My husband and I walked along Broadway tonight from Denny to John, a stretch of one and a half blocks.  No less than 11 people asked us for money, even rudely interrupting our conversation and physically stepping in our way.  I haven't seen my husband since Friday morning and we were catching up, so I was a bit irritated.  I usually avoid Broadway so maybe I haven't noticed the increase in beggars but it seems to be getting out of control. Has there recently been a push to shift the homeless out of Downtown, perhaps to hide them from the summer tourists?

I feel bad for the homeless and I do what I can to help by volunteering in the community at a local homeless women shelter, previously volunteered at CAMP (which helps with energy assistance and provides a food bank for those in need), and participating in food drives.  I do not have money lying around to hand out to everyone.  It's frustrating and we will go back to avoiding Broadway in the future.  Is this what we want for our community?  Is there something...

No touching brown bear
gallery Originally uploaded by
raspberryteacup

SPD is using its fancy new blog to tout the collar of a 'prolific' tagger allegedly responsible for graffiti on "multiple buildings, including several car dealerships, and several businesses in the areas of 700 East Pike, 700 East Pine and 900 East Pike street."

Report sez the 20-year-old suspect was out to mark the recent death of Bay Area graffiti legend Kerse BTM and was caught in the act early Sunday morning. Hopefully they don't try to nail the kid for all the Kerse-work they find out there on the streets because this gentleman has company.

Will give SPD a call to see what else I can find out.

UPDATE: SPD confirmed that the suspected tagger is being charged with a felony level count of malicious mischief. From my understanding, if there was less than $1,500 damage, maximum sentence would be around 5 years. You can read more about the charge on the Avvo legal site. Also, no specific location of where he was apprehended.

Kerse tag on 10th Ave<...

Bailey/Coy Books, Broadway, Seattle, WA,
originally uploaded by djwudi.

UPDATE 12:10 PM:
I spoke with Bailey Coy owner Michael Wells this morning shortly after the shop opened for the first day of business since his big (and sad) announcement.

Wells said his decision to close for good after years of financial struggle came down to the fundamental question: What does an independent bookstore need to be in this era to survive?

Wells said he's been thinking of how to change for a long time. "I've considered so many permutations. Downsizing. Changing my stock. Events. The realities of book selling at this moment are such that I'm not even sure a change of retail model would even work," Wells said.

"I think a new bookstore has to look differently than in the past. I don't know that I can do that. I don't really understand what is needed. I don't know what e-books will do, how discounts will work, what it will take to do better."

So Wells said he has decided to do the prudent thing. Quit.

"Even if there was a huge groundswell of support from the community, the business model itself is so precarious," Wells said. "I wanted to end this with grace."

Not that the community hasn't tried to keep the story going. Wells confirmed that a prominent Capitol Hill business owner who is a longtime customer had been working with him to find a solution to keep Bailey Coy in business.

"A loan doesn't really help any more. The credit debt is too scary. We've gone through a couple of attempts to find financing and we end up in the same place. No," Wells said. "One of the pieces of this story is how hard it is for small businesses to get credit. At some point I stopped and said, 'I wouldn't even give us credit!'"

Wells said the financial condition of his shop wasn't dire -- in fact, he said he has never taken out a bank loan to keep the store afloat -- but that it had become clear that the struggle to survive was no longer worth the effort.

"This isn't the bookstore I want to be running. I only want to run a good bookstore. I cannot finance -- and the Cap Hill community -- cannot finance this store," Wells said.

Now, Wells said the best way for you to help him close Bailey Coy with 'grace' is to support the store as it sells off its remaining stock over the next four weeks. The prices will keep dropping, of course, but buying a book today will help Wells pay off remaining bills. He also said there will be a new 'Bailey Coy rummage' section of the store to sell off some of the memorabilia and etc. that has collected in the store over the years including a framed package wrapper from Feminist Press addressed to founder Barbara Bailey and some of the shop's classic window displays.

The best memorabilia will be part of an auction at a party Wells is planning to celebrate the store's history. Wells calls the party Bailey Coy's wake. "Barbara will be there," Wells said. "We'll auction off great memorabilia like a pair of underwear signed by David Sedaris."

The happy part of the whole thing, Wells said, is hearing from people about their love for the store. "I'm hearing so many stories. Stories about people coming here as a kid. We're connected to a variety of communities. A lot of people have different experiences. That's been great."

