Capitol Hill Garage Sale Day 2025 is… next week

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Sunday, August 17th will be a fun day in Cal Anderson Park and around the neighborhood as “Seattle’s longest running community-wide garage sale” returns. Yup, it is time for Capitol Hill Garage Sale Day:

The Capitol Hill Garage Sale returns Sunday, August 17th from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. in Cal Anderson Park! This annual event is Seattle’s longest running community-wide garage sale and regularly features over 100 people selling their treasures in Cal Anderson Park in addition to many independent garage sales at homes across Capitol Hill.

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City, community groups creating ‘Memorial Garden’ in MLK Way’s Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Park

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“The park features Robert Kelly’s 30-foot-tall sculpture inspired by King’s “I’ve Been to the Mountaintop” speech, which was gifted to the city by the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Committee in 1991″ (Image: Another Believer/Wikipedia)

While the public process around a planned art installation honoring the Black LIves Matter movement at Capitol Hill’s Cal Anderson Park has gone quiet, an effort to create a new memorial garden in MLK Way’s Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Park is busy.

This summer, the MLK Memorial Garden Development Project is beginning with an effort to create a garden and “enhanced park space” that promotes “healing, solidarity, and sustainable living.”

“By centering community voices throughout the design process, SPR seeks to co-create a garden that honors Seattle’s Black diaspora, celebrates Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s enduring legacy, and provides a dedicated space for reflection and remembrance of those lost too soon to gun violence,” Seattle Parks and Recreation said about the project as it kicked off earlier this summer. Continue reading →

Pho for us? Pho 4 U is back at the base of Capitol Hill

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(Image: Pho 4 U)

With reporting by Toni Guy, CHS Summer Intern

Displaced by the economics of a growing Capitol Hill block and with a family lineage connecting it to some of the neighborhood’s earliest pho providers, Pho 4 U has returned to Pine in a new space just across from its previous home.

CHS reported here in early 2024 on the “unfortunate, but amicable” business changes that came to Pho 4 U’s former block as San Francisco-based real estate company Prado Group transformed its Pine facing edge after it acquired the property for $5 million. The changes marked the end for Machiavelli as well as its neighbors Pho 4 U and Lan Hand-Pulled Noodles. Continue reading →

A good Election Night for Seattle’s band of upstart progressives

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City Attorney candidate Erika Evans was happy to see the Election Night tallies during a party Tuesday night at Capitol Hill’s Stoup Brewing

Tuesday night at Stoup

Seattle’s band of upstart progressives taking on entrenched moderate incumbents in this summer’s battle for City Hall might wish it to be so.

You can’t add up the votes from Tuesday night’s count in the August Primary Election to figure out who will win in November. That just isn’t how it works.

Seattle’s progressive challengers put themselves in strong positions with some big “wins” Tuesday night in the first tallies in the top-two primary. The bad news for the likes of Katie Wilson, Dione Foster, and Erika Evans? Turnout is on track to be abysmally low. And, the incumbents are also on their way to staying in the race to November 4th.

“Tonight, we got results that were even better than we hoped, and it’s likely to only get better,” Wilson said Tuesday night on social media. “Seattle, you showed up! It’s clear that voters want change. This is your city.”

Meanwhile, Foster and Evans joined City Councilmember Alexis Mercedes Rinck, one of the few Seattle incumbents who wasn’t looking over her shoulder after Tuesday’s results, in an Election Night party at Capitol Hill’s Stoup Brewing.

With results like these, they had a fun night. Continue reading →

City council hears update on Seattle’s improving — but still weakened — economic forecast

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The economic forecast has improved at Seattle City Hall and a looming budget deficit may end up smaller than originally predicted, according to an analysis presented Wednesday morning at Seattle City Council’s Finance, Native Communities, and Tribal Governments Committee.

At the core of the changes are decisions over which “scenario” city analysts should build from — the most “pessimistic” models including high impacts from threatened tariffs and job loss or the “optimistic” view fueled by gains in the tech stock market and “significantly lower” inflation. Continue reading →

Pitch the Baby is a Capitol Hill sports bar for everybody — ‘even if you’re not there to watch a game’

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Custer and Dimas

19th Ave E has come alive with the sounds of cheering fans and clinking glasses at Pitch the Baby, the new Capitol Hill sports bar that is rewriting the playbook on gameday culture.

