Tag Archives: central district

Tents, blankets, and tarps — Camp of asylum seekers back in the Central District at Powell Barnett Park

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The Central District’s Powell Barnett has become the latest landing spot for asylum seekers from Congo, Angola, and Venezuela who have been shuttled from temporary camps to county and donor-supported motel rooms and back again while local governments try to sort out more permanent shelter.

Mutual aid groups announced the new camp location as tents were set up Monday in this Central District park along MLK Way. The new camp is a few blocks east of Garfield Community Center where the group briefly set up tents on the campus tennis courts earlier this month in what turned out to be a one-day camp thanks to a private donation securing enough funding to pay for more nights at the Quality Inn in Kent.

With funds again short, organizers say the group needs tents, blankets, and tarps to make the Powell Barnett camp livable. Continue reading →

Amid continued rise in East Precinct burglaries, somebody broke into Seattle Fish Guys and stole all the salmon

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As burglaries have continued to climb in the East Precinct, one local business is vowing to recover after a break-in emptied the Central District shop of cash and took something even more valuable — its stock of smoked salmon.

“It’s truly disheartening to report that cash, checks, equipment, and our beloved smoked salmon were taken,” Seattle Fish Guys reported about the overnight burglary this weekend of its 23rd and Jackson shop. “Fortunately, our team is safe, and we’ve acted swiftly by contacting the authorities and cooperating closely with them to gather any leads. We urge anyone who noticed anything unusual nearby to please come forward. Your assistance could be crucial.” Continue reading →

A literary salon at 23rd and Union, Central District Poetry Nights grow at Soul Collective

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(Image: Soul Collective)

Folino

By Nicholas Williams/UW News Lab

A Central District hair salon has become the unexpected host of monthly poetry nights in the midst of neighborhood development at 23rd and Union.

Soul Collective, located on the block with the neighborhood PCC and across the Midtown Square apartments and neighboring businesses Jerk Shack, Neighbor Lady, Raised Donuts, and the Arte Noir gallery, is a space committed to sharing its artistic expertise of diverse ethnicities, backgrounds and hair textures.

Owner Alexandria Folino says she founded the small business to desegregate hair care in an environment of unpretentious luxury.

“I decided to embark on a journey of creating a space that felt right for the type of hair on my head and others that look like me because they have all heard that their hair is a specialty in the beauty industry,” Folino said.

Folino was approached with the idea of hosting poetry nights by poets Joshua Griffin and Julie Feng.

“Alex is from the district. Julie’s from the south end. I grew up in the north end and we’ve all seen this city change,” Griffin said.

“We can speak back to what 23rd and Union used to look like. So what are you going to do now after you leave this space? Hopefully, continue to find ways to be in the community and not find ways to uproot the community.”

Folino acknowledges the Central District has changed a lot since she grew up there and says, by having events like these poetry nights, she can participate in building the new culture of the neighborhood. Continue reading →

The ‘Squire Park exception’? Central District neighborhood at center of Seattle’s debate over creating more multifamily and affordable housing in more parts of the city

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Saturday’s meeting was the first Squire Park Community Council’s first since the pandemic began (Image: CHS)

As Seattle urbanists dissect the 20-year growth plan being championed by Mayor Bruce Harrell and are identifying where in the city his administration excised more ambitious development and density goals, the “Squire Park exception” has emerged.

How did the residential blocks between 12th Ave and the Central District’s Cherry Hill end up a protected swath of single family housing-dominated growth goals in the mayor’s proposed plan?

As effective as the group may be, don’t look directly at the Squire Park Community Council.

It had not met in five years thanks to COVID-19 and the pandemic  — until Saturday. But the issues raised in the group’s first meeting by attendees and during a session with District 3 Councilmember Joy Hollingsworth fit very much with a slower approach to Seattle growth.

“The pandemic had a really devastating impact, I think, on many community councils, and particularly in Squire Park,” William Zosel, board member, told CHS. “One of the things that happened during the several years of absence is that two members died.” Continue reading →

The Country Doctor marks more than 50 years on Capitol Hill and in the Central District with new name — Seattle Roots Community Health

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The Country Doctor is now Seattle Roots Community Health. The community health center with facilities across Central Seattle and school-based health centers at Meany Middle School and Nova High School says the new name “honors over 53 years of serving the Capitol Hill and Central District neighborhoods with community-driven, culturally appropriate, patient-centered care regardless of their ability to pay.”

