There will be no Capitol Hill or Central District locations on the list of planned expansions for new off leash areas in Seattle.
Seattle Parks announced the results of its studies and selection process and has designated two new areas near West Seattle Stadium and Othello Park to be developed to include an official city “Off Leash Area.”
The parks department also named a roster of areas suitable for future off leash development when funding is available — none of those will include Central Seattle locations, either. Those future sites include Ravenna Park, Brighton Playfield, and East Queen Anne Playfield. Continue reading →
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Dogs love beer including this good one we spotted at Chuck’s (Image: CHS)
The Central Seattle dog park experience is about to change with the addition of Boneyard, an indoor dog park and tavern set to join S Jackson.
Dagmar Rehse, dog lover and Boneyard owner, wanted to create a way for Seattleites and their furry friends to spend and enjoy time together away from their homes — even when it is raining cats and dogs in the city.
“Nine months out of the year you see these dog owners going to dog parks and suffering in the elements to let their dogs play,” Rehse said. “I wanted to create something more comfortable for the humans while their dogs are frolicking around.”
The new space at the corner of 26th and Jackson will be an indoor dog park and tavern, with boarding and doggy daycare for the dogs, and a bar for their owners to play “drink” at. While Rehse doesn’t live in the area, she did notice that the dog friendly neighborhood was missing this kind of hangout. It is also in an area beyond the higher rent neighborhood cores where the rent on a 3,267-square-foot space needed to give rover room to run pencils out.
And while there are many dog-friendly drinking venues around the Central District and Capitol Hill, the Boneyard is the only one centered on making a great, safe space for canine companions. It will also offer something no other beer hall around can offer — fur baby babysitting for dog owners who want a break while they crack a cold one.
Boneyard will be the first space that Rehse has opened, built by her love for dogs and a wish for a place where dog and owner can enjoy themselves together outside of their home. Continue reading →
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After more than a decade of providing walk-in veterinary care to Capitol Hill, Urban Animal will be transitioning to a co-op business model — the first of its kind in the nation. Drawing from 24 years of veterinary experience, founder Cherri Trusheim is responding to her observations of increasing corporatization and high levels of burnout within the industry.
“It is an emotionally taxing field to work in and sometimes the job lifespan isn’t too long,” Trusheim said. “We’re having a hard time finding veterinary professionals because corporate has come in and designed these jobs for them in a way that’s not sustainable.”
Trusheim’s vision for the cooperative emphasizes giving employees a say in how they provide veterinary care and other business decisions. The business will be owned by workers, which is different from other co-op models, where ownership falls on the consumers or producers of the product. Trusheim says there’s a lot of variance between each cooperative.
“For me, it was really that governance piece. Giving people a voice and not just giving them money,” Trusheim said. “Really having a voice at the table because burnout is, that feeling of overwhelm coupled with helplessness, you just don’t feel like there’s anything you can do to make it different.” Continue reading →
Founded in 2012 on the edge of the First Hill “Pill Hill” medical neighborhood, Urban Animal is reorganizing as a cooperative and giving the chance to its 110 employees across three Seattle locations including Capitol Hill’s E Thomas to become owners of the veterinary clinic that serves more than 50,000 clients.
“The veterinary industry is in the eye of a perfect storm due to factors such as employee burnout and private equity buyouts, which are diminishing the number of qualified veterinary professionals,” Urban Animal founder and veterinarian Cherri Trusheim said in the announcement. “Urban Animal is presenting this groundbreaking solution to set the bar for the industry and beyond.” Continue reading →
Dogs at play at a community created dog park in the Central District
If venturing to Cal Anderson or Volunteer Park, one can expect to see dogs off leash roaming freely with their furry friends. However joyous those games of fetch and chase may seem, the city has been cracking down and ticketing owners for having their fur babies off leash.
“It continues to be against park code to have your dog off leash outside of an OLA [off leash area] and there is an animal enforcement team that issues tickets for infractions,” said Rachel Schulkin, director of public affairs for Seattle Parks and Recreation.
Multifamily housing developer, dog owner, and long-time Seattle resident Benjamin Maritz has a unique perspective on the issue. Martiz lives near Volunteer Park and works in affordable housing around Capitol Hill and the Central District. He likes to walk his poodle mixes in Volunteer and Cal Anderson.
“Both of these places are very much de facto off leash dog parks, and I’ve let my dogs off leash—especially when there are enough other dogs off leash to where it’s operating as an off leash dog park,” Maritz said. “I don’t ever see any issues. Occasionally, the dogs will share the space with some folks playing rugby or soccer.”
What sets Maritz and his poodle apart from other Hill area dog families is the developer had some land available to try to do something about the lack of off-leash space, and opened a community site on some currently underutilized property. Continue reading →
Maybe Capitol Hill is getting soft. Or, maybe, the giant fuzzy buddies featured in the big “Ultimate Pet Portrait” mural at Broadway and Pine are just too sweet.
