Tag Archives: central district

Ground is finally broken on the $9.5M Garfield Super Block bringing together a new promenade, art, and history in the Central District

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Robert Stephens Jr., second from left, joined in the ceremonial groundbreaking last week

With a planned $9.5 million in city, state, and National Parks funding, Seattle officials and community leaders celebrated the groundbreaking of the Garfield Super Block, hoped to reimagine the area around Garfield High School and the community center to create a Legacy and Promise Promenade with a .34-mile loop path and new community spaces including a new play area and parkour park, new sports courts, and a central plaza.

“The community has been fighting for this project for over twenty years,” Robert Stephens, Jr. of the Garfield Super Block Coalition said. “The timeline of Seattle’s Central Area was brilliantly memorialized on the walls of Garfield High School. We wanted to bring that story to life in the art of Garfield Super Block. From the annual MLK march to historic organizing by the Black Panthers, Garfield has and always will be a central convening area for celebration and organizing with the young people of our city.”

The coalition has kept the push for the neighborhood investments alive. They first took shape twenty years ago. As part of the public process to approve building the new Quincy Jones Performing Arts Center, Seattle Public Schools had to be approved for a variance in order to build fewer than the required number of off-street parking stalls. As part of that process, the district was required to provide public benefits as a mitigation. Continue reading →

Kshama for Congress? — UPDATE

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(Image: Workers Strike Back)

Smith

Former District 3 representative on the Seattle City Council Kshama Sawant and her Workers Strike Back group are scheduled to announce a new “election campaign for public office” Monday morning but the socialist political leader is not targeting a return to Seattle City Hall.

At Monday’s press conference outside downtown Seattle’s Henry M. Jackson Federal Building, Sawant is expected to announce her bid to unseat District 9’s Adam Smith. The moderate Democrat has held the office representing Seattle’s Central District, South Seattle, and an area stretching from Bellevue to Federal Way since he was first elected in 1996. Continue reading →

Police investigate after man shot at 24th and Union

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Police say a man was shot and taken to the hospital in an altercation early Saturday at 24th and Union.

SPD reports the 24-year-old was shot around 2:30 AM and taken to Harborview by a private vehicle:

Police determined that while the victim and friends were standing near the street, they were approached by a group of men and a fight broke out. During the altercation, one of the suspects shot at the group and struck the victim. The suspects fled the scene in a vehicle, and police did not locate them.

Police located evidence of the shooting and blood at 24th and Union and have asked anybody with information to call the SPD Violent Crimes Tip Line at 206-233-5000.

 

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Garfield High School asking families: Do you want a SPD ‘School Engagement Officer’ on campus?

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SPD increased its presence outside Garfield following last June’s murder (Image: CHS)

Garfield High School is surveying student families as the district makes plans for the Seattle Police Department to assign a “School Engagement Officer” to the 23rd Ave campus.

“Garfield High School is gathering input from families to understand levels of support or opposition to the possible assignment of a School Engagement Officer (SEO) to our campus,” the survey begins. “An SEO is a uniformed law enforcement officer, similar to a School Resource Officer (SRO). SEOs may be assigned to schools to respond to emergencies, support campus safety, and build relationships with students and staff.”

Earlier this month, CHS reported here on $235 million earmarked in the proposed school levy renewal going to voters this fall for Seattle Public Schools safety investments including the possible return of police officers to Seattle campuses. Continue reading →

Judkins Park Station — and light rail connecting Seattle to the Eastside — now on track for 2026

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(Image: Sound Transit)

Thousands last weekend celebrated the opening of new light rail stations in Redmond as Sound Transit has now grown its Eastside line to ten stops. Connecting Seattle’s line across the lake via I-90 — and the Central District’s new Judkins Park Station — to join up with those new stations has been pushed back again to 2026.

Amid the Redmond celebrations, Sound Transit head Dow Constantine said this week that the latest time estimates have pushed plans for the 2 Line connecting from downtown through Judkins Park and across I-90 to “early 2026.” Continue reading →

sMALL Box making spaces for PJ’s Classic Creamery, The ShoreHouse, and more amid changes at 23rd and Cherry

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Michelle and Danielle Forbes of PJ’s Classic Creamery

(Image: sMALLbox)

By Matt Dowell

Hundreds of apartments now rise above 23rd and Union — 23rd and Cherry is the next Central District intersection lined up for massive change.

