Author Archives: Kelsey Hamlin

About Kelsey Hamlin

Kelsey Hamlin studied Journalism and Law, Societies & Justice at the University of Washington. For three years, she has focused her work around social justice issues, legalities and policies.

From creator of Roq La Rue, Creatura House comes home to E Pike

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(Images: Creatura House)

Back from trips abroad and creating a nonprofit, Kirsten Anderson is again starting up an art gallery, but this time it’s intertwined with retail and, in a twist for the traveler, home.

Anderson founded art gallery Roq La Rue in 1998 and ran the space until it shuttered last year. It had a successful run, eventually, profits began to fall and Anderson felt burnt out on the arts scene.

“I thought this was a good time to step out and explore other things I want to do,” she said. Anderson spent her time exploring other countries as she raised money for her nonprofit. “I really missed having a space here in Seattle, being a part of the community. I had really gotten into home decor, and pulled in fine arts.”

Creatura House will be a home decor shop mingled with select art. The products will not be mass produced. To reside at 705 E Pike next to Babeland and Honeyhole, the shop opens December 8th with artist Peter Ferguson’s series of new paintings for his exhibition “I’ll Line My Nest With Your Bones.”

UPDATE: The grand opening is planned for December 15th:

https://www.capitolhillseattle.com/event/creatura-house-grand-opening/

Skate style shop Alive and Well will be making way for the new venture.

The arts business, for a while, wasn’t something Anderson thought she’d get back into.

“Artwork has changed so much and mid level galleries have been blown out,” she said. Anderson fiddles with one of the many rings on her tattooed fingers. They’re delicate tattoos, like dots and arrows. Larger tattoos decorated her arms and her earrings sparkled green and maroon beneath her black hair. Her subdued and darker style matched that of her artistic interests.

“I’m really into anything that’s dark and beautiful, not necessarily macabre, but I appreciate dark things as well,” Anderson said. “I’m completely driven by aesthetics, my whole life. I have made a living selling beautiful things to people. I like to make environments that are beautiful for people.”

She said she likes to straddle the line between absolutely beautiful and somewhat grotesque. Anderson pictures Creatura House warm, beautiful, and with a decayed opulence. Continue reading →

King County to ‘reorg’ a public health approach to juvenile justice

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King County Executive Dow Constantine signed an order Thursday directing the health department to make a plan and timeline for juvenile justice reform. Seattle Police Department Chief Kathleen O’Toole supports the order.

“I wholeheartedly support this bold step to transform the way our community handles juvenile offenders,” O’Toole said in a statement. “Credible research suggests that we can reduce crime by bringing a rehabilitative, public health approach to juvenile justice. In addition to the change that’s being announced today, I also believe we must continue to expand programs that support all of Seattle’s young people early in life, investments that are essential to preventing youth from becoming offenders in the first place.” Continue reading →

Central District artist’s sculpture will be part of 23rd/Union redevelopment

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James Washington, Jr. (Image courtesy James & Janie Washington Foundation)

A work by an important Central District African American artist will be restored in the midst of coming redevelopment set to reshape the corner of 23rd and Union.

The James and Janie Washington Foundation, a museum and art gallery to commemorate and preserve the work of James Washington Jr, announced the planned restoration of the “Fountain of Triumph” sculpture that has called the MidTown shopping center home since the 1990s.

The sculpture will temporarily move from MidTown to the foundation’s property on 26th Avenue and Denny so the Pratt Fine Arts center can restore it. When the sculpture returns to its original location, it will be part of a major new mixed-use development that will partner a for-profit developer with affordable housing and community nonprofits including Africatown.

James Washington Jr., an African American writer and artist, created “The Fountain of Triumph” in the late 1990s. He passed away in 2000 at 90 years old. Meant to be a community meeting place and focal point for unity in an ever-changing neighborhood, the sculpture will stay true to Washington Jr.’s original intent as it gets restored and placed in Africatown.