But the huge yellow commercial work by Seattle artist Ariel Parrow that went up a few weeks back on the side of the old South Annex building on E Pine will be officially unveiled this week having remained mostly unmarred by tagging and vandalism — even if the represented critters include a very un-Capitol Hill mix of apparent purebreds, no mutts, and no pit bulls. The pet rabbit? On brand.
Tuesday, Chewy, the $17 billion online retailer of pet food and “other pet-related products,” will celebrate the mural and hosting “a fun gathering for pets and pet parents” with a tent in Cal Anderson Park with treats and giveaways starting at 11 AM just across from the E Pine artwork. Continue reading →
A promotion picture for the new Midtown Square apartment units. Of the more than 400 units available, 138 are income restricted (Image: Midtown Square)
(Image: All The Best Pet Care)
What goes into developing a for-profit, mixed-use apartment complex in the core of Seattle and a neighborhood with communities striving to address crises around displacement and gentrification? CHS reported details today of Midtown Square’s unique anchor tenant — Arté Noir arts center — at the center of the project.
But the development will also fill simpler needs in the area. The latest new business joining the project will make residents lined up for the pet-friendly apartment units and surrounding neighbors with furry friends happy. Construction permits have been filed for a new All The Best Pet Care to join the 23rd Ave side of the project. The chain has 15 other locations around the city including one on E Madison.
The new shop will join Arté Noir and a mix of neighborhood and BIPOC-owned businesses including a second location of the Jerk Shack Caribbean restaurant on the edge of the development’s internal plaza, So Beautiful Salon from Shavonne Bland, a Central District resident and Garfield High grad, along 23rd Ave, a new home for Raised Doughnuts on 24th Ave, and a new home for neighborhood bar The Neighbor Lady.
Meanwhile, leasing has begun on Midtown Square’s 428 market-rate and affordable apartment units, surrounding a quasi-public central plaza, and above a huge underground parking garage. Continue reading →
Most mornings and afternoons, Cal Anderson is a dog park. Volunteer Park, too. But the chaos of the pandemic is about to give ground to the order of Seattle City Hall and a group of Capitol Hill dog owners is frustrated with the options.
“During the pandemic we have paused issuing citations, but as our county is in Phase 3 and seeing more public recreational activity, citations will likely resume in the near future,” a Seattle Parks spokesperson tells CHS. There’s no date — yet — for resumption, but tickets are coming soon for owners allowing dogs to run free in city parks or on forbidden ground like Cal Anderson’s Bobby Morris playfield turf.
Cal Anderson, meanwhile, is in the middle of community and city discussions that began in the wake of CHOP and have continued with groups and advocates working to take on new projects around the park — though progress on providing outreach resources, or resources like phone charging stations, rain shelters for mutual aid providers hasn’t kept up with smaller efforts like clean-ups and new decorative lighting. The busy park serves a lot of needs. Adding room for a dog park for neighbors living around the green space does not seem likely to be one of them. Continue reading →
In the middle of a major expansion and the challenges of 2020, Capitol Hill’s Urban Animal is hoping to help the neighborhood’s pets and owners get a healthy start on 2021 with a first come, first served vaccination clinic.
It’s not just people waiting in lines for vaccines right now. Many dogs and cats have also been waiting for vaccines or boosters while COVID-19 restrictions and busy human schedules have made getting things scheduled a little more difficult than normal. Tuesday at the Capitol Hill clinic, Dr. Cherri Trusheim and her staff are hosting a day of walk up vaccinations and quick wellness checks to try to help Urban Animal families get needed care.
The first come first serve walk-up clinic will be from 11 AM to 2 PM on Tuesday, February 23rd. According to Liz Weber of Urban Animal, “this will be a low cost, brief exam, vaccine day where people who haven’t been able to get into our clinics for an appointment with the restrictions can now get updated.”
In late 2019, CHS reported on Urban Animal’s big plans to expand on Capitol Hill as Cafe Solstice got out from under its expensive just off-Broadway lease. The plans for a new expanded clinic — complete with separate entrances for dogs and cats — have been delayed through the pandemic. Urban Animal is currently operating out of the old cafe space while remodeling the original location next door as part of the expansion.
“We feel like all we do is tell people no all day, they call and we tell them we can’t get you in, because we can’t have people waiting outside,” Trusheim said. “It’s been really challenging. The expansion will help, we will be able to get more people in the door.” Continue reading →
With the smash of a tennis ball-packed piñata, the latest edition to the Capitol Hill pet economy opened over the weekend.
CHS reported last fall on the plans for a Capitol Hill expansion of the Tails of the City dog daycare business in the underground space beneath Velocity Dance Center on 12th Ave. The longtime Georgetown doggy daycare, is expanding to its second Seattle location under owner Karyn Johnson. Continue reading →
There will be no Capitol Hill or Central District locations on the list of planned expansions for new off leash areas in Seattle.
