The community organization that led the creation of the $2.9 million public-private AIDS Memorial Pathway project connecting Capitol Hill Station to Cal Anderson Park have announced the pathway will be shepherded going forward by neighborhood nonprofit Gay City.
As part of the change, Gay City will now be responsible for planning events around the pathway and all digital elements of The AMP including the pathway’s augmented reality tour, the group said. Continue reading
The plaza will be lit up — and a little chilly — Thursday night
The Capitol Hill Station plaza continues take shape as the neighborhood’s newest community gathering space. It will be put to use in a whole new way this week as an annual fundraiser to support an organization developing affordable housing across Capitol Hill and Seattle that has grown into a showcase of great Seattle food and drink will take place in the plaza.
Community Roots Housing is holding its yearly Omnivorous event Thursday at Capitol Hill Station:
We’re thrilled to host Omnivorous outdoors at the newly completed Capitol Hill Station Plaza this year! The open-air space that hosts the Capitol Hill farmer’s market will allow us to social distance and adhere to all current public health guidelines.
Members of the Transit Riders Union take their first ride to U District, Roosevelt, and Northgate.
CHS stopped through Capitol Hill Station — and beyond — this weekend as Seattle celebrated three new light rail stations and 4.3 more miles of light rail to explore with the opening of the $1.9 billion Northgate Link. Below are images from the celebratory rides as groups like the Transit Riders Union enjoyed the fruits of their advocacy and people were able to head to work or play in a whole new way in the city.
It was a novelty the area had better get used to. Sound Transit will open 25 new stations over just the next three years as part of the completion of new lines outside the city:
The opening of the new stations in 2023 will include Judkins Park Station — and its Hendrix inspired design — as part of the 10-stop East Link. The Central District station, tucked into I-90 between Rainier Ave and 23rd Ave, will be the first stop on the line that will connect Bellevue, Redmond, and Seattle across the I-90 bridge.
$5 A MONTH TO HELP KEEP CHS PAYWALL-FREE
🌈🐣🌼🌷🌱🌳🌾🍀🍃🦔🐇🐝🐑🌞🌻
Subscribe to CHS to help us hire writers and photographers to cover the neighborhood. CHS is a pay what you can community news site with no required sign-in or paywall. To stay that way, we need you.
Become a subscriber to help us cover the neighborhood for $5 a month -- or choose your level of support 👍
U District Station
There will be more to come. Sound Transit’s “realignment plan” has adjusted schedules for new Seattle light rail for West Seattle in 2032 and Ballard in 2039.
The first trains on the new line rolled out on time at 4:51 AM Saturday, Sound Transit says.
(Image: Sound Transit)
Starting very early Saturday morning, Capitol Hill light rail riders will have another 4.3 miles of track to explore. October 2nd brings the opening of three new light rail stations stretching beyond the University of Washington on the new Northgate Link.
Sound Transit says the first trains will begin service on the $1.9 billion line early Saturday. Bring your mask.
The North Link openings come as Capitol Hill Station marked five years of service earlier this year, a milestone partly obscured by a plunge in ridership due to the ongoing pandemic. Like on Capitol Hill where construction of the station also brought carnage and rapid transformation for the immediate area’s businesses and neighbors, hopes of redevelopment and growth are also following the light rail line north. Capitol Hill Station’s development mix of affordable and market rate housing has been opening to new residents over the past year and its commercial tenants are still planning their openings after pandemic delays.
After nine years of construction on the new line, hopes of economic growth and an improved streetscape will be celebrated at the closest new stop to Capitol Hill. The U District Station celebration Saturday will include a “$3 food walk,” festival streets, and a beer garden. Continue reading
González at Capitol Hill Station for a press conference last week on her plan to address homelessness (Image: CHS)
Earlier this month, her opponent stood in front of the site of a sprawling Seattle encampment to unveil his Compassion Seattle-like plan for adding new housing, new spending, and clearing “parks, playgrounds, sports fields, public spaces, sidewalks, and streets” of tents.
Mayoral candidate Lorena González chose the mix of market rate and affordable housing above Capitol Hill Station to unveil hers — including a vow, she said, to leave fear and sweeps behind.