As for what comes next for Wells, he says he hasn't had time to think about it despite friends telling him for years that he should think about life after Bailey Coy.

"It's been a great 30 years," Wells said. "For 25 of those years, it was a profitable business. And then I bought it," he deadpans. Now that the struggle has ended, Wells can laugh.

UPDATE 9:25 AM:
Owner Michael Wells says thanks (and more!) in the comments below:

Thank You

Thanks to all of you for your kind words. We will remain open the rest of this month and book cards and gift certificates are still redeemable.

We're obviously very sad about this. We've been proud to be a part of your lives. 

I came to Bailey/Coy in 1989, so, while it's possible that I may be stuck in the 80's, it's far more likely that I'm stuck in the 90's. The 1890's, perhaps...

Original Post:
Michael Wells, owner of indie Capitol Hill bookstore Bailey Coy Books and a prominent member of the Hill business community, tonight announced that he is closing doors on the shop at the end of November. Publicola was the first to report on the closure in a report written by a Bailey Coy employee. The reporter included this press release from Wells about his decision:

Bailey/Coy Books, after serving the Capitol Hill community, the greater Seattle area and generations of book lovers everywhere for 26 years, will be closing its doors at the end of November....

(more)

Joe Bar
Originally uploaded by Kamala Dolphin-Kingsley

CHS broke the news a few weeks back that Starbucks was set to open yet another 'neighborhood coffee house' in the 700 Broadway building.

Now we know what they plan to call the joint. Starbucks passed along this internal memo detailing some of the strategy around the next of their concept shops to hit Capitol Hill. 

Hey Joe Bar, meet your new neighbor Roy Street Coffee & Tea.

Here's some explanation of the strategy behind the name and more from the Starbucks memo:

We shared details of the e-mail with the owner of the independent coffee house that also makes its home on Roy Street. Joe Bar's Wylie Bush said the details only make him sad to see what Starbucks has become. "I have to give Starbucks some credit," Bush said. "They spurred coffee in Seattle to begin with. Now it's sad. It's so depressing."

So far, Bush says, there have been no signs of the infamous note-taking Starbucks employees casing Joe Bar for inspiration for the new shop's design. "As soon as I start seeing green walls I might get a little more bummed out," Bush said.

Bush said he hasn't talked to anybody from Starbucks about the new shop yet and he doesn't yet have any plans for changing his business. He's also torn by the situation -- it's bad for his business but good for that area of Broadway not to have an empty retail space. "The last thing I want to see is another coffee shop on Broadway," Bush said. "At the same time just having that space filled is better."

Bush said he also worries about his younger clientele having to make decisions based on price and being lured away if Starbucks is able to undercut Joe Bar on the price of a cup of coffee. "People make their choices," Bush said. "Hopefully the small indies can survive when the big corporations are mimicking us to the point that you can't tell the difference."

Climbing Originally uploaded by Aghman

UPDATE: Sunday 4:45 PM

• Seeing lots of search queries bringing people to site looking for updates and advice on road conditions. Please add a note if you have a second to share what you know. Updating the update: Here are two votes for I5 vs. 99 once you do make it down from the Hill -- Katelyn Hackett from Seattlest and WSDOT. Also, Madison is probably safest bet to I5.
• Update: Coming back from Sea-Tac? Southern approach to the Hill is advised in comments below. Take Rainier to 12th or 14th for a more gradually sloped approach to Capitol Hill, then work your way toward home from the top.
• Sea-Tac is a disaster. Making a few calls to see if the Madison to I5 route along the south side of the Hill is doable for anybody braving it.
• Metro says they'll be at half capacity again on Monday.
• City has updated its safety and services info like trash/recycling.
• Seattlest's MvB lives covered the lastest storm's impact on CHS from end to end in this photo essay.
• There are...

At stake, the nearly one-third of Seattle voters who say they are still undecided, according to the Publicola poll linked to above.

Video highlights...

Miles of Aisles, originally uploaded by sea turtle.

It's rumor season on Capitol Hill. Last week, it was Elliott Bay Book Company pondering a Capitol Hill move.

Now, CHS has gathered rumors about a massive new Capitol Hill grocery store being planned that will likely dominate the Hill and command the lion's share of your Capitol Hill grocery dollars. A person in the real-estate industry with knowledge of the situation confirmed that a major player in the local grocery scene is considering a new Capitol Hill home and has a location picked out in the heart of the Hill.

