Tag Archives: union

Mayor’s conditions for $56M Broadway Crisis Care Center plan include Seattle Police safety sign-off, citizen advisory committee

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The building from above from a recent real estate listing (Image: CBRE)

Screenshot

As the King County Council prepares to vote on a $56 million plan to create a new Crisis Care Center at Broadway and Union, Seattle Mayor Bruce Harrell has conditionally endorsed the proposal and says the city is ready to “partner” on the new facility.

“Seattle, along with other cities in the County, is facing an unprecedented behavioral health crisis. Too many residents are struggling with behavioral issues without adequate support,” the mayor’s letter in support the plan for the facility reads. “When the Seattle clinic opens it will provide same-day access to care for a person in crisis, which will help reduce the crisis we see on our streets every day.”

In the letter, Harrell says the county and a yet to be announced operator of the center must partner with the Seattle Police Department to assess the former Polyclinic building and its surroundings for safety, execute a “safe operations plan for the building and the surrounding exterior spaces, including public sidewalks and other publicly accessible spaces,” and enter into a Good Neighbor Agreement with the city that “obligates the provider to meet certain safety and disorder standards to be negotiated with the provider.”

The Seattle City Hall letter of support is a key milestone in the so far limited public process around the proposal. Continue reading →

Here is where Seattle mayor and police want new ‘Real Time Crime Center’ cameras on Capitol Hill and in the Central District

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The mayor’s office has revealed details of its proposed expansion of the Seattle Police “Real Time Crime Center” surveillance camera system to include the Capitol Hill nightlife core and a major swath of the Central District from E Cherry to Jackson it says it necessary to prevent gun violence near Garfield High School.

Maps and details of the proposed expansions were presented last week to the Seattle City Council’s public safety committee as the mayor’s office hands off legislation to expand the existing Real Time Crime Center camera pilot currently operating along Aurora Ave, 3rd Ave, and in the International District.

“Analysts are supporting ongoing investigations by pushing video and incident data directly to
patrol units and detectives,” a city council analysis of the proposal reads. “Analysts can also provide live updates and still images of suspects, a capability SPD says helps support its ‘precision policing’ model.” Continue reading →

County can’t yet say who will run it but officials answering as many questions as they can about possible Broadway Crisis Care Center

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The Kirkland center

There are many questions surrounding the plan to locate one of five county Crisis Care Centers at Broadway and Union. One of the biggest — who will run it? — can’t be answered yet due to county procurement policies.

A spokesperson for the King County Department of Community and Human Services tells CHS they can’t reveal if the Arizona-headquartered service provider Connections that is operating its transformed Kirkland location as the first in the planned $1.25 billion network of five facilities across the county has made a bid to also operate the planned Broadway center. Continue reading →

‘Placing it in the heart of the city makes sense’ — State, county, and city leaders working to shape Broadway Crisis Care Center plan

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The former Polyclinic facility

State Rep. Shaun Scott sees it as an opportunity for three levels of local government to come together to push for the right thing. Folks at the King County Department of Community and Human Services feel like they are running to catch up with the questions and concerns.

“I see it as my role as a representative of the 43rd Legislative District to be part of the solution, not part of the problem,” Scott tells CHS about his effort to organize a town hall Monday night on Capitol Hill to raise support for what the first-year state legislator says is a desperately needed resource that will be ready to serve the entire community.

“Placing it in the heart of the city makes sense,” Scott said.

CHS reported here on the plans for Monday night’s Crisis Care Center Townhall as Scott will be joined by Seattle City Councilmember Alexis Mercedes Rinck and county officials at Capitol Hill art bar Vermillion in a session hoped to drum up support — and counter business community-led opposition — to a major mental health Crisis Care Center being planned for Broadway and Union.

Monday’s planned event comes after the county met with significant pushback from the area business community over its $50 million proposal to acquire the former Polyclinic building at the corner of Broadway and Union to create an emergency and walk-in clinic part of a voter-approved, $1.25 billion network of five facilities across the county. Continue reading →

Bateau, one of the biggest 2015 ideas in Capitol Hill food and drink, is closing for a 2025 restart — UPDATE

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(Image: CHS)

The massive Infinity building

One of Capitol Hill’s biggest 2015-era food and drink ideas is coming to a close. A decade after opening on the backside of Pike/Pine, the Renee Erickson-helmed complex of new era steakhouse Bateau, Boat Bar, and General Porpoise filled doughnuts will be shuttered, ownership announced Thursday. Plans call for the spaces to reopen later this year with a new, refreshed approach more in line with 2025-era Capitol Hill food and drink economics.

“After these many years, we will be taking this time to reflect and refresh our concepts,” the announcement reads. “We look forward to welcoming guests and staff back to a reimagined Bateau and Boat Bar later this year.”

The final day of business for the current incarnation of the corner is June 19th.

The closures comes as parent restaurant family Sea Creatures has been tightening its belt and streamlining its businesses. The planned temporary closure on E Union will bring the end of the Capitol Hill General Porpoise, Erickson’s first in what had grown into a small chain. By this summer, only two will remain. The Capitol Hill shop neighboring Bateau and the bar will become a private dining room.

