Author Archives: jseattle

About jseattle

Justin is publisher of CHS. You can reach him at [email protected] or call/txt (206) 399-5959. Follow @jseattle on Twitter or be best pals on Facebook.

Seattle anti-Trump protests including ‘PUNCH A NAZI’ illuminated display continue at Cal Anderson Park

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January 24th: Light projection artist @lightguerrilla illuminated display at Cal Anderson Park. (Image: @streetphotojournalism)

Demonstrators marching off the Hill Wednesday afternoon from a video of the protest posted to the CHS Facebook Group

“Yup, F Donald Trump,” says a Capitol Hill resident in their video posted to the CHS Facebook Group showing a hundred or so chanting protesters streaming by Wednesday afternoon on E Denny Way.

The afternoon demonstration starting in Cal Anderson Park had been promoted online as a warm-up for a larger rally planned on March 15th in a post encouraging demonstrators to march “for our reproductive rights,” healthcare, trans rights, and “to bring awareness to the housing crisis.” The marchers headed through the city to Seattle Center and kept mostly to the sidewalks to avoid conflicts with traffic and police. Continue reading →

Remembering Binyam Wolde, ‘the spirit of Dirty Dog’

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(Image: Dirty Dog)

The spirit of Dirty Dog has passed.

Binyam Wolde, the entrepreneur behind the Dirty Dog food cart business that has included the wiener stand at 11th and Pine that has grown into a core element of the Capitol Hill street scene, died earlier this month. Wolde was 44.

As his business continues, a fundraiser has been set up to help support his family. “Biny was a devoted and loving husband to his wife. He was a fun, patient , and loving father to his two young children- he absolutely adored them. He was the eldest of six siblings who looked to him as mentor and friend,” it reads. “He was generous with all who knew him and our community is devastated that we’ve lost him.” Continue reading →

Flowers Just 4 U closing shop after 40 years of business in the CD

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(Image: CHS)

When you are ready to retire from the flower business, you are ready to retire — even if you are only a few weeks from Valentine’s Day.

Flowers Just 4 U will mark its final day of business Friday after 40 years in the Central District.

Owner Mary Wesley told the South Seattle Emerald earlier this month she has been holding out hope a buyer will come along to keep a flower business going at 23rd and Cherry. Wesley said she also was invited to reopen her business on the corner after the planned affordable Acer House development demolishes the old building and finishes construction. Continue reading →

‘Downscale the Proposed One Seattle Rezoning Plans for Madrona’ — How Hollingsworth’s office is handling neighborhood pushback on Seattle growth plan update

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There are petitions in Madrona and letters from angry realtors.

“We are welcoming any and all feedback,” Anthony Derrick, chief of staff to District 3 representative Joy Hollingsworth tells CHS about the ongoing process the council member is leading to forge an update to the city’s comprehensive plan and new zoning across its neighborhoods. “With the law, the city is going to see some massive density changes.”

Wednesday afternoon, the Seattle City Council committee Hollingsworth leads formed to take on the nearly impossible task of reaching compromise on Seattle’s comprehensive plan update will meet.

A report on displacement, a core issue for Hollingsworth who grew up watching her Central District neighborhood struggle with gentrification, is on the agenda. But the important statistics and challenges raised in the presentation on the city’s Anti-Displacement Action Plan (PDF) might get lost.

The second half of Wednesday’s meeting will focus on public engagement around the comprehensive plan update — including the city’s meetings on the update it has been hosting since 2022.

Protests and pushback from a growing chorus of property, business, and homeowners from across the city and District 3 are becoming louder as a key February 5th public forum on the comprehensive plan update proposal approaches.

In Madrona, groups are forming to oppose upzoning in the neighborhood as Seattle leaders say more areas of the city must rise to meet state required changes hoped to address growing housing and affordability challenges.

The Madrona neighborhood, they argue, should be treated differently than the rest of the city when it comes to efforts to increase density. Continue reading →

With dancing, events, and a new name, group steps forward with new plan for Capitol Hill’s Century Ballroom

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(Image: Century Ballroom)

Wilder, Kuperman, and Cockrill — You can watch the announcement here

There is new hope for a new dance at Capitol Hill’s Century Ballroom.

Two months after announcing they would not renew their lease and were ready to end the three decade run of the popular dance venue inside Capitol Hill’s Odd Fellows Hall, Century’s Hallie Kuperman and Alison Cockrill have announced a group has stepped forward with a plan to continue the space’s long history of social dance while stabilizing the business.

“When we reached out to the universe and said, if there’s a way to save this space as a dancing space, let it come forward, and this person came forward,” Kuperman said in this week’s announcement.

The group led by Seattle event producer Eliza Wilder says it is negotiating a new lease for the building’s Grand Ballroom and West Hall and plans to fill the venue with dances and classes while growing the event space rental component of the business.

“I’ve been dancing at Century Ballroom for 15 years. It was the first place I went dancing when I moved here as a fresh-eyed 18-year-old,” Wilder said.

