A great day for a swim

I have to admit that I totally missed the boat on this one, because when my neighbors asked me this morning why the area was completely parked up well before 9:00am, I didn't have a clue. (Obviously, I'm supposed to know about these things.)

So I rushed down to the Park where I discovered that all of the hullabaloo was about the 10th Annual Fat Salmon Open Water Swim, a race involving 300 or more swimmers all heading to the beach at Madison Park. Actually it was two races, a 1.2 miler and a 3.2 miler, beginning at Denny Blaine Park and the Day Street Boat Ramp (by the I-90 floating bridge) respectively.

With the Lake Washington water at a balmy 66 degrees (at least at Madison Park beach), some of the swimmers this year elected to swim without wetsuits.

In case you're wondering about where the "fat salmon" comes into the picture, take a close look at one of the race winners receiving the prize:

I don't intend to be caught flat footed with regard to the next major swim race having Madison Park as its destination. On Wednesday, August 19, the 12th Annual Swim for Life Across Lake Washington will begin at 7:30am in Medina and finish up 4,000 meters (2.5 miles) later on our beach. This is a benefit for the Puget Sound Blood Center. More information is avaialble here.

Celebrate the Arboretum with a picnic

If you haven't been paying attention, you may be blissfully unaware that the Washington Park Arboretum is this year celebrating its 75th Anniversary, with events commemorating the 1934 founding of the Park scheduled throughout the year. One such event is tomorrow's "Olde Time Picnic" to be held in the Park's Crabapple Meadow from 11:30am until 2:30pm.

While it is true that you have to bring your own picnic to this affair, free hot dogs and ice cream will be provided. In addition, there will be musical performances, a display of Model A autos, and field games. Picnicers are encouraged to wear vintage clothing of the 1930's. Additional information is available on The Arboretum Foundation website.

While the Arboretum was officially established in 1934 by an agreement between the University of Washington and the City of Seattle, the actual work of designing and planting the 230 acre park was not begun until several years later. This lovely neighborhood amenity for those of us living in Madison Park boasts over 10,000 individual plants representing 4,400 or so species. For those interested in knowing more about the history of the Arboretum there is more background that you could possibly want at the UW's site, including some interesting early pictures and maps.

Saturday's event is co-sponsored by the Arboretum Foundation, the UW, and Seattle's Parks and Recreation department.

[The above photo is courtesy of hopeisalot, uploaded last month on Flickr.]

Meet the candidates

Actually, as far as I know, only one of these guys is an actual candidate. I am shamelessly using a picture of our publicity-crazed mayor surrounded by Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence as a teaser to get your attention for a serious subject. The idea isn’t even original, since I stole it from the Capitol Hill Seattle Blog. But I bet it’s effective, since you’re reading this aren’t you? The serious subject I have in mind is a pair of upcoming candidate forums (or, more correctly, fora).

The first forum actually does involve our mayor, who reportedly is scheduled to be present for the Seattle Candidate Forum presented by the Capitol Hill and Central Area communities on Monday, July 27, 6-9pm at Mount Zion Baptist Church (19th Avenue E. & East Madison Street). In addition to the mayoral candidates, city council and school board candidates will also be introduced and grilled. More information is available on the CHS blog: Central Area & Capitol Hill Election Forum.

In case your interests are limited only to the school board race for our district, you will have your chance to see and interact with School Board candidates for the District Five position this coming Monday, July 20, at the Garfield Community Center (2323 East Cherry Street). There are three candidates challenging the incumbent, Mary Bass, for this position. Details on this event, which begins at 8:30pm, are also available on the CHS blog: “Central Cluster” School Board Candidate Forum.

As far as I am aware, no candidate forum is planned for our neck of the woods; so these may be your only opportunities to see the candidates up close without having to drive to Ballard or somewhere equally inconvenient to do so.

[Photo courtesy of faustOmatic via Flickr]

Not your mother's conclave

For those who may have wandered by the Park yesterday morning around 10 and wondered what the heck was going on with all of those unusually dressed, face-painted outres clogging the beach, the answer is provided by Seattle Gay Scene's website. All of the commotion, as it turns out, was simply due to the opening of another summer convention in our fair town, although the group involved is really rather unconventional. It seems that the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence's 2009 International Conclave ("Retreat in the Emerald City") is underway all this week--and the kickoff for this, the 13th annual event, was an "opening/blessing/picnic" at Madison Park on Monday. I am sorry that I was at work yesterday morning and unable to film what must have been a fun and atypical-for-Madison-Park event.


There are plenty of activities being held during the rest of the week, so you will have fresh opportunities to see these performers in action, including two "Duck Tour" buses filled with nuns on Saturday. A lot of the action, naturally, will be on Capitol Hill, with details on the SGC's website. For those who are unaware of the Sisters, I quote from the website of their local chapter, The Abbey of St. Joan: "We are an order of Twenty-First Century nuns dedicated to the promulgation of universal joy and the expiation of stigmatic guilt. We work to raise money for AIDS charities; fight for queer rights and visibility; do safer sex outreach; and strive diligently to keep our sense of humor, never taking ourselves so seriously that we forget to have fun." Let's just say the sisters are in no way connected with the Catholic Church:



Madison Park, by the way, seems to have the reputation as a gay-friendly neighborhood. For those not in the know, the area just to the north of the Madison Park Bath House is considered the gay area of the Park, although straights occasionally do wander in, especially on the weekends. A gay website, in fact, refers to Madison Park is an excellent place for a "gaycation." I don't think we are quite as popular, however, as Foster Island.

