Tag Archives: eastlake

Wanna ride bikes? The I-5 Colonnade Park is getting two new pump tracks this spring

Posted on by
7

 

$5 A MONTH TO HELP KEEP CHS PAYWALL-FREE THIS SPRING
🌈🐣🌼🌷🌱🌳🌾🍀🍃🦔🐇🐝🐑🌞🌻 
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 👍 

 

This pump track in Port Angeles is an example of the setup’s appeal for riders small and large (Image: City of Port Angeles)

The Colonnade (Image: Evergreen Mountain Bike Alliance)

Construction has started on a bicycle pump track project including a new paved track for young riders in a $314,000 overhaul of the city’s I-5 Colonnade mountain bike skills park below the busy freeway on the slope between Capitol Hill and Eastlake.

Seattle Parks and Recreation and the Evergreen Mountain Bike Alliance announced the project is moving forward with construction slated to be completed before summer.

“One beginner-friendly, aMTB-friendly paved pump track; and one larger, steeper paved pump track are expected to be completed by the end of May,” the Alliance says.

The Alliance has been working to improve the bike recreation area challenged by homeless camping, litter, and the area’s steep slopes. It designed and built the Colonnade as “the first urban MTB skills park to open in the United States” when the space debuted in 2005. The Alliance began seeking funding for the new tracks in 2018. The group has been holding work sessions to help prepare the area for the new effort. Continue reading →

There’s an art exhibition opening this weekend below the I-5 freeway between Eastlake and Capitol Hill

Posted on by
1

Artist Matthew Offenbacher has chosen an unusual gallery for a painting exhibition in his neighborhood spanning Capitol Hill and Eastlake set to open this weekend.

“It really was calling to me. It’s very much like a lot of spaces the city has been sweeping encampments from,” Offenbacher says of the liminal space of the I-5 Colonnade, the sloping, 7.5 acre park beneath the echoing freeway.

Offenbacher’s Charms exhibition includes seven paintings mounted on columns that support the elevated freeway between Capitol Hill and Eastlake.

“I made these paintings using aluminum foil, holographic film and glitter, and am thinking of them as protection charms for the city,” Offenbacher writes about the showing.

A visual artists who has been creating and organizing in Seattle for more than a decade, Offenbacher said the new show is a return to creating inspired by the 2020 protests, the Seattle police and prison abolitionist groups Defend the Defund, and the Seattle Solidarity Budget.

“I took a big step back and reevaluated my role as an artist,” Offenbacher said. “This show is a first attempt at how to bring these things together.” Continue reading →

After outcry, Seattle Public Schools puts campus closures plans on hold — UPDATE

Posted on by
47

Families and city leaders attended a “Save TOPS” meeting at the Eastlake school earlier this month. Thanks to a CHS reader for the picture.

The district is backing off its proposals to close schools across Seattle but it is not clear what its next steps will be to address a $131 million budget deficit for the current school year with continued financial shortfalls on the way.

Seattle Public Schools has canceled a series of community meetings to discuss the proposals and the planned closure of up to 21 elementary school campuses just as the meetings were to begin. The district’s first session was to take place Tuesday night.

“I am taking more time to reflect on plans to bring a consolidation recommendation this October. As a result, I am canceling the upcoming community meetings. A new schedule of engagement sessions will be released soon,” SPS Superintendent Brent Jones wrote in the message to families. “I understand the closure of schools is a very serious topic. After receiving thoughtful feedback from many of you, it is clear we need more time to carefully consider our next steps.”

The zigzag comes after strong pushback from families and skepticism from the Seattle School Board that they could support the district proposals. Continue reading →

Shuttered Eastlake Bar and Grill destined for demolition and redevelopment burns in overnight 4th of July two-alarm fire

Posted on by

(Image: Seattle Fire)

The boarded-up Eastlake Bar and Grill burned 4th of July night in a two-alarm fire that mostly destroyed the restaurant that has stood empty awaiting demolition to make way for new mixed-use development.

Seattle Fire says the blaze was first called in to 911 just before 1 AM Friday morning with smoke and flames reported coming from the vacant commercial building in the 2900 block of Eastlake Ave. E. Continue reading →

With Madison RapidRide G work wrapping up this year, Eastlake RapidRide J ready to dig in

Posted on by

Sen. Patty Murray delivered the big check to Seattle (Image: City of Seattle)

Eastlake will be the next area neighborhood to get the RapidRide treatment. This week, Seattle officials are celebrating a $64.2 million grant to help pay for it.

The RapidRide J route will connect the University District to Southlake Union via the core of the Eastlake neighborhood in a construction project expected to begin this summer and be completed sometime in 2027.

“Americans depend on fast, affordable, and safe transportation options to get to work, pursue their education, and come home every day to their families” U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said about the grant. “Bus rapid transit is the fastest-growing transit mode for a good reason, and the Biden-Harris administration’s $64.2 million investment will build out Seattle’s RapidRide J Line to provide faster, more efficient service that benefits the greater Seattle area.”

