We had a good turnout this year for Spring Clean. At 9 am Saturday morning about 25 adults and kids assembled at Fast Frame to clean up and beautify Madison Street. The event is sponsored by the Madison Valley Merchants Association and McGilvra PTA with help from local residents and businesses.

“I love Spring Clean — it’s a great event where we wipe away the grime of winter and tidy up for the summer season. This year — with help from a lot of people — we were able to knock out the to-do list in just a couple of hours. When everyone helps a little it makes a big difference.

“When we started doing this several years ago, the neighborhood was a little rough. But over the years we’ve been able to clean up storefronts, plant flowers, remove graffiti, and pick up the trash. Every year the neighborhood gets nicer,” said Lindy Wishard.

This year we accomplished the following:

• Kiosk in front of The Madisonian was cleaned. It looks like new! 

• The graffiti on the fence in front of City People’s was cleaned and the fence was repainted. 

• Graffiti on the post box in front of Luc, the transformer in the Madison Triangle, and on the fence next to Jae’s was removed or painted over. 

• The wall of the dry cleaner was cleaned. 

• Flowers were planted in the window boxes of Essential Baking. 

• Denise and Charlie, who have volunteered every year, picked up a lot of trash. 

• New neighbor Jackie helped everyone check in and handed out supplies. 

• Nicki coordinated with Starbucks and the Madison Park Bakery, who donated coffee and pastries for the event. 

Special thank you to Courtney with McGilvra PTA for helping organize this great event. 

Thanks to Fast Frame for allowing us to set up on the lawn. 

The Merchant’s Association hired Mineros Landscape again this year. The crew weeded the tree wells, sidewalks, trimmed the trees and bushes, and removed all the winter debris from the street.

The Merchants Association and McGilvra Elementary are getting together on Saturday, May 4, to clean up the neighborhood—please join us! We’ll be pulling weeds, spreading wood chips, and cleaning up the landscape along Madison St. The merchants will be cleaning up their storefronts as well. Sign Up Here!

We’ll have some supplies on hand: garbage bags, paint, cleaning supplies, etc. Please bring gloves, paint scrapers, and garden hand tools.

Cash donations are also welcome to help offset the cost of the cleanup. You can make a donation online — just click on the Donate button at the top of this page. Be sure to write Spring Clean in the notes field. All contributions are appreciated! 

Saturday, May 4, 9 AM
Meet at FastFrame
2840 E Madison Street
Free coffee and pastries provided by the Merchants Association.
Sign Up Here

If you have questions, contact:

Lindy Wishard
[email protected]

Spring Clean 2017 was a great success! We had about 25 volunteers. Here are some highlights:

Volunteers painted out the graffiti at the corner of MLK and Madison Street.

Graffiti was removed from the street signs and the power transfer in the traffic triangle.

In the Traffic triangle we pulled weeds and spread wood chips. 

Special thank you to Yumi Pick for helping to coordinate and to McGilvra Elementary kids and parents who worked hard throughout the morning. 

Finally, special thank you to the Madison Valley Merchants Association who hired a professional landscaping crew to pull weeds and remove dirt, along Madison Street and for driving donuts and coffee to volunteers. 

The neighborhood looks great! 

This is the fifth year of the Madison Valley Spring Clean — I can’t believe we’ve been doing it for that long!

Saturday, April 29
9:00 - Noon
Meet at Fast Frame at 9 AM 
2840 E Madison Street
Sign up here.

When Spring Clean started the neighborhood was mess: trash, weeds, and graffiti. Over the years, the neighborhood has done a good job of cleaning up and keeping it clean throughout the year. This means there is not as much work to do as there has been in previous years. There are, however, a few projects that need work to get the neighborhood spiffy for Summer. 

• Weed and spread wood chips at the Triangle (28th and Madison)
• Some graffiti removal in two locations.
• No dumping signs at the storm drains. 

This year Arboretum Neighbors for Safe Streets is expanding Spring Clean to include 28th and 29th Aves East, north of Madison Street. Volunteers are needed to pick up trash along the park and weed the traffic circles on 28th and 29th. Greenways volunteers will be on hand to answer your questions and take your feedback about future implementation of the Greenway (a pedestrian and bicycle friendly route that will connect Madison Valley to Montlake). 

A very special thank you goes out to McGilvra Elementary School and families, who are again helping with the Spring Clean this year.

And finally, a big thank you to Madison Valley Merchants Association who started and continue the Madison Valley Spring Clean. The merchants use this day to clean up their storefronts, plant flowers along Madison Street, provide coffee and pastries to the volunteers, and who, for the last several years, spend thousands of dollars to hire a professional landscape crew for this event. The landscape crew weeds and cleans up the winter debris along Madison Street from 27th to City Peoples. The street always looks so nice after their hard work. 

So grab your family or your neighbors and come out for a few hours. Meet other people in the neighborhood, and help brighten up Madison Valley for everyone. 

