Tag Archives: 15th Ave

20th anniversary HUMP! coming to Dan Savage’s neighborhood this weekend

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Capitol Hill’s very own Dan Savage is bringing a neighborhood Pride approach to this year’s 20th edition of his annual HUMP! film festival that was born in the days before “amateur” was the most popular category on Pornhub and has grown into a showcase of “unapologetically human, sex-positive short films—each five minutes or less—crafted by independent filmmakers and everyday people from around the world.”

With planned smaller neighborhood screenings in Seattle for the 20th anniversary year of the festival, of course the sex columnist/podcaster/film buff is bringing HUMP! to his home turf. HUMP! is coming to 15th Ave E’s Quality Flea Center this Saturday: Continue reading →

Stumps appear along Capitol Hill’s 15th Ave as Seattle needs help to quickly grow its tree canopy to 30%

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The nearly 50-year-old Norway Maples were dead and dying (Image: CHS)

As Seattle hopes to help cool its streets and sidewalks against global warming by achieving 30% tree-canopy coverage across every area of the city in the next twelve years, the new stumps along Capitol Hill’s 15th Ave are an example of the challenge — and the opportunity — in the numbers.

The old Norway Maples just removed from the sidewalk along the Capitol Hill Kaiser Permanente campus were dead — and had been for years. Planted in 1977, the maples were maintained by the Seattle Department of Transportation. Coming up on 50 years later, most of the 15th Ave trees were completely dead with branches and bark falling off. A few hangers-on were in serious decline.

SDOT says it hired a contractor to remove the old maples “due to safety concerns, particularly because they were adjacent to Metro bus lines.”

SDOT says there is no evidence “porous paving contributed to the trees’ decline” as the city’s tree wells have been filled in recent years to prevent injuries to pedestrians and people using tree-lined sidewalks.

Despite the city’s ambitious goals of quickly establishing a 30% tree canopy cover, there is no plan for re-planting. But there will be a first step. Continue reading →

Haunted Burrow Books will make temporary home on Capitol Hill block destined for demolition and development

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(Image: Haunted Burrow Books)

(Image: Haunted Burrow Books)

The shapeshifting mix of short-term pop-ups, flea markets, and retail experiments that are keeping the old QFC block of 15th Ave E active in anticipation of coming mixed-use redevelopment will include a spooky temporary guest.

Haunted Burrow Books and its offerings of “horror, dark fantasy, sci-fi, and other moody genres” is getting ready to haunt the street for an ephemeral stay in the mix.

Owner and editor Roxanne Guiney has announced a June 20th grand opening for the temporary Capitol Hill horror and dark fantasy book shop: Continue reading →

‘A second car has hit Uncle Ike’s’ — Capitol Hill pot shop struck in second smash and grab burglary targeting same store in three days

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Again! Thanks to a CHS reader for the picture and tip

A CHS reader reported an ominous incident Sunday morning — “A second car has hit Uncle Ike’s”

Only days after the store was targeted in a nearly identical smash and grab burglary early Friday morning, a group of brazen thieves struck the 15th Ave E Uncle Ike’s for a second time early Sunday, smashing a stolen Hyundai Elantra into the same corner of the store damaged Friday and entering the shop to steal cannabis products and gear from inside the compromised building. Continue reading →

Capitol Hill QFC redevelopment plan gets ‘Director’s Decision’ approval

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(Image: Daily Journal of Commerce)

The Seattle Department of Construction & Inspections has issued its Director’s Decision approving the plans for a six-story development to rise on the block currently home to the old 15th Ave E QFC.

Just over a week remains for any possible appeals to be filed against the decision.

The process milestone marks nearly two years of meetings and debate about the development including the East Design Review Board’s approval last fall of a requested zoning departure to allow the building an extra story in exchange for a layout that will preserve a prized European hornbeam tree along E Republican while also transitioning the project to better mesh with the adjacent lower structures to the north.