The full project including two new miles of bus priority lanes and 3.7 miles of “protected bike facilities” has a $128 million cost estimate. Continue reading →

Seattle Fire’s quick response knocks down blaze on Eastlake block home to Pazzo’s and the Zoo

Posted on by

A block of Eastlake’s neighborhood core home to the Zoo Tavern and Pazzo’s won’t be quieted long after an overnight fire early Saturday morning.

Seattle Fire responded around 1:30 AM Saturday to the reported fire in the 1927-era building home to Pazzo’s and a set of upstair twin apartments andy quickly brought the blaze under control.

“The building was built in the early 1900s and its structure is of old growth fir, so if the fire department did not act so quickly as they did the building would have been engulfed in its entirety,” Pazzo’s owner Dave Mendoza Herrarte tells CHS about the incident. Continue reading →

RapidRide on Broadway: How would you prioritize these 18 Capitol HIll and Central District street and transportation projects for the next 20 years?

Posted on by

 

$5 A MONTH TO HELP KEEP CHS PAYWALL-FREE THIS SPRING
🌈🐣🌼🌷🌱🌳🌾🍀🍃🦔🐇🐝🐑🌞🌻 
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 👍 

 
The Seattle Department of Transportation is collecting public feedback on a roster of dozens of street, sidewalk, and mobility projects around the city as planners try to round out the city’s next 20-year transportation plan.

Included in the mix are 18 projects on and around Capitol Hill and the Central District including a few in vital connecting neighborhoods like downtown Seattle.

CHS reported here on the August publication of the draft Seattle Transportation Plan including a framework that would create more safe and efficient protected areas for bikers along arteries, a proliferation of transit-only lanes, and new light rail lines criss-crossing Capitol Hill and the Central District along 23rd Ave and Denny Way.

Now SDOT has further fleshed-out some of the concepts in the proposed plan as it seeks more feedback. The priorities will also likely shape the city’s next transportation levy as the current levy expires next year. You have until November 20th to add your priorities and thoughts.

“After a multi-year community visioning and planning process, we have identified a list of candidate transportation projects and potential program activities for the public to review and provide feedback,” SDOT writes. “These proposed projects and programs support the STP’s 20-year vision for Seattle’s transportation network.”

SDOT says the projects were shaped by the city’s growth strategies and equity priorities.

The Central Seattle roster covers Capitol Hill, the Central District, and nearby neighborhoods like Montlake, Madison Valley, and First Hill. Continue reading →

Street Critic: Eastlake’s Mid-Century Masterworks

Posted on by

The Eastlake neighborhood is only five blocks west of Volunteer Park but its even closer proximity to Lake Union makes it a neighborhood quite different than Capitol Hill. Highlighting this difference are buildings representative of Eastlake’s commercial and maritime heritage which range from small, jewel-box like office buildings to large industrial structures.

Eastlake engages Lake Union in a variety of ways including seven ‘streetend parks’, such as Lynn Street Park. The streetends give one a chance to launch a Kayak, play catch with your dog, or simply to watch boats and seaplanes skim the lake’s surface. Some folks are so captivated by such water-borne activities that they have decided to live on the water, making Eastlake’s houseboat community the largest in Seattle.

Continue reading →

Capitol Hill Historical Society | The mind boggling array of stairs and corridors connecting history at TOPS K-8

Posted on by

1905 Seward building in red, 1895 in b&w on the right (Paul Dorpat photo colorized by 7 year old)

Part 1: Jennie Lombard, Eastlake’s first principal
Part 2: 

TOPS is a K-8 school with an extensive history dating to the Klondike Gold Rush era. I recently met with a group of 1st to 3rd graders to share what I knew about Jennie Lombard, the very first principal of the first school at TOPS, and other details from the school’s history.

After we made collages, I took them on a tour of the many different parts of Eastlake’s K-8 school.

The oldest piece of TOPS opened in 1895 as the Denny-Fuhrman School and is on the state historic register. It was later expanded and moved, then moved again, then went through a few changes in use and is now the cafeteria. Continue reading →

Capitol Hill Historical Society | Jennie Lombard, Eastlake’s first principal

Posted on by
I recently had the opportunity to lead a learning activity at TOPS K-8. The school is located at Boylston and Roanoke — some would call that Eastlake, others might say it’s on the side of Capitol Hill. Originally opened as Denny-Fuhrman School, it was renamed to Seward in the early 1900s and is today called The Option Program at Seward and is better known as TOPS K-8. I named the session “Old School TOPS.” A handful of 1st to 3rd graders joined me to learn about the school’s history, make art projects with old photos, and explore the different sections of the school.

To serve or to marry

At the beginning of the event, I shared information with the students about the first school’s first principal, Jennie Lombard. Continue reading →