What goes down must come up?As we’ve learned to our dismay in recent years, real estate values cannot permanently defy that old adage, “What goes up must come down.” Having endured more than four years of declining values since the bubble burst in the summer of 2007, Seattle-area homeowners may be forgiven for now wondering “Are we there yet?” For surely at some point we’ll reach bottom, this demoralizing downward trend will reverse...
Thursday, December 29, 2011
Sunday, December 25, 2011
Greetings of the season
Posted on 3:26 PM by don
Best wishes to you and yours from the Madison Park Blogger for a happy holiday and a great end to the year.We took a little tour of the neighborhood Christmas decorations earlier this week, and here present some of the more outstanding examples of the lighted trees in the Park. While there are also some great lighting displays on Madison Park homes, we found that getting the proper perspective from which photograph them was difficult in the absence...
Friday, December 23, 2011
Another cottage comes down
Posted on 12:52 PM by don

Progress or simply deplorable?The wrecking crew was on site early this morning, and once the work got underway it didn't take long for the tiny, brightly-painted house at 2032 41st Avenue E. to bite the dust. The 590 sq. ft., one-bedroom home---now just a pile of rubble---would have celebrated a Centennial Anniversary if it could have remained on site for just another couple of years. But that was not to be. Built in 1914, the house was one...
Vandals strike again
Posted on 12:01 PM by don
In what was more likely a wanton act of destruction than any kind of political statement, a person or persons unknown broke both of the plate glass windows at Spa Jolie last night---and for good measure broke a window in the vacant space adjacent to the spa as well. This is the building, owned by Constance Gillespie, that was vandalized in the same manner earlier this year. The structure's middle space, unoccupied for years, is once again open to...
Wednesday, December 21, 2011
Police Blotter 12/15/11
Posted on 2:40 PM by don

A crime rash of another kindLast week KOMO reported on one of its websites that Madison Park has been experiencing a "rash" of burglaries over the past few weeks. That was news to us, since the Seattle Police had reported only one such break-in during the four-week period ending 12/15. We quizzed KOMO about its report and found that the station had apparently confused our neighborhood with Montlake and/or Madison Valley (it's just so confusing,...
Sunday, December 18, 2011
Christmas ships attract big turnout
Posted on 9:15 AM by don

It was clear skies and smooth sailing for the arrival of the Christmas ships off Madison Park Beach last night, as hundred of spectators lined the shores, stood on the pier, or watched the show from the windows and decks of condos and apartments along the water. The balmy-for-December air temperature may have been responsible for what was certainly the largest crowd to attend this annual event during the last decade---and perhaps ever.The Christmas...
Wednesday, December 14, 2011
How we voted: 2011
Posted on 7:21 PM by don

Almost 60% of Madison Park’s 3,400 registered voters mailed in their November election ballots this year, and on each of the major ballot issues they agreed with the majority view—but with an even stronger level of support. King County Elections recently released the voting totals by precinct, so we took a look at what the numbers show for the nine precincts that make up Madison Park. On Initiative 1183, which privatized liquor sales, Madison...
Sunday, December 11, 2011
Appealing those assessments
Posted on 4:29 PM by don
We ended our recent report concerning the 2011 assessments by noting that while you can choose to believe that the Assessor's valuation of your house is invalid, you still must your pay your property taxes based on that analysis. Of course, as has been pointed out by several readers, that is not strictly true. If you really think your property assessment is off base, you can choose to appeal. It's a course of action open to all; but it's...
Thursday, December 8, 2011
This fence to be removed
Posted on 8:39 PM by don
Parks Board makes its recommendationAfter serving for more than 60 years as a safety barrier (and, in the opinion of many, an eyesore), the chain-link fence at Swingset Park is about to become a thing of the past. That, at least, is the position of the Board of Park Commissioners, which this evening voted 4-0 (with one abstention) to recommend to the Superintendent of Parks & Recreation that the fence and its attendant blackberry bushes be removed....
Sunday, December 4, 2011
Exploring underwater wreckage off the beach
Posted on 6:00 PM by don