Any appeals must be filed with the Hearing Examiner by May 29th. Continue reading →

Sorry, Capitol Hill window shoppers — Tiny Casita International is closing on 15th Ave E

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(Image: Casita International)

One of your favorite Capitol Hill shop windows to wander by is being emptied. Casita International is closing its shop at the end of April after more than 15 years of business on 15th Ave E.

We’ll continue to have an online presence to sell our handmade, fair trade, and local goods (including holiday ornaments!) If you wish to support us in person for one last hurrah then feel free to come by at 423 15th Ave E Seattle, WA 98112 for half off anything in our store!

Casita was created and run for years as a “go-to gift and treat-yourself store” by Paula Moreschi and Joe Myers before the husband and wife team retired and handed off the little shop to nephew Nick Myers in 2022. Continue reading →

Gunman makes off with $3K cash in Capitol Hill pot shop hold-up

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Seattle Police and a K9 unit flooded the streets around the Ruckus Capitol Hill pot shop but could not track down the suspect in a Friday night armed robbery at the store.

According to SPD and East Precinct radio updates, the gunman walked into the E Republican at 15th pot shop just before midnight and demanded money. The suspect reportedly made off with around $3,000 in cash.

He was described as a black male in his 40s, wearing all black with a t-shirt or mask wrapped over his face, wearing black work boots, carrying a black or grey bag, and armed with a handgun. Continue reading →

Kaiser Capitol Hill’s empty 15th Ave retail spaces falling short on agreement with neighborhood

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Kaiser’s 15th Ave streetfront is not completely empty — Moli Bento and Overcast Coffee continue to hold down the fort (Image: CHS)

By Matt Dowell

On 15th and Denny, across from Aviv Hummus Bar and the neighborhood 7-Eleven is a stretch of darkened windows — unoccupied retail space on Kaiser Permanente’s Capitol Hill campus. Up past Thomas in Kaiser’s North Building across from Safeway, more storefronts have gone vacant.

A longstanding agreement with the neighborhood holds Kaiser accountable to renting the space out and keeping the streetfront an active space. But the integrated managed care consortium may not holding up its end of the 15th Ave bargain.

“Kaiser appears uninterested in filling these spaces,” said David Dahl in an email to CHS. Dahl has been part of the Implementation Advisory Committee for Kaiser’s Major Institution Master Plan since its formation in 2018. Seattle requires universities, colleges, and hospitals to have MIMPs, which try to balance the institutions’ needs for special zoning rules with the needs of adjacent communities. The IAC represents the neighborhood in this arrangement.

Kaiser’s MIMP dates back to 1988, when Group Health owned the property. As part of the agreement Kaiser inherited, they’re on the hook for a few promises to the neighborhood. Continue reading →

Suspected serial rock tosser busted on Capitol Hill after damage to Seattle Fire engine windshield

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Seattle Police took a suspected serial rock tosser into custody Thursday after the man reportedly damaged the windshield of a Seattle Fire Department engine on Capitol Hill.

Police were called to the area of 15th and Valley around 10:30 AM to the reported vandalism.

According to East Precinct radio updates, the suspect was reported to have been involved with a similar attack earlier this week that also damaged a SFD truck and was also attempting to damage two more department vehicles along 15th Ave E in the area for non-emergency work.

Arriving officers located the suspect nearby and took him into custody without incident.

There were no reported injuries.

 

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The Capitol Hill Department of Transportation? Rogue stop signs un-installed along busy E John

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(Image: CHS)

The Seattle Department of Transportation’s $1.55 billion levy plan for 2025 includes Broadway safety improvements, an E Union “Revival,” and transit safety investments. But few of those projects will be more than planning this year.

The guerrilla Capitol Hill Department of Transportation?

It works faster — though its projects don’t tend to last.

Over the weekend, someone completed the latest rogue addition to the neighborhood’s streetscape, secretly installing stop signs on the busy intersections along E John above 12th Ave where pedestrians hoping to cross are often left waiting — or sprinting — to get to the other side. Continue reading →