Real estate on the rise?

The story of the local real estate market, in line with what’s happening nationally, is primarily about how low inventory levels and apparently increasing demand may be forcing prices upward. The Seattle Times, for example, recently touted the fact that home prices in King County are continuing to rise.  Quoting May information from the Northwest Multiple Listing Service (MLS), the paper reported on its front page earlier this month that the...

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Another neighborhood original comes down

Since our posting last month on residential destruction and renewal in Madison Park, at least three more houses have been demolished to make room for new structures. This 800 sq. ft. house at 42nd Avenue E. and E. Lee Street, which bit the dust this morning, is just the latest casualty.  Originally constructed in 1919,  it purportedly was built as a beach cabin for the president of Frederick & Nelson (a now-defunct department store)....

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NW Sports Rehab enters the scene

A new neighborhood chiropractic clinic with a special emphasis on rehabilitation, exercise, nutrition and soft-tissue work, will open its doors for business on Monday. NW Sports Rehab, which is an offshoot of an existing 16-year-old clinic based in Federal Way, held an open house on Saturday to introduce the staff and let neighbors see the new configuration of what for many years was Spa del Lago.  The wall-length water feature remains, but...

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It must be summer

As the first weekend of summer got underway on Saturday, it was not apparent from the weather that we had already passed through the summer solstice.  But the dutiful arrival of this year's Madison Park Beach lifeguards was confirmation enough that summer was officially underway.The lifeguards pulled out and tested the rowboats, strung up the swimming-lane markers, and then began that all-important annual ritual: removing months of accumulated...

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Upcoming events

Fat Salmon returns to the Park next monthIt's an annual ritual: the summer arrival of the salmon to Madison Park. They come in ice chests, of course, and are the reward for swimming well done by the hundreds of participants in the Fat Salmon Open Water Swim, which this year occurs on Saturday, July 21. Registration is already full (all places were filled within four days of registration opening, a record). Those not actually swimming (or escorting...

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May Police Blotter

Man with a gunThere was plenty of press coverage last month of the incident that's designated on the neighborhood crime map above with a blue gun icon. That's the location where on May 30 Seattle Police arrested a man for unlawfully brandishing a gun in public. Although any kind of gun-toting event would always be a major story in Madison Park, what made this particular incident newsworthy to the wider public was the timing:  May 30...

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Serial vandalism?

Constance Gillespie's building is hit againFor the third time in less than a year a person or persons unknown have vandalized the infamous and increasingly decrepit building at the heart of the business district which is owned by Constance Gillespie (4118 E. Madison St.).  Overnight, the plate-glass window in one of the structure's two vacant retail spaces was bashed in, leaving a gaping hole in the window itself and glass debris littering...

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More on those eagles

It took awhile, but major media has caught on to a story we reported here in March about the return of the eagles to the nest at Broadmoor.  Montlake resident and nature photographer Larry Hubbell posted some dramatic photos of the eagle family on his blog, Union Bay Watch, earlier this month, a story which was later picked up by the Montlaker blog and then by KING-TV last week (see the video here).  The Seattle Times followed suit with...

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Sun shines on Shore Run

The 35th Annual Shore Run/Walk to benefit the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center charged through Madison Park this morning, with participants and spectators enjoying pretty fine weather for both the 5K and 10K events. It was a bit grayer by the time that the Kids' Run started later in the morning, but that didn't seem to dampen the enthusiasm of the runners.  Here they are as the race begins:More than 2,600 people participated in the Shore...

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Romancing the 520

A midnight stroll to MedinaThe major unresolved design issue related to the SR-520 project has to do with the new bridge over Portage Bay, a controversial subject which has received major media coverage and the attention of the new neighboring blog, Montlaker.  Those of us in Madison Park are probably more interested, however, in the design for the new floating bridge, additional details of which were unveiled in late March.Although we...

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Change comes to Swingset Park

No untoward incidents reportedGiven the outsized negative reaction of certain Madison Parkers to the idea of removing the park fence, we anticipated that the arrival of the take-down crew at Swingset Park last month might have prompted some kind of reaction.  But as it happened, no protesters arrived on scene waving placards reading "Save the Children!" or "Blood will be on Your Hands!" So far as we know (and surely we would have heard) no one...

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