Coffee giant Starbucks shuts down its Capitol Hill Roastery — UPDATE

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(Image: CHS)

The Capitol Hill Starbucks Roastery is permanently closed. Starbucks shut down the more than $20 million coffee destination with boarded windows and a paper sign Thursday morning.

“It is with heavy hearts that we announce the closure of the Seattle Reserve Roastery. This location has been the destination of coffee lovers from down the block and around the world,” it read. “That you have chosen to share this experience with us is deeply appreciated.
For our Cap Hill neighbors, thank you for making us a part of your life. Your loyalty over the years and the meaningful connections you have made with our partners will not be forgotten.”

The shutdown comes as the coffee giant announced it is shutting down more “underperforming stores” and laying off 900 workers. The company previously announced it was laying off 1,100 in cuts earlier this year.

Monday, unionized workers from Starbucks Workers United were outside the Melrose roastery rallying for a fair contract. Melrose roastery workers at the massive store, roasting plant, restaurant, and cafe voted to unionize in 2022. Continue reading →

Seattle Police Department conducts ‘retail theft operation’ at a Capitol Hill QFC — UPDATE: $281.91

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A neighborhood public safety walk focused on Broadway and Pike last spring

Noontime shoppers inside a Capitol Hill QFC grocery store mixed with some unusual customers last Thursday.

Seattle Police detectives and East Precinct patrol officers were inside the Broadway at Pike grocery conducting “a retail theft operation.”

“There were three arrests and several deterred thefts,” SPD reports.

The operation appears to have been an unusual assignment for SPD’s General Investigations Unit. Past operations SPD has touted have focused on downtown stores or big brand merchandise. Continue reading →

After a decade in Madison Valley, Bar Cantinetta has moved up to Capitol Hill

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(Image: Bar Cantinetta)

(Image: Bar Cantinetta)

Bar Cantinetta has moved up.

Shuttered in Madison Valley in 2023, the bar is the latest addition to Capitol Hill’s 15th Ave E, debuting this week in a beautiful buildout of the showpiece corner restaurant spot in the Capitol HIlltop mixed-use development.

“Cantinetta is known for honoring Tuscan culinary traditions with hand-made pastas and seasonal, locally sourced ingredients from the Pacific Northwest,” one announcement reads.

CHS reported a year ago October on the plans for the project as the restaurant family prepared to reopen the popular bar that previously been part of the area.

The corner used to be the site of the neigbhorhood’s HIlltop Service Station.

Cantinetta owner Trevor Greenwood knows the Central Seattle food and drink scene well. The original Bar Cantinetta closed in 2023 after a decade serving Madison Valley. Continue reading →

Seattle 2025 smoke season: ‘moderate’ and hopefully short

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Source: Airfire.org

Seattle appears set to get through with a relatively mild 2025 smoke season.

Smoke from large fires burning in the eastern Cascades that poured into the Puget Sound region over the weekend should let up, U.S. Interagency Wildland Fire Air Quality Response Program forecasters say, as an inversion layer fades and winds shift. Continue reading →

Harrell’s 2026 Seattle budget plan: Public safety hits 50% as progressive revenue — and expectation that voters approve overhaul of the city’s B&O tax — hoped to stave off cuts to other departments

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More than half of Seattle’s general fund spending will be on public safety under the 2026 Harrell proposal

View the full 2026 Budget Proposal (PDF)

Trailing progressive challenger Katie Wilson headed into the November election, Mayor Bruce Harrell has delivered his most uncertain Seattle budget plan yet since taking office four years ago. This budget season, the incumbent mayor is depending on Seattle voters for large chunks of the just under $2 billion in general fund spending his administration has proposed.  And economic realities under the Trump administration have put the accountants in major West Coast cities on edge with potentially debilitating whipsaws in policy.

Plus, Harrell might be budgeting for a city he won’t lead after a terrible showing in the August primary.

Besides all that, the 2026 Seattle budget proposal has now taken firm shape with Harrell handing over his 702-page plan to the Seattle City Council for debate, and, if those economic forecasts swing wildly lower again, cuts before the end of the year.