If the project comes to fruition, it will be a significant development for Capitol Hill. The new store would join a crowded Capitol Hill grocery environment with no clear leader. The QFC inside the Broadway Market has been upgraded from its old Fred Meyer days. The produce section is expanded and the company hosts wine and beer tastings that you won't find in the typical QFC across the state. Broadway's second QFC down in Pike/Pine is more typical of the chain's offerings. Both stores are infamous for their near-daily reports of shoplifting. Meanwhile, there are Safeways at 15th and John and 23rd and Madison and Madison's Trader Joe's also keeps Capitol Hill pantries well stocked. As for Capitol Hill's indie markets, there is only one large player left. Madison Market celebrated its 30-year anniversary last October. 15th Ave's Rainbow Grocery went under in spring 2007.

The new store would likely eclipse all of these existing grocery providers when it opens in 2010. CHS is working to get more details before we reveal the rumored name and location. Please add anything you've heard in the comments or send e-mail to chs@capitolhillseattle.com

• Institution Belt is kinda mean
• St. Marks is a better name for An Historic District
• I-5 Shores is brilliant and has to stay
• We need sub-names like Radio Point

Front page story in today's Seattle Times: Starbucks on 15th is reopening soon as "15th Avenue Coffee and Tea". Didn't we hear that news around here on CHS, say back in June?

Somewhat ironic that the Seattle Times article also reports that Starbucks executives was snooping on (and emulating) local businesses:

Victrola Coffee Roasters saw the Starbucks people a lot more often.

"They spent the last 12 months in our store up on 15th [Avenue] with these obnoxious folders that said, 'Observation,' " said Victrola owner Dan Ollis.

He thinks it's interesting that they spent all that time in his shop, which serves wine and beer, then applied for a liquor license to sell wine and beer at 15th Avenue Coffee and Tea.

Can we expect the Seattle Times to start getting more like CHS soon?

Moving our old posts over to the new site has gone pretty well except for one irritating issue -- we haven't imported all the comments yet. So this cool oldie post about what you would open on 15th Ave is missing the best part -- your comments. We'll get that fixed eventually -- but the concept needs a refresh anyhow.

So, with the Starbucks body still warm but the spirit departed, what would you open on 15th Ave?

I'm not sure what I want yet but I've decided nothing obvious like another coffee shop, restaurant, bar or ice cream shop. Yes, I said no to ice cream. And, please, no Taco Del Mars.

UPDATE:
The totals are in and the CHS endorsements for the 2009 fall election are official. We'll write up the endorsements in another post but you can see the vote totals blow. Thanks for your votes, delegates.

Original Post:
This should be interesting. Each of you has been given a paper envelope. Please proceed to your favorite chair and don't open it. Inside, you won't find this Web page. That paper stuff is your real life King County ballot. Put it in a safe place.

This page is home to the 2009 fall election CHS Endorsement Polls. The goal is to give the CHS community a say in the endorsement process. Because we have registered accounts, we're one step closer to making online polls more than Web traffic popularity contests. But one step might not be enough. I've yet to run an online poll process that didn't produce hiccups, screw-ups and cheats. Expect some of each here. That's politics.

Here is how the polls work:

• Registered CHS accounts may vote in each poll once
• Polls close Friday night at 9 PM...
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Here we go again
Originally uploaded by ERIK98122

Clearly, this is just nature reminding you of Tuesday's city council session where they'll be discussing December's snow and ice craziness. If you're like many of the people living on Hill and can't make Tuesday morning's session, send an e-mail (click the council's little heads here to get their page with e-mail details and more) and tune in to watch online.

Update: 8:22p

A few pictures from my neck of the woods.

And a video of Broadway from cheesecake

Update 11:11p
Round-up from the comments:

o Report of tree down on bus wires along 15th Ave E at Volunteer Park. MvB on the scene says wires down for both north and south routes and that 15th Ave is CLOSED. Map

Photo: MvB

o City page with power outage listing and updates

o Power out in stretches across city so bring a few extra blankets and a flashlight to bed with you tonight. Sleep tight.

CHS is an experiment in collaboration. When you leave a comment here, you are working with the group to expand the conversation. Users post stories, pictures and videos. More and more, we're finding ways to work together in significant ways -- I'm looking forward to seeing what Cheesecake and EmilyP cook up with his next video episode and her design skills.