The bar has been open in a kind of preseason mode as the new operations ramps up and prepares for this Friday’s grand opening. CHS huddled with owners Ani Custer and Monica Dimas to learn about their unconventional approach that’s already drawing crowds.

Let’s start with the name which comes from an idea that may seem as far from sportsball as you can get.

“It is a Cocteau Twins song about childbirth from an album that Monica just loves,” Custer says. The owners leaned into the quirky vibe, noting it “kind of sounded to us like cutesy, kind of sportsy, like a little bit of League of Their Own.” Dimas added with a laugh, “It shouldn’t be that deep.”

While the newly installed big screens show plenty of sports action, the owners designed Pitch the Baby to stand out from typical sports bars. “The goal was to make a sports bar with offerings that you would want, even if you’re not there to watch a game,” Custer told CHS. Continue reading →

Seattle voters to decide in November if city cuts B&O for small businesses, boosts taxes on Amazon, Starbucks, and ‘many other hometown companies’

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Seattle voters will decide in November on changes hoped to boost small businesses while generating new revenue for the city.

In a special Monday meeting, the Seattle City Council approved the so-called “Seattle Shield Initiative” proposal that would exempt any business generating less than $2 million a year from the city’s B&O tax while raising the tax rate on the city’s most prosperous companies like Amazon and Starbucks. The proposal would eliminate or reduce the tax for around 90% of Seattle businesses while generating an estimated $81 million in new revenue.

Mayor Bruce Harrell signed the legislation following Monday’s vote putting the proposal on track to appear on the November ballot for the city’s voters. Continue reading →

After its sibling bar shuttered last week, Capitol Hill’s Stateside restaurant is also a goner

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Ten years and change after opening, lower Pike/Pine French Vietnamese restaurant Stateside is ending its run on Capitol Hill.

The Monday announcement follows last week’s goodbye from neighboring sibling bar Foreign National as it hosted its final customers Thursday night.

Chef and owner Eric Johnson and Stateside partner Seth Hammond didn’t respond to CHS’s inquiries about that abrupt closure. Continue reading →

Here is where Seattle mayor and police want new ‘Real Time Crime Center’ cameras on Capitol Hill and in the Central District

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The mayor’s office has revealed details of its proposed expansion of the Seattle Police “Real Time Crime Center” surveillance camera system to include the Capitol Hill nightlife core and a major swath of the Central District from E Cherry to Jackson it says it necessary to prevent gun violence near Garfield High School.

Maps and details of the proposed expansions were presented last week to the Seattle City Council’s public safety committee as the mayor’s office hands off legislation to expand the existing Real Time Crime Center camera pilot currently operating along Aurora Ave, 3rd Ave, and in the International District.

“Analysts are supporting ongoing investigations by pushing video and incident data directly to
patrol units and detectives,” a city council analysis of the proposal reads. “Analysts can also provide live updates and still images of suspects, a capability SPD says helps support its ‘precision policing’ model.” Continue reading →

911 | Firefighter threat arrest and arson swarm on 23rd Ave, street party takeover fills E Pike, QFC booze hold-up

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See something others should know about? Email CHS or call/txt/Signal (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.

  • 23rd Ave firefighter threat arrest and arson swarm: Seattle Police say the man arrested for threatening a Seattle Fire battalion chief with a chunk of concrete as firefighters responded to a flurry of set fires along 23rd Ave early Saturday morning does not appear to be the suspect in a string of damaging arson fires across South Seattle. According to SPD, police were called to 23rd and John just before 7:30 AM Saturday to a “help the firefighter” emergency call after the man began threatening a responding fire crew. Police were able to quickly take the suspect into custody. Firefighters had been called to the area starting around 7 AM to a reported set rubbish fire at 23rd and Ward. Another small arson fire was reported at 23rd and Aloha. A car was reported damaged in one of the fires as firefighters searched the area for more fires. Police said Saturday the suspect arrested for threatening the fire crew “does not appear to be South Precinct arsonist.” A $10,000 reward has been offered in the case of several intentionally set fires in South Seattle that have damaged homes and structures in the area. Continue reading →