Rating the neighborhood eateries: Part III

Cafes, delis, take-out and the like In this, the final installment of our survey of neighborhood eating places, we discover that a couple of compact, lesser-known establishments receive the highest ratings: Bella Dolce and Arosa Café, both located in or near Madison Valley. As with our past overviews of the dining scene in the general area, we’ve relied on the reviews of patrons, as documented on websites Yelp and Urban Spoon (prioritized in...

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June Happenings

The Shore Run returnsFred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center will be the beneficiary of the 34th Annual Shore Run 5K Run/Walk, 10K Run, and Half-Mile Kids’ Run events to be held on Sunday, June 12, with Madison Park again serving as the finish line.  This is always a fun event for participants and spectators alike, and it raises a lot of money for a very good cause.  The 5K Run/Walk begins at Leschi Park at 8:15 am, the 10K Run begins at...

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Estimating house values from sales data

If you happen to own stock in a publicly traded company, it’s pretty easy to know what your investment is worth.  Exact information on how the market values that asset is available in real time, at least when securities markets are open.  Even if you don’t sell your own stock, its current market value is determined by those who do.  This is in spite of the fact that on any given day it is usually only a tiny percentage of a company’s...

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Police Blotter 5/18/11

There has been a fair number of crimes committed in the neighborhood during the past month, as evidenced by the Seattle Police's crime map above. Although the map shows criminal activities reported since our last Police Blotter posting on April 14, the most shocking crime that took place during the period was inexplicably not shown on the map. So we manually put a big red "X' there to mark the spot at the E. Prospect Street road end where the armed...

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Rating the neighborhood eateries: Part II

Burger joints, pizza parlors, pubs, and the likeLast month we surveyed the more upscale restaurants in the neighborhood (Madison Park and Madison Valley combined), ranking them based on the reviews of patrons.  Now we take on the remaining sit-down restaurants, not quite ignoring the opinions of the professional reviewers, but giving them less credence than the views of regular folks who took the time to record their comments.As with our rankings...

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Nighttime protest in Madison Park

Few people would think of Madison Park as a likely venue for a protest march, but mini-demonstrations do sometimes happen here.  A few weeks ago, for example, four or five senior citizens appeared in the business district to demonstrate in favor of taxing the rich and against corporate tax evasion.  Why they picked Madison Park for this public display was not obvious, but perhaps it was the presence of a particular bank branch within our...

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Starbucks revamp complete

It's taken a bit longer than expected, and its roll-out will not prove much of a surprise to those patrons who've been watching the progress of construction over the past few months, but Starbucks officially unveils the new Madison Park store today. 

More importantly for some, the transformed Starbucks will now be serving wine and beer each weekday beginning at 2 pm (noon on the weekends).  We're told that some new menu items will be making...

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Madison Park: not quite homogeneous

Madison Park has many things going for it, but diversity certainly isn't one of them.  At least not diversity of the racial/ethnic kind.  Though we may show a degree of variety in other ways, it would be evident to anyone taking a quick jog around the neighborhood that our population is essentially monochromatic.  But not exactly lily white, either.The recently released 2010 census numbers provide evidence that there's at...

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Spa del Lago about to return

Let no one say that you can't get your hair coiffed or your feet pedicured in Madison Park.  By our count there are already eleven salons and spas of one kind or another operating here.  But they are apparently about to become an even dozen. The "For Sale" sign came down and the "Under New Management" sign went up the other day at Spa del Lago (1929 43rd Avenue E.).  The reopening is scheduled for sometime in June.Spa del Lago, full-service...

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New Washington Park play area? Fuggetaboutit

It was with some fanfare that our friendly garbage company, CleanScapes, announced last year that a project submitted by residents of Madison Valley was the winner of a competition between several contiguous neighborhoods (Madison Park and Madison Valley included) for a $50,000 project grant.  A proposed new play area at Washington Park, near the ball field, was chosen over projects submitted by the other neighborhoods in the Thursday garbage-collection...

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Gunpoint robbery at Madison Park road end

Two men siting in a parked car at the E. Prospect Street road end were robbed at gunpoint last Friday. The incident occurred during daylight, at around 6 pm. The victims reported to police that they had been sitting in their car when an unknown black male suddenly approached the vehicle, opened a car door, and jumped into the backseat. The perpetrator then drew a handgun and asked the two to fork over their valuables.After taking about $100 from...

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Real Estate Report: First Quarter 2011

Some good news, and some not so muchA reader took us to task last month for our supposedly gloomy reporting on the state of the local real estate market.  With her house currently for sale, she worried that the drumbeat of negative market information might impact the decision making of potential house buyers, causing them to lower their offers or hesitate to purchase. On the other hand, we also heard from a realtor who said she thought our factual...

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