In the announcement, Wilder said she had been searching for a home for an event business — but never thought she would take on something at Century’s scale. Continue reading →

Recycle and reuse? New thrift shop lined up as Lifelong to say goodbye to Broadway store — UPDATE

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(image: CHS)

Lifelong, the Seattle nonprofit dedicated to helping those living with HIV, is shutting down its thrift division. A change on Broadway is coming but the old Lifelong Thrift Shop looks like it is being set for some vintage recycling with a new thrift entity lined up for the space.

The nonprofit said it is closing its thrift division in a Monday announcement. “We hope to carry on in the same space with a new name, unaffiliated with Lifelong and will be sharing details online and in our windows as they are finalized,” the announcement reads. UPDATE: Lifelong said it pulled down the announcement to update some information included in the post and will be making a new announcement soon.

Details on the timing of the change have not yet been announced. The Broadway store was Lifelong’s only retail location.

Business license filings show a new entity lined up for the 312 Broadway E address. The new thrift shop project includes current Lifelong Thrift director Tamara Asakawa, according to the filing.

UPDATE: Lifelong CEO Erica Sessle tells CHS the decision to move on from the store comes as the ten-year lease for the space was coming up and Lifelong’s leadership is making concerted efforts to focus the nonprofit on its core services as it prepares to weather a more uncertain future under the new administration. Shuttering the underperforming store will help Lifelong as it expands its kitchen and meal services with a new space in the Georgetown Yards that will double the size of its operations.

“We’re hoping we’re going to be able to feed more people,” Sessle said.

Lifelong Thrift opened in the space in early 2015. Prior to that, the store was part of the Red Light Vintage family. The new Lifelong Thrift combined the spaces left empty by the departure of the much-loved Red Light and its sibling boutique. At 12,500 square feet and two levels, it was almost three times the size of the thrift’s former E Union location.

Capitol Hill vintage, meanwhile, remains an important part of the neighborhood’s retail mix. Though the Capitol Hill Value Village was long ago torn down to make way for an 11th Ave office space development, vintage shops large and small continue to do the area including the Late Night Vintage Market that landed on E Pike in 2022. The Capitol Hill Goodwill remains active on Belmont Ave despite mixed-use plans that now span back five years.

We’ll know more about the new shop’s plans for Broadway soon but Lifelong is hoping for a smooth transition for customers and employees.

Learn more at lifelong.org.

 

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911 | Good samaritan helps knocked-out Capitol Hill robbery victim get home

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See something others should know about? Email CHS or call/txt/Signal (206) 399-5959. You can view recent CHS 911 coverage here. Hear sirens and wondering what’s going on? Check out reports from @jseattle or join and check in with neighbors in the CHS Facebook Group.

  • Good samaritan helps robbery victim get home: Seattle Police say a good samaritan who witnessed a driver getting knocked out by a punch and robbed in an altercation over a fender bender near Broadway Hill Park early last Monday morning, picked up the unconscious victim, drove him home, and got him into his apartment where he later came to and got himself to the hospital. According to the SPD report on the robbery investigation, police were able to piece together what happened in the 1 AM fight thanks to a note the good samaritan left in the knocked-out victim’s pocket. Interviewing the victim at Harborview where he was being treated for an injured neck, police learned only that the victim remembered getting into a small collision near Federal and Republican. “I don’t see any damage, I’m going home,” the victim remembered saying. That was the last thing he would recall. He woke up in his apartment with his phone and wallet stolen and found the note. The victim “said he found a piece of paper in his pocket with the name of a witness, XXXXX. XXXX, his phone number, and a message saying, ‘the guy who drove you home after you got knocked out,'” the SPD report reads. Police say the suspect who stole the phone also called the victim’s mother to try to get her to wire money for the return of the victim’s property. Police contacted the good samaritan and were able to learn what had gone down. The man said he was sitting in Broadway Hill Park when he noticed around ten vehicles were stopped in the middle of the E Republican. He described the altercation and said the suspect punched the victim in the face and sent him crashing to the ground where he was knocked unconscious. The man told police he was able to wake the victim “up enough to find out where he lived and get the victim back inside the car he was driving and drove him home, “parked his vehicle and was able to carry XXXX into the building and left him in his apartment with the note.” SPD is investigating.
  • First Hill gunfire: Seattle Police investigated gunfire that left a bullet hole in the parking garage fence at First Hill’s Sorrento Hotel early Wednesday. Police were called to the area around 2:30 AM to the reported shooting. “The reporting party stated that they heard approximately multiple shots followed by a vehicle speeding off westbound, but it was not observed,” the SPD report reads. There were no reported injuries.
  • Central District gunfire: SPD also investigated a shooting last Wednesday evening near 21st and Cherry:
    At 1819 hours, multiple calls of shots being fired and a person fleeing. Officers arrived in the area and spoke to several witnesses. They pointed out a nearby apartment building and said that one of the persons involved had run inside of the apartments. No victims were located. No damage to any cars or buildings could be located. A check of the apartment building did not reveal any victims, the occupants were either uncooperative or said they did not see anything and only heard gunshots. GVRU was notified.

