With a new home in the city, Koko’s now open on Capitol Hill

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With reporting by Alex Garland

It has arrived a few Cinco de Mayos later than expected but Koko’s is now open on 10th Ave.

Gibran Moreno and Alexi Torres say they are happy to have created a new city version of the Koko’s original that adds to the neighborhood’s inclusive and open-minded communities.

“Capitol Hill is the place for me,” Moreno says. “As a gay couple, we feel safe and comfortable.”

Moreno — he’s the talkative one — and Torres created and grew the first Koko’s with Mexican and Salvadorian flavors and a beachtown vibe in the Pacific Northwest beach town of Seabrook. They have brought some of that relaxed energy to the backside of Pike/Pine where they now neighbor Capitol Hill fine dining veteran Lark and its Slab Sandwiches sibling.

The newly transformed space is filled with plants and light and art including creations from Oaxaca and a monkey from Michoacán.

CHS reported here on long delays to open the new restaurant due to pandemic challenges that slowed permits and construction for the Koko’s expansion to fill this 10th Ave space formerly home to a Heritage Distilling tasting room.

The first Koko’s was born in the planned Olympic Peninsula community of Seabrook, Washington and has grown into one of the “Best Restaurants in Washington State.”

Moreno and Torres hope their new Koko’s can fill a sweet spot on Capitol Hill as people return to more pre-pandemic ways. Continue reading →

Celebrate a Pike/Pine Cinco de Mayo at Fogón Cocina Mexicana’s Fiesta en la Calle

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The corner of E Pine and Belmont will once again be filled with a Cinco de Mayo street party as Fogón Cocina Mexicana hosts a second year of its new tradition.

Sunday’s free 2024 celebration will feature DJs, a day of mariachi, and a night of drag hosted by Queen Andrew Scott along with vendors including Bakescapade with panadería sweets.

There will be plenty more Cinco de Mayo celebrating going on around the neighborhood including a day of mariachi performance from Luis Cano at 15th Ave E’s Smith under its new ownership from the Club Cultura business family.

 

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Ahoy — Montlake Bridge to stay raised Saturday for its opening day of boating season tradition

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Ahoy there, drivers, cyclists, and pedestrians, the opening day of boating season will keep the Montlake Bridge open only to floating vehicles Saturday.

The Seattle Yacht Club celebration will keep the bridge raised from 10 AM to 4 PM Saturday to keep boating traffic moving through the Montlake Cut below. Continue reading →

Capitol Hill losing two unique shops as Big Little News is folding and Freeman will pull up stakes for SoDo

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Big Little News will be open through May 19th on E Pike

Freeman’s decade run on North Broadway will end this summer (Image: Freeman)

Two experiments in neighborhood retail are leaving Capitol Hill. One is closing shop for good. The other is making a change to cut expenses and incorporate its flagship store with the SoDo production facility where it manufactures its Seattle-tested raincoats and outerwear. Both will be open a little longer for one last minute browse or window shopping.

After a decade off north Broadway in the Loveless Building, outerwear designer Freeman will leave Capitol Hill this summer to combine “production and retail all in one spot,” the company tells CHS.

Meanwhile in Pike/Pine, Big Little News, the revival of the Capitol Hill newsstand born three years ago under the guidance of one of the most experienced booksellers in the city and a neighborhood business family of bars and restaurants, is also slated to close but on a shorter timeframe — you have until May 19th to visit the E Pike shop and peruse its “foreign and domestic magazines, newspapers and zines” and champagne(!) mix. Continue reading →

City Council gets its ‘audit’ showing inflation, wages at center of Seattle’s ballooning budget

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A review of the city’s spending plan by the City Council reveals Seattle City Hall is facing the same pressures as the rest of the nation when it comes to ballooning costs. A new study reveals nearly 80% of Seattle’s $1.7 billion budget increase is due to inflation and soaring wages. New programs accounted for only 19% of the jump with the remaining two percent of spending being powered by one-time revenue injections like federal aid during the padnemic.

The review comes as Seattle faces a looming $230+ million budget hole.

New, more conservative spending directions for the council have been accompanied by new thinking on the way the city spends. Call for an “audit” were a popular campaign trail message. Now that the Seattle City Council has released the much anticipated “first-of-its-kind 5-year review of the City of Seattle’s budget,” the answers on how to help bridge the coming deficit aren’t exactly more clear. Continue reading →

Yellow Bee Market and Banh Mi hopes to create buzz amid the growth and new neighbors of Yesler Terrace

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By Nova Berger/CHS Reporting Intern

A new neighborhood market from an experienced creator of locally-focused grocery stores is taking shape in the rapidly changing Yesler Terrace neighborhood where hundreds of new apartment units have taken shape in an ongoing development boom.

