review applications, contract with charter school boards, monitor and oversee their authorized charter schools, and annually report to the Board.”

When our schools desperately need funding, money should not be wasted on an experiment that has failed in New Orleans, Los Angeles, Chicago and New York City to name a few examples

• The next layer of bureaucracy would be the “Charter School Authorizers” who would be selected by the politically appointed State Board of Education. These “authorizers” would have a six year contract to review and approve applications made to create a charter school.

An authorizer may delegate their responsibilities to a third party, either an employee or a contractor. At that point, an authorizer could be a contractor who benefits from a particular charter franchise being approved. It also removes the process of authorizing charter schools one step further out of the public eye.

• According to Initiative 1240, “any bargaining unit or units established by the charter school must be separate from other bargaining units in the school districts, educational service districts or institutions of higher education. Each charter school is a separate employer from the school district.”

Teachers and non-teaching staff in a charter school would have no protections that are granted to union employees in public schools in terms of healthcare, working hours, additional responsibilities, the length of the school day and pay. All of that would be at the discretion of the charter school board of directors,

• In terms of protections granted to students and families in public schools, those protections would be lost. Parents or legal guardians and students would have no immediate legal recourse if they believed that their child had been wrongfully expelled or treated unfairly.

“Charter schools are not subject to and are exempt from all other state statutes  and rules applicable to school districts and school district boards of directors”.

• Initiative 1240 states there should be no limit to class size or the number of students enrolled.

“An authorizer may not restrict the number of students a charter school may enroll.”

• According to Initiative 1240, a charter school can buy property using taxpayer funds but there is no protection for tax payers if that charter school should close. The property would remain with the charter company or Education/Charter Management Organization EMO/CMO (the profit making arm of a charter school).

A charter school may “Enter into contracts with any school district, educational service district, or other public or private entity for the provision of real property, equipment, goods, supplies, and services, including educational instructional services and including for the management and operation of the charter school…” A charter school can “Rent, lease, purchase, or own real property.”

• According to Initiative 1240,  charter schools would be able to run for five years before being reviewed and if the charter school has not met its promises, may only receive a slap on the wrist.

A charter contract may be renewed by the authorizer, at the request of the charter school, for successive five-year terms, although the authorizer may vary the term based on the performance, demonstrated capacities, and particular circumstances of a charter school and may grant renewal with specific conditions for necessary improvements to a charter school.

• Another profit maker for the charter schools is the section regarding what the charter school receives from the state and how much they pay their staff.

Years of service in a charter school by certificated instructional staff shall be included in the years of service calculation for purposes of the statewide salary allocation schedule under RCW 28A.150.410. This section does not require a charter school to pay a particular salary to its staff while the staff is employed by the charter school.

Charter schools decide on their own pay scale for teachers and normally it’s lower than what a unionized teacher would make to keep the operating cost down for the charter school and yet, they want to receive from the state the amount of money that the state would normally pay to a union teacher.

Between being exempt from state statutes and regulations and with no public oversight, you have a private school using tax dollars and even turning a profit because the charter school is a “non-profit” and a non-profit organization does not pay taxes. The profit therefore goes into the salaries of the charter school CEO and the management company that would operate the school.

Sweet deal for the charter schools and management companies, not so good for the tax payer.

For more on charter schools, go to http://seattleducation2010.wordpress.com.

My friends, it is fall. The days are darkening; the rainy season has begun; and it finally feels like Seattle again. For many people, especially the 5% of Americans who experience Seasonal Affective Disorder, the lack of sunlight means a surplus of alcohol consumption. To all the courageous Capitol Hill cyclists getting soaked this season: Don’t drink and ride.

      Despite the rain, the hills, and the traffic, Seattle is a cycling capital of the world. Because Seattle is a relatively small city with a large college-aged population, cyclists as well as binge-drinkers tend to be more prominent; the alarming link between the two demographics puts Capitol Hill’s young men, in particular, at greater risk.

      According to the U.S. Department of Transportation, men accounted for 81% of all drunk-driving incidents in 2010, and alcohol was involved in 47.2% of pedestrian fatalities, 39.9% of vehicle occupant fatalities, and 33.8% of cyclist fatalities.¹ The lethal combination is highlighted in this sobering article in the New York Times, which found that one in five cyclists who died in New York City had alcohol in his bloodstream.

      Cycling while intoxicated is certainly not taboo in the way that drunk driving is. Many argue that drunk riding is only harmful to the cyclist himself–a similar stance taken by those who oppose mandatory seatbelt or helmet laws–but this is difficult to prove, as many non-fatal cycling accidents go unreported, and it misses the point. Each accident is a real loss to the cycling community and undermines our city’s valiant efforts to improve cycling infrastructure and keep us safe.

      Amidst the current bloom of hip, young cyclists and newly-converted commuters, it is important to emphasize that, in general, cycling is becoming safer. From 1988 to 2008, the total number of cyclist fatalities fell by 21% in the USA and by 66% in Canada. In practice, however, it takes hands-on experience to learn how to ride safely and effectively on the Hill. Always use front and rear flashing lights at night, especially in the rain. Signal turns by pointing and stay clear of the “door zone.” Learn your limits with alcohol or use a personal BAL indicator. If you must, try to shorten the length of rides or ride with a group. However, abstinence and responsibility are the only ways to truly ensure a safer ride.

Ray Lumpp is an avid cyclist, part-time bicycle courier, and year-round commuter on Capitol Hill. When not on the bike, he writes for AllTreatment.com, an online resource and directory for people seeking treatment and recovery.

As a reminder, anybody can post to CHS — and many bodies do! Thanks to Shane for sharing his vision for a Pike/Pine pedestrian plaza on the site. — jseattle

(Cross-posted from my transportation policy blog: http://betterinstitutions.blogspot.com/2012/10/its-time-for-capitol-hill-to-get-its.html. Apologies for sections that state well-known facts about the area in question–the article was originally intended for a broader audience.)

I was reading a few articles at CHS blog a couple days ago and I got an idea. The articles in question were this one about parklets, and this other one about preserving the character of the neighborhood as development continues in the area. The parklets piece got a lot of activity in the comments section, much of it negative, mostly with people complaining that there’s little enough parking already, and with many questioning whether something like this would even be popular. From my perspective it seems like they’re doing this the right way, starting with buy-in from the business owners and the community and then going from there. It’s a great idea, however small, but I see no reason to stop there.

Pike street between Broadway and 12th Ave.

Anyone who’s lived in Seattle in the past decade or enjoys going to see live music probably has heard of, if not attended, Capitol Hill Block Party (started in 1997). Every year for three days E Pike street is closed off between Broadway and 12th Avenue and filled to the brim with people. This is incredibly good business for the many bars enclosed by the boundaries of the event as they have a captive audience, but (I think) not so good for the businesses that don’t sell food or alcohol. That’s been a point of contention every time CHBP rolls around, but I’ve never really heard much grumbling about the road closure and parking spaces lost during the festival. This seems especially incredible given the complaints about taking away a few spots for parklets: if removing a few parking spaces is so damaging to visitor retention (i.e., business from people from other neighborhoods or other cities), how is it that so many thousands of people manage to make it here when we shut down several dozen spaces? Clearly, people can find other ways to get here if they really want to.

Capitol Hill Block Party: more fun than parking. Photo by Dave Lichterman.

Under normal circumstances Pike is open to cars, but with crosswalks on all corners of each intersection and heavy pedestrian traffic, it’s not very fun to navigate in a car. With the high concentration of bars and music venues on this stretch of road this gets exponentially worse in the evenings, particularly on weekends. It’s a mess, and the only people who are really justified in trying to drive through it at night are cab drivers looking for a likely fare. Given the number of pedestrians, obvious safety concerns with people streaming to and fro at all hours (often not sober), and parallel east-west routes one block north at E Pine street and one block south at E Union/Madison St., it’s time to close off Pike to car traffic permanently.

Pedestrian plazas like this have a proven track record of vitality and enjoyment by the community. They encourage more foot traffic in the area, which of course translates into more customers for the businesses that abut the space. Notably, after Times Square was made over to become largely pedestrian-oriented it quickly found itself much more appealing to businesses:

Two years after the advent of its car-free plazas, for example, Times Square made its first-ever appearance on real estate firm Cushman and Wakefield’s list of the ten most desirable retail locations on Earth.

By no means is Seattle the same as New York, nor is the Pike/Pine corridor Times Square, but the same model has been replicated throughout the country, again and again: dedicate more space to pedestrians and they will use it. Businesses that allow these changes reap the financial benefits, while residents and visitors reap the benefits of greater safety and community. There is already relatively little vehicle traffic on this section of Pike and the natural strengths of this location make it the perfect place to try out our first authentic pedestrian plaza. With the Broadway streetcar coming in 2014 and Link light rail two years later, E Pike is only going to become a more popular and accessible destination whether the road is reconfigured or not.

Pike has already established itself as a favorite location for mobile food vendors, too, and this is a great opportunity to build on that reputation by providing plenty of dedicated, conveniently-situated space for more vendors to join the party. For the brick-and-mortar restaurants and bars this would potentially open up a lot more space for each of them, allowing them to fence off a significant area outside their buildings for extra customer space (much like what’s seen at Grim’s and Barca on 11th Ave, although perhaps larger).

Where would you rather spend your time?

Now, as far as challenges: yes, this would require the removal of several dozen parking spaces. Compared to the total number of parking spaces in the area this would make little difference, but there will certainly be complaints. When we look at the hundreds (or thousands) of people that cram themselves into these few blocks every weekend, however, it becomes clear that these parking spaces are servicing a minuscule fraction of the total number of people in the area. Roads belong to everyone; they’re a public amenity. This particular public amenity is much more heavily used by pedestrians than vehicles and it would be great if its design actually reflected that. More than the on-street spaces, I think the challenge to overcome is the Havana parking lot, conveniently contained in a red rectangle in the Google Maps image at the top of this post. This is presumably a private lot, and closing off Pike makes this completely inaccessible by cars. I don’t know the solution here except to buy out the lot, which might be prohibitively expensive for a voluntary, wonderfully-useful-but-not-strictly-necessary project of this nature.

Which brings us to cost more generally. One of the great things about these type of projects is that they don’t need to become hugely expensive like most other major street reconfigurations. This is something that could be done extremely cheaply, at least at first. It could be as simple as blocking off the roads with some big rocks, throwing some plants, tables, and chairs in the middle and calling it good. This would probably be sufficient to achieve the goals of increased safety and increased pedestrian traffic, but over time it would of course be great to see some real investments in making this a genuinely attractive and pleasing destination. In other locations we’ve seen business owners actually contribute to improvements as they’ve seen the impact these conversions have on their bottom line, so doing things on the cheap as a means of enticing further investment might be exactly the way to go.

This is the perfect time to start talking about a conversion for this area. Winter is coming, and, accordingly, pedestrian traffic will be somewhat reduced during the day. This relative lull gives us time to start reaching out to the community and business stakeholders for their thoughts and opinions, and ideally have something in place by late spring, just in time for the busiest time of year for the area. The summer could be a trial period, and if it’s successful we can work toward making it a permanent fixture on the hill.

In the mean time, though, don’t forget to look both ways when using the crosswalk.

Much better.