The brand-new weekly Pike Place Express Market kicks off in Pioneer Square’s Occidental Park today. Market farmers and other vendors are excited to be in this new location and welcome Pioneer Square shoppers!
Look for just-picked strawberries, cherries, asparagus, lettuces and other greens. Seattle Bagel Company will feature an array of freshly made bagels, while Britt’s Pickles will offer kimchee and other favorites.
When
Wednesdays
June 19-October 30
10:00 a.m. – 2:00 p.m.
Where
Map
Parking Information
DowntownSeattleParking.com
Here’s who they expect for the first week of the market:
Alvarez Farms – organic vegetables
Britt’s Pickles – pickles, kimchee, sauerkraut
BB Ranch – meat
Children’s Garden – flowers and veggies
Garden Flowers – organic veggies and berries
Growing Washington – organic vegetables and berries
Hmong Highland Garden – flowers and veggies
Holmquist Hazelnuts – hazelnuts
Il Corvo Pasta – dried pasta
Lee’s Fresh Produce – vegetables
Magana Farms – vegetables and orchard fruit
Moua Farm – flowers and veggies
Paul’s Peppers – hot sauce
Razey Orchards – organic orchard fruit
Seattle Bagel Company – bagels
Sidhu Farms – berries, jam and honey
Whidbey Island Ice Cream – ice cream
Resident, firefighter injured in Seattle condo fire (KOMO)
The fire, which started on a fifth-floor deck, was reported just after 6 p.m. at a condo in the 500 block of First Avenue South. A resident was barbecuing on the deck when the fire started, according to Kyle Moore with the Seattle Fire Department.
Bar Sajor is Matt Dillon’s finest yet (Seattle Times)
Bar Sajor, Matt Dillon’s beautiful new Pioneer Square restaurant, is his most pulled-together effort yet, evidence that, while still a creative renegade, this 2012 winner of the James Beard Award for Best Chef Northwest is maturing as a chef/restaurateur.
The Contender (Stranger)
Can Rain Shadow Meats Squared Justify a Place in Seattle’s Sandwichiest Neighborhood?
Police: Firework-throwing man causes panic in Pioneer Square (KOMO)
A man with a backpack full of firecrackers caused a panic in Pioneer Square and had at least one officer preparing to deal with a gunman early Saturday, according to the Seattle Police Department.
Pioneer Square’s Volume declared as chronic public nuisance (KIRO)
Seattle police and the city attorney’s office have declared Volume a chronic public nuisance. If the club doesn’t improve the city could shut it down.
City warns Club Volume to step up security (Seattle Times)
Club Volume in Pioneer Square has been declared a “chronic public nuisance” by Seattle police and the city attorney’s office. The owners of the dance club must curb crime and fighting or face fines and the loss of their business license.
Hub Seattle’s Brian Howe: If I Were Mayor (Crosscut)
The co-founder of the Pioneer Square-based coworking space looks to data visualization — and a little imagination — to open doors in Seattle for more citizen-led projects.
Photo Credit: Seattle Magazine
Seattle Mag has a feature of Pioneer Square in its latest issue:
Sorry, Capitol Hill. You are so last week. All of a sudden, restaurants and bars (not to mention boutiques and tech companies) are competing for real estate in a new neighborhood. And who would have guessed it would be Pioneer Square.
The article notes that there have been good restaurants in the ‘hood for a while, but that we have an exciting group of newcomers: Bar Sajor, London Plane, Rain Shadow Meats, Tinello, and more.
Activating Streets: The makeover of Pioneer Square (Crosscut)
The ISI has been studying streets and alleys in Seattle’s “first neighborhood” and suggesting ways to make them safer, more usable and appealing.
2 full-time rangers added to patrol Capitol Hill, Pioneer Square parks (Seattle Times)
Seattle will add rangers to Cal Anderson and Occidental parks after a recent spate of violence (in Cap Hill, not our ‘hood)
La Bodega’s Pop-Up (Seattle Weekly)
La Bodega is planning to transition from pop-up to permanent sandwich shop in Pioneer Square sometime later this year.
