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.

Seattle housing notes: Last chance to comment on plan for more backyard cottages, MHA upzoning battle begins

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While we are looking at Seattle’s built environment this morning, here are a few other items of note going on in the city:

  • Backyard cottages milestone: Today — 6/25/18 — is the final day to comment on Seattle’s plan to allow more backyard cottages in neighborhoods across the city. As CHS has reported, “accessory dwelling units” are an effective way to put more of Seattle’s buildable land to use creating homes new neighbors. The city has studied three options:
    + Alternative 1: no action; current rules maintained.
    + Alternative 2: one in-law apartment and one backyard cottage allowed on the same lot; parking no longer required for ADUs; the homeowner may live elsewhere.
    + Alternative 3: two ADUs allowed per lot (either two in-law apartments or one apartment and one cottage); an additional parking space is required only if two ADUs are built. Continue reading →

Realfine Coffee makes Pride weekend debut on Capitol Hill

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An E Pine cafe kicked back into motion Friday. West Seattle-born Realfine Coffee is now open next to the E Pine Rudy’s.

The opening puts the former home of Stumptown back into action after it was shuttered late this summer so the company could focus on its 12th Ave location. Continue reading →

Hundreds cross Capitol Hill in march against Trump policies separating immigrant families

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Hundreds of marchers traveled across Capitol Hill Thursday night from St. Mark’s to St. James in a show of solidarity against the separation of immigrant children from their families.

The “Stop Separating Families” march filled blocks of Broadway “in protest of the Trump administration’s policy that separates immigrant families at the southern border.”

Thursday’s event was quickly organized just days after details about the detention and separation of family has become more widely reported and understood.

A nationwide day of Families Belong Together marches and protests is being planned for June 30th.

Victim says thousands ripped off in 23rd and Union mugging

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(Image: @sdottraffic)

Seattle Police are investigating a mugging at 23rd and Union Wednesday night that reportedly netted a group of three thieves thousands in cash.

Officers were called to the southeast corner of the intersection at the Midtown Center shopping center around 9:15 PM to a report that a group of three males was seen pushing another person to the ground before fleeing in a vehicle last seen headed south.

Police found a man who appeared to have suffered a serious knock to the back of his head and who told police he had just been mugged of $4,600 in cash, according to East Precinct radio dispatches.

Police were searching for a vehicle described as a tan or beige four-door sedan and the three suspects. Police did not have specific descriptions of the suspects and there was no indication of why the victim was carrying so much cash in the SPD report on the incident.

Seattle Fire was called to the scene to treat the victim’s injuries.

Pike/Pine entrepreneur tells Big Mario’s goodbye as he gears up for stadium Gridiron project

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Meinert, center, on patrol on E Pike

Capitol Hill-born Big Mario’s has new ownership. But don’t be sad. Your favorite chain of faux dive pizza bars is in familiar, local hands.

Dave Meinert, a Seattle nightlife entrepreneur with his fingers in many of the most popular venues in the core of Pike/Pine entertainment district, announced he has been bought out of the three-location pizza chain by his longtime partners and frequent collaborators. Continue reading →

Blotter | I-5 death, Broadway hate assault, E Pine thumb stabbing

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See something others should know about? Email CHS or call/txt (206) 399-5959. You can view recent CHS Crime coverage here.

  • I-5 death: Monday morning commuters were witness to a horrific scene along I-5 south as a woman fell to her death near Pike. Seattle Fire confirms the woman in her 50s died at the scene. Witnesses reported seeing the woman jump from the street above the freeway. SPD is investigating.
  • Broadway hate assault: Police took a woman into custody for investigation of a hate crime and harassment in a Sunday morning, June 17th incident on Broadway:Police tallied a long list of reported transgressions: Continue reading →

‘A sense of home’ on Capitol Hill: a look inside the new Consulate of Mexico in Seattle

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Two times a week, its legal protection team visits many of the some 200 immigrant women — most mothers separated from their children —  currently held in the SeaTac Federal Detention Center.

“This is something we work on every single day,” Roberto Dondisch, general consul at the Consulate of Mexico in Seattle, tells CHS.

But like many efforts at the consulate, the team’s work is not about politics or trying to change Trump administration policies. Instead the team checks in on the women’s well-being, helps connect them to lawyers and organizations that can help, and is there to make sure its citizens retain their human rights.

“We are very active,” Dondisch said. “Everybody has the right to ask for protection.” Continue reading →

City Council considering changes to how Seattle prosecutes hate crimes

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The Seattle City Council will begin the legislative process Tuesday afternoon to change the way hate crimes are prosecuted in the city.

CB 119288 would remove Seattle’s malicious harassment crime, the city’s current hate crime statute, and replace it with a “special allegation of hate crime motivation,” giving the City Attorney’s office greater range in prosecuting crimes targeting protected classes and the ability to ask for greater penalties on more serious cases:

This ordinance authorizes the City Attorney to allege that a criminal incident of assault, harassment or property destruction was motivated by the defendant’s perception of the victim’s race, color, religion, ancestry, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, mental handicap, physical handicap, sensory handicap, homelessness, marital status, political ideology, age, or parental status.

Replacing the crime of malicious harassment with the new special allegation of hate crime motivation will have three major impacts, according to a city council staff memo on the legislation. Continue reading →

Doghouse’s leather and kink retail project set to kick new life into 107-year-old Pike/Pine building with a (probably) racy past

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A Capitol Hill leather and kink shop is set to be at the heart of an overhaul of an overlooked but history-packed 107-year-old building on a key E Pike block.

Doghouse Leathers is starting in on design planning for a new home at 715 E Pike in the 1911-built building sandwiched by Saint John’s and Stitches and Babeland that is one of the few auto row-era structures still standing that has not yet been transformed for the new Pike/Pine.

“In my 35+ years dealing with Pike/Pine, I have never seen anything in that location other than the construction office for Pike Motorworks,” Doghouse owner Jeff Henness tells CHS. Continue reading →

CHS Pics | This week in Capitol Hill pictures

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Just tryin to solve this black hood nonsense. #whodunnit ?¿ 👻🧐

A post shared by O L I V I A F R A N C E S ✨ (@oliviafrances143) on

The CHS Flickr Pool contains 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 — and nearby — shutterbugs. Interested in being part of it? If we like your photo and it helps us tell the story, we may feature it on CHS so please include your name and/or a link to your website so we can properly credit you. Interested in working as a paid CHS contributor for scheduled assignments? Drop us a line.

We also keep our eyes on the #capitolhillseattle Instagram tag —- you should, too! Below are this week’s best Capitol Hill shots. Thanks for sharing! Continue reading →