Third Quarter 2011 Real Estate Report

A ‘qualified-buyers' market’Last month my neighbors put their house on the market and sold it in just three days.  They had multiple offers, and they obtained their listing price. Their quick-sale experience, however, was not that unusual for sellers during the month of September. Four of the nine houses sold in Madison Park that month went from listing to sale in fewer than 30 days, and the average number of days on market for all of the houses...

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News on the culinary scene

Hot on the heels of Seattle Magazine's choosing Maggie Savarino of Madison Park Conservatory as one of Seattle's Next Wave of Tastemakers, City Arts has just placed MPC's head chef and owner on the cover of its November issue, with an inside article entitled, "Live to Eat: Cormac Mahoney Cooks What He Wants."  Well, no duh.  The critical reviews of the end result of that cooking, by the way, have been pretty uniformly laudatory...

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Madison Park Number One for trick-or-treating

Local news reports last week played up the fact that Zillow's annual list of best cities for tricking or treating showed Seattle in the Number Four spot (after San Francisco, Boston, and Honolulu).  Within Seattle, however, it's Madison Park that gets the nod from Zillow as the best neighborhood for trick-or-treaters, followed by Queen Anne, Ballard and Laurelhurst.  Zillow didn't provide any details on its methodology, but in past years...

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Is that you, Watson?

We are happy to report that the long-time-missing black cat, Watson, the subject of many "Lost Cat" notices posted around the neighborhood, has at last been found!  We were glad to learn yesterday that after over two months roaming the 'hood, Watson is now safely back at home--just in time for Halloween.  He was discovered this week in the vicinity of the house where he was being cat-sat at the time of his disappearan...

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The Saga of the Bees (Part II)

We left our readers with a bit of a cliffhanger at the end of our first installment of “The Great Summer Bee Caper.”  It’s been so long since we ran the story that readers may be forgiven for having forgotten the details of our not-quite-Hitchcockian tale.  It all began with the sudden arrival of a honeybee swarm in the neighborhood, and it ended (or at least our narrative did) with the bees swarming up 42nd Avenue. Our intrepid ‘bee wrangler’...

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MLK School sale not illegal

For the benefit of our readers who missed the story in the major media, we note that the Washington State Auditor has determined that "the Seattle Public Schools followed state law and district policy when the School Board voted last year to sell the former Martin Luther King Elementary School to the lowest bidder."  That, according to the Seattle Times in a copyrighted story today.The Auditor, however, did not opine on the wisdom of the policy...

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MPC's Maggie Savarino: Poised to be notable

She's one of those rare folks who both live and work in Madison Park. Maggie Savarino, former food-and-booze columnist for Seattle Weekly, is known to many of us as the front-of-house manager, concoctor of drinks, and sometime bartender at Madison Park Conservatory.  She's also, in the opinion of Seattle Magazine, one of nine people "poised to become the Seattle dining scene's next notable names."  In other words, she has the honor...

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Police Blotter 10/15/11

Madison Park: Crime backwaterThe neighborhood is experiencing its typical end-of-summer slowdown in criminal activity, as evidenced by the above map, which shows reported crimes in Madison Park during the 30-day period, September 16 through October 15.  When we contacted the Seattle Police this month to get background for this report, we had virtually nothing to ask about.  While we're hardly crime free here in the Park, it's certainly...

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A glimpse into the past

Our posting last week on the death of Governor Albert D. Rosellini elicited an email from Madison Park photographer Bob Peterson, with this photo attached.  Peterson describes the shot, taken in downtown Seattle during the 1960 U.S. Presidential campaign, as his very favorite picture of Governor Rosellini.  The photo shows an open convertible carrying Senator John F. Kennedy in a cavalcade along Fourth Avenue, near University...

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Halloween is the day to trick or treat

For some reason unknown to us, the Madison Park Business Association occasionally schedules its annual Halloween Trick or Treat event on a day other than Halloween.  But this year, the big to-do is actually going to happen on Halloween Day. That means that neighborhood kids can dress up and present themselves for tricking or treating purposes at area businesses on Monday, October 31, from 3 until 5 pm.Again this year, the Madison...

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More critical mass for the retail core

Another retail establishment arrived in "The Village" late last week, adding depth to Madison Park's shopping district and helping to reinforce 43rd Avenue's role as part of the district's retail scene.  Park Bench Gifts, a couple months in the planning, officially opened for business on Friday in the Villa Marina building.Manager Jan Yoder reports that Day One interest from passers-by was strong, and she says she's optimistic that the...

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Free cupcakes at New York Cupcakes Saturday

Though the store actually opened in early September, the official Grand Opening of New York Cupcakes' Madison Valley location will occur tomorrow, with the store giving away 500 mini-cupcakes as part of the celebration.  In addition, there will be  a charity raffle for the grand-prize giveaway, The Ultimate Cupcake Birthday Party, where New York Cupcakes will throw a party for one lucky individual and 24 of his or her closest friends....

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SR 520 closes again this weekend

Well, they couldn't close the floating bridge often enough or long enough, it seems, to get all of the necessary and immediate Eastside demolition and reconstruction done during the summer months (there have been four separate weekend closures so far), so these closures have now extended into the fall.  At least tomorrow's closure will not occur until after the Husky game's return-home traffic has disbursed. At it stands now, 520 will be shut at...

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Italian makes a comeback in Madison Park

By Bryan TagasI first met the Celinda Norton, chef/proprietor of the soon-to-arrive Café Parco, when I accosted her on a Madison Park street corner earlier this summer.  Recognizing her from afar (I’d seen her photo online), I made a mad dash down the street, deftly sprinted across an intersection—not quite knocking down a couple of probable Park Shore residents in the process—and “introduced” myself.  I gave her and her entourage my very...

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Our memorable visit to the ‘other’ Madison Park

My wife, Margo, and I just spent several sun-filled days in the city of New York, which explains the lack of postings on this blog during the interim. We were in the Big Apple to attend the opening-night reception at a Chelsea art gallery, where Margo is participating in a new show of abstract art.  The event itself was rewarding and fun; but as it turned out, it was not the only “peak life experience” that we got to enjoy while in Manhattan....

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Governor Rosellini dead at 101

Albert D. Rosellini, 15th Governor of the State of Washington and longtime Madison Park resident, died today, according to the Associated Press.  The Seattle Times reported the cause as complications of pneumonia. Son of Italian immigrants, Rosellini, a Democrat, was elected Governor in 1956, re-elected in 1960, and defeated in 1964 by Republican Daniel Evans.  He made further tries for elective office, as King County Executive in 1969...

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Seen or heard in the 'hood

John Gallen moves onAccording to The Attic's Mark Long, "Johnny" Gallen began his several-decade career at Bert's in 1966, with a job sweeping floors. When the store's linoleum was replaced with carpet the following year, Gallen moved on to other duties, ultimately assuming responsibility as Bert's "flower guy." In his twenty-year role of flower buyer and plant expert at the store, he was well known to a couple generations of flower lovers...

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Lesser Madison Park

Commentary By Bryan TagasColumnist, author, and Madison Park resident Knute Berger (aka Mossback) wrote a cute piece several years ago (“Coffee talk in Madison Park”) in which he declared, somewhat tongue in cheek, that people living in the neighborhood could be divided into two principal camps:  those who choose to get their java at Starbucks and those who are aficionados of Tully’s. Starbucks customers, he wrote, “seem a little more groomed,...

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