Specials & Shorts

The Refugee Artisan Initiative (RAI) has teamed up with Swedish Health Services to provide custom made, sustainable medical scrubs. The scrubs are custom fit for each health care worker's unique size, embroidered with their names, titles, and even military veteran status.  In some instances, the scrubs are delivered faster and at a lower cost than orders filled from overseas. All garments are made by refugee or immigrant women learning sewing and small business skills through RAI.  

Matt Paynton saw "Batman," the movie, on the big screen in 1989 and has been dressing up as the superhero crime fighter ever since. Before comic conventions and cosplay came along, wearing the Batman costume was just a Halloween tradition. Nowadays, as "Batman in Seattle," Paynton and his fellow crime fighters at Costumed Characters for Causes lift spirits at charity events around the area. 

Fall is in the air, and the red, orange, and yellow foliage is on full display. Enjoy the season's burst of colors with this look at tree-lined Beacon Avenue in South Seattle. Video by Ian Devier

Rosie's Village, a 36-unit tiny house village located at the corner of NE 45th and Roosevelt Way NE in the heart of Seattle's University District, is named for the adjacent Roosevelt Way. Built on unutilized Sound Transit property, Rosie's will provide much-needed shelter spaces in the University District. On-site case managers will help residents obtain permanent housing, employment, health care, food security, and other services. Each tiny house has electricity, heat, and a locking door, and the village has shared kitchen, restroom, shower, and laundry facilities as well as security and a counseling office. Rosie's Village was built in partnership with Sound Transit, City of Seattle, Low Income Housing Institute, Sound Foundations NW, and many other volunteers and organizations.

Watch a press conference from the grand opening held Sept. 28, 2021.

Thousands came out to celebrate three new Link light rail stations on Saturday, Oct. 2. The 4.3-mile extension adds stops at Northgate, Roosevelt and U District, with trips of less than 15 minutes from Northgate to downtown Seattle. The $1.9 billion expansion was approved by voters in 2008 in the Sound Transit 2 ballot measure. 

Seattle native and University of Washington graduate Minoru Yamasaki gave us the United States Science Pavilion for the 1962 Seattle World's Fair. He designed the iconic Rainier Tower and what we now know as Puget Sound Plaza. His most famous work, however, is New York City's World Trade Center, which was destroyed in the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. For more information, visit HistoryLink.org, the free online encyclopedia of Washington state history.

Is there anything better than summer in Seattle? From Golden Gardens in Ballard to Seward Park in the southeast corner of the city, videographer Chris Barnes captured Seattleites basking in the glow of summer in this hypnotizing hyperlapse video. 

The annual Seattle Design Festival, taking place at Lake Union Park, will bring together the design community with the public in an outdoor block party. Celebrating the way design affects our lives, the festival will feature pop-up experiences, large-scale built installations and many other hands-on activities for all ages to enjoy. The festival runs Aug. 21-22 from 10 a.m. - 7 p.m. 

Following the loss of their Chinatown International District location, Massive Monkees turned to Seattle Parks and Recreation for a place to gather, teach, and dance. The world-renowned breakdance crew is committed to building community around the positive art forms of hip-hop culture. Massive Monkees are the recipients of a Welcome Back Seattle grant and this summer they're offering free open dance sessions at Jefferson Park and Pratt Park. All skill levels are welcome.

Free open dance sessions with Massive Monkees:

Tuesdays at the Covered Basketball Court at Jefferson Park through September 7, 2021

Fridays at picnic shelter #3 at Pratt Park from 6-9 p.m through September 3, 2021

"Lions and tigers and bears, oh my!" From cute animals to action heroes, kiddos (and kids at heart) dressed up Sunday during the City of Seattle's Welcome Back to Westlake event. Take a look back at the festivities celebrating downtown businesses and communities. 

Chinatown International District (CID) was alive with art, food, music, and more over the weekend. The community helped kick off three events, which aim to bring visitors and workers back to downtown Seattle neighborhoods that were hit hard during the pandemic. The "Welcome Back Weeks" celebrations continue in Pioneer Square on July 24, followed by celebrations in Westlake on July 25.

Washingtonians have a new tool to help stay a step ahead of damaging and life-threatening earthquakes. Launched in May, ShakeAlert is an earthquake early warning system that appears as an alert on mobile phones, giving the public valuable time to find shelter when an earthquake could be minutes or seconds away. Harold Tobin, director of the Pacific Northwest Seismic Network and professor of Earth and space sciences at the University of Washington, explains more. Video by Chris Barnes

Seattle has had only three 100-degree days since record keeping began in 1894. But over the weekend, the Emerald City doubled that number with three consecutive days of triple-digit heat. Videographer Ian Devier filmed how some Seattleites chose to keep cool during Monday's record-baking high temperature of 108.

Seattle-area drag queens struggled during the COVID-19 pandemic as closed venues and restricted in-person performances impacted their livelihoods. This Pride Month, LGBTQ advocacy group Peer Seattle joins forces with gay variety show Bacon Strip for a celebratory virtual drag show. Producer Randy Eng has this sneak peek at "I Will Survive - Pride Show," featuring a delightfully zany cast, some of whom share how the pandemic has personally impacted their lives. Catch "I Will Survive - Pride Show" online on June 19th at 8pm.