“Nobody wants an encampment anywhere in the city,” González told CHS Thursday at a press conference in the development’s plaza just north of Cal Anderson Park. “Our goal is to make sure that people don’t have to resort to living outside. My plan focuses on bringing that to fruition and doing that urgently in my administration.”
As González espoused the housing and service principals of her homelessness plan, the candidate and current Seattle City Council president chose to draw the hardest line between her vision and the plan put forth by opponent Bruce Harrell on encampments.
Harrell, she said, wants “heat maps” and dashboards to keep parks and sidewalks clear.
“I am not as mayor going to forcibly remove people out of one public space and shift the issue to another public space,” González said.
Headed into November, the housing-focused approach might be a tough sell. Encampments, especially in parks, have continued to be hot button neighborhood issue across Capitol Hill and the city. The latest issues to flare up here are complaints from neighbors around Seven Hills Park where a camp has grown along with reports of street disorder and disturbances. Continue reading
(Image: Sound Transit)
As Sound Transit prepares to add 4.3 miles of service to its light rail lines, you’ll also find new “fare ambassadors” on trains starting this week. It’s an effort to address concerns about equity and heavy handed fare enforcement.
The new pilot program started Monday with fare ambassadors checking with riders for proof of payment and providing help and information about the transit service.
“We want all passengers to feel comfortable asking Fare Ambassadors for assistance, whether they need help getting to their destination, or they’re having trouble purchasing fare,” Sound Transit chief passenger experience and innovation officer Russ Arnold said in an announcement on the start of the new program. “Fare Ambassadors are here to provide help.” Continue reading
The star marks the approximate spot along 10th Ave E where North Broadway Capitol Hill light rail station was envisioned.
The light rail line envisioned in 1999 was planned to head directly north from Capitol Hill Station. A North Broadway station was eliminated from further study by two votes on the Sound Transit board.
By Ryan Packer
In less than five weeks, Sound Transit will open three new light rail stations in North Seattle. Northgate, Roosevelt and U District stations will bring those neighborhoods exponentially closer to Capitol Hill for transit riders, with travel times of around eleven minutes between Capitol Hill Station and Northgate Station. But the opening of these new stations offers an opportunity to look at Sound Transit’s original plan for light rail to the University District— and the plan for a second station in Capitol Hill that never came to pass.
In 1999 the Sound Transit board selected a route for the initial segment that went all the way to the heart of the University District. Rather than veer off toward Montlake, the planned tunnel was envisioned as running directly north from Broadway and John, after a circuitous detour to First Hill that would later prove too ambitious. The route made a stop at NE Pacific Street on the other side of the ship canal before the main U District Station at N 45th Street, on the east side of 15th Ave NE where the Burke Museum of Natural History stands now. Continuing on to Roosevelt and Northgate was only added as a contingency if Federal funds became available.
Even that route would prove too ambitious, with any route under Capitol Hill proving too costly to be included in the original line, a fact that foreshadows the current realignment discussion currently surrounding planned extensions of the light rail network to West Seattle and Ballard.
But in the lead up to approving that route, the board considered but ultimately voted down an amendment that would have added another Capitol Hill station on Broadway, at Roy Street. But for two votes, Broadway might have gotten two light rail stations. Maybe.
The 1998 Capitol Hill neighborhood plan, which included plans for neighborhood-wide improvements like what would become Cal Anderson Park, had ambitious plans for the area around the North Broadway Capitol Hill light rail station. Plans for the “North Anchor District” around Roy Street focused heavily on the redevelopment of the “Keystone Site”, the vacant former gas station that would eventually become 700 Broadway E, home to Kinko’s and Rapport. It’s safe to say that what ended up happening on this parcel fell short of plans, even if you put the subject of the building’s architecture to the side.
In addition to accommodating an entrance to the Capitol Hill light rail station, the neighborhood plan envisioned the Keystone site as being home to the next iteration of Capitol Hill’s public library, then called the Henry Library. “The relocation will enable the Henry Library to expand its facilities, programs, and hours. If the Henry Library does relocate, the existing Henry Library site may become available for affordable housing, a community center, or educational uses,” the plan read. Instead the library was rebuilt on the site where it stood in 2003. Continue reading
Thanks to a CHS reader for providing pictures from the scene
A reported armed robbery attempt ended with one alleged suspect shot dead and another fleeing the area early Tuesday morning at a Metro bus stop across from the Capitol Hill Station apartments near 10th and John.
