Still expensive...

...but our neighborhood Shell no longer highest pricedA couple of years ago we ran a story in which we reported that the Madison Park Shell station (3100 E. Madison St.) had the most expensive gas in the city.  A reader recently asked us to check out the station's current standing, so we did a little investigating and uncovered the fact that our local entry has fallen in the rankings to runner-up status.According to website Gasbuddy.com, the...

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Floating bridge closed this weekend

The regular drill during construction of the new SR 520 Eastside corridor and floating bridge includes periodic closings of the highway on weekends, a routine that will continue indefinitely.  We have another shutdown occurring this weekend, with traffic suspended on 520 from 11 pm on Friday until 5 am on Sunday.  Previously, the reopening time on Sunday was listed in some news sources as noon, but the timetable was later revised.Work this...

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Fourth Quarter Real Estate Report 2012

Market goes gangbusters as year endsTo the delight of sellers and real estate agents alike, 2012 ended on a very high note with a total of 36 Madison Park homes changing hands in the final quarter.  To put this into perspective you need only compare it to the same period in the prior year, when only 27 homes were sold.  So fourth quarter 2012’s numbers actually represent a 33% uptick in sales activity year over year.  Not bad.But the...

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Madison Park businesses in the news

In the likely event that some of our readers are just not keeping up with other media, here's a quick survey of some local establishments that have received recent coverage:Seattle Met's Nosh Pitt blog reported earlier this week that Cactus! just announced it's expanding to a fifth location, taking over space in Bellevue Square previously occupied by Z’Tejas.  Cactus!, began life 23 years ago at its current location in Madison...

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Arboretum rehab plan revealed

New path will replace freeway rampsThough it's been known for almost two years that the new SR 520 project would ultimately mean the loss of the freeway's Arboretum ramps, it was only at a press conference today that  plans were revealed for what will replace them.  The Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT) and the Arboretum & Botanical Garden Committee (ABGC) have reached an agreement under which $7.8 million will be...

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Weekend hit and run leads to arrest

19-year-old Broadmoor woman taken into custodyA woman claiming that she had been the victim of a hit-and-run car accident was arrested by Seattle Police on Saturday after it became evident that her story didn't quite check out.  Investigating officers determined that the supposed victim was, instead, the likely perpetrator of an early-morning hit and run involving three parked vehicles at 42nd and E. Madison (two of which are shown in the photo...

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Day One for Madison Kitchen

Much-anticipated eatery debutsPassersby who were paying attention today as they ambled through the business district had the opportunity to experience the newest thing in Madison Park: Madison Kitchen.  The new coffee shop/deli/take-out place (we're undecided on the appropriate category) did a quiet "soft opening" this morning. The lucky ones were those curious enough to come in and check out the space.  For their efforts, they were...

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What's happening

Madison ParkMadison Kitchen is virtually a reality.  When we wandered by the place on Friday we noted that construction had reached the finishing-touch stage and it was apparent that that the doors would be opening on the neighborhood’s newest eatery very very soon (like Tuesday). The new website is not quite up and running yet, but once the soft opening occurs we’ll clue you in on the specifics of the menu.Belle Epicurean is featuring an “après-ski...

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November/December Police Blotter

Criminal Activity in NovemberRelatively quiet (except from the victims' perspective)The year ended on a pretty typical note crime-wise, with the number of incidents reported to the police in November and December significantly lower than the levels Madison Park generally experiences during the summer months. But that doesn't mean that cars were not stolen, houses were not broken into or that the kinds of weird and stupid criminal behavior that...

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The year in review: 2012

Madison Park as oasis within the urban jungleCommentary by Bryan TagasYou know you must be living in a pretty tame neighborhood when the biggest controversies affecting your community over the course of a year are whether an unsightly park fence should be removed and whether an out-of-scale business sign should be downsized.  Yet those were the things that got us (or rather some tiny fraction of us) agitated in 2012. Proving once again---if...

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