Author Archives: jseattle

About jseattle

Justin is publisher of CHS. You can reach him at chs@capitolhillseattle.com or call/txt (206) 399-5959. Follow @jseattle on Twitter or be best pals on Facebook.

CHS Pics | This week in Capitol Hill pictures

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Capitol Hill and the nearby lends itself to great imagery. Social media is filled with images of the places and streets around us. We share some of the best here. To be included and help us find your stuff, use the #capitolhillseattle tag on Instagram or ping @capitolhillseattle or @jseattle via Twitter.

We still also have lots of love for the CHS Flickr Pool and its more than 36,000 photographs — most of Capitol Hill images, many glorious, some technically amazing. The pool is a mix of contributions from Capitol Hill shutterbugs. With changes at Flickr, its days of an amazing, free for most repository of great photography have shifted but we’re still watching.

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With planned closure of Roy Street Coffee, Starbucks experiment on Capitol Hill will end

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(Image: CHS)

A Starbucks experiment that began ten years ago on Capitol Hill is set to come to an end. Roy Street Coffee and Tea will close this spring.

The global coffee giant hasn’t yet responded to CHS’s inquiry about the planned closure but customers of the Roy at Broadway cafe have been told the location will close at the end of April.

An effort is already underway to “save” the indie-style Starbucks cafe: Continue reading →

‘Rare central Seattle find’ — With $2.8M listing to sell some of its land, church neighboring Uncle Ike’s begins longterm plan for new home

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Mount Calvary is selling land across the street on 23rd Ave for $2.8 million that will be the start of its plans to find a new home away from 23rd and Union

A $2.8 million real estate listing is a harbinger of things to come at 23rd and Union. The Mount Calvary Christian Center, which unsuccessfully battled the neighboring Uncle Ike’s pot shop in court, is beginning the process of finding a new home closer to the areas where most of its congregation now lives.

“We’re still very much a part of the community,” Nicole Bascomb of Bascomb Real Estate Group and a member of Mount Calvary tells CHS, “and we’re going to be there for a while.”

But change has begun. Bascomb, daughter of longtime Central District real estate agent Paul Bascomb, has listed her church’s Joshua Generation Teen Center property on the west side of 23rd Ave across from Mount Calvary for $2,824,250. Continue reading →

So, what happened to the Capitol Hill snowball road rage driver?

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In the middle of all the snow, video of a Capitol Hill road rage incident involving snowballs and an irate driver spread across social media and got plenty of play on local TV.

Police responded to the corner of Bellevue and Thomas just before 7 PM Sunday, February 10th to a fight underway at Thomas Street Park after a driver in a jeep reportedly attempted to run people down. Video of the incident shows the 27-year-old driver crash to a stop and the snow dust-up that followed over snowballs reportedly tossed in the melee. There were no reported serious injuries. Continue reading →

Snowbruary 2019: Our 50+ favorite Capitol Hill pictures and videos

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It’s been a month of snow and ice on Capitol Hill. Here are 50 (and a couple more) of our favorite pictures and videos from the run of CHS “Snowbruary 2019” coverage. Thanks for sharing your wintry scenes with CHS. We’ve included many images from the crowd in the mix along with some of our favorite shots and clips from CHS. Something we missed? Let us know in comments. Continue reading →

Design review: Is this 20th Ave townhouse project part of Seattle’s ‘missing middle’?

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Just build it already. Wednesday night brings a design review for a 20th Ave project that seems like nobody really needs to review — four four-story townhouse buildings creating sixteen new homes replacing a set of two 1909-built single-family style structures that have seen better days.

But the East Design Review Board will give the projects a final once-over Wednesday:

Design review: 1711 20th Ave

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Monsoon marks 20 years — and ‘a little bit’ of growth — on Capitol Hill

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(Image: Monsoon)

Brother and sister restaurateurs Sophie and Eric Banh are marking 20 years of business on 19th Ave E. Their Vietnamese Seattle classic Monsoon will have a “20 Bucks for 20 Years” menu starting this weekend featuring “a handful of dishes that were very popular in the early years” and are still popular today.

We’re going to bet that the drunken chicken made the list.

Surviving two decades on the Hill’s quieter side, Monsoon has grown — literally — along with the neighborhood’s food and drink offerings. In 2014, it doubled its capacity, incorporating a bar, and adding a rooftop patio to the restaurant. “It’s amazing how the world turns around,” Eric Banh told CHS about Monsoon’s survival and expansion. “We almost became homeless in 2007. We survived. And now we’re growing. A little bit.” Continue reading →

Central District e-bike showroom Electric Lady shutting down

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Alex Kostelnik is getting out of the e-bike biz

One of the more future-looking retail ventures in the area is calling it quits. Here is why Electric Lady, the Central District e-bike shop in a building part of the wave of new development at 23rd and Union, is going out of business.

“(T)he business is doing well financially, but he is not enjoying the work needed to navigate what he sees as an unreliable industry where companies start up, go under, fire staff and get bought constantly,” the Seattle Bike Blog writes aboutowner Alex Kostelnik’s decision.

But Kostelnik tells SBB he was also having trouble connecting with his customers:

“They’re first time riders, but they’re not first time riders that are stepping up to the plate to hear about the community or join the community. They’re sort of strange outsider, know-it-all lonely people who aren’t really part of our community, and I don’t know where to begin with them.”

It’s not all sour grapes. Kostelnik will continue to run 20/20 Cycles just up the E Union hill and plans to include some electric bike models in his inventory. Continue reading →

Central District’s Union Market held up at gunpoint in Tuesday morning robbery

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Police were searching for a suspect seen fleeing on foot through the icy slush after a Tuesday morning armed robbery at the Central District’s Union Market.

The just before 9:30 AM hold-up of the corner market involved a suspect seen pointing a handgun as he grabbed cash from the register of the corner store at 21st and Union. Continue reading →

SNOWBRUARY 2019: Tuesday update — Capitol Hill’s slow melt, trees vs. wires, and, yay, more Seattle snow history

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UPDATE 8:45 PM: Sorry, parents. No school again Wednesday.

Original report: The rains came but so did more snow as a month of ice and cold on Capitol Hill has continued into its second Tuesday.

The expected warmer air did arrive and brought an overnight of sleet following a bout of even more wet, heavy snow that pushed Seattle much closer to the bring of the feared “snowmageddon.” Around 20,000 were without power at points of the night with reports of trees and branches giving way to the heavy snow. Large trees were reported down throughout the Arboretum and blocking streets including 19th Ave E. A car was smashed by one fallen tree near Interlaken Park. Seattle City Light reported one of the biggest problems is actually the melting snow — large branches relieved of the melting snow suddenly spring up and strike utility wires. Continue reading →