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Putting up an event poster or utility pole flyer on Broadway? Here’s how to avoid the BIA cleaning crew

jseattle — Tue, 07 Apr 2026 23:24:22 +0000

As one member of the CHS Facebook Group noted, not every flyer poster has been deterred by the BIA’s efforts

Capitol Hill’s ancient communications network of flyers, posters, and stickers has been disrupted on Broadway.

Derek McGuire wants you to know the Seattle Central Go Club meets every Wednesday and is celebrating its second anniversary this week.

The Broadway Business Improvement Area wants you to know its cleaning crews will take flyers down.

“Our cleaners maintain all public spaces within the BIA. Poles, signal boxes, parking pay stations and walls are regularly cleared of all posters, stickers, and graffiti and then painted to help maintain them. This helps contribute to a clean, welcoming business district, which is our mandate,” BBIA director Egan Orion tells CHS.

“It is legal to post posters and legal to remove them,” Orion says.

McGuire says the Broadway BIA’s actions are new to him after years of posting flyers in the area. His latest $60 batch promoting the Go Club included the city’s best practices like a posted date.

It remains legal to post material on the city’s utility poles after a 1994 ordinance banning the posters was struck down and replaced with a more permissive law. Stickers on city signs are a legal no-no and considered vandalism.

The Broadway BIA is not removing flyers because they are illegal. It’s the clutter.

“In general, Broadway cleaning contractors will maintain poles a couple of times a month (poster and sticker removal and painting where needed),” Orion said. “Unfortunately, people who post almost never come to remove posters after 30 days so a certain amount of maintenance is necessary.”

Orion said he and the BIA are well aware of the community importance of the flyers.

“We don’t touch the wooden poles as those are part of the culture of the neighborhood to promote events and groups,” Orion said.

The more common metal utility poles? Those are part of the BIA’s nearly endless battle to make Broadway less filthy.

Orion, a longtime event producer with Seattle PrideFest, says that after McGuire messaged him about the removal of the Go Club’s flyers, he also provided advice from his own experience with flyering over the years.

Orion’s advice includes avoiding the main drags where BIAs are active including the turf of the 15th Ave BIA. That could grow to include a Pike/Pine BIA zone if that proposed group ever forms.

Just saying, you can also post your community events to the free CHS Calendar

He also acknowledged that the remaining wood poles in the neighborhood get heavy traffic and are frequently stripped by the pro poster companies like Poster Giant and Keep Posted.

The pros do seasonal pruning like this poster “harvest” CHS witnessed in 2016.

The last time CHS asked the city about utility pole flyers, we were told the laws haven’t been updated since “the Nickels administration.” In short, “posters can be hung without a permit – no permit fees are required.” As for taking them down, “the person or organization placing the signs is responsible for removing the signs.”

Between the city’s poster giants and BIAs, McGuire is wondering where he can get a word in about the Seattle Central Go Club.

“So, are we just all supposed to be OK with the idea that if you want to keep a flyer up you have to pay “business class”?, McGuire asks.

On Broadway, your best poster move might be to find wood and hope for the best. It turns out that the long running tradition of putting up posters around Capitol Hill is matched only by the long running tradition of someone pulling them down.

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Pike/Pine is down a candle bar

jseattle — Tue, 07 Apr 2026 22:16:40 +0000

Scent blending at Elm (Image: Elm Candle Bar)

An investment in a version of Pike/Pine that never really took shape has called it quits.

Elm Candle Bar has closed on E Pike.

CHS reported here on the family venture bringing the candle making and event business to this stretch of Capitol Hill’s nightlife core in 2019.

It says something about COVID-19 and the slow transition from the pandemic that Elm was actually part of the street for seven years. A lot of Pike/Pine regulars may have never gone inside.

Elm had its fans.

“Since Nov 2019, we have loved having friends, family, Cap Hill neighbors and tourists come in and create something magical with us,” Elm’s owners posted about the closure. “We are extremely proud of what we have accomplished with this location and the standard that our Seattle team has set for all of our locations to come.”

You can still visit Elm in Tacoma and, now, in Woodinville.

