The city is trying to put a stop to a new pattern of homeless camping on the north end of Cal Anderson Park.
Monday, city outreach and clearance teams were again in the area and a city representative said workers provided campers with information and offers of shelter while directing the residents to clear the area.
“Cal Anderson is a site Unified Care Team monitors nearly every weekday as it’s frequently repopulated with tents and individuals,” the representative said.
The recent efforts have followed a pattern of outreach, clearance, and return. Friday, teams had visited the park to offer shelter and services. The city says there were seven campers and none “accepted referrals before leaving the area.” Over the weekend, the campers returned. Continue reading →
A federal judge has dealt a blow to the legal case of a 11th Ave restaurant suing the City of Seattle over what it says was neglect and rights violations as it allowed the Capitol Hill protest zone to grow around the business.
The judge’s decisions this week tossed one of the four complaints brought by Korean fast casual joint Oma Bap and threw another two up for possible appeal in the case. Continue reading →
A new tree for Cal Anderson (Image: Department of Enterprise Services)
The state’s Department of Enterprise Services has replaced the memorial and tree for Senator Cal Anderson at its location along Cherry Lane in Olympia.
Earlier this month, a department crew unceremoniously chopped down the dying Kwanzan Cherry tree and removed the memorial dedicated to Anderson, the state’s first openly gay state legislator and namesake for the Capitol Hill park.
After outcry from public officials and LGBTQ organizations, Gov. Jay Inslee ordered the tree and memorial replaced. A new tree has now been planted. Continue reading →
A man was stabbed and Seattle Police took the suspect quickly into custody after a brief struggle in a Cal Anderson Park still crowded with visitors early Saturday morning.
Police were called to the west side of the park along Nagle to the reported assault just after 2 AM and found the victim and the suspect nearby. As Seattle Fire made its way to the scene, police reported a brief struggle as they took two people into custody. An officer was reported assaulted during the arrest, according to East Precinct radio updates. Continue reading →
It’s time to declutter. Capitol Hill Garage Sale Day is coming up.
Born in 2007 as a day loosely organized by CHS for people to rally together to hold yard sales across the Hill, the event has grown to focus on a community flea market in Cal Anderson Park organized by the Cal Anderson Park Alliance to help people reuse and recycle while also celebrating the neighborhood’s central park.
This year’s CHGSD will be Sunday, August 20th. Registration for Capitol Hill Garage Sale Day 2023 spaces in Cal Anderson is now open at capitolhillgaragesale.org.
The day has also included activities and sales beyond the park. Area merchants have joined the fun with sidewalk sales while friends and neighbors have also gotten together to hold satellite CHGSD sales around the neighborhood.
Planning your own sale? Add a free listing to the CHS Calendar.
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With persnickety German-made pump parts and a sensitive infrastructure, it has become a rite of summer waiting for water to return to Cal Anderson’s “fountain mountain,”
Seattle Parks tells CHS the Waterworks installation should be turned back on “any day now” after going dry — again — even as the park’s reflecting pool remained filled.
We don’t know exactly what went wrong this time but past repairs have frequently involved the fountain’s pump and broken water lines.
In 2021, parks mounted a $35,000 overhaul of the Doug Hollis-designed fountain that included work to strengthen the structure and apply water repellent and anti-graffiti coatings.
The fountain is a celebration of what lies beneath Cal Anderson and the creation of the neighborhood’s central park — two 6.25 million-gallon vaults full of Seattle Public Utilities drinking water. There has been a reservoir at the site for more than 115 years. After the state mandated that Seattle’s open water sources needed to be covered in the early 1990s, Kay Rood and community groups helped lead an effort to cap the reservoir with a park.
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The city has announced the launch of the 2023 return of its Summer Meals program.
The federal, state, and locally funded program offers free meals to anyone 18 and under from July 5th through August 25th at 62 locations across the city.
No ID, proof of residency, or application is required.
The mayor’s office is asking for help to “spread the word so every child in our city can have a healthy meal this summer.”
There are multiple sites participating this year around the Hill including Cal Anderson Park and the Powell Barnett Playground in the Central District.
75 F and mostly sunny. Sounds like it is time for PrideFest. The annual free Pride festival on Broadway and in Cal Anderson returns Saturday as a centerpiece to LGBTQIA+ celebrations across Capitol Hill this weekend. Also check out our news on the important changes for the annual Dyke March. The PrideFest 2023 schedule is below along with the rest of the highlights from the weekend around the Hill. Happy Pride.
2023 CAPITOL HILL PRIDE
FRIDAY JUNE 23RD: TRANS PRIDE SEATTLE — Trans Pride Seattle got back on its feet in 2022 — but not in time to be part of celebrations in June. This year, the celebration of transgender freedom continues its new tradition of gathering in Volunteer Park with a Friday night rally and party. Continue reading →
The memorial to Lorenzo Anderson who was gunned down in front of Molly Moon’s during CHOP
One of Seattle’s most progressive small businesses has sued the city over its actions around the CHOP occupied protest that grew from the 2020 Black Lives Matter and George Floyd murder unrest into a dangerous camp that shut down blocks of Capitol Hill’s Pike/Pine core and left two teens shot to death including 19-year-old Lorenzo Anderson who was gunned down in the street in front of the ice cream shop behind the suit.
The Molly Moon’s Homemade Ice Cream LLC v. City of Seattle case was filed this week in federal court.
It is being brought forward by the law firm of Morgan, Lewis and Bockius, the same firm that won a $3.6 million settlement with the city earlier this year on behalf of a slate of Capitol Hill property owners and businesses that sued over “deliberate indifference” from former Mayor Jenny Durkan, the Seattle Police Department and then-Chief Carmen Best, Seattle Fire, and the rest of City Hall over the handling of the camp that took over the streets around Cal Anderson Park in June 2020.
It is not clear why Molly Moon’s was not part of the previous lawsuit. CHS has asked the law firm and owner Molly Moon Neitzel for more details on the new filing.
Filed on the three-year anniversary of the protest camp’s formation, the lawsuit seemingly puts Molly Moon’s in position of demanding the city should have shut down the CHOP protests.
But the complaint filed this week begins with a defense of the protests even as it blames the city for the disorder that followed. Continue reading →
Sorry, kids. The Cal Anderson Park playground is closed for construction.
It might seem cruel that, just as the weather has turned warm and summery, the play area at the busy park is fenced off but Seattle Parks says the schedule for the project is necessary as part of the cost savings from bundling the work with a contract covering other parks work in the city. Continue reading →