  • A still from video showing the January 16th incident

    Capitol Hill Station security tackle teen suspect: A Sound Transit spokesperson tells CHS that a January 16th incident at Capitol Hill Station involving use of force by its security officers was necessary to remove “a possible sharp weapon” from a suspect who had been involved in an ongoing altercation at the Broadway and John transit facility. Video of the incident captured by an observer shows one of two responding Sound Transit security staff tackle the teen female along E John and cause her to drop the object in the midst of a dispute involving multiple male and female subjects and a small child. The officers gain control of the weapon, release the teen, and she can be seen leaving the scene with another female subject and the small child. Sound Transit says the incident began around 1:30 PM with an altercation involving the suspect and several others that slowed as Seattle Police were called and Seattle Fire was on the scene to treat one person for an injury. Sound Transit says the fighting began again as police left, necessitating the use of force. There were no immediate arrests.

 

HELP KEEP CHS PAYWALL-FREE
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 as little as $5 a month. 

 

911 | Another Capitol Hill pot shop hit in smash and grab heist

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See something others should know about? Email CHS or call/txt/Signal (206) 399-5959. You can view recent CHS 911 coverage here. Hear sirens and wondering what’s going on? Check out reports from @jseattle or join and check in with neighbors in the CHS Facebook Group.

  • Capitol Hill pot shop heist: Thieves used a vehicle to bust open the front door of Capitol Hill’s Ruckus pot shop early Monday morning, ripping out the store’s ATM while grabbing some cannabis on the way, according to police. Officers were called to the E Republican scene just off 15th Ave E around 7:30 AM after a caller noticed the break-in. Thieves had reportedly cut alarm and camera wires during the heist, according to police radio updates. The latest in an ongoing plague of cannabis shop burglaries across the region, Monday’s rapid heist involved two male suspects, one wearing a reflective jacket, the other in tan and both wearing beanies, hoodies, and gloves, police say. Police did not provide a description of the vehicle used to pull open the front security gate of the shop. There were no reported arrests.

    A picture from Thursday morning’s response from the CHS Facebook Group

  • Melrose shooting response: Police and Seattle Fire vehicles filled Melrose Ave early Thursday after a reported self-inflicted gunshot incident at a nearby apartment building. Police were called to the shooting just before 4 AM. Seattle Fire was transporting the victim in critical condition to Harborview from the scene. Resources to help those in need: National suicide-prevention hotline: 800-273-8255. Local Crisis Clinic: (206) 461-3222. If you need immediate assistance, call 911.
  • Car fire threatens historic ‘double house’ — You might have woken up Thursday morning smelling smoke. Seattle Fire responded to several reported encampment and rubbish fires around the city overnight including a handful on First Hill near 7th Ave. Another blaze reported just before 6:30 AM brought a large Seattle Fire response to a reported car fire threatening a Boylston Ave “double house” structure currently being considered as a city landmark. Seattle Fire provided a larger response to the reported 1400 block Boylston car fire due to exposure to the building. We don’t have information, yet, on what damage was inflicted. There were no reported injuries. Investigators were called to the scene to determine the fire’s cause. UPDATE: The car fire behind the structure was clear of the building and quickly extinguished by Seattle Fire. The investigation on the fire’s cause continues.
 

HELP KEEP CHS PAYWALL-FREE
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 as little as $5 a month. 

 

Sunright Tea Studio next in line to join Capitol Hill’s burgeoning boba community

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(Image: Sunright Tea Studio)

Capitol Hill is taking another step closer to fulfilling its manifest destiny of a boba shop on every block.

There is a Sunright Tea Studio coming to the Pride Place senior housing and services development on Broadway between Pike and Pine.

The arrival of the chain’s new shop gearing up for construction on the senior housing building’s street level will actually make two tea joints on the block. COMEBUYTEA opened last year in the former Starbucks at Pike and Broadway.

Sunright is making plans for the smallest retail space in the mix below Pride Place where preservation incentives included the incorporation of elements from the landmarked auto row-era Eldridge Tire Company building into the development. The auto row remnants were most recently home to small businesses like Tacos Guaymas and Folicle Hair Design before the redevelopment. With a landmark designation, the new building kept the old Mission Revival-styled structure’s facade while preservation incentives help boost the project’s unit count. Continue reading →

Private equity firm behind Rudy’s Barbershop has deal to cut off bankruptcy threat

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The E Pine original (Image: Rudy’s Barbershop)

The company now behind Capitol HIll-born beauty brand Rudy’s Barbershop and a handful of PNW standards collected by the private equity firm during the pandemic has reached a deal hoped to help the company from being forced into bankruptcy.

Sortis Brands reached the agreement and averted a key hearing last week with a group of creditors engaged in a federal court battle that could have forced the company into bankruptcy over a disputed $8 million in debt.

Details of the arrangement still need to be approved by Oregon’s U.S. Bankruptcy Court but The Oregonian reports the proposed settlement has tentatively staved off liquidation for the company. Continue reading →