Madrona area (Seattle, Garfield: real estate, houses, neighborhood)

[mickdc]

Hello, my wife and I relocated to Seattle last week and are very excited about the move. We are looking at some houses, and like a few in the Madrona area, specifically around S. King and 31st. Madrona seems to be a varied area, does anyone have any thoughts/comments about that locale?

Thanks for any comments!

[Ira500]

Originally Posted by mickdc

Hello, my wife and I relocated to Seattle last week and are very excited about the move. We are looking at some houses, and like a few in the Madrona area, specifically around S. King and 31st. Madrona seems to be a varied area, does anyone have any thoughts/comments about that locale?

Thanks for any comments!

I think of 31st and King as pretty nice, although 31st can be a busy street at times. It's near Frink Park, where you can walk down trails to the lake.
But 31st and King isn't Madrona. It's Leschi. It's also around where some of Seattle's oldest and coolest houses are, on 30th, from Jackson extending a couple of blocks south. The Leschi Community Council has their meetings at the Central Area Senior Center, which is at 30th and King.
A couple of blocks up Jackson is All Purpose Pizza, which is a pleasant place with decent pizza, and down the hill at the lake is the Leschi Mart, which has home made sausage an a huge wine selection. And Madrona isn't too far away, around 34th and Union, with one of Seattle's best breakfast places, the Hi Spot, as well as a good alehouse and other nice places to eat.
The bad?
You won't be all that far from the worst of the Central District, which I consider to be around 21st-22nd just south of East Cherry Street, behind Garfield High.
I used to live a few blocks away on 29th.
There was a shooting at 29th off of Yesler a while back where a police officer was killed. The shooter had been mistakenly released from jail in Arkansas,and was trying to hide out with relatives who refused to let him stay there. So some people will say that because that shooting happened, the neighborhood is therefore dangerous. It's not. Both Madrona and Leschi are varied, and the closer to the lake you get, the nicer it is. There's a lot of fudging in real estate ads, where a place at 26th and Cherry they'll call Madrona, or 25th and King they'll call Leschi. The official border is Martin Luther King Way, and it's much nicer from about 30th eastward.

[mickdc]

Ira, thanks much for the reply, that's very helpful; we went down to the lake and have seen the shops there, it would be nice to be so close to the water. Thanks again.