Cactus! is expanding (again)

In a bold move that is counter to much of what’s happening elsewhere in the Seattle restaurant trade, Cactus! is about to extend its presence in Madison Park by taking some of the space vacated earlier this year by the Yankee Peddler. On Friday, the City approved a construction permit allowing the restaurant to make alterations to approximately 400 square feet of the space contiguous to its location at 4220 E. Madison Street.

Owner Bret Chatalas tells me that the planned remodeling will involve moving part of the kitchen into the new space. The principal advantage of this will be to create a better work environment for the employees and a more efficient operation. Expansion of the kitchen may also allow for a future relocation of the tapas bar into what is now part of the kitchen area, freeing up space in the front for 5-10 more seats. As anybody who has tried to get into Cactus! on a summer evening knows, the Mexican/Southwest themed restaurant remains very popular in spite of the current economic downturn.

At a time when some restaurants are really feeling the pain, and others such as Oceanaire and the Union Square Grill are shutting down entirely, Cactus! has a proven concept that continues to withstand the test of time. This Madison Park mainstay has been described by The Seattle Times as a “screaming success” since it opened in 1990. At least partly due to space constraints at the Madison Park location, Cactus! spawned two sister restaurants, one in Kirkland in 2002 and one at Alki in 2006. Anecdotal evidence is that all three locations continue to pack ‘em in, and Chatalas confirms that things continue to go well for each of the restaurants.

Cactus! Madison Park has already undergone one major expansion, when in 1999 it annexed the retail space one door to the north of its initial location. Now the restaurant is moving into space that is one door to the south (though the actual door and front of that space are now occupied by Red Wagon Toys). “I made the decision to make an investment in the future,” says Chatalas. “It was now or never.”

We love a parade!

This was the scene at noon today as the annual Children's Parade got underway for the ten-minute march down E. Madison Street to the Park.

Perhaps because of the fantastic weather, the turnout this year was a lot higher than last, according to Terry Short, Madison Park Business Association (MPBA) President (and parade marshal).

The Seattle Police and Fire Departments were active participants, as usual, with a firetruck leading the parade and the police providing traffic control and security. Police Sgt. Jay Shin agreed that the parade drew more participants than in past years. He estimated the total crowd at about 300 people.

There were a lot of kids riding bikes or being pulled in wagons:

A few of us really dressed for the occasion:

And in addition to the numerous dogs who promenaded, there was a gentle pony and a very well behaved billy goat:

And of course, at the end of the route everyone got the opportunity to chow down. All in all, it was a picture-perfect day in the Park.

Thanks to the MPBA for its sponsorship of this excellent event. It is one of the things that helps differentiate Madison Park from many other Seattle neighborhoods, where public spiritedness and community connection have become little more than ideals of the past.

Pedestrians and trees learn to coexist

For those who missed the front-page story in the Seattle Times today (Trees versus Houses), there is quite a brouhaha in Madrona right now over an attempt to move two historic Craftsman houses out of the neighborhood in order to make way for expansion of the Epiphany School. Trees would have to be cut (or temporarily moved) along the E. Howell Street escape route, and the affected homeowners are objecting.

Some of us remember that in our neighborhood six years ago there was a slight controversy, quickly resolved, about moving an historic house up 39th Street E. from a lot several blocks south of Madison to one several blocks to the north. In that case, no trees had to be temporarily relocated, but many trees did have to be cut back significantly along the street. The homeowners went along, and the move proceeded without a hitch.

Which is not to say that we are laid back about our trees here in the Park. Far from it. When the sidewalk repairs began last year in the business district along Madison, many residents became incensed at the idea that tree roots would be cut and some trees potentially removed in the process. Although the Madison Park Community Council (MPCC) and the City made every effort to publicize the sidewalk improvement program, everyone was not aware and many were not on board when work began in the area around Bert’s, Tully’s and what was then the Washington Mutual branch.

Jim Hagan, a member of the Council, worked closely with the City on the project. The big problem, he said, was that people were being injured because the sidewalks were cracking and buckling as the result of tree-root encroachment. There have been broken arms, hips and wrists reported as a result of sidewalk falls by pedestrians, he said. And in one case, a person actually lost an eye. It had become increasingly clear that something had to be done to improve pedestrian safety in Madison Park.

The non-profit group Historic Madison Park made the first request to the City for a grant to improve sidewalks along Madison. Both the MPCC and the local business community were enthusiastic about the idea and the three groups agreed to form a streetscape committee to decide where to utilize the grant dollars. According to Hagan, committee members walked the street and concluded that the area in front of Washington Mutual was definitely the worst stretch of sidewalk. Drainage was a problem, and several trees (whose roots could not be pruned without killing the trees) would have to be removed. Although a lot of people were then up in arms, the project moved forward successfully--and last fall three replacement trees (paperbark maples) were planted in front of the Chase branch:

With that success, another grant was applied for and the second-worst area (in front of Scoop du Jour) was tackled. Some residents were upset to see the City’s official notices on the trees that they might have to be removed:

But in the end, all of the trees were saved, although some roots were pruned. In some places a special sidewalk was installed that will hopefully allow for the growing roots to have less impact than they would have on regular pavement:

According to Hagan the next area of concern is in front of Starbuck’s, where at least one tree will have to go. Later, the area in front of the Wells Fargo branch will be the target. The City, he said, has been very supportive of the community’s efforts. He noted that the City arborist would only agree to remove a tree if there was no other reasonable solution. But occasionally a big old tree must be sacrificed. As Hagan notes, “sometimes pedestrian safety outweighs a tree.”