Seattle Works With Protesters To Reconfigure CHOP

SEATTLE, WA — The Capitol Hill Organized Protest area continued its evolution Tuesday, as organizers worked with city departments to establish new boundaries and upgrade makeshift barricades.

The CHOP — first called Free Capitol Hill, then the Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone — was established along roughly six blocks surrounding the police department's East Precinct after officers boarded up the building and left the area on June 8.

Since then, various city agencies, including Seattle Fire and Seattle Public Utilities, have made frequent visits to the protest zone, developing ways to continue hygiene and sanitation services.

Following several meetings with community organizers, city crews arrived Tuesday morning to place new concrete barriers at 10th Avenue and East Pine Street and reconfigure certain access points.

According to the mayor's office, the city has no plans to remove demonstrators from the area.

"While there have been inaccurate and misleading depictions of the CHOP from the President and some national media, the City believes first amendment activities can continue [while] also maintaining public safety and allowing access for residents and businesses who operate in the area," the mayor's office wrote in a news release. "The City is committed to maintaining space for the community to come together, protest and exercise their first amendment rights."

Durkan's office said the changes to the CHOP will allow traffic to move more easily through the surrounding areas, and establish routes for deliveries and emergency personnel, like fire trucks.

According to city officials, the blocks immediately adjacent to Cal Anderson Park, where a large Black Lives Matter mural is painted on the road, will remain closed. The city plans to open 12th Avenue for one-way traffic in the east lanes on the south side of East Pine Street.

The mayor's office said the police department will dispatch responses to the area for "significant life-safety issues." The Seattle Times reports police calls near the East Precinct have fallen by more than 30 percent since early June.