In that spirit, we'd like to try another new thing -- CHS Giving Snowball 2008, an experiment in holiday giving. At the center of any community collaboration, there needs to be a driver. For Snowball 2008, it's neighbor pffft who wrote in looking for a way to expand his plans for holiday giving. Pffft will help get the Snowball rolling by throwing $100 in the group pot (see below) and pledging $400 to Northwest Harvest if we meet our $700 giving goal. Thanks pffft! CHS is also throwing $50 in the community pot to get things rolling. And there is no time like the present to get things rolling -- I'm hearing all sorts of anecdotes about challenges faced by...

Every time I go to Madison Market, I check out with a bad taste in my mouth. The checker is there, watching me to see if I take a bag so they can punish me with a surcharge. It's annoying. It doesn't make me bring my own bag - it just makes me annoyed with Madison Market and the holier-than-thou crowd. 

This is from a guy who drives a car that gets 35+ miles to the gallon. I bring bags to the store - when I haven't used them all for garbage bags. I am seriously concerned about global warming. But I am thoroughly annoyed by grocery bag fees.

I will be protesting the Block Party Crashers in spirit this weekend. This tax is a bad idea. It won't impact the amount of garbage Seattle hauls in any significant way (i.e. changing weight or volume by more than 1%), and it gives people who are on the fence about environmentalism a really bad feeling about it - by giving them an annoying reminder of the "nanny state" every time they check out. 

Ways we could *actually* make the city greener:

• tax gasoline<...

Looks like there was a car-bike incident on Aloha tonight. From Seattle LJ:

There was a hit & run involving a car & a bunch of bicyclists (critical mass folks possibly?) on E Aloha in Capitol Hill about an hour ago - apparently a driver was either trying to back up into the street, go around the bikes, or was just irritated that he/she was stuck behind them and decided to drive straight through them and kept going. No one was killed, but at least one guy was bleeding. Apparently some of the bicyclists took off after the vehicle, but I don't know if they caught him or her.

Seattle real-time 911 confirms a medic response on Aloha around the same time as the LJ report. The account above needs to be corroborated so no rush to judgment about the driver or the bicyclists.

Can judge Aloha, though. Relatively narrow Aloha is a bike/car traffic danger zone so seemed only a matter of time before something like this happened. With the tension between two-wheelers and four-wheelers, expect to hear more about this incident...

Don't do a lot of restaurant reviews here. First, reviews are ripe for overwritten ridiculousness -- each bit of poached muskrat was a mouthful of fantasy. I thought it would be more salty. Second, reviews, especially bad reviews are really hard to write.

So, let me off the hook easy here. Just take my word for it. Don't waste a meal on 15th Ave's entrant in the bland Mexican restaurant hall of fame -- Jalisco. We have tried it out of curiosity. We have tried it out of (relative) thrift. We have tried it out of sympathy. We won't make the mistake again.

The meat was watery, bland. The molten sea of beans and rice was monotony on a plate. The tortillas were soggy. The highlight was the unremarkable margarita and the salsa. Yum on the salsa. Nice work.

Hate to hate on a local business but in this case, it's fair. Some may say just set your expectations knee-high. Better, we think, to head over to El Gallito or to the Broadway outpost of local super chain Tacos Guaymas if you want to stay on the Hill. Taco Gringos...

Soon, the world will see more Starbucks-es in indie clothing. In fact, it seems that, soon, the world will see two right here on Capitol Hill.

File this one in the rumor mill but CHS has found a rather interesting liquor application for a business listed at 700 Broadway East.

Coffee House Holdings Inc. is at it again:

Liquor license action details
Location     700 Broadway Ave. E.
Application date     August 4, 2009
Applicant     COFFEE HOUSE HOLDINGS, INC.; RUBINFELD, ARTHUR; MALANGA, MICHAEL; FINK, MICHAEL P; LAUTCH, RICHARD H
License number     405270
Event type     New application
License types     Restaurant — beer and wine
Action type     New liquor license application

CHH is the same entity Starbucks used to apply for the licenses and permits for 15th Ave Coffee and Tea before it opened to curiosity and animosity.

Also, while investigating this story about a possible move for the Broadway post office, CHS was told that the developer of the 700 Broadway Apartments had been negotiating with Starbucks to rent the large retail space next to Kinko's. As one might say, ah hah! Caught you!