(Image: CHS)

Continue reading →

Hey, roomie — The Spot is moving in with a Capitol Hill salon to create a new cafe and music hangout on the backside of Pike/Pine

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The Spot in its West Seattle days (Image: The Spot)

There will be a new set of Capitol Hill roommates on 11th Ave heading into the summer. Cafe and wine bar The Spot is moving in with salon Essensuals of London.

Hopefully they enjoy each other’s music.

“It’s a pretty cool concept,” The Spot’s Philip Sudore tells CHS. “The space is beautiful — big, open, high ceilings. We’re taking over one side of the building.”

A new life for The Spot at 11th and Union on the backside of Pike/Pine comes months after the West Seattle hangout shuttered on Avalon Way where it gutted out the height of the pandemic but ultimately couldn’t hold on.

The Spot’s rebirth on Capitol Hill will represent a streamlined version of Suerore’s little bit of everything cafe, bar, and music hangout. Sudore is jettisoning The Spot’s restaurant aspirations with the new start. Continue reading →

County working on next steps in Capitol Hill Crisis Care Center plan

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King County officials are working on plans for a public meeting to answer questions and concerns around the proposed mental health Crisis Care Center at Broadway and Union.

CHS reported here on pushback over public safety concerns against the planned facility in a meeting with business and property owners as Department of Community and Human Services officials made the case for the emergency and walk-in clinic that would be part of a $1.25 billion network of five facilities across the county.

The Capitol Hill Community Council says it is working with the county to set up the next meeting with wider community goals and the organization has launched a survey to gather feedback in advance of the session. Continue reading →

‘In crisis’ — County makes case for Crisis Care Center on Broadway amid biz owner pushback

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Around 50 people attended last week’s meeting (Image: CHS)

By Matt Dowell

King County officials reaffirmed the value of a planned mental health Crisis Care Center on Broadway at a community meeting last week but members of the public pushed back — “Why here?”

Officials tell CHS the meeting was the next step in a process they say is both just beginning — and well under way. There is an offer for the property on the table. More community meetings are being planned.

Meanwhile, a letter sent to District 3 representative Joy Hollingsworth protesting the consideration of the Broadway at Union property for the new center has made waves in the neighborhood business community.

Meeting attendees inside Seattle U’s Wyckoff Auditorium and organized by the county and the GSBA chamber of commerce Thursday pushed for keeping the crisis center out of Capitol Hill and shifting the focus to a new location. Ice cream entrepreneur Molly Moon Neitzel took the mic.

“I’m Molly Moon, I’ve lived on Capitol Hill for 22 years. I have gone from a partying kid on one side of the Hill to a mom on the other side of the Hill. I’ve [operated] a thriving business in the Pike/Pine corridor for 16 years. I located that business there in a thriving time for the Hill. Our neighborhood is in crisis.”

“I think probably everyone in this room supports the mission of the Crisis Care Centers and believes that they need to exist,” Neitzel said. “The need for first responders to have the ability to take these folks in need to a Crisis Care Center — we can all give a standing ovation to that mission.”

“Do they need to come to a neighborhood in absolute dire crisis for the last five, six, seven years? No they do not.”

“I would encourage you to look at a site that is in a neighborhood that doesn’t have so much crisis going on right now.”

CHS broke the news last week on the county’s plans to open a facility in the former Polyclinic building at Broadway and Union as part of the $1.25 billion Crisis Care Centers measure approved by voters in April 2023. The nine-year levy calls for a network of five facilities that provide walk-in behavioral health care. The first opened in Kirkland in March. Continue reading →

Public Health warns of May 2nd measles exposure at Capitol Hill brewery

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If you are vaccinated you should not have to worry but the health department has put out an alert about a Canadian who “visited multiple public locations in Renton, Bellevue, Seattle, Everett and Woodinville while contagious with measles” in early May including a popular beer hall and brewery on Capitol Hill.

Public Health says the visitor arrived here April 30th and spent four days around the city and the Eastside before flying home out of Sea-Tac on May 3rd. Unfortunately, they had a very busy itinerary including a stop on Capitol Hill.

Officials say the infected person was at Capitol Hill’s Stoup Brewing at Broadway and Union from 4 to 8 PM on Friday, May 2nd.

“Measles virus can remain in the air for up to two hours after someone infectious with measles leaves the area,” local health officials said. “Anyone who was at the following locations during the times listed could have been exposed to measles.”

Health officials have not said if any new case have been connected to the exposures but did say the visitor’s case is not connected to any previous local measles cases.

Exposure alerts are likely to continue. Continue reading →

King County planning Crisis Care Center at Broadway and Union — UPDATE

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Capitol Hill property owners, businesses, and residents are preparing to push back on a planned King County mental health crisis center on Broadway.

Plans for a $1.25 billion network of five crisis care centers across the county include the former Polyclinic building at Broadway and Union, CHS has learned.

County officials are planning to hold a hastily organized meeting with community members Thursday.

Opposition to the Broadway center is already in place as rumors of the planned location have grown in recent months.

The massive 114,000-square-foot Polyclinic building now part of the Optum rebrand has been on the market for lease. A “rebuild letter,” also known as a “Zoning Verification Letter” and issued to confirm whether a property can be rebuilt to its original condition and use, was filed for the property in February. The letters are typically part of the process around a commercial property’s sale or refinancing. Continue reading →