Girmay Zahily celebrated the best of Seattle at his third annual Hometown Heroes event last month at the Paramount Theatre. Zahily was re-elected as Madison Park’s representative on the King County Council in 2023 and is now the Chair of King County Council.
Spring is in the air! Friends of Madison Park volunteers have been hard at work planning events, projects and advocating for our neighborhood.
I like the expression “Give a man a fish and he will eat for a day; teach a man to fish, and he will eat for a lifetime.” I’ve been wanting to learn more about preparedness – why not leverage the wisdom of people who do this for a hobby (and sometimes a living!)?
Our bodies are in a constant state of renewal much like the earth itself. Just as leaves unfurl, rivers forge new paths, and seasons shift; our cells undergo constant change. Meditation helps us reconnect with this natural rhythm of change, allowing us to observe the subtle shifts in our bodies and minds.
The human body is ever-changing. Though it’s not often so easy to detect the changes the body goes through, such alterations may become more noticeable with age. One age-related change that’s easy to overlook is related to thirst. The Cleveland Clinic notes seniors typically do not feel as thirsty as they once did.
Madison Park used to be filled with pre-war residents and survivors of the Great Depression. After World War II, many homes became vacant as the shipbuilding workforce moved away. College students, office workers and flight attendants soon moved in, attracted by the great location and cheap rent, blending into the community. At 21, we enjoyed this new environment, often meeting at the Red Onion and the Attic.
Seattle & King County was notified on April 4, of a positive measles case in a King County adult. This is the fourth case of measles in Washington state in 2025. This case is not connected to any of the previous local measles cases. The individual was likely exposed to measles during recent international travel.
A recent audit of King County’s Solid Waste Division planned capital projects found that per-ton garbage disposal fees could double in 10 years as a result, but the division notes delaying these projects could also increase fees for customers.
With the floral explosion of May, garden columns are filled with examples of the magnificence of spring color. I’m all for it. Writers also like to proclaim the importance of our plethora of greens which form a background for that color.
Children commonly like to give their mothers a break from cooking on Mother’s Day. Youngsters may be eager to help out in the kitchen and whip up something that Mom is certain to enjoy. But many recipes can be complicated for younger children or others who might not be so adept with meal creation.
I am very concerned about Elon Musk and the so-called DOGE team getting access to my Social Security number and personal financial information through their government office raids. What can I personally do to help protect myself from this identity theft mess?
This year began with a bang in the Seattle real estate market. Every home my team and I had on the market went under contract within weeks. The homes we had on sale last year that took their listings off the market for the holidays came back on. All of them sold or are pending. We’re actively working with even more sellers preparing to get their homes ready to hit the market.
The Port of Seattle is following through on promises to take legal action to halt a recently approved Seattle bill that allows residential housing near Seattle’s professional sports venues. The Port filed the appeal in the King County Superior Court in mid-April, arguing that the bill is unlawful.
Quinton Jefferson is the nomad of the NFL. In his nine years as a professional football player, Jefferson has had the honor of playing for the Seattle Seahawks, Las Vegas Raiders, Cleveland Browns, Buffalo Bills, New York Jets and again for the Seahawks.
King County’s housing-first approach to addressing homelessness could be threatened by recent federal policies under President Donald Trump’s administration. The King County Regional Homelessness Authority, or KCRHA, estimates this housing-first strategy – which prioritizes placing people into permanent housing before addressing other root causes of homelessness – could cost $450 million to $1.1 billion per year over the next decade.
A lower-rate EMS levy proposed by acting King County Executive Shannon Braddock would extend emergency services funding through 2031. The Medic One/EMS levy funds King County’s network of medical services, which operates in a coordinated partnership with four dispatch centers, five paramedic agencies, and 23 fire departments.
The Seattle City Council has approved a bill to allow residential housing near Seattle’s professional sports venues despite pushback from council members. Council Bill 120933 amends the city’s land use code to allow for workforce housing in the Stadium Transition Area Overlay District, which encompasses Lumen Field and T-Mobile Park.
