How SDOT might fix the Cal Anderson sidewalk and still save the park’s Red Sunset Maples

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The Seattle Department of Transportation has provided more details of how it might handle the dozens of Red Sunset Maples surrounding Cal Anderson Park as it works to improve damaged sidewalks in the area.

CHS reported earlier this month on the “tree retention evaluation” underway at the park as SDOT said the area along 11th Ave and other areas of the park were being evaluated “to consider possible solutions to address sidewalk damage with minimal impact to the trees.”

SDOT said one possible solution could be to adjust the path of the sidewalk around the trees. A spokesperson said other solutions to preserve the trees in areas where there is no room to zig zag around them are being considered.

In an update sent to CHS, SDOT said crews are removing the old sidewalk pavement, “exposing the roots so that arborists can evaluate their condition and use established standards to determine if pruning is necessary and how it can be done without harming the trees.” Continue reading →

Also coming soon on 15th Ave E: Tandoori Flame & Indian Grill and Meliora, the long-awaited new restaurant taking over the old Canterbury space

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Thanks to @KI7BDA for the picture

While you are thinking about the big changes coming to 15th Ave E, there are some smaller shifts happening in the area’s food and drink mix where a decade-old Vietnamese joint is making way for a new Indian restaurant with Hilltop roots in the kitchen and a long-awaited “modern European” restaurant from veterans of the city’s Indian food and drink scene is also nearing an opening where the old Canterbury used to do its thing.

Tandoori Flame and Indian Grill is making preparations to open soon in the space formerly home to Bamboo above 15th Ave E.

Jaspreet Manhani and Bobby Manhani are part of an extended Indian family of food and drink around the city that includes former 15th Ave E resident Kanak and E Madison’s Bombay Burger.

Tandoori Flame, Jaspreet says, will focus on the curries and flavors of North India. Continue reading →

Five-story mixed-use development planned for Capitol Hill block that QFC ditched and ShopRite and Rudy’s still call home

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QFC isn’t coming back to 15th Ave E anytime soon. The old grocery building and the rest of its 15th Ave E block are now being lined up for redevelopment some six years after Capitol Hill developer Hunters Capital’s $11.25 million deal to purchase the property, according to permit paperwork filed this week with the city.

The Seattle Daily Journal of Commerce is also reporting on the plans.

According to permits, Hunters Capital is planning a five-story mixed building with around 150 apartment units and underground parking for around 116 vehicles on the site running from the middle of the 400 block of 15th Ave E to E Republican. The plans include demolition of the 1904-built Moore Family building home to a Rudy’s Barbershop and longtime neighborhood convenience store ShopRite and the adjacent grocery and surface parking lot that hosted a grocery since 1944 until QFC exited the street in 2021 in a tiff with the Seattle City Council over COVID-19 hazard pay.

In a statement to CHS, a Hunters Capital representative confirmed the plans. Continue reading →

Seattle speaks for its trees with overgrown set of new protections

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First Central Station’s central courtyard (Image: First Central Station)

The Seattle City Council approved new tree protections in the city Tuesday after more than a decade of debate stacked up a Loraxian level of legislation in the sprawling, many-branched bill.

The new ordinance expands protections to a total of 175,000 trees across Seattle, creates a 4-tier system to categorize trees, establishes a mandate requiring new developments to include street trees, increases penalties for illegal street cutting, expands Seattle Public Utilities’ Trees for Neighborhoods Program, creates additional penalties for unregistered tree service providers, requires trees to be replaced onsite if they’re removed for development or a fee be paid to plant and maintain trees in under-treed areas, increases street tree requirements for developments in neighborhood residential zones, addresses the lack of trees in historically underserved communities through the establishment of a payment in-lieu program, significantly restricts tree removals on Neighborhood Residential lots, and establishes “clear and consistent” parameters for tree protection standards.

The council Tuesday passed the legislation 6-1 with only NE Seattle rep Alex Pedersen opposing the passage after he failed to convince fellow councilmembers to delay their vote until June to give advocates more time to further shape the ordinance. District 3 representative Kshama Sawant was not present for the vote. Continue reading →

The Rise — ‘the largest building constructed by any affordable housing provider in Seattle’ — opens on First Hill

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(Image: The Rise)

Tuesday’s ribbon cutting ceremony at the latest affordable housing development to open in Seattle will be extremely unusual — it will take place on the 17th floor, at the top of The Rise, the new set of First Hill structures in a joint project from Plymouth Housing and Bellwether Housing.