The easy story of changing Pike/Pine is that Elm filled a space that was once home to the High Voltage music shop. Before you shout, “Capitol Hill is dead!,” note that Canadian eye fashion chain Ollie Quinn actually replaced the music gear shop before it eventually gave way to the candle making studio.

From the listing for the suite

Better, more recent proof of the neighborhood’s demise can be found a few blocks away where a couch shop called Couch replaced the Rhino Room.

Now you can go ahead and yell.

What’s next for the candle bar space?

The suite neighbors Drip Tea’s Capitol Hill street fashion venture the Sadō Room boutique and is pretty much front and center on one of the busiest nightlife blocks in the city — and center stage in the summer’s Capitol Hill Block Party festival.

Lease materials (PDF) for the Hayden Building berth describe a 1,200-square-foot “rare retail availability in the heart of the Pike/Pine corridor,” “Ideal for boutique retail use” in a “character-filled space” with “exposed brick walls, wood floors and high ceilings.” Sorry, no restaurant, bar or night club use allowed.

Rent is $5,029.67 per month including triple net.

After break-ins and fires, the old Queen Sheba house across from Capitol Hill Station is being torn down

jseattle — Tue, 07 Apr 2026 16:37:03 +0000

“Queen Sheba restaurant at 916 E John street is abandoned and the plywood has been breached and broken into again,” a January complaint to the city read. “With the history of fires in this building due to vagrancy this building needs to be secured again.”

Seattle’s vacant building monitoring program and a series of fires, complaints, and violations will bring the demolition of the more than 120-year-old E John house turned storefront formerly home to the Queen Sheba restaurant, ending a multiyear effort to rehabilitate the historic structure.

A demolition permit was filed last week for the property just a block off Broadway across E John from busy Capitol Hill Station.

The demolition will add only an empty lot to the property sandwiched between the 102-year-old, five story Capitol Building on the corner and the Broadway Locksmith to the east. There are no permit filings currently in the works for any plans, yet, to redevelop the Queen Sheba parcel.

CHS reported here two years ago on the closure of the longtime Ethiopian favorite Queen Sheba after decades on the Hill.

Property owner and developer Dru Agarwal had plans for rehabbing the 1900-era building and giving the structure a new paint job after purchasing the property in 2021 for $1.8 million.

Last year, it was still being put up for lease (PDF) for a possible new restaurant or bar.

Standing empty int he busy area, the property suffered vandalism and trespassers and at least two fires brought major responses to the block.

The house was subject to the city’s costly vacant building monitoring program and was dinged by repeated complaints and violations including an emergency order issued in September ordering the property “closed” over “OBSERVED HIGH HAZARD CONDITIONS.”

The order included a fine of up to $1,000 per day for continued violations if the property wasn’t secured.

A half year later, the property is about to be secured — permanently. The demolition permit includes Seattle’s standard “rat abatement” plan for the property and directions for the contractor to remove and protect some of the hold house’s valuable features including doors and windows, and the hardwood floors.

The city’s Historical Sites listing includes the property, calling the structure a “gable-front house” with a storefront “added below and a later flat-roofed addition made on the east elevation.”

“This house was built about the same time as the 1903 completion of Seattle (later Broadway) High School, the city’s first modern high school,” the city’s entry reads.”

“Broadway, already an important street, flourished with new businesses, especially those catering to students, such as sandwich shops.”

As for what comes next for the soon to be empty lot, there is no plan, yet for those 3,360 square feet.

“We are exploring options,” Agarwal said.

Mayor to hold ‘Community Briefing’ on emergency plan to expand Seattle’s Tiny House Villages

CHS Staff — Tue, 07 Apr 2026 16:00:42 +0000

True Hope Village on E Yesler Way

Mayor Katie Wilson will host a “Community Briefing” on her plan to rapidly expand emergency shelter in Seattle.

The Wednesday night event at City Hall will include “a conversation with representatives from business, neighborhoods, and service providers” and the mayor and officials will “take questions from community members gathered there,” according to Wilson’s office.

CHS reported here on Wilson’s push on two pieces of legislation that will allow larger tiny house villages in the city and make it easier to secure permits for the villages. A third bill would put $4.8 million from “underutilized city sources” to fund the creation of the new shelters.

