Korean-inspired Bok A Bok Fried Chicken has opened next to The Runaway, replacing popular Caribbean sandwich shop Paseo, whose Capitol Hill expansion was highly anticipated but short-lived.

While wrapping up his SoDo expansion, Paseo owner Ryan Santwire signed a lease with Neumos to take over space once occupied by Pike Street Fish Fry at 925 E. Pike St. After a lengthy delay, Paseo opened in late February. Santwire could not be reached for comment, but has been cited as saying he needed a bigger place that can accommodate liquor sales, so it’s possible Paseo will be back on the Hill some day. Paseo had teamed up with The Runaway — formerly Moe Bar — to expand sales.

Bok A Bok Fried Chicken, which opened on Friday, also plans to partner with its neighbors for any and all late-night fried chicken needs.

Bok A Bok owner Brian O’Connor, who was the chef in charge when Skillet first started, opened the original location in White Center back in June 2016, but he’s been looking forward to opening a second location for quite a while.

“I’ve been looking for a new location for about a year now,” he said.

Some of the most popular menu items include kimchi mac and cheese, a yuzu chicken sandwich and a sesame soy garlic chicken sandwich.

“People are a little leery [of the menu], including my wife and my business partner,” O’Connor admitted. While the food pays respect to classic Korean techniques, it’s not traditional Korean cuisine. However, “it’s really delicious chicken, and that’s the point.”

Even though Bok A Bok operates in a fast-casual manner, everything in the restaurant is made by hand using sustainable techniques.

“There’s a lot of labor that goes into what we do,” O’Connor said.

A Korean woman in White Center makes the kimchi.

O’Connor’s plan for the new location is to be open from 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. for regular walk-in business, and then shift to a smaller menu after 11 p.m. for the late-night concert-going crowd.

The menu at the new location will stay virtually the same as in White Center, although their recipes are constantly evolving, O’Connor said.

The only major difference between the two locations is the lack of a liquor license at the Capitol Hill joint, but the neighboring bars should make up for that.

“People can still get food and still be happy,” O’Connor said about his vision for late nights.

As for the future, O’Connor said he plans to eventually have 10-20 locations.

The Capitol Hill Renter Initiative held its October meeting last Wednesday evening to discuss housing affordability and homelessness in the wake of budget season at City Hall.

The Renter Initiative is a project of the Capitol Hill EcoDistrict and is staffed by Capitol Hill Housing, serving to provide a voice for renters living in the neighborhood and to advocate for affordable housing.

In attendance were Capitol Hill renters, along with Katie Wilson, a representative of the Housing for All coalition.

“The city needs income tax — it’s long overdue,” said one renter on why he decided to attend the meeting.

Other meeting-goers cited a lack of affordable housing and the need for tenant protections for why they were in attendance.

“Income disparity is at the core of why our housing is screwed up,” said Myra Lara, a meeting-goer who has been active in various political organizations around the city. “All of these issues are related to bigger things happening in the community … We need to look at these issues with a bigger brush.”

Wilson, who is cofounder of the Transit Riders Union, spoke about the Housing for All coalition that addresses the homelessness crisis in Seattle.

She also addressed the proposal for an Employee Hours Tax, which would affect large companies in the area, such as Amazon.

The issue of homelessness in Seattle quickly rose to the top of the priorities list for the Transit Riders Union in the midst of a housing crisis, said Wilson on how the coalition got started.

The issue is a particularly tricky one, she said, because, “there is no housing.”

Those working on the coalition spoke with members of the homeless community to figure out what the best course of action would be to get the greatest number of people into permanent homes.

The city’s current approach to fixing the homelessness issue, known as “Rapid Re-Housing,” involves shifting money to get people into housing as soon as possible by issuing short-term vouchers that help them find a place of their own.

“The waiting list for housing right now is outrageous,” Wilson said. The problem is in trying to figure out exactly who should have priority over the limited housing that the city does have.

This process often leaves, for example, those fallen victim to substance abuse with little chance of being housed in order to make room for those that the city has deemed a higher priority, including families and at-risk youth.

