This is my first entry in what will be a series.  I’ve been searching throughout a number of neighborhoods to check out the ideal combinations of livability features.  The lease is coming up in about 5 months and I want to be prepared to get into a more ideal location.

Here are my measurements and data that I’ll provide with each of these reviews.

• Walk Score: from at least 2 residential locations in the neighborhood:  Via http://www.walkscore.com/
• Transit Options:  What buses traverse the area and what other town centers/areas are easily navigable via transit.
• Night Life:  What time does the neighborhood generally “shut down”, or at least appear to.
• Sleep Quality:  This is simply a combination of noise, crime, feeling safe, and other measures and feeling rolled into one.  Ranking will be Good or Bad.
• Arterial Mapping:  This will be a map of the primary transit & road arterials in and out of the neighborhood.
• The Unique Bits:  This is a list of things that make a particular neighborhood unique.  Think of it like a list that makes this neighborhood not like the ticky tacky, cookie cutter, suburban sprawl neighborhoods.
• Architecture Mix:  See this chart for examples:  http://www.theplancollection.com/house-plan-styles/

Seattle’s Madison Park Area Review

Google Images with the search Madison Park, Seattle, WA.

Bing Images with the search Madison Park, Seattle, WA.

The first neighborhood that I’m covering here is Madison Park Area Neighborhood.  This is a rather upscale, somewhat rich neighborhood that has great views of Lake Washington along the north and eastern edges and meshes up against the Madrona Park and Montlake Neighborhoods to the west and south.  The neighborhood has hundreds of beautiful homes, condos of many architectural styles such as Cape Cod, Coastal, Colonial, Contemporary, Modernistic, European, Feng Shui, California, Row Houses, and other architectural styles.  Barely a bad home among the lot, which is really impressive for any neighborhood of this size.

Architectural Mix:  Cape Cod, Coastal, Colonial, Contemporary, Modernistic, European, Feng Shui, California, Row Houses, and other architectural styles.

There are two primary arterials coming into and out of the area.  This can be a huge negative or positive.

The Unique Bits:  This neighborhood has some great unique elements.  At the end of Madison Avenue is a strip of little shops, bars, and other things right across from a gorgeous park.  In addition to this the views of Lake Washington are absolutely tranquil.  Nothing in this neighborhood is outrageously unique, but a calm, conservative, collected uniqueness about the neighborhood does exist.

Arterial Mapping:  2 Streets, East Madison Street & McGilvra Boulevard.  The area is surrounded on the western, northern, and eastern edges by a park, a waterway, and a beautiful lake limiting the arterial route options.

First there is East Madison Street that leads into and out of the area to downtown Seattle.  This route is mixed traffic, primarily cars and small delivery type trucks.  It is also the primary transit route in and out of the area.

The second primary route south, along the lake is McGilvra Boulevard East that then merges onto Lake Washington Boulevard East.  This route is absolutely beautiful riding along Lake Washington.

Neither of these roads however connect to any major infrastructure, highways, Interstates, or other arterials.  They’re also both slow moving routes, with maximum speeds around 20-30 mph.  For residential lifestyles this is perfect, if you have a commute to outlying areas of the city this is going to add 15-35 minutes to whatever commute one already has.  If you’re going downtown though the bus provides a direct and easy route down Madison Street.  If one works at Boeing, Microsoft, or an outlying area though they should do themselves and the neighborhood a service and not move here.  Otherwise you’ll be driving all the time, cluttering up the roads & causing congestion, etc.  If you absolutely love it though, I suppose those are just the trade offs.

Sleep Quality:  Crime is low (almost non-existent), the area is very quiet, and sleep is easily to attain.  The architectures of most buildings are solid, enabling quiet buildings even in stormy or wind whipping weather.

Night Life:  Night life in the area doesn’t exist.  There are no theaters, late night bars, or music venues nearby.  If you like quiet neighborhoods with minimal activity after 6-7pm this is a good area.  If you want to enjoy art, music, movies, or anything of that sort one would have to leave the area regularly.

Transit Options:  For commuting to downtown areas, this is not a bad place.  For getting to anywhere else in the city, or for after work hours transit usage this area doesn’t have except one option.  Which for those car-free lifestyles really limits one.

Walk Score:  This neighborhood received an 83 – Very Walkable.  Check out walk score for Madison Park for more information on the walk score, check out various commute measurements, and other information.  Overall Madison Park Area ranks 28th in walkable areas in Seattle.

Just for travelling context, the way I traveled into and out of this neighborhood was on these routes, via a zipcar.

Inbound Route:

Outbound Route: