‘Major Announcement on Future of Public Safety in Seattle’ — Mayor announces new Seattle Police contract with big raises, room for CARE expansion

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UPDATE 10:50 AM:  Mayor Bruce Harrell was set to make a “Major Announcement on Future of Public Safety in Seattle” Wednesday morning with details of a new contract agreement with the Seattle Police Officers Guild.

Publicola reported details of the pact Tuesday covering 2024 to 2027 including continued pay raises for officers. The new contract will be applied retroactively for 2024 and 2025 salaries.

In Wednesday’s announcement, below. Harrell touted the tentative agreement’s progress on growing the city’s Community Assisted Response & Engagement department and adding more crisis responders in the city.

Under the deal with SPOG, the mayor says the agreement “expands the types of incidents CCRs can be dispatched to, and authorizes CCRs to be solo dispatched to low-acuity 9-1-1 calls.” Continue reading →

Medgar Evers Pool — the public swimming pool serving the Central District and Capitol Hill — set for 8-week, $1.4M overhaul

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(Image: City of Seattle)

The only public swimming pool serving the neighborhoods around the Central District and Capitol Hill will close for a round of upgrades and overhauls to end 2025.

Seattle Parks says the $1.4 million Medgar Evers Pool project will include accessibility improvements, HVAC replacement, and renovation of the men’s and women’s locker rooms.

A study is being conducted to help determine potential structural upgrades for the 1969-built brutalist-style pool building part of the Garfield Community Center campus along 23rd Ave next to Garfield High School. Continue reading →

Ideas for ‘short-term rentals and long-term leases’ are lining up to put Capitol Hill Egyptian back into motion

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The Egyptian (Image: CHS)

The screen at The Egyptian hopefully won’t stay dark much longer.

A spokesperson for Seattle Central College that owns the 110-year-old former Masonic Temple building the movie theater calls home says the Capitol Hill school is currently “reviewing applications for short-term rentals and long-term leases of the Egyptian.” Continue reading →

CHS Pics | ‘WIN THE WHOLE FKN THI∩G’ — Capitol Hill Mariners fans drown their sorrows at The Roanoke

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The Seattle Mariners have never been to a World Series and they’re not going in 2025. The Roanoke’s Big Dumper-inspired call above 10th Ave E to “WIN THE WHOLE FKN THI∩G” will have to wait for next year. Continue reading →

TOASTED, ‘Seattle’s premier halal bagel cafe,’ is coming to Capitol Hill

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(Image: Toasted)

The Seattle chain currently has three locations (Image: Toasted)

A new location of “Seattle’s premier halal bagel cafe and coffee shop” is coming to Capitol Hill.

Planning for a new TOASTED cafe is underway for a street level suite below the mixed-use Solis building at 13th and Pike.

The fast growing business from Jaafar Altameemi and Murat Akyuz currently boasts locations in the University District, South Lake Union, and Bellevue. Another shop in reportedly in the works in Pioneer Square.

“We built this place to resemble what we know best—home. The Middle Eastern hospitality that’s deeply rooted in our culture is the pillar that supports TOASTED,” the company says. “The Mediterranean flavors are its signature.” Continue reading →

‘Upward revision’ — Seattle forecast shows slight improvement amid ongoing economic volatility

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Seattle leaders looking in every nook and cranny trying to balance the city’s budget in 2026 got some cautiously delivered good news Monday as the nation’s volatile economy and ongoing efforts at federal cutbacks under the Trump administration are whipsawing local forecasts across the country.

The bottom line in Monday’s briefing (video) to the Seattle City Council’s budget committee is a $14.6 million “upward revision” in the city’s latest 2026 economic forecast.

Seattle’s annual general fund budget is around $2 billion but nearly $15 million is the kind of revenue that can fund important social programs and services.

The new forecast part of the city’s ongoing analysis as the council takes on finalizing Mayor Bruce Harrell’s 2026 budget plan appears to be part of what will be ongoing oscillation as economic markets have experienced unprecedented volatility. Continue reading →

A year of concerns and plans over Capitol Hill’s Pike/Pine gun violence

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Simmons

The shooting that killed 18-year-old Jaydon Jameson this month at Broadway and Pike has brought a new round of calls for increased public safety efforts in this area of Capitol Hill.

This weekend also brought the one-year anniversary of another Pike/Pine murder only blocks away that was also a time when local businesses, property owners, residents, and city officials had said enough is enough.

Sunday marked one year since 25-year-old Breanna Simmons was gunned down on 11th Ave in a murder that has not been publicly solved. The victim was shot multiple times in the chest and died in the street early that Saturday as Seattle Police and Seattle Fire rendered aid at the scene.

“Breanna was a dedicated mother, daughter, granddaughter, sister, cousin, niece and friend. She loved having fun and spending time with her daughter. She liked to help others out. Breanna was predeceased by grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins,” The Facts reported in her obituary. “She leaves to cherish many memories with her daughter, mom, dad, brothers, grandparents, cousin that’s like her sister, and a host of cousins, aunties, and uncles.”

CHS later learned that the Simmons murder had set off a chain of actions and promises by city officials over safety concerns in the Pike/Pine nightlife core. Continue reading →

‘Reasonable efforts in abatement’ — Judge rules against immediate closure of Denny Blaine Park — UPDATE

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A King County Superior Court judge has ruled that the City of Seattle efforts to improve conditions around Denny Blaine Park including new fences and signs added late this summer are adequate to keep the space open to the public while a lawsuit from neighbors over the nude beach moves toward a spring trial.

Judge Samuel Chung heard an update Friday on the city’s “abatement” plan for Denny Blaine and ruled against lawyers representing a group of anonymous neighbors seeking to shut the park down. Continue reading →

Pikes/Pines | Ferns aren’t just Capitol Hill cottagecore

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The very fern-y Interlaken Park on Capitol Hill (Image: City of Seattle)

When my partner and I moved to our home, we stood on our back deck, exhilarated to have a space for our creative endeavors and also completely overwhelmed by all the work we’d signed up for. Below us was a sprawling tangle of blackberries, Vinca, and St. John’s Wort – none of which we wanted to keep. When I asked Caitlin what she wanted to replace this chaos with, she immediately had an answer: “Just ferns. A hillside of ferns.”

This isn’t just a home cottagecore decorating trend using the plant to make a lush, textured, and fashionable connection to nature. And it isn’t such a bizarre request because if you have spent any time in the Pacific Northwest, you know ferns are a common native plant. The most well known species, the Sword Fern, Polystitchum munitum, can be found all around the Salish Sea, and is happy on the Hill both growing wild and rampant in untended spaces and as ornamental plants that are primped and trimmed to look their best each season. They are so commonplace, low fuss, and hardy, that they are easy to take for granted. Continue reading →