Tag Archives: community council

With six people running for seven seats, voting in the Capitol Hill Community Council election is an easy choice — and a good way to help support the restarted group

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As Seattle residents prepare to vote for Mayor, City Attorney, and City Council (District 2 and Positions 8 and 9) during the primary election on August 5 and the general election on November 4, voting is underway this spring to elect the Capitol Hill Community Council’s leadership board.

After going dormant roughly five years ago, the CHCC relaunched late last summer under Paulus’ lead. The new group’s first meeting drew 80 people to the Capitol Hill Branch Library on September 10. An equally large group gathered at the Hugo House on January 22 for CHCC’s Great Ideas Festival to brainstorm what they would like to see the neighborhood group pursue. The CHCC has an active newsletter, hosts regular public meetings and Happy Hour socials, and has adopted bylaws, shared information about the Neighborhood Matching Fund program and the Seattle Police Department’s East Precinct community safety and crime prevention efforts, and launched the Capitol Hill Appreciates Program, a monthly effort to thank the “various elements of society that make Capitol Hill the great place that it is today.”

Six candidates are running for positions on the seven-member board:

  • Curtis Atkisson — A University of Washington data scientist and Capitol Hill resident who lives near Harvard and Thomas, Atkisson said, “I have experience applying for and distributing grants, and would work to do that on behalf of the people of Capitol Hill. I will learn about the resources that currently exist to contribute to our neighborhood and work to bring more resources to the things the Community Council would like to achieve.” TOP 3 PRIORITIES: Community Connectivity, Transportation, and Government/Laws. Continue reading →

Capitol Hill Community Council’s next meeting will take on ‘most popular’ ideas

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The council also provided a count of the most popular topics from the January session

The Capitol Hill Community Council will meet Wednesday night fresh off its January “Great Ideas Festival” where the focus from neighbors ranged from pedestrian corridors and public restrooms to a neighborhood name change.

The council has compiled the ideas collected at the January meeting and will review the totals and discuss next steps at the Wednesday night session starting at 6:30 PM in the Seattle Central atrium.

“Come hear about the top priorities were from the Big Ideas Fest as well as our Bylaws meeting and Corner Store Bill in the works,” the council invites. Continue reading →

Pedestrian corridors, public restrooms, and a neighborhood name change highlight Capitol Hill Community Council’s Great Ideas Festival

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(Images: CHS)

What would you include if you could make a wish list for Capitol Hill? Cleaner streets? Safer public parks? Affordable housing? CHS commenters have no shortage of ideas, for sure. But on Wednesday evening, dozens of people—including Seattle City Councilmember Alexis Mercedes Rinck and a representative for Councilmember Joy Hollingsworth—gathered inside the Hugo House’s Lapis Theater for the Capitol Hill Community Council’s (CCHS’s) Great Ideas Festival to brainstorm what they would like to see the recently revived neighborhood group pursue.

During the 90-minute meeting, attendees jotted their ideas down on Post-It notes and displayed them on a wall under nine categories ranging from public safety to parks, transportation to planning development, arts & culture to sustainability, and more. Hands down, the most interesting board included ideas for the catch-all “Everything Else” category—rename Capitol Hill to Capitol Mountain, bring back the Mystery Soda Machine, and open a combination yarn store and sex shop. Visitors were invited to take the stage and share their ideas toward the meeting’s end during a one-minute “lightning round.” Continue reading →

Revival: Effort to restart Capitol Hill Community Council ready to take big step in September

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A 2013 Capitol Hill Community Council meeting (Image: CHS)

In a starting point to revive the Capitol Hill Community Council, resident Chris Paulus met with neighborhood councils across Seattle and contacted over 50 organizations, with the goal of understanding a community council’s work and importance. Since these year-long research efforts began, Paulus is building an effort for Capitol Hill residents to engage in restart efforts and overcome challenges that evaporated the council in 2021.

A revival of the Capitol Hill Community Council will meet for the first time in September.

“Community in and of itself is important,” Paulus told CHS. “This is signifying the importance of connection and community with each other. Sometimes these different types of neighbors getting together get focused around a single problem that needs to be addressed. This can be a good thing, but this causes long-term problems in what that issue is until resolved.”

Paulus said religious groups are more likely to be engaged in civic activities, so he reached out to every spiritual group he could find on Capitol Hill, amounting to over 25.

One thing that struck him during his research phase was that CHCC lobbied for the Rt 8 bus line to be created in the 90s.

“That caused a switch in my mind, removing the slow building of the community council to the ‘we need to build this as quickly as possible’ because myself and all of my neighbors are worse off everyday this sense of community doesn’t exist,” Paulus said. Continue reading →

Madison Park’s community council is growing — Will there ever be a Friends of Capitol Hill?