Police said they were investigating after a 24-year-old was shot in an armed robbery attempt reported around 1:15 AM. UPDATE 1:00 PM: SPD says officers provided aid at the scene in front of the Broadway Locksmith but the man was pronounced dead by the time he arrived at the hospital. “Patrol officers interviewed a 39-year-old man at the scene who said that the man who died was attempting to rob him when he opened fire striking the suspect,” SPD reports. “Homicide detectives are now interviewing the man in an attempt to understand what led up to the shooting.”
Eyewitnesses say the shooter in the incident is a white male. The man who was shot was Black.
A second gunshot wound victim who arrived at Harborview with an injured foot around 2 AM is not believed to have been involved in the Capitol Hill shooting, an SPD spokesperson said.
Next summer, you’ll line up for brunch here
Still lining up on E Olive Way (Image: CHS)
Through everything you can say about present day Capitol Hill, what has happened to it, how everything has changed, and how much better your remember it being, there is this.
There is a place on Capitol Hill — the Capitol Hill of today — for the beloved Glo’s Cafe to move into, spread out a bit, and start again.
“One of our managers said, ‘Glo’s deserves nice things,'” owner Julie Reisman tells CHS about plans for Glo’s to leave after 34 years on E Olive Way for a new home in 2022 in the new buildings rising above Capitol Hill Station.
“That part is really exciting,” she says. “A group of people who cares so much about the community — an incredibly talented staff… we talked about this over the years but never have been able to do any of it. There will be lots of opportunity for staff to branch out.”
Faced with a $6.5 billion shortfall from pandemic-shrunk tax and bond forecasts, the Sound Transit Board Thursday approved a “realignment plan” that will delay many of its transit projects for years while preserving a handful of new lines and stations.
The math will work out as major delays for the two biggest Seattle projects with light rail’s extension to Ballard now pushed back to 2039 from the 2035 goal while the line to West Seattle delayed by two years to 2032.
“The steep rise in real estate and construction costs in the region in combination with advancing environmental review and project designs have driven up cost estimates for future transit expansions, contributing to a $6.5 billion affordability gap for delivering projects on earlier schedules,” the board’s statement on the vote reads. “While projects already in construction are not affected, the adopted realignment plan will guide the delivery dates for the next generation of voter-approved projects.”
The plan will keep a handful of projects on track. The NE 130th light rail station is expected to be completed by 2025, and Rainier Valley’s Graham St station and a Boeing Access Road station are planned to open in 2031.
Meanwhile, other projects nearing completion continue including the Northgate Link light rail expansion that will open up the north of the city including the University District, Roosevelt, and Northgate when it opens in October.
Judkins Park Station— and its Hendrix inspired design — is slated to open in 2023 along with the rest of the 10-stop, voter initiative-funded East Link light rail line that will dramatically expand Sound Transit rail service in the region. The Central District station, tucked into I-90 between Rainier Ave and 23rd Ave, will be the first stop on the line that will connect Bellevue, Redmond, and Seattle across the I-90 bridge.
In 2016, voters across the region approved the Sound Transit 3 package to dramatically expand light rail in the region. The then $53.8 billion package was planned to extend light rail lines to Redmond by 2024, Ballard by 2035, and West Seattle by 2030, with extensions into Everett and Tacoma will come in the following years. The expanded system will eventually require a second downtown tunnel.
$5 A MONTH TO HELP KEEP CHS PAYWALL-FREE
🌈🐣🌼🌷🌱🌳🌾🍀🍃🦔🐇🐝🐑🌞🌻
Subscribe to CHS to help us hire writers and photographers to cover the neighborhood. CHS is a pay what you can community news site with no required sign-in or paywall. To stay that way, we need you.
Become a subscriber to help us cover the neighborhood for $5 a month -- or choose your level of support 👍