View Larger Map

It's late and that's all we got but the gets are pretty good. One obvious question is which local businesses the Broadway Coffee and Tea (ok, we made that name up!) will draw its inspiration from. We're pulling for the nearby Museum of Mysteries. You?

UPDATE: Our calls to Starbucks media relations seeking to confirm the new shop were not returned.

Who has the better 13-buck burger? In one corner: Quinn's on Capitol Hill, @ 11th and Pike.  In the opposite corner: Lunchbox Laboratory, in Ballard on 15th Ave NW. Both get raves.  I haven't tried either one and I'm open to influence.

Quinn's vs. Lunchbox Laboratory.  Discuss.

photo of Quinn's burger and fries by Erik98122 from the CHS Flickr Pool.

Update by jseattle
We need an in-depth report on this. We fund Jeanine's burgers. She reports back. Deal?

First, apologies. I'm sure a lot of you who come to CHS for news and information about Capitol Hill could care very little about the business and journalism end of things. Indulge me. This, in the end, is about Capitol Hill and quality news and information in your community.

If anybody is wondering about the information gathering process behind Fisher Broadcasting's attempt to build a network of Seattle neighborhood news sites, here is an example of what KOMO's effort looks like.

At 12:58 PM Wednesday, CHS posted this reminder about this weekend's Capitol Hill design charrette. It wasn't an extraordinary post but in typical CHS form, I've attended two meetings about this event and will be there Saturday to cover and participate in it. The post was one of seven (counting this one) we published during the day. Here is the original article about the Saturday event we linked to from the reminder.

Meanwhile capitolhill.komonews.com had not been updated since Tuesday.

Then, at 4:39 PM, CHS got a very interesting visitor. An employee on the Fisher Broadcasting corporate network (IP: 208.73.29.10) came to our homepage. Here is that visitor's activity log (Thanks getclicky.com! BTW, I named this IP address 'Carson from KVI' last summer after a producer I was working with for an appearance on Fisher's talk radio station)

At 4:55 PM, this visitor clicked on the link to CHS's design charrette post.

At 4:56 PM, he or she downloaded a PDF about the event that CHS received from the organizers.

Guess what happened nine minutes later.

At 5:05 PM, KOMO's Capitol Hill site posted this, its first and only post of the day:

You don't have to be furious. That's my job. But I wouldn't mind if you joined me in disappointment. We work hard at collecting useful community news and information here at CHS and everybody who participates in the site is a big part of that. There is room for a rich community of Capitol Hill sites producing original work. To see that work siphoned away in a few minutes of clicking, cutting and pasting is painful. To know how much effort Fisher is making to sell advertising on this kind of content -- that's where the fury comes from.

But if you're still not feeling it, what if I tell you this? Wednesday was not the first time Fisher has done this. I sent an e-mail documenting similar actions by employees on Fisher Broadcasting's corporate network to executive producer Kevin Cotlove on August 24th. Cotlove assured me that KOMO takes such accusations seriously.

So do I. I hope you will, too.

For another example of Fisher Broadcasting's recent activities, check out this article on Central District News.

Forget the passive aggressive notes on your neighbor's windshield. Next time, use our handy flier.

EDIT:  We've heard the glue-paste critics out there and are happy to provide this updated flier.  Feel free to use either version.

Oh, and e.e. is more than willing to make a tooth brushing flier if that would be helpful for you, but please provide a valid email address so we know where to send it.

Happy parking!

The Seattle City Council this afternoon unanimously approved a bill authorizing an agreement between the city and Sound Transit to construct and operate a street car running from Union Station, through First Hill to the Capitol Hill light rail station site on Broadway. CHS reported on the bill's passage from the council's transportation committee here.

Transportation chair Jan Drago said the line will be completed quickly -- likely before the Broadway station opens in 2016. "We will be fast-forwarding the money," Drago said.

Councilmember Tom Rasmussen voiced his opposition to the cost of streetcars but voted for the bill. Before voting, Rasmussen called the project "another camel under the tent" toward completing a streetcar system in the city.

In addition to structuring the working agreement with Sound Transit, the bill calls for the City Council to define the line's route and own the ongoing funding process to manage any costs overruns or renegotiation with Sound Transit.

By the agreement, Sound Transit will...