It’s Hip to be Pioneer Square (Seattle Mag)
How our city’s revolutionary restaurateurs are changing a neighborhood, bite by bite
Semi gets stuck under Pioneer Square pergola (King5)
A semi driver attempting a right turn onto First Avenue ended up with the truck stuck under the Pioneer Square pergola.
Rolling with Seattle’s biking execs: John Duggan (PSBJ)
Seattle attorney John Duggan rides to work each day from Bellevue to his Pioneer Square office. In his law practice, he often represents victims of bike accidents.
Cafe Nordo: Some spaghetti with that western? (Crosscut)
The prolific dinner theater company’s latest heist is in Pioneer Square. Blazing guns and stiff drinks are just the beginning.
‘Bertha’ The not so boring machine (West Seattle Herald)
With art viewers walking the streets of Pioneer Square on a sunny Thursday evening 20 or so people gathered in the projects public relations office, called Milepost 31, to listen to Chris Bambridge, tunnel specialist and consultant for WSDOT, explain how this incredible machine being assemble on Seattle’ waterfront will do its’ job.
About the “Portland Loo” coming to PSq:
City planning for high-tech toilets in Pioneer Square (Kiro)
Five years after a multimillion dollar fail, Seattle is trying again to put a public toilet in Pioneer Square
Seattle wants to give free-standing public toilets another go (KPLU)
Five years after Seattle had to get rid of its free-standing public toilet structures, Mayor Mike McGinn wants to give it another go, this time with a new design.
Seattle and Portland’s Strange Toilet History (Seattle Weekly)
If all goes as planned the Portland Loo will be installed on west end of the Sinking Ship Garage in Pioneer Square sometime late this summer or early this fall.
More fancy public toilets coming to Seattle (My Northwest)
Each Portland Loo costs $90,000, according to their website, and this first toilet, to be placed near the Sinking Ship Garage in Pioneer Square, will reportedly be covered by non-city sources of funding.
Where: The Kitchen (309 First Ave So.)
When: Wednesday, May 15th from 6:00 PM – 7:30 PM
Who: Pioneer Square residents are encouraged to attend
Agenda: Click here to view in PDF
Review of Q1 minutes
(Tija Petrovich-resident)
WESTPAC report
(Mike Klotz-resident)
National Night Out
Neighborhood BBQ planning
How do we grow?
Expanding our membership/getting the word out
Creating resources for neighborhood info.
Neighborhood “insider” secrets/deals
New business
Dog Park?
Metro Bus Rerouting Update
Reminder: Like us on Facebook
The Pioneer Square pergola has been hit again, this time by an 18-wheeler that got became high centered on the bollard that was installed to protect it from getting totally knocked over and hit the top corner, where it became stuck.
Seattle Parks Tweet
It has now been removed and traffic cleared.
Photo credit: Pete Cassam KingTV
Close up of bollard that prevented it from doing more damage to the pergola
Little Uncle Expanding to Pioneer Square (Eater)
PK and Wiley Frank, owners of Little Uncle, the popular Thai takeout nook in Capitol Hill, just picked up the keys to their new brick and mortar
What’s Happening to the Old Elliott Bay Cafe? (Eater)
The former Elliott Bay Books space at the corner of First and Main in Pioneer Square is getting a makeover and will become Axis Pioneer Square.
Chris Hansen on Sonics arena: ‘Our vision would not look or feel anything like L.A. Live’ (Seattle Times)
Chris Hansen, the man leading the investment group to bring the Sonics back to Seattle at a new arena, said he has no intention of replicating L.A. Live in Seattle’s Sodo neighborhood.
Union Gospel Mission’s Search and Rescue Van brings help and hot chocolate to the streets (My Northwest)
“What we do at night, we pass no judgement. We help them. Whether they’re drunk, high, whatever. It’s very different from what goes on [at Union Gospel Mission]. The mind set in here, you’re drunk or high, you leave. Out there, I don’t turn anybody away.”