The Northwest African American Museum (NAAM), in cooperation with the Museum of Flight and in partnership with Seattle Central College and the University of Puget Sound Race & Pedagogy Institute, held a drive-in movie night featuring Spike Lee's 1992 film "Malcolm X." Moviegoers, many of them multi-generational families, filled the Museum of Flight parking lot for a safe, educational, and fun-filled night at the movies. It's the first of a series of drive-in events to be held throughout King County in the coming months. 

The City of Seattle has partnered with Chief Seattle Club to open the Kings Inn hotel-based shelter in Belltown. The shelter will serve unhoused American Indian and Alaskan Native people. Chief Seattle Club will operate the hotel, provide case management, housing navigation, and culturally appropriate services designed to support individuals on their path to permanent housing. The City of Seattle is using one-time federal funding to lease the entire 66-room hotel as a shelter for 12 months, which includes one month for ramp-up and one month for ramp-down.

Per the 2020 Point-In-Time Count, American Indian/Alaska Native peoples are disproportionately represented in King County homelessness, accounting for 27 percent of the unsheltered homeless community, yet only one percent of residents. 

Speakers include: 

Deputy Mayor Casey Sixkiller, City of Seattle

Derrick Belgarde, Chief Seattle Club

Seattle's newest mass COVID-19 vaccination site at Lumen Field Event Center opens on Saturday, March 13. Once up to full capacity, it will be able to deliver 150,000 vaccines per week and be the largest civilian-led vaccination site in the country. Watch the full press conference.

Mayor Jenny A. Durkan joins other city and county leaders and health care and community partners at the new Community Testing and Vaccination Clinic in Rainier Beach to announce the next phase of the City's expanded vaccination effort. Watch the press conference.

New public art that connects with the city and state's emotional and historic journey related to the AIDS epidemic was recently debuted in Seattle's Capitol Hill neighborhood. The AMP: AIDS Memorial Pathway is a Seattle-based public arts installation located in the plaza above the Capitol Hill Link Light Rail Station and also on the adjacent corner of Cal Anderson Park. "We're Already Here" are sculptures shaped like protest signs, with messages that evoke historic moments of public convergence, and they are arranged in groupings of three tableaus. Video by Vincent Pierce

Over the past year, the demand for food assistance has risen 100% or more. The Washington Army National Guard has joined the fight to alleviate food insecurity by supporting county emergency managers and organizations. Since being activated, volunteers from the Guard have helped to package, distribute, and deliver more than 78 million pounds of food at food banks and distribution sites across the state. Peek inside the Ballard Food Bank, a beneficiary of this effort. For more about the Ballard Food Bank, watch this CityStream segment.

Seattle joins cities around the country in remembering American lives lost to COVID with the ringing of the Kobe Bell at Seattle Center. Community members who have been directly impacted by the loss of life ring take a turn at ringing the bell for 40 times each, reflecting on the roughly 4,000 lives lost in Washington State and the 400,000 lives lost to date in the United States. The event at Seattle Center corresponds to a similar bell-ringing ceremony in Washington, D.C., led by President-elect Joe Biden.

Bell Ringers include:

Benjamin Erickson, Seattle-Kobe Sister City Association

Esther Lucero, Seattle Indian Health Board

Dr. Ben Danielson, former Senior Medical Director at Odessa Brown Children's Clinic (OBCC) in Seattle

Jennifer Sarriugarte: Infection Prevention and Mitigation Consultant, Seattle Center

Virginia Ramos: Sea Mar Community Health Centers

Located on Portage Bay adjacent to the University of Washington, Seattle's newest park offers views of the University Bridge and I-5's Ship Canal Bridge. Fritz Hedges Waterway Park, named after longtime Seattle Parks and Recreation employee Fredrick "Fritz" Hedges, provides water access for hand-carried boats, shoreline restoration, open lawn space for passive recreation. Interpretive elements are planned that will tie into one of two historical narratives - the use of the Portage Bay Trail by Native Americans and more recent maritime history.

"The sacrifice they made for the citizens of Seattle wasn't theirs alone, but also (their families)." On Friday, the Seattle Fire Department honored and remembered firefighters that protected the community during the the 2020 Annual Seattle Fallen Firefighter Memorial. Among the honored was Seattle Fire Lt. Jay G. Weeler, who passed away in March from a line-of-duty illness.  Watch the full ceremony here. 

How do you social distance when you are a dancer? Whim W'Him Contemporary Dance Group believes they've found a solution. While staged performances are filmed and played online, live appearances are popping up around the Seattle area. The outdoor performances are choreographed dances in motion, performed on the move over a mile's distance through various parks in the greater Seattle area. If you've been craving in-person arts, this could be your chance.

This year marks the 75^th anniversary of the atomic bombings of the Japanese cities Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The victims have been honored here in Seattle every year since 1984 through the annual remembrance From Hiroshima to Hope. The anti-nuclear weapons and anti-violence event normally draws hundreds of people to the shores of Green Lake on Aug. 6^th, where floating lanterns are used to pay tribute to victims and remember loved ones. But due to the pandemic, the in-person From Hiroshima to Hope event has been canceled. Instead, organizers are encouraging participants to make their own lanterns and display at home and post pictures.