“We’re so pleased that LUP is helping to restore and return this meaningful sculpture to its original location,” said Washington Foundation board president Reverend LaVerne Hall in the announcement of the project. “We’re thrilled it will be returning it to its former glory.” Continue reading →

Two big items on Sound Transit’s agenda for lots of affordable housing on Broadway, First Hill — UPDATE

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UPDATE 3:35 PM: The Sound Transit board approved both motions Thursday afternoon paving the way for a “no cost” transfer of two First Hill properties to nonprofit developers Bellwether Housing and Plymouth Housing and, in the second vote, putting in place a memorandum of understanding between the transit agency, Seattle Central, and Capitol Hill Housing for a swap of Capitol Hill properties. Details on the plans are below.

In public comments, Bellwether’s CEO Susan Boyd called the joint proposal with Plymouth “a bold plan” that will create much needed affordable housing on First Hill.

Board member and Seattle City Council member Rob Johnson called the First Hill proposal “very consistent with what the community asked for” and said the neighborhood’s “YIMBY” spirit was reflected in the plan.

King County Executive Dow Constantine said affordable housing is now central to Sound Transit’s mission as it also works to provide transit to the region’s growing population. Pierce County Executive Bruce Dammeier, meanwhile, voted against the motion saying he was troubled by the “no cost” aspect of the plan as a “dangerous precedent.”

Additionally, the board also approved a motion on a plan for “Central Transit-Oriented Development” near the Roosevelt light rail station that will involve Bellwether and Mercy Housing Northwest.

Original report: Sound Transit’s board is scheduled to make two key decisions on property it owns across First Hill and Capitol Hill that will potentially open the way for big deals around affordable housing and and expanded Seattle Central.

The Sound Transit Board will vote Thursday whether to move forward with two land deals.

One motion paves the way negotiate with Plymouth Housing and Bellwether Housing in a purchase of Sound Transit land at 1014 Boylston Ave and 1400 Madison meant for high-rise affordable housing, up to 160 feet.

“We thought in viewing their proposal that their numbers were reasonable,” said Sarah Lovell from Sound Transit. “It is an expensive project. It’s expensive to build a high-rise. But stacking two housing project increases their ability to get subsidies. They’re trying to be really efficient with their design.” Continue reading →

Plan would turn Seattle Central property at Broadway and Pine into homeless youth facility, housing

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(Image: CHS)

Thanks to the watchful eye of Representative Frank Chopp (D-34), a Seattle Central College building at Broadway and Pine will likely turn into a hub of homeless youth services and, hopefully, a new apartment development replacing one of Broadway’s last surface parking lots.

Last winter, the college put out notice that they were seeking development partners for two Broadway properties. Per the law, public agencies are required to publicize it first to other government agencies. That’s when it came across Chopp’s desk.

“We did a tour of the site a while ago and it clearly is an ideal site for it,” Chopp tells CHS. “If you look at where the homeless youth congregates, it’s in Capitol Hill and the U District.” Continue reading →

Trial of Capitol Hill photographer charged with rape set to begin

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The trial of Matt Hickey, the Capitol Hill gadfly, photographer, and freelancer accused of rape through fake porn “auditions,” is scheduled to begin November 27th.

Barring any further continuance, prosecutors hope to charge Hickey with four separate counts of second degree rape. Hickey’s initial October 2016 court date postponed due to Hickey’s refusal to waive the extradition process as he sat in a Nevada jail. His first appeared in court November 29th, 2016 where pleaded not guilty. Hickey remains jailed on $200,000 bail.

The Stranger’s Sydney Brownstone first investigated and revealed Hickey’s alleged rape and scams last year. The Los Angeles Times highlighted Brownstone’s work in a story on the case last week.

SPD’s investigation turned up more alleged rapes since 2001. Hickey, meanwhile, claims sexual contact with the victims was consensual.

Seattle ‘Employee Hours Tax’ at center of budget debate — UPDATE

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Seattle City Council budget chair Lisa Herbold’s job is to take the mayor’s budget proposal and shape it for the city’s most important priorities. This week, her committee will put the final touches on Seattle’s budget “balancing” process.

A new employee hours tax — sometimes referred to as a head tax — stands at the center of the effort.

“If we pass the Employee Hours Tax…  starting in 2018 we can begin to invest nearly $50 million each year and create 2,000 additional units of affordable housing over four years,” Herbold writes in an update on the budget process, “for both low-wage working families and formerly homeless individuals. This would more than double what the Housing Levy funds each year.”

