The mayor of Capitol Hill: Why you should vote for Katie Wilson*

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(Image: Wilson for Seattle)

Who didn’t vote for Katie Wilson on Capitol Hill? — CHS was only partly joking when we looked at the maps of support for the mayoral candidates in August’s primary election. Candidate Katie Wilson, the progressive organizer and leader at the Transit Riders Union who has helped lead minimum wage and renter rights campaigns around the region, did well here in a tough summer vote for the city’s centrist incumbents. As we head toward the General Election on November 4th, Mayor Bruce Harrell has been on the offensive, claiming his opponent was a leader in the defund the police movement and accusing Wilson campaign supporters of racism. Wilson has mostly deflected the political potshots to remain focused on her messages around affordability and underserved communities including leading the city with plans to create $1 billion in union-built affordable housing, build 4,000 units of shelter, and expand police alternatives like the Community Assisted Response & Engagement Department’s crisis responders while also fielding smaller initiatives like championing creation of more public restrooms in the city. You can read more of her plans and platform at her campaign website: wilsonforseattle.com.

* We’ll have more with Harrell soon about his issues with Wilson and what he hopes to shape in a second term leading the city.

Below, CHS talks with Wilson about her campaign, her plans for the city, hot button issues like the Broadway Crisis Care Center, the Capitol Hill Superblock, and a key element that surprisingly hasn’t come up much on the campaign trail — Katie Wilson would truly be a Capitol Hill mayor.

CHS: A lot has been said about you being Seattle’s first renter mayor. That would be cool, but there’s more to it. You’d be Seattle’s first Capitol Hill renter mayor. How did you end up here in the neighborhood?

Wilson: Do we know for sure that I’d be the first renter? How did I end up on Capitol Hill? I’ve been gradually getting closer to Capitol Hill the whole time I’ve lived in Seattle. I first landed in Greenwood back in 2004 when my husband Scott and I moved here. We found a lady on Craigslist who would rent us a room in her basement for $400 a month, and that just happened to be in Greenwood. We didn’t know anything about the neighborhoods of Seattle. After that, we lived on Phinney Ridge for a long time, so we were in North Seattle, and then we moved into a house with some other people in the Central District, kind of in the 24th and Pine neighborhood. Then we lived in a house with other people up in Squire Park, which is almost Capitol Hill. Finally, we moved in 2018 into our current apartment, which is right up at the top of Capitol Hill. It’s just been gradually honing in the whole time that we’ve lived here, and it’s a great neighborhood to live in if you don’t own a car, for example. Lots of grocery stores are within walking distance, lots of transit right out the door, and the light rail station is just a short walk away. So it’s a great neighborhood for that kind of urban lifestyle. Obviously, now I have a daughter, so raising a daughter in an apartment building, it’s really important to us to have parks nearby. We spend a lot of time at Miller and Volunteer Park and some of the others. So, it’s a great neighborhood.

CHS: Something we don’t hear about are your roots. Mayors tend to have a root story for their city, and I haven’t heard that as much with you. Your opponent talks about the Central District and “good old days” almost in every speech, and I don’t hear that kind of nostalgia from you.

Wilson: Yeah. Well, I moved here in 2004, so I’ve lived here for over 20 years. Seattle is a real mix of people who have lived here for generations, people who grew up here, and people who have arrived from all over the country and all over the world. We have many immigrant communities, folks coming here from all over the world. I feel like that’s part of our city’s identity and culture: being a welcoming place that people move to for all kinds of reasons. People move here to work in the tech industry, LGBTQ+ folks move here because they’re not feeling welcome or safe in the community they grew up in. So, we’re a very diverse city, and many people here have stories that didn’t start in Seattle, and that doesn’t make us any less Seattleite, I think. Continue reading →

911 | SPD called to beer shop after pro-Palestine protesters target food truck

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See something others should know about? Email CHS or call/txt (206) 399-5959. You can view recent CHS 911 coverage here. Hear sirens and wondering what’s going on? Check out reports from @jseattle or join and check in with neighbors in the CHS Facebook Group.

  • Chuck’s protest: Seattle Police’s Outreach Engagement Team responded to the Chuck’s Central District beer shop last Wednesday night after a protest targeted the Falafel Salam food truck in the E Union store’s lot:
    At 1630 hours, about 8 pro-Palestine individuals arrived at Chuck’s Hop Shop near 20 Ave/E Union St while the business was open. The protestors entered the business to verbally confront the owner. The owner demanded they leave but they initially refused, and he called 911. Officers and 242 (POET1) responded and spoke to a protestor liaison and the business owner. By the time officers arrived, all parties we separated, and the protestors were on the sidewalk engaged in verbal chants. POET established ground rules of no trespassing, property damage or assaults and the group agreed. POET met with the owner and explained SPD and POETs response. Continue reading →

A new hope for Capitol Hill beer: Outer Planet has a new owner

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Outer Planet opened in 2015 — its sign dated to “2014 reflects some of the early optimism and challenges in running a microbrewery

There is a new hope for Capitol Hill-brewed craft beer. A new owner imbued with the force of beer making has stepped forward at 12th Ave’s Outer Planet.