As of early 2026, there are around a dozen tiny house villages currently operating within the Seattle city limits. The number has grown with the opening of the Olympic Hills Village in Lake City in February 2026. Most of these sites are managed by the Low Income Housing Institute in partnership with the City of Seattle and the King County Regional Homelessness Authority.

The mayor’s office points to “Proven Large-Scale Models” in other areas as examples for how Seattle can make progress on its homelessness crisis including projects like the Arroyo Seco Village in Los Angeles with 123 units and the West LA Veterans Association with around 200 units.

LIHI officials say they are preparing for locations in Seattle with 250 clients. Its existing code of conduct would remain in effect.

The legislation from the mayor’s office follows her executive order in January to speed up the creation of new shelter and affordable housing in the city with a new “interdepartmental team” tasked with identifying “options for financial incentives, permitting changes, and other policy changes.”

Mayor Wilson to Host Community Briefing on Shelter Expansion

Seattle Mayor Katie B. Wilson will host a community briefing this Wednesday on the status of her plan to rapidly accelerate the opening of new shelter and emergency housing. She’ll update members of the Shelter Expansion Community Action Team on progress towards the goal of opening 1,000 new units of shelter and emergency housing this year; host a conversation with representatives from business, neighborhoods, and service providers; and take questions from community members gathered there.

Who:
Mayor Katie B. Wilson, joined by members of the Shelter Expansion Community Action Team, subject matter experts, and representatives from business, neighborhoods, and service providers.

What:
Provide a community update on the plan to rapidly accelerate the opening of new shelter, answer questions, and share the next steps to bring more people inside.

When:
6:00 pm, Wednesday, April 8, 2026

Where:
Bertha Knight Landes Room, 1st Floor, Seattle City Hall

Shoplifting, guns, drugs, and ribs: 13 arrested, two trespassed in latest Capitol Hill ‘retail theft operations’

CHS Staff — Mon, 06 Apr 2026 22:38:21 +0000

(Image: CHS)

The East Precinct reports it has made more arrests, drug and firearm seizures, and trespasses in its “retail theft operation” activities at Capitol Hill’s busiest grocery stores.

The Seattle Police Department and its General Investigations Unit say recent operations at the Harvard Market QFC last week and the 15th and John Safeway in February targeted rampant shoplifting and organized retail theft, resulting in multiple arrests and a small haul of recovered weapons and narcotics.

The most dramatic moment of the recent operations occurred in February at Safeway, where plainclothes officers reported they were monitoring a couple at the self-checkout. While the pair paid for a few items, they allegedly bagged nearly $90 in unpaid merchandise. When the arrest team moved in, they discovered the male suspect was wanted on a felony warrant out of Snohomish County for narcotics distribution. Police say a search of his cross-body bag uncovered 4.6 grams of fentanyl and a stolen Polymer80 Glock handgun, which had been previously reported stolen in a separate Seattle incident.

Last week’s operation at the 1401 Broadway QFC took a different turn, focusing on the store’s perimeter where narcotics activity often clusters. From elevated vantage points, officers watched several groups smoking suspected fentanyl and methamphetamine on the sidewalk near the store’s steps, just feet from the main entrance. SPD says their interventions led to the recovery of several grams of illicit substances and the arrest of a woman found to have a felony warrant for residential burglary and motor vehicle theft.

Across both locations, the alleged thievery varied from the mundane to the brazen. One man was caught attempting to leave with two racks of ribs — one in his cart and another stuffed down his pants — while others were apprehended for walking out with multipacks of paper towels or concealing high-value steaks in their jackets. In total, approximately $500 in merchandise was recovered and returned to the stores.

Of the 15 people caught in the operations, SPD says 13 were booked into King County Jail on charges ranging from theft and narcotics use to possession of a stolen firearm. Two individuals were formally trespassed from the Safeway property following their arrests. One suspect was medically declined at the jail, and another was released from the scene with charges referred to prosecutors.

East Precinct operations have continued to be run at the busy stores. CHS reported here in September on a similar operation at the Broadway and Pike QFC that involved three arrests and a combined $281.91 in merchandise.

Similar operations have focused on downtown stores or big brand merchandise. The operations typically entail police working with loss prevention security staff at the stores to identify people stealing merchandise and then making arrests.