Pier merchants appeal seawall project’s environmental review (Seattle Times)
Leslie Smith, executive director of the Alliance for Pioneer Square, said the construction of the deep-bore tunnel to replace the viaduct already has significantly disrupted traffic and increased congestion in that neighborhood.
Tough Guys and Oxtail Chili at Café Nordo’s “Smoked!” (SunBreak)
Café Nordo sets up shop in Pioneer Square at The Kitchen, Delicatus’s event space.
Tuesdays are for tacos (Seattle Times)
Two local watering holes, Elysian Fields in Pioneer Square and Tailgaters Sports Bar in Ballard, keep the Taco Tuesday tradition alive.
Seasonal farmers markets opening (Seattle Times)
New seasonal markets this year include the new Pike Place Market Express farmers market in Pioneer Square (10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Wednesdays in Occidental Park, starting June 19).
Seattle Mother’s Day: Score FREE Parking at Waterfront Garages (PR Newswire)
Whether taking mom to the Great Wheel or a great brunch, the Seattle Aquarium or on an Argosy cruise, patrons visiting the Waterfront can take advantage of FREE parking this Mother’s Day in Seattle.
In SeattleMet’s most recent issue, they looked at 10 Seattle Neighborhoods, and below is the info that they featured for Pioneer Square (including a quote from me!):
Pioneer Square
Total population 2,276
Nonwhite residents 39.4 percent
Walkability score 86
“When my husband and I first moved here, people thought we were crazy. Even I had a bizarre perception of what it was—unsafe, rundown—but my perception changed the more I got involved in the community. These days we’re excited about the new stadium coming in to the south and the new energy restaurateur Matt Dillon has brought to the neighborhood. We’d like to see more residents move in, though. The more people invested here during the nonbusiness hours, the better it’s going to be for the neighborhood.” —Jen Kelly, four-year Pioneer Square resident and author of The New Pioneer Square blog
New in the neighborhood Bar Sajor (323 Occidental Ave S, barsajor.com), Matt Dillon’s new lunch and dinner spot, opened in February.
Sign its value is on the rise About 80 tech firms, most of them startups, have moved into Pioneer Square.
If you only have an hour Klondike Gold Rush National Historical Park commemorates the 1897 Gold Rush (319 Second Ave S, nps.gov/klse)
You can read vital stats on 138 neighborhoods in and around Seattle, but below is the snapshot for Pioneer Square. I wish they had been able to find info for the first half of the column, but there are still interesting stats:
In case the graphic is too small to read, here is the relevant info:
Total Population: 2276
Density: 11,755
Median Household Income: $39,167
Diversity (% Nonwhite): 39%
Population Under 18 years old: 1% (ouch!)
Owner/Renter Occupied: 15% / 85%
Vacant Homes: 8%
Crimes per 1,000 Residents: 214 (not sure what this means specifically)…
Average Walk Score: 86
Average Transit Score: 100 (nice!)
King Street Station’s new improvements (Seattle PI)
King Street Station, a landmark on the National Register of Historic Places, was reopened Wednesday after a $55 million revitalization project.
So many beers at Yard House (Seattle Times)
The local chain Lodge Sports Grille opened in Pioneer Square in March with 70 taps.
Coworking: Seattle office collectives take off (Crosscut)
HUB Seattle, in Pioneer Square, targets start-ups dealing in social enterprises; a market its members go after by providing event spaces and the opportunity to rent private, more permanent offices.
Seattle Police seeking tips on 18 unsolved murders (King5)
Nicole Westbrook became the face for a movement to stop street violence in Seattle when the innocent 21-year-old was shot to death in Pioneer Square one year ago this week.
Seattle pot zones could create marijuana district (Q13 Fox)
The new restrictions would keep commercial marijuana business out of most areas downtown, including popular tourist spots like pike place and pioneer square.
The Fussy Eye: A Sense of Placement (Seattle Weekly)
Since Seattle Weekly moved from Spring Street to south of Pioneer Square, a different set of public artworks marks my daily bicycle commute and lunchtime foraging