“That’s what Yellow Bee is all about, providing access to the urban resident,” Brian Hoang tells CHS.

23rd and Union. Madison Valley. First Hill. Major changes have reshaped these neighborhoods around Capitol Hill with major growth including challenges around gentrification and displacement. These changes have brought new neighbors and new lives to Central Seattle. In the rapid transformation of Yesler Terrace to the south of Capitol Hill, residents in these changed spaces need places like Yellow Bee Market and Banh Mi. Continue reading →

Last day to provide feedback on coming 520 toll increases

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(Image: WSDOT)

As it sorts out how to pay for a $1.4 billion contract 70% above what it hoped to pay for the final portion of the multiyear 520 bridge replacement project, the state wants to know your thoughts on the best way to institute higher tolls to use the highway.

Wednesday, May 1st, is the final day to take the Washington State Transportation Commission survey:

The commission must adjust rates this summer to generate the revenue required for Washington state to meet its legal and financial obligations on the bridge. As commissioners determine the details of the rate changes, they’re looking for feedback from the public on the different options for adjusting the tolls throughout the weekdays and weekends. The online survey is open until Wednesday, May 1.

The 520 bridge is tolled in both directions with prices changing based on the time of day based on demand.

The survey covers two options for putting a boost into place that would either make for a more complicated schedule that would reward drivers for picking less busy times and days to cross (Option A) or sticking to a simpler, more uniform approach with fewer variations (Option B): Continue reading →

Seattle City Council rejects pilot program that would have boosted ‘community-led’ affordable housing developments

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Changes made during the pandemic to streamline design review and moderate changes in long-term policy to more gradually expand areas of the city open to multifamily housing might have to do. Seattle still has affordable housing crisis. That much hasn’t changed. But what has changed is the Seattle City Council and its willingness to say no to policies that could tip the balance toward more progressive approaches to housing in the city.

The council voted 2-7 Tuesday to reject the Connected Communities pilot program, a pilot program dedicated to creating 35 “community-led” affordable housing developments over the next five years. Only committee chair and bill sponsor Tammy Morales and Ballard rep Dan Strauss voted for the legislation.

CHS reported here in April on the committee’s vote against the plan, unusual both as a vote against affordable housing policy but also for its break from typical votes for the council in recent years that had rarely resulted in the outright rejection of legislation at the scale of the proposed pilot — especially when carried forward by the chair. Continue reading →

May Day 2024 in Seattle: Workers’ rights rally and march from Westlake, CD refugee and UW protest camps, and plywood on the Capitol Hill Starbucks roastery

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For the second year in a row, the focus of workers’ rights and labor on May Day in Seattle will move out of the Central District and into the city’s downtown.

Organizations rallying and marching to mark the international day for workers are gathering Wednesday in Westlake Park, the El Comite activist group said:

This May 1st, we honor the historic struggles of workers around the world. Labor Day celebrates solidarity and the fight for justice, remembering the achievements and sacrifices of those who have fought for decent working conditions.
Date: May 1, 2024
Hora: 10:00 am
Location: Westlake Park – 401 Pine St, Seattle, WA 98101
Join us in Seattle to march in honor of global solidarity for workers and immigrants to continue fighting for a world where all our rights are valued and respected.
Together let’s inspire change and respect for all workers and immigrants!

CHS reported last year on the move away from the traditional march from the Central District with a new route reversing the patterns with a downtown start.

Many groups are again planning to gather at the end of Wednesday’s march in the Central District’s Judkins Park. Continue reading →

Tents, blankets, and tarps — Camp of asylum seekers back in the Central District at Powell Barnett Park

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The Central District’s Powell Barnett has become the latest landing spot for asylum seekers from Congo, Angola, and Venezuela who have been shuttled from temporary camps to county and donor-supported motel rooms and back again while local governments try to sort out more permanent shelter.

Mutual aid groups announced the new camp location as tents were set up Monday in this Central District park along MLK Way. The new camp is a few blocks east of Garfield Community Center where the group briefly set up tents on the campus tennis courts earlier this month in what turned out to be a one-day camp thanks to a private donation securing enough funding to pay for more nights at the Quality Inn in Kent.

With funds again short, organizers say the group needs tents, blankets, and tarps to make the Powell Barnett camp livable. Continue reading →