The administration says its plan is already overcoming a $150 million shortfall caused by the economic uncertainties.

The 2026 Harrell plan might be set on more unstable foundations but it has a familiar shape, like last year, placing a priority on police and public safety spending.

The adjustments in the big picture are about decimal points. Transportation spending stable at 5% of the general fund, administration spending down two points to 19%, arts and culture spending down a point to 7%, education up a point to 15%, spending to combat displacement and affordability up to 4%, and and public safety climbing once again — up a point to 50% in the 2026 proposal.

Seattle is now spending around $490 million a year on its police department with plans to spend more than a billion total on all its public safety departments in 2026. Continue reading →

A new leader at Lifelong as Dining Out for Life returns to Capitol Hill bars and restaurants

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Lifelong CEO James Shackelford (Image: Lifelong)

If rising costs have limited eating out to special occasions, then Lifelong’s Dining Out For Life might be such an occasion. The perennially popular event partners with local restaurants to raise money to support Lifelong’s range of services—from HIV support to food and nutrition, from housing to aging and disability—which the organization has provided for decades.

On Thursday, September 25, three dozen restaurants throughout Seattle will donate a percentage of their sales to Lifelong. Capitol Hill is well represented, with a/stir, Cantina del Sol, Gemini Room, Honeyhole, McMenamins Six Arms, morfire, Oddfellows Cafe and Bar, Plenty of Clouds, Stoup Brewing and Noodle Cart, Terra Plata, and Union joining the event.

If it’s your first time participating in Dining Out For Life, you won’t be alone.

Lifelong CEO James Shackelford is a newcomer, too. Hired this summer when Erica Sessle stepped down after three years as the organization’s CEO, Shackelford arrives having spent more than 25 years in nonprofit, mission-driven leadership roles, including at amfAR (Foundation for AIDS Research).

“As Lifelong’s CEO, I’m able to pull from my work in global and public health, HIV, aging and disability, policy and advocacy and community engagement to ensure we’re providing the very best client service, we’re being bold and innovating, growing to meet client needs and bringing the community along with us in the fight for health access,” Shackelford told CHS. Continue reading →

Seattle could suspend ‘required design review’ while it sorts out overhaul of program

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The Seattle City Council Tuesday afternoon is expected to pass legislation to suspend “required design review” meetings for six months while it works out new rules and an overhaul of the program intended to give the community information and input on major development projects in the neighborhood.

The proposed  legislation would “temporarily suspend required design review for six months, making design review voluntary for proposed development.” Continue reading →

Middle College High School comes to Capitol Hill

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(Image: Seattle Central)

By Matt Dowell

Families with high schoolers seeking a collegiate head start have an option back in the neighborhood for the start of the 2025-2026 school year. Middle College High School, which offers Seattle Public School system students a tuition-free college education as part of their four-year high school program, has relocated to Seattle Central’s campus after a year in Rainier Beach.

At Middle College High School, classes of around twenty students spend their 9th and 10th grade years earning high school credits. In their 11th and 12th grade years, they enroll in Seattle College’s Running Start program where they begin earning college credits and potentially an Associates Degree while they finish high school. Though any SPS student can attend MCHS, their primary aim is to “increase the college success of students that are the first in their families to attend college, those impacted by systemic racism and/or those impacted by poverty.” Continue reading →

Victim in deadly 10th and Pike shooting identified

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The man shot and killed in his SUV at 10th and Pike Wednesday night has been identified.

The King County Medical Examiner says that 26-year-old Robert Fleeks died of multiple gunshot wounds in the 9:30 PM slaying. Continue reading →

Garfield ‘School Engagement Officer’ vote delayed

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The Seattle School Board has delayed a vote that could bring return a Seattle Police officer assigned to Garfield High School.

The board has been lined up Wednesday to decide on a proposed School Engagement Officer pilot program hoped to support “safety, not discipline” as officials have worked to address concerns about gun violence and gang activity around the 23rd Ave campus. Continue reading →