“As we’ve grown, we needed a new organizational name that builds on our legacy and encompasses all of our clinics and the broad range of care we provide,” the organization’s CEO Brandy Taylor said in a statement. Continue reading →

After 10 years of legal cannabis, Uncle Ike’s an early ‘social equity plan’ adopter in Seattle

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Uncle Ike’s Ian Eisenberg (Image: CHS)

With Seattle’s cannabis shops preparing for this week’s 4/20 celebrations as the state marks its 10th year of legal marijuana, one of the city’s leading retailers will be the first to take part in Washington’s new Cannabis Social Equity Program designed to increase participation in the industry “by those most adversely impacted by the War on Drugs.”

State permitting shows that the original Uncle Ike’s at 23rd and Union will be the first cannabis business in Seattle to have its license fee refunded under the equity program.

According to a Washington State Liquor and Cannabis Board spokesperson, Ike’s qualified for the program under a provision “that encourages all retail outlets to submit to the Board a ‘Social Equity Plan.'” Continue reading →

For a million or so bucks, you can preserve the midcentury modern Central District home of Victor Steinbrueck

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“This is an urban oasis sited on a wooded corner lot, featuring 10’ ceilings, floor-to-ceiling glass along the west side, and a ribbon of corrugated glass skylights along the east roof line, providing ample daylight,” the listing boasts.

A home designed by a father of Seattle’s Space Needle and an architect remembered for his efforts to preserve Pioneer Square and Pike Place Market has hit the Central Seattle real estate market at 14th and Spring.

The 1950-built, 1,100-square-foot midcentury modern home was designed by Victor Steinbrueck, “a celebrated pioneer in Seattle’s historic preservation who also drafted early concept designs for the Space Needle,” as his own residence, the listing boasts. Continue reading →

City of Seattle not giving up on ‘Healthy Streets’ program in the Central District

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(Image: @SNGreenways)

The pared-back Healthy Streets program has lived on in corners of the city including the Central District, providing hope for advocates wanting to make Seattle safer for bikers, pedestrians, and the drivers who love them.

The Seattle Department of Transportation has announced it is making new investments to the Healthy Streets routes through the CD that are hoped to add new solidity to an effort criticized for a half-baked approach that depends on flimsy signs and driver goodwill.

According to the SDOT announcement, the Healthy Streets routes along 22nd Ave and E Columbia are lined up for new features to be constructed in 2024 and 2025 including a planned new vehicle divider at the busy 22nd and Union intersection that would be installed as early as this summer to do more to protect the routes from car and truck traffic.

“To further improve safety for people walking and biking along the north end of the Central District Healthy Street and discourage cut-through traffic, we’re excited to announce that we will construct additional safety enhancements at the intersection of 22nd Ave and E Union St,” the announcement reads. “These enhancements will include installing a new median on the south side with a cut-through for people biking, restricting vehicle turns from E Union St onto 22nd Ave, and restricting vehicle access southbound onto 22nd Ave from the intersection.”

The changes at 22nd will include installation of a “new median with bike cut through on south side of intersection” to block motor vehicle traffic, and elimination of left turns in both directions from 22nd Ave onto E Union. Continue reading →

18th Ave’s Firehouse Mini Park is getting a $781K overhaul

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(Image: City of Seattle)

Seattle Parks and Recreation will host a community meeting next month to help shape designs for a $781,000 overhaul of 18th Ave’s Firehouse Mini Park.

Parks says the Saturday, April 6th meeting will provide an opportunity for the project’s designers to provide information about the planned upgrades and hear feedback on ideas for the play area next to the Byrd Bard Place community facility.

The city says the project will replace the existing play equipment and make accessibility improvements for the park including replacement of “the Engineered Wood Fiber” wood chip surfacing in the play area, renovations to the lawn area, planting enhancements and “site furnishing updates.” Continue reading →

Woman killed in 23rd Ave shooting identified

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The woman shot and killed last Wednesday night near 23rd and Jackson was in the wrong place at the wrong time, her family says.

The King County Medical examiner identified the victim as 41-year-old Eboni Walker and said the woman died that night of a gunshot wound to the head.

Walker’s family told KIRO that Walker worked for a homeless outreach program and was between shifts when the deadly shooting took place.

According to a fundraiser for her family, Walker was a single mother of four boys.

“She worked hard for those boys and they looked up to their mother. It’s so heartbreaking and devastating as they will now grow up without her,” the fundraiser message reads. Continue reading →