There's a lot of wreckage under the waters of Lake Washington, almost all which arrived there accidentally. Though at least one vessel was intentionally scuttled in the Lake, much of the underwater debris consists of commercial boats or ferries that sank (usually during storms) and were not recovered. Some of the wreckage, however, is the remains of military aircraft that took flight from the old Sand Point Naval Air Station.Until KUOW...
Saturday, December 3, 2011
December happenings
Posted on 2:30 PM by don
'Christmas Ship' and flotilla arrive December 17As regular readers of this blog know, there is officially one and only one Christmas Ship--all of the rest of the boats following in its wake each year are simply holiday hangers-on. Just so we don't get an irritated email from Argosy Cruises (which owns the "Christmas Ship" trademark and hates to see it misused), we're reporting unofficially that "The Christmas Ships" will be arriving...
Thursday, December 1, 2011
McGilvra scores high (as always)
Posted on 7:40 PM by don
The Seattle School District last month made public the annual School Reports for each of the schools in the system, and once again John J. McGilvra Elementary School had an excellent outcome. This was the third year that the District used this form of academic reporting, and it was also the third year in which McGilvra was rated a Level 5 school, the top designation. Slightly fewer than a quarter of the Seattle Public Schools qualified...
Tuesday, November 29, 2011
Stormwater project: operational at last
Posted on 2:40 PM by don
It must have been with a gigantic sigh of relief that Madison Valley merchants learned yesterday that Phase II construction of the seemingly never-ending Madison Valley Stormwater Project is now officially complete. An email from the Seattle Department of Public Utilities (SPU) on Monday reported that the project is now operational and the related improvements to the stormwater drainage system along E. Madison Street are also in place. Construction...
Sunday, November 27, 2011
Short takes No. 11
Posted on 5:31 PM by don
Bank of America almost back to normalFollowing the presumed arson fire at the BofA ATM earlier this month, the Bank needed to scramble to ensure customer service in Madison Park. The branch itself was out of commission for about seven business days following the fire, finally reopening last Monday. With the replacement ATM successfully installed and operating by Friday, the temporary mobile ATM--which had served a useful purpose during...
A milestone
Posted on 3:30 PM by don

By way of self-congratulation, we note that over the Thanksgiving holiday the Madison Park Blogger signed up its 400th subscriber. This is in addition to the 200 users who, on average, now visit MPB each day. This all adds up to a readership of between 400 and 600 people for most of our postings, according to statistics from Google Analytics. We've come a long way in the less-than-three-year history of the Blog, mostly as the result of word of mouth....
Thursday, November 24, 2011
Police Blotter 11/15/11
Posted on 8:16 PM by don

House break in leads to arrestsWe're certainly not complaining about our neighborhood's lack of notoriety, but since the Seattle Police Department began its own blog last year, we've noticed only two postings concerning crimes occurring in Madison Park. The first such story was the one last week reporting the early-morning arson fire at the Bank of America ATM. This week, coincidentally, there was another Madison Park crime story on the...
Tuesday, November 22, 2011
Those good news/bad news assessments
Posted on 1:08 PM by don
Values down 5.9% on averageThat old adage about the certainty of death and taxes has a corollary for property owners: the inevitability of tax assessments, which for those of us in King County is an annual ritual. Last year, as you may recall, our area of town (known to the King County Assessor as Area 14) was subjected to a physical inspection by the Assessor’s staff, a process that resulted in changes to the valuation of area properties...
Thursday, November 17, 2011
Come down and see the firehouse
Posted on 5:38 PM by don

Anyone reading this blog over the last couple years knows what fans we are of our neighborhood fire team. The Seattle Fire Department's Fire Station 34 is holding an open house this Saturday, so everyone will have the opportunity to meet the firefighters and sit in Engine 34, shown above. In one form or another this firehouse (located at 633 32nd Avenue E.) has been protecting the neighborhood for a long time. We culled this picture from the...
Found at 41st & E. Galer
Posted on 7:30 AM by don
This skinny but "super sweet" dog was discovered last evening by Louisa and Georgia, the daughters of Wendy Skerritt, who brought the dog home with them to be safe. (Rescuing lost dogs seems to be a specialty for these girls, who performed an earlier intervention this year).The dog carries a tag identifying it as being from Moab, Utah. If you know anything about this lost female canine, which appears to be a wire-haired pointer/retriever, please...
Monday, November 14, 2011
Madison Park: wealthy as charged
Posted on 8:38 PM by don

The proposal to take down the fence at so-called (by the City and no one else) Madison Park North Beach has drawn an unusual amount of media attention to our fair neighborhood in recent weeks. KING-TV, KOMO-TV and KIRO-TV have each run news stories on the subject, as have other news purveyors. Some of the coverage in the major media and blogosphere has focused on the apparent class conflict between those "upscale" Madison Parkers who wish to preserve...
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