Prop. 1 defeat has implications here

Madison Park loses late-night service The landslide defeat this week of King County's ballot measure to support public transportation will have a minor impact on our neighborhood if Metro's recently announced route cuts and service reductions are implemented.  Press reports have noted that Bus Route 84 to Madison Park will be eliminated as a result of the changes Metro is planning. That route, however, is not the main bus route...

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The longer-term view of Madison Park real estate

2013 in contextAs we often caution, sales statistics for Madison Park can be misleading given that ours is a pretty small market, with relatively few sales in each period.  Moreover, the mix of housing in the neighborhood is eclectic, to say the least.  Mansions abound in Broadmoor and Washington Park, with mega-houses now a feature in each of the three major sections of Madison Park.  Yet at the same time, there are plenty of less-imposing...

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Madison Park: not exactly a crime oasis

Kegs 'lifted' from The AtticIn the annals of neighborhood brazenness this scene is hardly going to be recorded as anything more than a footnote.  After all, Madison Park recently experienced a surreal, though terrorizing, bank holdup. MPB reader Candace Baer, who lives at Madison Court (42nd E. & E. Newton) witnessed the incident captured in this photo, which she says shows two guys emancipating kegs from the back of neighborhood alehouse,...

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Tax fraud hits home

Dumb-cluck IRS lays an eggCommentary by Bryan TagasAfter electronically filing my 2013 federal income tax return using TurboTax last week, I requested that I be notified as soon as the IRS officially accepted my filing.  Sure enough, about three hours later I got a text message from TurboTax. Unfortunately, the news was not good: “Your Federal Tax Return Rejected – Action Needed!”“Here’s the problem with your return,” the message continued,...

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Getting caught up

Graffiti epidemic angers property ownersMany neighborhood businesses and a few residential properties were hit by tagging "artists" on Thursday or Friday last week.  The above example, one of the worst, is at the bus stop next to Madison Park Hardware on 42nd near E. Madison St.  Among the neighborhood icons tagged were the cute red phone box in front of the former Best Buds shop and the not-so-cute "Black Hole of Madison Park" (Constance...

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The new 520 pounds its way across the Lake

Madison Parkers give bridge the stink eyeThere’s literally been a lot of water under the bridge since we last wrote about the floating-bridge project.  Some of that water, unfortunately, was in the new pontoons. That design-related problem has supposedly been fixed, though at a whopping cost. WSDOT reported earlier this year that an additional $208 million will be needed to cover the cost overruns associated with repairs to the four leaky pontoons...

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The latest on those Arboretum ramps

Outta here by 2016There may be three or four people out there who are still unaware that as a result of the construction of the new SR-520 floating bridge, the existing bridge's on- and off-ramps in the Arboretum will be demolished, along with the infamous "ramps to nowhere."  Those thousands of people who regularly traverse E. Madison Street or Lake Washington Boulevard in order to access or pile off the freeway in the Arboretum will just have...

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The shooting: pondering the imponderable

Bizarre incident raises many questionsCommentary by Bryan TagasIt was a surreal three hours in the otherwise placid life of Madison Park this week:  a cross-dressed sous chef terrorizes customers and employees of the neighborhood Wells Fargo office by staging a holdup with a "realistic looking" airsoft gun; makes off with the cash; races down McGilvra in an underpowered Hyundai, just ahead of converging police; somehow manages...

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Wells Fargo branch robbed

Suspect flees, crashes car, is shot by policeAt about 9:15 this morning a man robbed the Madison Park Wells Fargo branch and, after getting money from a teller, fled the branch on foot.  The SPD Blotter states that the man, who reportedly was wearing a wig, makeup, and women's clothing, was seen getting into a  silver-colored car parked nearby.  About ten minutes later, SPD received a report that a silver-colored car had crashed...

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