Author Archives: Bryan Cohen

About Bryan Cohen

Bryan Cohen is a CHS reporter. Reach him at [email protected] and @bchasesc

U-Link construction workers sue Sound Transit contractor over discrimination

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Workers boring the U-Link tunnel in 2012. (Image: CHS)

Three African American construction workers who helped build the Capitol Hill light rail tunnels during 2011-2012 say supervisors gave skilled minority laborers menial tasks, denied overtime based on race, and were openly hostile to black workers.

The allegations were made in a civil lawsuit filed in a Seattle federal court earlier this month against Traylor Brothers, a company that had formed a joint venture with Frontier-Kemper to bore the the U-Link twin tunnels between Capitol Hill and the University of Washington stations. Continue reading →

Rooftop restaurant and ‘marketplace’ planned for 7-story Melrose/Pine development

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unnamedIn a city that loves a good view, a seven-story high rooftop restaurant on the precipice of Capitol Hill overlooking downtown sounds like a no brainer. Connected to a ground floor “marketplace,” developers behind a planned project at Pine and Melrose are hoping to make a staggering addition to a burgeoning part of the neighborhood.

Plans from SolTerra developers call for a tiered mixed-used building to rise up where a parking lot now stands, and include 70 residential units, a top floor restaurant, and ground floor retail. A facade made of sloping terraces at Esker — a term for a ridge — are envisioned to give residents outdoor spaces with commanding views over downtown while dampening the roar of I-5 below.

“We want to take advantage of the views and Seattle doesn’t have a ton of rooftop hangout spots,” said SolTerra president Brian Heather. “Rather than just put this monolith there, we wanted something that would gracefully greet you as you come up the hill.”

For years, a parking lot at Pine and Melrose has served as the rather drab gateway to Capitol Hill from downtown. Continue reading →

Study highlights pedestrian mobility ‘d’ohs’ around Capitol Hill Station

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Utility equipment blocks the crosswalk path to the Capitol Hill Station. (Image: David Seater, Central Seattle Greeways)

U-Link light rail service made it possible to effortlessly glide beneath Capitol Hill, but accessing the Broadway station above ground can still be a challenge for anybody. For someone in a wheelchair, some routes are impossible. Sidewalks obstructed by trash cans and utility equipment, drivers making dangerous turns into crosswalks, and awkwardly aligned sidewalk ramps are just a few of the access issues identified in a study of intersections surrounding Capitol Hill Station.

In February, Central Seattle Greenways and Seattle Neighborhood Greenways conducted an access audit of the subway station before it opened March. The analysis looked at five intersections around the station and how they ranked in three areas: street crossing safety, obstructions in crosswalks and along sidewalks, and sidewalk capacity. The intersections included: Broadway and E Olive Way, Broadway and E Denny Way, Broadway and Thomas, Harvard and E Olive Way, and 10th and E John.Map-1024x669

Continue reading →

Youth shelter’s offer to buy Mt. Zion property mired in church infighting

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IMG_5552-600x450Members and officials at an iconic Seattle church remain at odds over what to do with a property currently home to Capitol Hill’s only youth and young adult homeless shelter. While congregants at Mount Zion Baptist Church have reportedly voted down the latest offer to sell its 19th and Pine “annex” property, church officials do not appear ready to walk away from a deal.

Peace for the Streets by Kids from the Streets has been leasing its 19th and Pine home from Mt. Zion Baptist Church since 2014. Earlier this year the nonprofit offered to buy the property, in-part so it could expand to the building’s third floor where several dorm-style apartments are now being used for storage. PSKS was hoping to take over by August, but that timeline now appears to be shot. Continue reading →

43rd District Dems endorse Macri for state rep, Walkinshaw for Congress

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Nicole Macri and supporters (Images: CHS)
Brady Walkinshaw

More than 100 members of the 43rd District Democrats gathered Tuesday night to endorse candidates in a handful of statewide and legislative races, including candidates running to represent Capitol Hill in Olympia and Washington D.C.

In the race for the 7th Congressional District, State Rep. Brady Walkinshaw easily walked away with the group’s endorsement, earning 73% of the vote over State Sen. Pramila Jayapal.

“This district is responsible for what allowed my husband and I to be married,” Walkinshaw said.

After falling less than one point short of earning the endorsement on the first round of voting, homeless housing advocate Nicole Macri was endorsed for the 43rd District house seat on a second vote. ““I have been at the forefront of the movement to provide housing first for homeless,” Macri said. Macri is the only woman in the race and picked up the endorsement of trans activist Danni Askini after she suspended her candidacy last month.

Scott Forbes, a longtime 43rd District Democrat organizer, garnered 27% of the vote while Seattle attorney Dan Shih took 25%.  Continue reading →

Seattle mayor to activate emergency operations center for Pride along with stepped up patrols

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Mayor Ed Murray said his increased public presence on Capitol Hill over the past week was intended to send a clear message: “We can’t be afraid.” As a longtime Capitol Hill resident and Seattle’s first openly gay mayor, Murray has struck a cautious but defiant tone as the city heads into this weekend’s Pride celebration in the wake of the mass shooting at a gay nightclub in Orlando.