The good news: Washington state is expecting a $54 million increase in anticipated revenue for the remainder of the current 2023-2025 budget cycle. The bad news: Revenue for the 2025-2027 and 2027-2029 budget cycles are down $479 million and $420 million, respectively, from the previous forecast in November.
Deemed necessary to implement the budget, Washington state lawmakers heard testimony on a bill on Wednesday that would close two rehabilitation centers to save $58.8 million per biennium. The cutoff to advance bills out of the house of origin was last week. However, with a massive shortfall looming overhead, either chamber can advance proposals necessary to implement the budget.
As the first day of spring blooms across our beautiful community, it's the perfect time to take stock of the Madison Park real estate market and how it compares to last year. With the first quarter of 2025 nearly behind us, homeowners and buyers alike are eager to see how the market is shaping up — especially with a new administration in place, which often sparks curiosity about potential shifts in the housing landscape.
Recently, the Washington State Legislature enacted a Clean Fuel Standard program, which directs fuel providers to reduce the carbon intensity in their products such as gasoline and diesel. Now, the original bill sponsor for that program wants to modify it in a way that supporters believe will improve implementation.
Although the 2021 Climate Commitment Act’s primary goal is to reduce carbon emissions, supporters defending it against a failed initiative last year argued the revenue generated by it was vital to support air quality projects.
Seattle Center and Pacific Science Center (PacSci) announced a bold new partnership to advance PacSci’s mission and financial stability, preserve and expand public space, and establish new programming, including a Maker & Innovation Lab for STEM education and creative exploration.
Grade school at J.J. McGilvra in Madison Park brought together a tapestry of diverse backgrounds and lifestyles. Some kids wore the latest fashions and arrived in shiny cars with chauffeurs who graciously opened the doors, while many others sported carefully mended hand-me-downs with patches and walked several blocks each day.
Washington drivers may be funding transit when they fill up their vehicles at the gas pump due not only to how carbon auctions under the Climate Commitment Act could be indirectly raising gas prices, but how CCA money has been appropriated by the state Legislature.
Seattle Mayor Bruce Harrell has announced a proposed property tax levy renewal that would increase funding for a public campaign financing voucher program by 50%. Seattle’s Democracy Voucher Program was created and approved by voters in 2015 with the intention of increasing participation in local elections across all Seattle demographics and reducing the influence of larger donations in politics.
Between November 2024 and February 2025, the King County Regional Homelessness Authority activated its Tier 2 and Tier 3 cold weather response plans 40 times. That translates into the opening of short-term emergency shelters and the implementation of expanded emergency operations, including coordinating with cities for additional shelter sites and supporting food distribution and transportation.
We escaped late February’s wind-driven power outage by virtue of living on a luckier side of the street. When we checked Seattle.gov the morning after the storm, 18,000+ customers were out of electricity for the night. In our area, the power was out for about seven hours, seemingly typical for the city: short, temporary blackouts.
Spring is in the air! The Friends of Madison Park volunteers have been hard at work planning events and advocating for our neighborhood amidst the ongoing One Seattle Plan discussions, and Madison Park’s official appeal to the One Seattle Plan is now before the city examiner.
With Washington state facing a shortage of a million units, House lawmakers amended a bill Friday to cut statewide parking mandates to make room for the new homes over the next two decades. Lawmakers backed the proposal across party lines last month, passing it off the Senate floor on a 40-8 vote, with a few Republicans and Democrats dissenting.
They say death comes in threes. A crazy superstition, one of those fallacies that has no grounding in truth but you secretly believe it anyway. Because I have been waiting for the third shoe to drop, waiting since I lost my nephew last year, and my dad a few months later. And when I say “drop,” I mean it fell from the sky with all the weight and intensity of a meteor landing.
What can we do when life upsets us? Take time to notice how often you are upset during the day. You’ll likely see that usually it’s because life upended your expectations. Therapist and author Christine Hassler calls this an “expectation hangover” – the frustration and internal pushback we experience in disappointment. It might be something small, like the café is out of your favorite coffee, or something more challenging.