First Quarter Real Estate Report

Will lack of inventory push prices up?During the first quarter, Madison Park had the lowest level of homes for sale since we began tracking market statistics three years ago.  In fact, the 51 houses and condos currently available for purchase represent a dramatic 34% reduction in the level of inventory over the past year.  If the normal relationship between supply and demand holds true, this dearth of properties on the market should bode...

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Noteworthy this week

Big Arboretum plant sale this weekendThe annual FlorAbundance spring plant sale to benefit the Arboretum Foundation will take place this Saturday and Sunday in, of all places, the Arboretum!  The spring sale has for many years been held at Magnuson Park, but restrictions this year on use of that site forced the sale back to the Arboretum.  This change of venue may have implications for local traffic, since this is the largest plant...

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In the news

'The Revivalist'Madison Park's own Gian-Carlo Scandiuzzi was the subject of a laudatory cover story in the Seattle Times' Pacific Northwest magazine two Sundays ago.  In it, writer Misha Berson gave credit to Scandiuzzi, ACT's general manager, for the revival of the once-shaky but now well-positioned theatre, which is housed the historic Eagles Auditorium building downtown. Scandiuzzi, who has been at the helm of ACT for a little over three...

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Three years and counting

By Bryan TagasToday marks the third anniversary of Madison Park Blogger. What began as something of a lark has morphed over time into a cross between a labor of love and a duty.  My goal has been to provide Madison Park with a timely source of news and (very occasionally) commentary, about the things that impact this .9 square miles of lakeside turf that we are lucky enough to inhabit.  I remain dedicated to that mission.Sometimes people...

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March Police Blotter

Break-in Alert:  In the first couple weeks of April there have been numerous nighttime incidents of house, garage and office break-ins in Madison Park, as well as car break-ins and car and bike thefts.  We will be reporting on these in our next Police Blotter. This is just another reminder to be vigilant.March was relatively calm on the crime frontThere were only two house break-ins and one car prowl reported in Madison Park during March....

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Bus changes a non-event for Madison Park

Although some bus riders around Seattle may be getting agitated about proposed changes to King County Metro's bus routes, Madison Parkers can rest easy that our own Route 11 is facing only a very (and we mean very) slight alteration in service. That, at least, is based on the recommendations from Metro Transit that will be going to the King County Council in September. Essentially the whole story for those using Route 11 is that instead of having...

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Stay of execution for Arboretum ramps

Still doomed, but temporarily reprievedThe original plan for the western approach to the new 520 floating bridge called for the the westbound exit to Lake Washington Boulevard to be demolished later this year and for the eastbound entrance (along with the infamous "ramps to nowhere") to be demolished at the end of construction in 2015.  Now that timetable has been revised. The removal of the Arboretum ramps, neither of which will be replaced,...

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'Pop-up' art gallery makes its debut

Art Messer's having a show (and you're invited)In his own eccentric way, Art Messer is something of a neighborhood institution. He's been around the place in one guise or other since at least 1979, when he opened an art gallery and frame shop on E. Madison (in the building later to become infamous as Constance Gillespie's "black hole").  Messer's also an artist, raconteur, gadabout, and longtime resident of the Park who can often be...

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A picture-perfect Easter Sunday

It was one of those all-too-rare glorious Spring days in Madison Park today; and believe it or not, kids were actually able to hunt for Easter eggs outdoors and in sunshine!   These are some of the egg gatherers at the Annual 39th Street Easter Egg Hunt held in Canterbury.  It's not clear whether little Buttercup, below,  participated in the hunt or was just assigned to guard the bubbly.[Photos courtesy of Corrine Cra...

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The return of the box

The block style rides a waveIn the go-go years of speculative home building in Madison Park (say, prior to 2010) there was a lot of teeth gnashing by certain traditionalists over the fact that cute little cottages were being torn down by developers for the purpose of building large box-like structures that did not conform to supposed neighborhood values.  The idealized character of the neighborhood as "a lakeside village" was, according to this...

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Cormac becomes 'pilgrimage worthy'

Madison Park Conservatory's Cormac Mahoney has been named one of the ten Best New Chefs in the country by Food & Wine Magazine.  He was one of two Puget Sound area chefs so honored, the other being Blaine Wetzel of Willows Inn on Lummi Island. According to seattle.eater.com, which broke the story locally yesterday, the Best New Chef award is "one of the most coveted distinctions in the food business."  And it's apparently unprecedented...

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Another pizza option! Just what we needed

Pagliacci Pizza to usurp Spotless Cleaners siteThe Central District News, a neighboring blog, reported last week that Pagliacci Pizza will be invading Madison Valley later this year with a new store on Madison, just barely outside of Madison Park. Pagliacci will be building a new, larger and LEED-certified building to replace the existing Spotless Cleaners structure at 3015 E. Madison St., according to the report. No date is given for anticipated...

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