Capitol Hill News

The Central District Forum is presenting the West Coast premiere of Cynthia Oliver's Rigidigidim De Bamba De: Ruptured Calypso on February 19-20 at the Erickson Theatre Off Broadway, located at 1524 Harvard Avenue.

The dance event, co-commissioned by the CD Forum, is a full night of calypso dancing as the dancers cross cultural, geographical and imaginary boundaries.  The performance also features the performers havigating their regional styles with the voices, stories and dances.

There will also be Q&A sessions with Oliver and her dancers after each performance.  Oliver will also conduct a technique class, incluenced by Afro-Caribbean and Africanist aesthetics, on February 20 from 10-12. 

Get prepared by joining the Capitol Hill Preparedness People! The group is hosting a Neighborhood emergency preparedness planning meeting on Feb. 11, 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. at Office Nomads, 1617 Boylston Ave.

The meeting agenda includes:

• Introductions
• Complete the State of Washington "Map Your Neighborhood" exercise
• Begin forming neighborhood response teams
• Collectively determine topic for next meeting

Every household will leave feeling empowered, and get to take home their completed "Map Your Neighborhood" reference flip chart.

Public art in the city's Capitol Hill neighborhood is at the center of a legal copyright fight.

The Dance Steps on Broadway consists of eight different stations, each of which features its own dance step and its how-to.

Mike Hipple took photos of those steps, and he's now being sued for the photos that earned him $60.

"A large majority of the images were out of focus," Hipple said. "And you can see some of the dance steps, I think, maybe there were a handful of them (photos)."

Out of focus or not, Jack Mackie, the man who sculpted the Dance Steps of Broadway sued Hipple, claiming the photographer side-stepped his copyright.

"my agency, at that point, told me that they had complied with his wishes and had destroyed the images. There was no copies (sic) available," Hipple said.

But that hasn't stopped Mackie's lawsuit, even though many consider the Dance Steps as a part of the quirky vibe of Capitol Hill.

"You walk over'em all the time. You see people participating in the dance steps all the time. People are taking pictures of the people participating in the dance steps all the time," said area resident Kevin McDonald.

Seattle University's student publication The Spectator is reporting that crime is up on its campus and around Capitol Hill. Here is their article on the issue:

Both Public Safety and the Seattle Police Department reported an increase in crime on and around the Seattle University campus for 2009.

According to Public Safety case logs, criminal offenses—ranging from malicious mischief to burglary and assault—were up 22 percent on campus in 2009. Public Safety reported 802 incidents in 2009 as compared with 674 incidents in 2008. The offense with the greatest increase in incidents was auto prowl, increasing 46 percent from the previous year.

Twenty-two percent fewer narcotics offenses were reported in 2009 and noncriminal incidents (which include accidents, false alarms and medical assists) decreased by 8 percent.