“The new building is the result of innovative solutions to development of affordable housing and strong partnership between local and state leaders and nonprofit developers,” the affordable housing providers said in a statement on the opening. Plymouth’s collaboration has risen on surplus Sound Transit land at Madison and Boylston, “the largest building constructed by any affordable housing provider in Seattle.” Continue reading →

SPD 2023 staffing report: It now takes more than an hour for an East Precinct cop to show up for low priority calls

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The East Precinct is down about three sergeants and two or three officers from last year, according to the latest “Sworn Staffing, Finances and Performance Metrics Report” from the Seattle Police Department. Meanwhile, exits from the city’s total police force have slowed since last summer, officials say, and response times for the most serious 911 calls have stabilized — though, especially in the East Precinct, lower priority response times have gotten significantly worse.

Officials are discussing the report Tuesday morning at a session of the Seattle City Council’s Public Safety and Human Services Committee. Continue reading →

Broadway loses its holy spirit: Southern-style cocktail joint Witness has closed

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(Image: Witness)

Beginning with a summer sermon on Broadway just shy of ten years ago, Southern spirited cocktail bar Witness served its final Capitol Hill congregation Sunday night. Let us pray.

“We’re honored to have been able to serve the Capitol Hill community for almost 10 years alongside amazing staff who’ve graced Witness with their brilliance and given it its character,” owners Gregg Holcomb and Alison Holcomb said in their goodbye message for the bar on social media. “It’s meant so much to us to be able to raise a child in the light of Witness and stitch a family and small business into the fabric of a neighborhood we’ve loved since first calling it home in 2000, back before Gregg’s first bartending gig.”

Gregg Holcomb tells CHS he will remain in the food and drink business on Broadway. In 2019, Holcomb opened Olmstead chef Jesse Elliott, bringing the old Broadway Grill space back to life. Continue reading →

The HoneyHole emails: a fired employee, thousands of dollars in rotten meat, and a Capitol Hill sandwich legend struggling with staffing and management issues — UPDATE

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A message HoneyHole ownership says was sent by a disgruntled employee after they were fired Sunday

It has been a rough two years and three months in the sandwich business in Seattle.

Sunday, things got a lot rougher for the HoneyHole.

“HoneyHole Owner Harasses Employees,” isn’t the kind of subject line you typically see on a marketing email blast to thousands of customers on a Sunday afternoon. HoneyHole’s social media accounts also lit up with the same message. “For the last two years under new ownership, hundreds of employees have been retaliated against, harassed, discriminated against, demeaned, degraded, and treated like a subhuman species,” it began.

“We Were Hacked,” read a second message that arrived a couple hours later.

But the damage was done. The first message spread across social media with calls for everything from a boycott to a sandwich protest as fans lamented possibly having to go without The Gooch and the Veggie BLT.

HoneyHole owner Kristin Rye, who purchased the legendary Pike/Pine sandwich shop and bar with her husband Patrick Rye and moved to the area in 2021 to grow the business, tells CHS that the HoneyHole remains open on E Pike and the “hack” was the actions of a manager who Rye said was fired Sunday. Continue reading →

Photographic Center Northwest focuses on accessibility and new tech in the the arts-driven mixed-use project that will create its new 12th Ave home

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By Sophia Callan, UW News Lab/Special to CHS

Members of the public want the Photographic Center Northwest to consider accessibility and technological advancements in its new building, according to discussions at a public forum on the project that will make a new home for the nonprofit in a new mixed-use development on its 12th Ave property.

The forum was held earlier this month to share goals for construction of the upcoming seven-story commercial and residential Photographic Center Northwest facility on Capitol Hill as well as to address concerns from the community. The forum focused on future plans of PCNW as it begins its transition into building a new space.

Designing and building a new space at the current PCNW location will allow for more growth with advances in technology, education, and photography, the organization says.

“The project will also address a growing demand for programs, services, and education,” Terry Novak, the executive director of PCNW, said.

Novak led the forum, which was mostly attended by PCNW volunteers and faculty. The forum lasted about an hour and a half with most of the time being used for questions from the audience. Novak began the forum by explaining PCNW’s reasons for changing facilities as well as providing a brief timeline and plans for future construction and programs.

“Right now we’re finalizing designs for the new space and outlining educational programs for the period during construction,” Novak said. Continue reading →

CHS Pics | Capitol Hill’s First African Methodist Episcopal Church and Miller Community Center part of 2023 Seattle Day of Service

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From left to right: Comailla Chandler, Melisssa Chandler, David Raubvogel, and Mia Chandler

Thousands of volunteers gathered to help with neighborhood clean-ups and work parties across Seattle Saturday including a hard working bunch that put their sweat and effort into the block around 14th Ave’s First African Methodist Episcopal Church.

The FAME Seattle work party was one of a handful around Capitol Hill and the Central District as part of the 2023 Seattle Day of Service, the second annual event started by the Harrell administration to encourage volunteers and take on the mayor’s pet peeves around graffiti and trash. Continue reading →