The city has also been utilizing controversial sweeps of unauthorized homeless encampments that the Housing for All coalition has been working to cease.

“We need to have a bigger vision than just ‘stop the sweeps,’” Wilson said.

The coalition aims to get legislation to forbid the city from spending money on sweeps, and from displacing the homeless unless they actually have somewhere else to send them.

Accordingly, District 6 Councilmember Mike O’Brien is in the process of creating a program linking those who live in their cars and RVs to the appropriate services, as opposed to ticketing and towing them.

“We’re not saying no to rapid rehousing,” Wilson said. “It just shouldn’t be the core of the city’s response.”

The primary issue with the vouchers currently, she continued, is that they’re meant for short-term usage.

“There are so many people that this doesn’t work for,” Wilson said.

Evidence has shown that the short-term vouchers don’t always lead to permanent, stable housing situations for homeless people.

The coalition suggests that until there is adequate affordable housing available in the city, the vouchers should be designated for long-term use.

The coalition also aims to quadruple the Housing Affordability and Livability Agenda’s (HALA) goal of creating 6,000 new affordable units in the next 10 years to meet projected housing needs.

The Transit Riders Union is currently pushing for the implementation of the Employee Hours Tax (also knows as the “Head Tax”), which would require businesses to pay a small tax based on their number of employees. The revenue from said tax would go toward funding public transit.

Such a tax is meant to measure the impact to urban infrastructure from, for example, Amazon’s employees.

O’Brien and newly appointed Councilmember Kirsten Harris-Talley announced their Housing, Outreach and Mass-Entry Shelter (HOMES) proposal on Thursday, Oct. 12, which includes a tax assessed at 4.8 center per hour, per employee for the top 10 percent of Seattle’s highest-grossing businesses.

The councilmembers reported that revenue would go toward 24-hour shelters, a citywide expansion of the Law Enforcement Assisted Diversion (LEAD) program, more permanent, long-term housing and homeless outreach.

The HOMES proposal is estimated to generate $24 million in new revenue annually, or $100 per employee.

The council will be briefed on this proposed tax during budget deliberations at 10:30 a.m. Monday, Oct. 16.

The Housing for All coalition holds action meetings 2-5 p.m. every Saturday in the Community Room at the Frye Apartments, 223 Yesler Way, in Pioneer Square.

Capitol Hill Renter Initiative meetings occur 6-7 p.m. on the second Wednesday of every month in the Pike Pine Room of 12th Avenue Arts, 1620 12th Ave.

When tragedy struck last month in Mexico City and Puerto Rico, Capitol Hill’s salsa community came together at Century Ballroom to help those in need.

Century Ballroom hosted a salsa-dancing fundraiser event last Thursday that raised $6,107 in donations for the victims of Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico and the earthquake that struck Mexico City.

The DJs who provided the music at the event all donated their time to the cause, and all of the proceeds will go directly to an organization that helps the victims.

The event organizers aren’t quite sure yet where they’d like to donate the money, but they’re looking specifically for organizations that are helping to rebuild and provide things that people need immediately, such as housing and clean water.

Century Ballroom was founded in 1997 and promotes all kinds of dance, although it was through salsa that owner Hallie Kuperman developed a strong desire to help the victims of these two particular tragedies.

“My connection to [these disasters] is through music and dance,” Kuperman said. “This is a huge community of very good people who will rise to the occasion.”

Hurricane Maria is the strongest storm to hit Puerto Rico in the last 85 years. Maria’s 155 mph winds wreaked havoc on the tiny island, leaving most of its residents without access to electricity or clean drinking water even weeks after the storm initially hit.

“Puerto Rico right now is in Hell,” said Kuperman, who has made friends there through her passion for dance.

Roads are littered with fallen trees and supermarkets have been rationing the limited food items available.

“In Puerto Rico, everybody’s helping each other out right now,” said Edgar Evangelista, one of the DJs who provided music at the event. “But the local support disappears eventually, and that’s when they need the extra support.”