On the northwest corner, the inclusively developed, five and a half-story Acer House mixed-use affordable housing project is now under construction after breaking ground this spring.

On the southeast, bids have gone out for contractors for the $8.4 million Garfield Super Block project set to reshape the public space around the Garfield Community Center and Garfield High School with a new promenade, new public art, a renovated park, and new play areas for this core of the Central District.

Change and a smaller kind of growth is already underway on the northeast corner of 23rd and Cherry where an experiment in mixed-use development is underway.

Ron Rubin, long time Seattle real estate developer, has started transforming the twelve single car garages at his 705 24th Ave property into sMALL BOX, an “affordable micro-business incubator space” that he hopes will bring life and walkability to the block. In the last month, the first two businesses have opened: PJ’s Classic Creamery (ice cream-filled bon bons) and The ShoreHouse (shaved ice and coffee). No surprise, in an area flush with schools and kids sports games, the snack stands are early hits.

Rubin came up with the idea for sMALL (like “small mall”) after traveling to places like Bangkok and Amsterdam, where retail centers with hundreds of stores create something that Seattle is missing: neighborhood streets that are “buzzing with pedestrian-friendly walk-up micro-storefronts”. But as he and the new businesses move forward with what he’s calling “phase 2” of the project, the idea will be tested. Rubin will need to find more tenants willing to work in the small spaces which are only 180 square feet a piece. Once established, will the businesses attract the foot traffic that Rubin envisions? Continue reading →

Sale of former Seattle Black Firefighters Association headquarters can stand, judge rules

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The group rallied at the house in January

The sale of a Central District home once the headquarters of the Seattle Black Firefighters Association has been upheld by a King County Superior Court judge.

The ruling Monday denied a request to overturn the sale of the 23rd and Pike property that had divided the association’s members.

CHS reported here on the legal battle and what is sometimes a house by house effort to hold onto remaining roots of the Central District. The association agreed to sell the property last year sparking outrage from some retired members and community groups.

The double-lot property, located in one of Seattle’s most rapidly gentrifying neighborhoods, was sold for $680,000 — far below its market value, the group said.

The group of retired firefighters and community members has expressed disappointment in the ruling. The group is considering an appeal, Converge Media reports.

 

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Police: Cops rescue man dangling from garden hose atop Central District apartment building

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A trio of strong-armed East Precinct officers grabbed a man dangling from a garden hose atop a seven-story Central District apartment building and pulled him to safety Sunday morning, according to the Seattle Police Department.

SPD reports the incident began around 9:30 AM at the 23rd and Union area building after a 911 caller reported a man “dangling off the rooftop.” Arriving officers found the man in a precarious situation. Continue reading →

Police: Resident shoots 21st Ave burglary suspect in leg

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A man shot a suspected burglar in the leg inside a 21st Ave apartment building early Friday morning, the Seattle Police Department says.

According to SPD and emergency radio updates, police and Seattle Fire were called to the building at 21st and Yesler just before 1:30 AM Friday.

Arriving officers found the 28-year-old suspect down with a gunshot wound to the leg. Seattle Fire treated the man at the scene and transported him to Harborview with non-life threatening injuries.

Police say the building resident who opened fire and his wife were home with their young child and that the suspect “had broken through an exterior door, attempted to enter multiple units, and eventually came to their apartment, where he began yelling and kicking at the door.”

“According to the victims, the man in the apartment issued several warnings before the suspect forced the door open. The man then fired one shot through the door, hitting the suspect in the leg,” SPD reports.

 

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Seattle Police: Reports of gang targeting students at Garfield High School

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A memorial to slain student Salvador Granillo outside Garfield High School

Seattle Public Schools already said it was stepping up security and Seattle Police presence around Garfield High School.

Social media posts and reports of non-students coming onto the 23rd Ave campus looking for trouble to end last week have police increasing the efforts around the school.

SPD says its “increased presence” around Garfield comes after online messages.

“An unknown youth local gang was reportedly targeting students at the school and had posted on social media that they planned to ‘target’ several students after the sixth period,” SPD’s brief on the incident reads. “While no specific threats were made and it was unclear if weapons were involved, several officers logged in for a directed patrol at the high school to increase police presence.” Continue reading →