“There is a lot of grief and a certain amount of fear out there,” Murray told CHS “I thought it was important to be with folks in LGBT bars.”

In a first for Seattle Pride, Murray will activate the city’s Emergency Operations Center, which allows increased coordination between city agencies. Murray said it was part of the extra precautions the city is taking in the wake of the Orlando tragedy that left 50 dead. 

(Image: Kate Clark)

(Image: Kate Clark)

Continue reading →

Renters: Capitol Hill’s silent majority is organizing

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(Image: Capitol Hill Renter Initiative)
(Image: Capitol Hill EcoDistrict)
“@CMLGonzalez speaking at this month’s Capitol Hill Renters Initiative, part of the Capitol @HillEcoDistrict” — @michellehipler via Twitter

100 “building ambassadors” needed for Capitol Hill renter summit in September

Since renters on Capitol Hill are transient and apathetic to city affairs, their concerns are less worthy of consideration when crafting public policy — or so the theory goes.

The message is one that Capitol Hill EcoDistrict director Joel Sisolak says is internalized by many renters, becoming a self-fulfilling prophecy of disengagement. A new organizing effort by the neighborhood sustainability organization is trying to change that.

Capitol Hill Renter Initiative seeks to amplify the mostly dormant voices of Capitol Hill renters and insert their priorities into the city’s ongoing housing policy debates. Rather than fight back against some developer-homeowner agenda, Sisolak said the EcoDistrict wants to encourage renter identity as a way into local politics.

“We’re really interested in getting renters into the public process,” Sisolak said. “That includes neighborhood discussions around land use and affordability” Continue reading →

How three projects used incentives to create E Pike’s ‘preservation’ row

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Capitol Hill’s preservation incentivized construction projects are hard to miss, with their large iron braces supporting thin brick walls as seven or eight stories of shiny new development rise above. The merits of these projects and the preservation incentive program the helped create them have been debated since the rules were passed in 2009. Whether you think it pure facadism or a unique expression of a neighborhood in transition, preservation projects have come to represent the modern era of Capitol Hill development.

While the incentives have been tweaked over time, the conservation rules are based on a fairly straightforward premise: developers get potentially lucrative extra height and bulk bonuses for saving building facades or character structures in their projects. For preservation-minded developers like Hunters Capital, the incentives offered under the Pike/Pine Conservation District have made saving some of Capitol Hill’s auto-row past a feasible business decision.

“Density is going to happen in an area like Capitol Hill,” said Michael Oaksmith, development director at Hunters Capital. “Your alternative is to just crash down the entire building.”

13 of 22 projects within the conservation district have used the incentives since 2011. City Hall is currently preparing yet another update.The Pike/Pine Conservation District’s revised guidelines are currently available for review here. Three projects along three blocks of E Pike wrapping up construction and coming into the Capitol Hill rental market offer a good survey of the different forms the projects have taken:

  • AVA Capitol Hill, 600 E Pike — Avalon Bay
  • Pike Motorworks, 714 E Pike — Wolff Company
  • Dunn Motors, 501 E Pike — Hunters Capital

Continue reading →

What can the new 43rd rep do about gun violence?

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IMG_7318-2 (1)The response to last week’s mass shooting at a gay nightclub in Orlando remains very much reactive. On Seattle’s Capitol Hill there have been vigils and marches. LGBTQ venues in the neighborhood are participating in active shooter trainings ahead of next week’s Pride celebration. As attention turns toward what can be done to prevent future atrocities, CHS asked candidates running to represent the 43rd District what they would do in Olympia on the issue of gun violence.

Most of the eight candidates expressed their support for stricter gun laws at the federal level, including a ban on assault weapons. At the state level, several candidates said they would like to expand background checks and make it harder for people with a history of mental illness to acquire firearms.

Washington voters may also have a chance to do something in November as a signature gathering campaign is underway to put a gun control initiative on this year’s ballot. I-1491 would “temporarily prevent individuals who are at high risk of harming themselves or others from accessing firearms by allowing family, household members, and police to obtain a court order.”

Support for the measure was strong among the 43rd District candidates. Here is what they had to say.

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BREAKING: There is a Republican running to represent the 43rd District

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(Image: Zach Zaerr)

First, you should know two things about Zach Zaerr: He is an “outspoken opponent” of Donald Trump and thinks you are probably a Libertarian, you just don’t know it yet.

“I’m not the typical cookie cutter Republican by any means,” Zaerr said. “I’m socially ‘I don’t care.’”

Zaerr, a 23-year-old finance analyst at Boeing, is the sole Republican candidate in the 43rd District House race. While he has only lived in Seattle for a year, he knows his chances of getting elected in the Democrat-dominated district are slim at best.

Zaerr is enough of an outlier in the 43rd that he didn’t even make our 43rd District candidate round-up Thursday.

“I’d be lying if I said I expected to win,” he said. “Really what I want to do is be a voice for the free market.” It is difficult to say what that means for the 43rd District. Continue reading →