Evangelista, who goes by the moniker “El Travieso,” was born in Mexico City and personally experienced the 1985 earthquake that killed 5,000 people and destroyed 10,000 homes.

Last month’s earthquake struck off of Mexico’s southern coast at a magnitude of 7.1, killing more than 300 and leaving much of the city in darkness after the power was cut.

One major problem, Evangelista pointed out, is that while help has been arriving in Mexico City, the surrounding areas that also experienced mass devastation from the earthquake have not received nearly enough aid.

After the two disasters occurred, Evangelista wrote to Kuperman suggesting that Century Ballroom host some sort of fundraiser to benefit the victims.

Kuperman said they have been reaching out to people in the community to figure out the most effective ways to help.

“I want to give the survivors a hug, but that won’t help,” Evangelista said. “What they really need right now is financial support.”

Century Ballroom is no stranger to raising money for the victims of tragedies — they’ve hosted various other fundraisers in the past, including one for the victims of Hurricane Harvey, and another for a friend of Kuperman’s, an avid swing-dancer who was diagnosed with stage 4 breast cancer. The latter event raised $60,000 in one night.

“There are a lot of things that we can’t do; I can’t wrap my mind around what’s happened,” admitted Kuperman about last month’s disasters. But when disaster does strike, “the community comes together.”

Evangelista echoed a similar sentiment, saying that in times like these, “It’s great to see people smiling when they are dancing.”

Capitol Hill’s Dark Age Tattoo artist Eric Eye has been practicing conventional tattooing for nearly 30 years, but in the last few years he’s made a mark in the world of restorative cosmetic tattooing.

Restorative tattooing is most often performed on breast cancer patients who have had mastectomies, during which the surgeon removes the nipple-areolar complex. The goal of the restorative-tattooing process is to create a realistic-looking 2D nipple and areola.

It’s Eye’s talent for realism and textural tattooing that has allowed him to become successful in this area.

Nowadays, he sees a few clients for restorative tattoos every week, and not all of them want anatomically accurate nipples; some ask for floral illustrations or other unique designs to adorn their chests.

Eye also does restorative work with the transgender community.

“There are often scarring issues that trans people want minimized or covered,” he said, with regard to gender reassignment surgeries.

Eye was drawn to the art of restorative tattooing after meeting his partner, who had battled breast cancer and then travelled to the East Coast to have her own restorative tattoo done shortly before the two met.

Traditionally, there haven’t been as many options for restorative tattooing in the Pacific Northwest, even though Washington has the highest rate of breast cancer in the nation.

Restorative tattooing can be difficult for several reasons.

Most of Eye’s clients have never set foot in a tattoo shop, so often times they feel nervous about the stigma of such an environment.

“Once we get them in the station, they become more comfortable,” he said.

Additionally, some breast cancer survivors haven’t had any sort of reconstructive surgery, in which case Eye has to create the nipple and areola completely from scratch.

Tattooing over scar tissue can also be very difficult, Eye said.

Clients don’t need to feel too nervous about the pain, Eye said, because the area he tattoos is generally numb from the mastectomy.

In honor of Breast Cancer Awareness Month, Dark Age will hold a $50 Tattoo Day on Oct. 7, where artists will donate all proceeds from that day to local organization Northwest Hope & Healing.

Dark Age has hosted three tattoo benefit events every year for the past four years, but this is the shop’s first time partnering with Northwest Hope & Healing.

Eye had been looking around for small, local organizations that would directly benefit breast cancer survivors for the shop’s next tattoo event, and Northwest Hope and Healing seemed to fit the bill perfectly.

The organization provides financial assistance to breast and gynecological cancer patients at Swedish Cancer Institute — especially those struggling to make ends meet. It gives out grants for food, utilities, childcare and other essentials directly to patients in need.

Eye learned from his partner that for cancer patients who are financing expensive medical treatments, insurance most often doesn’t cover the essentials, including rent and groceries.

“[These events are] crazy busy all day long,” Eye said about past tattoo benefits. “It’s tattooing all day, nonstop, with no breaks.” But, he added, “it’s super fun.”

