Tag Archives: seattle central

Rinck to debate Woo in battle for citywide Position 8 council seat next week on Capitol Hill

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This Tuesday night, Kamala Harris is scheduled to face off against Donald Trump in what could end up being the final presidential debate before November. But next week, you will find more useful political discourse happening much closer to home.

The Seattle City Club is coming to Capitol Hill’s Seattle Central College for a night of debates in local races.

At 7 PM, Wednesday, September 18th, Seattle City Council candidates for the body’s citywide Position 8 seat Alexis Mercedes Rinck and Tanya Woo will take the stage.

CHS reported here on Rinck and Woo going through in the August primary as Seattle’s progressive vs. centrist political battle lines were drawn. Continue reading →

In midst of public safety worries, Capitol Hill EcoDistrict hopes to help change the way neighborhood spaces are used — including activating the top of the massive Seattle Central parking garage

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Seattle Central used the top of its massive Harvard Ave parking garage as the setting for its pandemic-era graduation ceremonies — a new plan hopes to activate the garage’s top level space

Catenary lights above Nagle (Image: @blitzurbanism)

As community representatives and city officials hope to make strides in addressing public safety worries around Capitol Hill’s Pike/Pine and Broadway core and its popular Cal Anderson Park, an organization with deep neighborhood roots is helping to reshape streets and design in the area.

The Capitol Hill EcoDistrict has been working to increase sustainability and equity in the neighborhood for over a decade but its latest projects come as part of a large puzzle with some dire stakes.

“We have a bond to this neighborhood. We’re very deliberate in our work and specific to Capitol Hill,” said Donna Moodie, executive director of the EcoDistrict.

CHS reported here on the challenges facing Capitol Hill around Broadway between Union and Pine where the city says street crime and deadly drug use overlap at some of its highest levels. City officials are weighing initiatives for these areas that will include increased policing and prosecution as well as possible creation of a neighborhood ambassador program.

There are deadly consequences. The most recent example? 23-year-old Kenji Spurgeon, gunned down in an E Pine parking lot amid Pride weekend nightlife crowds.

Changing the way these streets look and feel is part of a longer –and hopefully more complete — path to making Capitol Hill safer. Continue reading →

Central District’s Wood Technology Center gets ‘skilled trades careers’ boost from Lowe’s

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A WTC Student, Alumni, and Industry Partner Demonstration at the Seattle Colleges Board of Trustees last year (Image: WTC)

As budget concerns continue to ripple through education and Seattle’s city college system, a corporate gift will help the Central District’s Wood Technology Center as part of a national campaign to boost skilled trades careers.

The Lowe’s Foundation has announced a $750,000 gift to the Seattle Colleges system’s 23rd Ave facility that officials said to add staffing at the center, “particularly for student recruitment, retention and outplacement.” The funds will also support a site manager to coordinate center logistics, “which will become increasingly complex as programs grow in coming years, partly through this grant.” Continue reading →

Broadway’s very busy ballot drop box makes 40-foot move

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(Image: King County Elections)

Democracy is on the move on Broadway. One of the busiest in the bunch, the King County Elections ballot drop box has made a 40-foot move to a new home on the Seattle Central campus.

The new spot for the big metal box is about 40 feet north of where it was first installed in 2016 to augment the county’s transition to by-mail voting.

Though this part of Central’s campus is lined up for eventual development and construction to build a six-story Information Technology Education Center on Broadway, the box’s move right now is more of a shuffle on the busy campus. Continue reading →

Capitol Hill’s Intiman Theatre begins 50th year with partnership to stage exploration of race, class, and politics in Lorraine Hansberry’s ‘The Sign in Sidney Brustein’s Window’

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The Sign in Sidney Brustein’s Window (Image: Intiman Theatre)

One year ago, Intiman Theatre was preparing for its first production in its new home on Capitol Hill. It begins its 50th season in February with a partnership to stage a powerful exploration of race, class, and politics.

Intiman Theatre and The Williams Project are co-producing The Sign in Sidney Brustein’s Window by Lorraine Hansberry and directed by Ryan Guzzo Purcell. This production marks the first time that Hansberry’s play will be professionally produced in the city of Seattle. The show is scheduled to run from February 7th to 25th at Harvard Ave’s Erickson Theatre as part of Intiman’s residency at Seattle Central College.

“In a lot of ways, it’s a play about the struggle between idealism and practicality,” said  director Ryan Guzzo Purcell. “How do you live your values and your ideals, and particularly, when you’re no longer young and in college?”

