News of the 'hood

'Why us?'

Employees of our local Wells Fargo branch may well be asking themselves that question after the Bank's windows were smashed in an overnight incident last week. This is the second such act of vandalism at Wells Fargo this year. But given the larger notoriety of certain other national banks (JP Morgan Chase and Bank of America for example), what justifies Wells Fargo as a particular target?  Wells was also singled out by the Occupy Seattle protesters during their downtown march a couple of weeks ago. Of course it's possible that this local crime is just a random bank smashing, unpolitical in nature.

The incident, which took place last Tuesday night or early Wednesday morning, occurred within hours of our posting on vandalism in the neighborhood.  According to a resident living near the Wells Fargo office, Seattle Police took their time Wednesday morning going over the scene and taking a lot of photos.  No immediate word on whether anarchist symbols were spray painted on the building, as was the case when the Bank's windows were broken in January.  This incident may have been captured on on the branch's heavy-duty camera, though seasoned vandals would be unlikely to expose themselves to that kind of scrutiny unless disguised:

Aggravated assault with a weapon

On Saturday, Madison Park was the scene of an unusual crime involving a weapon, in this case a bottle of Bud Light.  An "Unpaid Intern" at The Stranger got the story ahead of us yesterday; and frankly, we could hardly do a better job of describing the incident. The posting, entitled "Never Get Between a Man and his Bud Light" can be found here. Presumably the bar involved is McGilvra's.


Rehashing the fence debate

We received a press release from Seattle Parks last week making it official that Madison Park's famous fence at Swingset Park is coming down, with the work expected to be completed by the end of June.  Meanwhile, Crosscut's Knute Berger, who served as a pro-fence-removal resident on the Park's advisory committee for this project, describes from an insider's perspective the interaction between the residents and the Parks people over how the fence was to be removed.  His take on the whole thing can be found here.


No more retail for Villa Marina (at least for now)

It looks like Lakeside Capital Management has given up, at least temporarily, on finding a new retail tenant for the space in the Villa Marina building that was vacated last month by Ropa Bella, the women's clothing store.  Although Lakeside, the building's landlord, was unwilling to confirm the story, we've heard from reliable sources that the space will soon become an office, rather than a new retail location.  It is possible that this is just a temporary situation, with a retail tenant still the ultimate goal.  So far, it has proven difficult to bring retail onto 43rd Avenue E., though Park Bench Gifts in the same building is gamely holding on.

[Madison Park's Wells Fargo branch is located at 4009 E. Madison St., Swingset Park is located at 2300 43rd Avenue E., McGilvra's is located at 4234 E. Madison St., and the Ropa Bella space is located at 1928 43rd Avenue E.]