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(Image: Friends of Madison Park)

By Cormac Wolf, CHS Intern

Friends of Madison Park, the area’s nascent community council, has been hard at work since its founding in April. In their first months, the group has focused on filling the community’s event calendar and their fledgling committees have proven a great alliance between local businesses and Seattle Police.

Vice-chair Mary Beth McAteer says Friends of Madison Park has revived community events such as the children’s bike parade and weekly live music in the park. Other events include a wine fundraiser and weekly TED talks; their website has events scheduled as far out as next spring.

“We think of ourselves as a start-up,” says McAteer, describing the fervor the board brings to event planning and neighborhood organization. McAteer works as a Virginia Mason medical librarian when not working on the board. Her husband owns the Hillside bar on E Olive Way.

The success of this group in one of the wealthiest areas of the city and an area mostly dominated by single family-style homes is a contrast with E Olive Way and Capitol Hill where community councils have faded away and neighborhood chambers of commerce, disintegrated. It also is taking shape after Seattle’s big push away from neighborhood councils over concerns about representation and equity at City Hall.

The Madison Park group was founded after the pandemic decimated the area’s existing community groups. Erik Wicklund, the group’s communications director, describes them as a merger of two pre-existing Madison Park institutions: the business association, which organized events, and the community council, which handled administrative matters. Wicklund owns a real estate firm headquartered in Madison Park’s central retail strip. Continue reading →

Capitol Hill Community Council hosts SPD and Seattle U crime and safety focus group

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As the Seattle Police Department continues to build on its work better connecting with the communities it serves — especially with groups and areas of the city that have dealt with biased policing and under-service — one program has been quietly humming along helping SPD produce “micro community policing” plans for hyperlocal areas of the city.

Thursday night, you can learn more about the process — and help shape the plan for your area of Seattle — as the Capitol Hill Community Council hosts a Capitol Hill Crime & Safety Focus Group:

https://www.capitolhillseattle.com/event/capitol-hill-community-council-capitol-hill-crime-safety-focus-group/

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Capitol Hill Community Council wants to help Green Your Space

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A Seattle Seed Company workshop (Image: Seattle Seed Company)

A Seattle Seed Company workshop (Image: Seattle Seed Company)

One of the ongoing missions of the Capitol Hill Community Council is helping the area foster and manage its growth in the best possible way for the people who live and love the neighborhood.

In March, the council’s monthly gathering will be dedicated to another type of growth — flowers, plants, and gardens for your space “whether your home on 22nd or your studio apartment on Pine.”

Green Your Space will be held at the Capitol Hill Tool Library on Crawford Place the morning of Saturday, March 18th. You can RSVP here.

The event will bloom forth with help from the Seattle Seed Company. CHS wrote here about Sander Kallshian’s shop dedicated to gardening at a smaller, more micro level that moved onto 12th Ave below, yes, microapartments earlier this year.

https://www.capitolhillseattle.com/event/2067216332/

Capitol Hill Community Council holding benefit for Bellevue mosque damaged in fire

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screen-shot-2017-02-16-at-8-12-45-pmNext week, the Capitol Hill Community Council is expanding its neighborhood borders to help the Islamic Center of the Eastside in Bellevue, which is raising money to rebuild after a January arson attack.

“We wanted to really dedicate our time and basically give our space to other folks in our community that are hurting or being targeted,” said CHCC president Zachary DeWolf.

While the ICOE may not be located on Capitol Hill or in Seattle, DeWolf said a benefit hosted by CHCC on February 23 is a way to stand in solidarity with not only the ICOE but also the Muslim community in the neighborhood.

While attacks on the Muslim community have been seen nationwide, so has support for Muslims, said Arsalan Bukhari, executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations in Seattle. Continue reading →

CHS Pics | 2017 wishes from the Capitol Hill Community Council’s Winter Open House

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By Lisa Hagen Glynn

We stopped through Thursday night’s Capitol Hill Community Council Winter Open House to ask the neighborhood’s most involved people about their holiday wishes. Here is what we heard. You can click to read all the wishes. Happy almost 2017.

Capitol Hill Community Council elects new officers

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Screen Shot 2016-06-17 at 10.08.52 AMThe annual elections for the Capitol Hill Community Council were held last night. All positions were filled, and the council now has seven members.

Zachary Pullin, Natalie Curtis, and Mike Archambault are all returning members of the council; Lauren Berguson, Marley Blonsky, Tristan Gardner, and Katie Kurfurst were all elected to the council for the first time Thursday night in the organization’s June meeting at 12th Ave Arts. All positions ran unopposed.

Pullin has been on the council since 2014 and was elected as council president. He said he was excited to keep serving in whatever capacity he could, and his goal for the council was to “make sure that we are a part of,” rather than “impede,” the change happening on the Hill.

https://twitter.com/zacharybob/status/743269939901915136

 

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