The Williams Project is a Seattle-based theater company that specializes in producing lesser-known works and re-imagining classics. Their mission is to create productions that are accessible to diverse audiences and to give a platform to underrepresented voices in the theater community. Continue reading →

Seattle City Council passes legislation that will make it easier for Seattle Central to build new student housing on E Pine

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The Seattle City Council earlier this week unanimously approved legislation form-fitted to Capitol Hill’s Seattle Central College that will ease the way for the school to build much-needed new housing affordable to students close to its Broadway campus.

In Tuesday’s 9-0 vote, councilmembers approved legislation that tweaks city code would allow a new amendment process for Major institution Master Plan changes to allow “a one-time addition of student or employee housing.” The change will allow “a single development with residential uses at community colleges in Urban Centers to be approvable as a minor amendment to an existing MIMP when certain criteria are met.”

The passage will boost Seattle Central’s plan to replace the school’s giant E Pine parking garage with a new apartment development. On the site where the massive, 510-stall E Pine and Harvard parking garage now rises, there will be more than 500 beds of new housing. The existing garage would be demolished and rebuilt — underground — with about 260 parking spots, which would include charging stations for electric bikes and cars. Continue reading →

Proposal would ease path to Seattle Central demolishing its massive Capitol Hill parking garage to make way for student housing development — and, don’t worry, more parking

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A design rendering of planned new SCC housing at Harvard and Pine

A Seattle City Council committee Wednesday will take up legislation to tweak city land use code to allow schools like Capitol Hill’s Seattle Central College to build much-needed new housing affordable to students close to urban campuses.

The council’s Land Use Committee chaired by Dan Strauss (D6 — NW Seattle) will consider the proposal form-fitted for SCC that would change code to allow its plans for hundreds of units of new student housing in a development replacing the school’s massive, multi-story parking garage that rises at Harvard and Pine.

The legislative tweak to city code would allow a new amendment process for Major institution Master Plan changes to allow “a one-time addition of student or employee housing.” The change would allow “a single development with residential uses at community colleges in Urban Centers to be approvable as a minor amendment to an existing MIMP when certain criteria are met.” Continue reading →

Giving time to solve budget crunch, faculty union says programs including Seattle Central’s Culinary Academy and Apparel Design and Development school will remain open through fall

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The Apparel Design and Development will be among the programs funded through next fall (Image: Seattle Central)

The labor union representing faculty at Seattle Colleges says the system’s Culinary Academy, Maritime Academy, Wood Technology, PACT, and Apparel Design and Development school will remain open through the fall quarter buying the important programs much needed time to secure long term funding amid a growing budget crunch.

“Sustainable funding still needs to be secured for these programs for 2023 and beyond,” the statement posted Wednesday night by AFT Seattle reads. “Faculty & Staff at Seattle Colleges are still demanding fair wages and transparency when decisions about programs are made. The fight’s not over yet!” Continue reading →

Seattle abortion rights rallies and protests planned in response to Supreme Court leak — UPDATE: Hundreds march

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(Images: @mmitgang with permission to CHS)

UPDATE 5/4/2022: A crowd estimated at more than 1,000 people gathered in Seattle’s Westlake Plaza Wednesday night for an abortion rights rally and march that filled the city’s downtown streets with hundreds calling for protection of reproductive rights in the wake of the Supreme Court leak. Continue reading →

With behind the scenes challenges and financial turmoil for the arts, Intiman Theatre ready for Capitol Hill debut

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Intiman and Seattle Central’s partnership offers an associate of arts degree, allowing for students and union members to work alongside another on mainstage productions (Image: Intiman)

costume designer Pete Rush puts the finishing touches on Jesse Calixto’s dress for the Irma Vep production (Image: Intiman)

By Danielle Marie Holland

In the face of the pandemic, Capitol Hill’s theater community is trying to grow. This February, Intiman Theatre debuts its first production in its new home on Capitol Hill. This will be Intiman’s first stage production since COVID cast theaters across the country into darkness — and first on Harvard Ave.

It comes amid a backdrop of huge challenges for Seattle arts organizations and financial tumult for crucial public services that have its new partner Seattle Central seeking new paths to overcome deepening budgetary shortfalls.

Intiman Theatre is now ready to kick off its first production since the “before times” with The Mystery of Irma Vep – A Penny Dreadful directed by Jasmine Joshua, and staged at The Erickson Theatre Off-Broadway.

“I can pretty much speak for all theatre artists, that the last few years have been pretty devastating,” director Joshua tells CHS. Continue reading →