Here are the top stories from this week in CHS history:
2018
Capitol Hill Community Post | See what lidding I-5 might look like
CHS History | Capitol Hill’s ugliest buildings, Single Shot born, Capitol Hill fast food nostalgia
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Author Archives: CHS
Capitol Hill Community Post | Egan Orion: I believe he aims to deceive
From Alex Kostelnik, Owner 20/20 Cycle
Egan Orion says he is a champion for small businesses. Well, I’m a small business owner in the Central District, have been for the last 14 years, and I’d like to issue a warning to you. I believe he is not. I am heartily supporting Kshama Sawant.
Kshama is an activist. And people either hate it, ignore it, or they don’t get it. She is also a politician, a left one in a very right wing, corporate world.
Throughout my life I have been surrounded by powerful women. My mom raised three kids by herself, and she was a feminist and an activist. Continue reading
Hilloween is alive! Broadway BIA picks up 2019 edition of costume, candy, and carnival event
The Capitol Hill Chamber of Commerce may be dead but Capitol Hill’s celebration of little ghosts and goblins will live on.
The Broadway Business Improvement Area has announced it will host this year’s Hilloween, an annual, all-ages costume and candy carnival on Broadway. Continue reading
Here’s how you can help these Central District schools have bands that look more like their student populations
(Image: Jazz Up Jackson Street)
By Audrey Frigon, CHS Fall Intern
The Earshot Jazz Festival is again underway in Seattle and, included among the great performers like Cécile McLorin Salvant and Cuban pianist Chucho Valdés Jazz Batá, will again be students from across the Central District and Capitol Hill performing with their Seattle Public Schools music programs. But this year’s appearance by the award winning Garfield High and Washington Middle School bands is about more than great jazz.
Along with jazz greats, the festival will be featuring Seattle students in a fundraising effort. Washington Middle School and Garfield High School students are tuning up to perform a benefit concert called Jazz Up Jackson Street. The goal of Thursday night’s performance? To raise awareness and funds for Seattle’s Central District schools’ music programs as they embark on a daunting new initiative — giving every single student an opportunity to learn a musical instrument.
Arlene Fairfield, an organizer of the event, said the music program does not reflect the diversity of Washington and Garfield’s demographics.
“School music programs in the Central District have a long history of excellence that has been recognized both regionally and nationally,” she tells CHS. “However, the student musicians in these programs have historically underrepresented the diversity in our schools.” Continue reading
Seattle City Council Insight: City reports on performance of homeless response programs in first half of 2019
From SCC Insight
This week, HSD Interim Director Jason Johnson delivered a report to the City Council on the performance of the city’s homeless-response programs through the first half of 2019. There was some good news.
Johnson began by reminding the Council that the goal of the city’s homelessness response is to make homelessness rare, brief, and non-recurring. To that end, he explained how the department’s programs successfully served more people in the first half of 2019:
- HSD-funded programs prevented 461 households, representing 704 individuals, from becoming homeless, an increase of 20% over the same period in 2018.
- 1,936 households, representing 3,042 individuals, moved from homelessness to housing, a 6% increase from the year before.
- 2,127 unique households that have experienced chronic homelessness — often the most challenging people to help out of homelessness — remained stably housed in Permanent Supportive Housing (PSH), a program which pairs housing with wrap-around case management and services. According to Johnson, the city’s PSH programs have a 90% success rate in keeping people housed.
Johnson credited this to having fully ramped-up programs in place; you may recall, HSD ran an RFP in 2017 to re-bid its homeless-response contracts, and in the first half of 2018 those awardees launched programs under the new contracts. 2019 is the first time that the new awardees started the year at full capacity, so in retrospect it’s no surprise that they are performing better — but still great to see. In addition, the “rate of exit” to permanent housing from many of HSD’s programs improved over the previous year, suggesting that they are getting incrementally better at what they do. Continue reading
Capitol Hill Housing has eight new name ideas to bounce off you
Capitol Hill Housing’s quest for a new name to reflect its work beyond its birth neighborhood is ready for the next phase.
Through October 14th, the nonprofit developer of affordable housing communities is collecting feedback on eight options and weighing how they reflect against the organization’s key values: Continue reading
Capitol Hill Community Post | The Mayor’s Fare Share proposal
From Eric Maloney, Capitol Hill resident and Lyft driver
The Mayor’s proposed tax on rideshare would have a negative impact on our community, riders and drivers alike, and particularly those in minority and lower-income groups.
Thank goodness for the rideshare industry which provides opportunities to earn a living in the form of providing safe, timely, friendly, affordable transportation options for folks to travel between work, social engagements, meetings, and events. After being laid-off from a Fortune 300 corporate management role and making ends meet by working as a roadie and picking up any kind of work via Craigslist and social media outlets, I have been driving for Lyft since February 2016. I have provided more than 8,000 rides and enjoy a 5-star passenger rating. Engaging with passengers is the most rewarding part of Lyfting. It entrenches me in the community via exposure to folks from all walks of life, and I feel a meaningful sense of service. The flexible schedule allows me to pursue other personal and professional endeavors. Continue reading
City Council holds public hearing on 2020 Seattle budget proposal
The Seattle City Council will hold a public hearing Thursday night on the 2020 budget.
Typically, the hearing is the first chance for the public to speak out on funding issues in the mayor’s proposal that kicks off the annual process.
CHS reported here on Mayor Jenny Durkan’s $6.5 billion 2020 budget plan where some of the big gains — and small, too — in the proposal come from “one-time” revenue infusions from events like the Mercer Megablock sale and public benefits cash received in exchange for public right of way used in the expansion of the downtown convention center.
The City Council is busy shaping the edges of the 2020 proposal in a process that will continue through the month.
D3 representative Kshama Sawant’s office is calling on her supporters to speak out Thursday night on affordability in the city and the proposed rent control legislation she rolled out last month:
We need rent control, and what’s clear after our rent control committee last month is that people are ready to fight for it. Over 250 people packed City Hall at our vibrant discussion On September 23 at City Hall, where we unveiled our movement’s draft rent control legislation, and heard from renters, small landlords, workers, and community members. We have collected 12,000 signatures from ordinary people across the city who are demanding rent control, and 20 labor and community organizations have endorsed rent control in Seattle!
Thursday’s session begins at 5:30 PM and will be broadcast by the Seattle Channel.
Seattle adds more protections for renters including roommate rights, payment options
Though most of the Seattle City Council’s focus this week will be on pounding down additions — and a few subtractions? — to the mayor’s proposed $6.5 billion 2020 budget, Monday’s full council session finished up some key legislation to help Seattle renters.
Monday, the council passed five new bills increasing tenant rights and adding new requirements for landlords: Continue reading
CHS Pics | What happens when an 8.0 earthquake strikes on E Union (and you’re kind of ready for it)
“Come experience an 8.0 earthquake!,” the Seattle Office of Emergency Management invited. Wednesday afternoon at the Seattle World School along E Union, dozens of people took them up on the offer. Continue reading