“I figured it’s now or never,” Amory Carhart tells CHS about his decision to swoop in for a beyond the last second revival of the Capitol Hill microbrewery. Continue reading →

Seattle’s minimum wage in 2026: $21.30

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Marches and “fast food strikes” like this one in 2015 outside the First Hill McDonald’s were part of the push for the new minimum wage

Seattle’s minimum wage for 2026 will be rise to $21.30 an hour, the Office of Labor Standards announced this week.

The 2.6% bump will be effective January 1st and reflects “the rate of inflation based on the Consumer Price Index (CPI-W) for the Seattle Tacoma Bellevue area.”

“The minimum wage applies regardless of the employee’s immigration status,” the OLS reminds in its announcement.

The annual setting of the inflation-pegged wage change comes as Seattle marked ten years of the “$15 Now” minimum wage in the city.

The movement began with calls for a $15 an hour minimum wage. It took Seattle seven years to get there. Continue reading →

Did Capitol Hill’s best doughnut shop just go out of business? — UPDATE: ‘That doughnut is going to resurface somewhere’

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(Image: Half and Half Doughnut Co.)

Capitol Hill appears to be down another doughnut shop. This one has been closed since mid-month, its website isn’t working, and its ownership… well, it’s confusing. But, depending on who you ask, these might have been the best doughnuts on Capitol Hill.

Half and Half Doughnut Co. debuted on E Pike six years ago October. At the time, CHS made much of Half and Half’s craft doughnut roots as Top Pot founder Michael Klebeck said he was getting back into the small batch fried dough game in the building where his Sun Liquor Distillery was located before moving off the Hill.

After the shop went dark earlier this month, Klebeck told CHS he didn’t know what was going on either.

Klebeck says he had been a “hired gun” who “helped build and launch the concept but was never part of ownership.” Continue reading →

Rabies: Health department looking for people who helped sick bat near Arboretum last week

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King County Public Health is looking for two people who may have come into contact with a rabid bat found outside a residence near the Washington Park Arboretum last week.

Officials say the encounter apparently involved people who found the injured animal and provided it water, according to a note left on the door of a Boyer Ave E home:

The bat was first identified on September 23, 2025. A King County resident found a note on their door indicating that two unknown people had given the bat water and alerting the resident to the sick bat. The bat was euthanized by an animal control agency on September 24. Public Health tested the bat for rabies and received a positive test on September 25.

Continue reading →

With Petit Pierre Bakery bike shop pop-up, pastry chef brings a cycle of perfectly layered croissants to Capitol Hill

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Pierre Poulin’s passion for perfectly layered croissants has found a new home on Capitol Hill. The French pastry chef, who operates two Petit Pierre Bakery locations in Magnolia and Phinney Ridge, has opened a six-month pop-up inside Capitol Hill’s Metier, bringing his meticulous approach to French pastries to a new neighborhood.

“We do several bakes a day,” Poulin said . “We have our first bake that comes out around 7 am, then we have a second bake that comes out at 10, and a third bake that comes at 1. At one PM, you’re still getting fresh product coming out of the oven, and the difference is just striking.” Continue reading →

With 8-story Constellation Center affordable development underway on Capitol Hill, Community Roots Housing names new CEO

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(Image: Community Roots Housing)

Community Roots Housing — the public development authority born decades ago as Capitol Hill Housing —  has named its next leader.

The developer and operator of affordable housing across Capitol Hill and the city has announced Colleen Echohawk as its new Chief Executive Officer. Community Roots called Echohawk “an established champion of Seattle’s Native and under-resourced populations” in its announcement.

Echohawk, then the Chief Seattle Club executive director, mounted an unsuccessful run for mayor in 2021 championing creation of a “Public Safety Department” including “community-based mental health workers and neighborhood liaisons.” Continue reading →

One shot in leg at Broadway and Harrison — UPDATE

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From the CHS Facebook Group

One person was reported shot in the leg and two people were suffering from exposure to pepper spray in a late Sunday afternoon incident at Broadway and Harrison.

Seattle Police and Seattle Fire were called to the reported shooting just after 4 PM and responded to find a woman suffering from a gunshot wound to the leg, Two males at the scene were reportedly being treated for exposure to pepper spray, according to East Precinct radio updates. Continue reading →

‘Let’s talk local’ — Capitol Hill and Eastlake councils team up to host candidates

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Monday brings a neighborhood team effort as the Seattle political season heads into the stretch run toward November with a candidates forum from the Capitol Hill Community Council and the Eastlake Community Council… in Montlake.

It will be a collaborative effort as the candidates for Seattle City Council Position 9, Seattle City Attorney, and the Seattle School Board races are slated to take part in the event.

The councils are promising “a chance to hear directly from the people seeking to represent us.” Continue reading →