“Hopefully we can raise as much money as possible,” said Heidi Sandhorst, another tattoo artist at Dark Age who has been tattooing for more than eight years.

Eye has gained respect in the community for his work with restorative tattooing. He’s even had several plastic surgeons refer their patients to him after they’ve undergone reconstructive surgery for breast cancer.

“It’s been really, really positive,” he said about the feedback.

Eye doesn’t typically see his clients again after he does a restorative tattoo for them, so most of the time “the initial reaction is all I get,” he said. Regardless, those reactions have been “pretty tremendous.”

The most rewarding part of Eye’s restorative work? He said, “absolutely it’s seeing the reaction that women have in the mirror when the tattoos are finished.”

On the morning of Aug. 9, a young man by the name of Eugene Nelson was fatally shot by police in Kent. For Andre Taylor, this topic hits uncomfortably close to home — his brother Che was killed at the hands of Seattle police on Feb. 21, 2016.

“When somebody passes, we take a moment of silence,” said Taylor, chair of Not This Time, to a room full of community members at a forum hosted by the grassroots organization on Wednesday, Aug. 9. Not This Time is dedicated to reducing fatal police shootings that often involve people of color.

Also in attendance was the family of Charleena Lyles, who was killed by Seattle police on June 18.

Twenty-three people have been killed by Washington police so far in 2017, and many community members have found it increasingly difficult to feel hopeful that the situation will be remedied anytime soon.

Advocates for police accountability say implicit biases coupled with a lack of accountability in the police force can produce dangerous outcomes for the black community.

“Officers bring biases into their work, and when a gun is involved in a split-second decision, the results can be tragic,” said Taylor, referring to institutional racism.

King County Sheriff John Urquhart said that many officers do make the split-second decision not to shoot, and “almost always that is a good decision.”

Cynthia Softli, president of the Black Law Enforcement Association of Washington (BLEAW), admits that as an African-American woman, she occasionally succumbs to implicit racial biases. “My immediate reaction is not where it should be,” she said, describing a hypothetical reaction to seeing a group of black teenagers congregated on a street corner. “But that’s okay. We just have to admit that and embrace it.”

Officers who have killed someone often say they used fatal force due to fear for their life. “Historically speaking, people of color have had far more to fear than police officers ever have,” Taylor said. “In my brother’s case … the officers said they feared for their lives. We’ve allowed this narrative in the community.”

Urquhart agreed, adding that he too often hears this excuse from officers who decide to shoot. “[Fear] tends to justify a lot of things,” he said. “But was their fear justified?”

At one point during the forum, Taylor posed a question: “Is there such a thing as a good officer seeing another officer doing something bad and not saying something about it?”

The answer to this question would presumably be “no,” Taylor said, although historically the repercussions for an officer standing up for what’s right have not been good.

He said he had previously asked the same question to Mayor Ed Murray, and he could not come up with an answer.

Organizations like Not This Time are working hard to build trust between communities of color and the police to remedy the situation.

Urquhart is quite proud of how far the King County Sheriff’s Office has come. They’re taking steps to hire a more diverse range of officers, he said, including more women and people of color, to try to minimize racial biases.

“Twenty years ago, nobody was firing police officers [for fatal shootings]. It is a significant feat for the police department to fire officers,” one audience member said.

Urquhart said he is set on getting body cameras for his deputies.

“I am sick and tired of waiting around to get [them],” he said. “Damn the cost. We are going to do it.”

Taylor is also part of the leadership team for Initiative 940, which would reform police training and accountability by requiring law enforcement officers to receive training on violence de-escalation, mental health and first aid.

Urquhart and the BLEAW have endorsed the De-Escalate Washington initiative.

Perhaps at the most fundamental level, “[officers] have to have relationships with members of the community,” said Carlos Bratcher, a National Black Police Association board member. “I’ve established a relationship with some of these kids. You have to know the community that you work in.”

The audience’s frustration with the current system came through at certain times throughout the forum, but the speakers said they remain hopeful.

“We have to give room for people to evolve,” Taylor said. “We must allow for that involvement and support.”