UPDATE 2:10 PM: During Tuesday’s budget committee meeting, Council members voted against the employee hours tax proposal in a 5-4 vote. Those who opposed were Harrell, Juarez, Johnson, Bagshaw and Gonzalez. However, Harrell, Johnson and Gonzalez expressed support for coming back to the HOMES tax early in 2018.

While many in Seattle’s business communities have voiced opposition to the HOMES tax, Council members Kshama Sawant, Mike O’Brien, Kirsten Harris-Talley and Herbold have been planning a budget including its implementation.

Continue reading →

Voters overwhelmingly approve $350M King County Veterans, Seniors and Human Services Levy

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Amazon recruiters and jobseekers at a VHSL-sponsored Veterans Career Expo at the Convention Center in July 2016 (Image: King County)

Voters this week approved Prop. 1, the Veterans, Seniors and Human Services Levy. It gives funding to services providing assistance to veterans, military service members, their families, seniors and their caregivers, and vulnerable King County populations. At last tally, more than 67% of King County voters said “yes” to the boost.

Capital facilities, regional health, and human services for housing, financial stability, healthy living and social engagement. It requires a six-year property tax less than 11 cents per $1,000 assessed valuation on all taxable property. The tax increases will reach no more than 3.5% in the other five years. It will raise more than $350 million over six years.

It largely helps domestic violence survivors and veterans. Locally, there are groups like King County Veterans’ Consortium, The Seattle Stand Down.

The levy has existed since 2005 when it was created to alleviate deep cuts in human services and was seeking its third renewal. This time it adopts the outcomes-based framework and gives more support to affordable housing.

Previously, each section of the program typically screened around 2,700 veterans with around a 76% success rate in diversion and housing. You can read more about its performance here.

Seattle sorting out how to pay for expansion of drug diversion program beyond Capitol Hill

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Transitioning the emphasis from arrest to treatment and services when it comes to addiction, mental illness, and homelessness is slowly changing policing and the city’s connections to its streets in downtown and parts of Capitol Hill. The hopes to expand Law Enforcement Assisted Diversion to the rest of the East Precinct now hinges on the process underway at City Hall to shape Seattle’s 2018 budget.

Tracy Gillespie, who handles LEAD’s East Precinct referrals, and LEAD’s operations advisor Najja Morris said the program’s biggest hurdle is funding, year after year. The program needs more case managers. Their hope is to expand throughout Seattle by 2019, which Morris said would require around $4 million. Right now, LEAD is lined up for $1 million out of the city budget.

The program has been working in Seattle Police Department’s East Precinct — Capitol Hill, the Central District, and Little Saigon — since last year. But it’s been Capitol Hill centric because the program rolled out to SPD’s bicycle officers, who focus on the Hill, and not patrol officers in cars. Now, LEAD is working toward CD and Saigon expansion.

“It’s been really great to see a different demographic come into the program,” said Gillespie. “They tend to be younger, but a lot of them have aged out of the teen and young adult services, so they’re in between being a young person and being an adult.”

But there is uncertainty about how much funding will be available for the initiative in coming years. Continue reading →

Rather than more talk about Seattle’s homeless sweeps, here’s what one looks like

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With reporting by Alex Garland

Wednesday morning under I-90 at Rainier Avenue S, an outreach team and the Seattle Police Department performed a homeless sweep. People were living in sleeping bags, hammocks and using cardboard boxes. There were large piles of trash. Approximately two truck beds were seen overflowing, but much of the mass was made up of large slats and pallets.

SPD said the homeless individuals were given notice and signs were posted around the area of the looming sweep. Some, according to police, had subsequently already left the area by morning.

Those who remained were put in contact with outreach, but some refused services. One such person was a woman who said she didn’t want a shelter because of “bedbugs and bitches” or “not nice people.” Health concerns like bed bugs and communicable diseases are frequently cited for reasons some avoid shelters. Others tend to say their stuff will get stolen in shelters, and/or they’ll get paired with bad influences or predators.

SPD officer Brad DeVore was on the scene.

“We know there are issues with the process,” DeVore said. Continue reading →