Saturday, April 29
9:00 - Noon
Meet at Fast Frame at 9 AM 
2840 E Madison Street
Sign up here.

Cash donations are also welcome to help offset the cost of the cleanup. You can make a donation online at MadisonValley.org — just click on the Donate button. Be sure to write Spring Clean in the notes field. All contributions are appreciated!

For questions contact Lindy Wishard: [email protected]

Thank you to McGilvra Elementary for co-hosting and to everyone who came out to help with this year’s Madison Valley Spring Clean. 

Thank you as well to the Merchant’s Association who pays for Minero’s Landscape company to clean Madison Street. They pull all the weeds from the tree wells and sidewalk cracks, and blow away all the winter debris. They are hard working and have helped for three years in a row. 

Also, thank you to the residents and merchants who donated to help pay for Spring Clean this year. 

The focus of the clean this year was cleaning up the traffic triangle at 28th and Madison. A group of volunteers pulled all the plants and weeds around the perimeter. It was a hot and difficult job, but we managed to tame the overgrowth. The City of Seattle will provide bark to keep the weeds down during the summer and the plan is to replant the border in the fall.

Cathy Nunnely and Jeremy Braun started on the triangle early in the morning.

The Save Madison Valley group came out to help.

Sabrina and Piper work on scraping stickers and graffiti from the signs.

Tom, who was visiting his family in Madison Valley, offered to help! He hand painted the No Dumping signs near the storm water drains. Thank you Tom! 

Buried in the weeds of the triangle we found a sign that had been pushed over. We reported this to SDOT. 

Men of McGilvra hard at work in the triangle. 

The kiosk was cleaned, and new signs and plexiglass were installed. 

The crosswalk flag holders were secured, to prevent them from falling down while new flags were labeled. Interesting fact: approximately 1 flag per week is lost or stolen. 

Madison Valley and McGilvra Elementary School are getting together on Saturday morning to clean up Madison Street. We’re asking for help from any business owners, staff, or neighbors who can spare an hour or two. We’ll be scrubbing the storefronts, removing stickers, pulling weeds, planting flowers, and doing paint touch-up.

Sign up at Sign Up Genius: http://tinyurl.com/zfbybra

We'll have some supplies on hand: garbage bags, paint, cleaning supplies, etc. Please bring: gloves, paint scrapers, and garden hand tools.

Saturday, April 30, 10 AM – 1 PM
Meet at Fast Frame at 10 AM
2840 E Madison Street
Free coffee and pastries provided by the Madison Valley Merchants Association and Community Council.

Cash donations are also welcome to help offset the cost of the cleanup. You can make a donation online at this site — just click on the Support button. Be sure to write Spring Clean in the notes field. All contributions are appreciated!

Sign up on Sign Up Genius: http://tinyurl.com/zfbybra

If you have questions, email Lindy Wishard.

The Holiday Lighting fund has reached its primary goal, and we’ll have lights this season extending from Harvest Vine to City People’s. In addition, the new restaurant Two Doors Down has contributed enough to light their block as well. Our current total is: Merchants—$5750; Residents—$2741. We thank all our contributors and wish everyone a warm and BRIGHT Season’s Greetings! 

Thanks to everyone who’s donated so far! In one day we’ve raised over $2,000. If we can continue that momentum we’ll reach our goal. We’ll update the graphic every so often so you can track the progress. In the meantime, please encourage your neighbors and the local businesses you frequent to contribute to the lights fund. 

To pay online, click the Support button on our home page near the green bird. Or you can mail your contribution to:

Madison Valley Merchants Association
4111 East Madison Street #290
Seattle WA 98112

This year we are installing the holiday lights ONLY IF we can raise the funds prior to Oct 9th. 

Last year we were thousands of dollars short, and the Merchants Association had to pick up the balance of the invoice. Unfortunately, the Association cannot afford this every year — so either we raise the money before Oct 9th or Madison Street will be dark this holiday season. 

The lights on Madison add holiday cheer and safety to our neighborhood in the dark and dreary months. If you like the lights, the best thing you can do to help is to pay your portion, and encourage others in the neighborhood to contribute. If everyone would contribute something we could get it done! Beautiful lights and decorations will encourage neighbors and patrons to make Madison Valley part of their holiday plans. 

To pay online, go to madisonvalley.org and click the Support button near the green bird. Or you can mail your contribution to:

Madison Valley Merchants Association
4111 East Madison Street #290
Seattle WA 98112

We appreciate your help.

Thank you to all the volunteers who helped with the Spring Clean this Saturday morning. Our neighborhood looks amazing! 

More than 40 volunteers came out to help. Merchants, neighbors, and families from McGilvra Elementary School all joined together for a few hours of dirty work.

Graffiti removal from the street signs.

Volunteers removed hundreds of stickers and graffiti from street signs. An amazing family painted over the graffiti on the dry cleaner wall. The residents of Madison Lofts scrubbed the Madison Valley kiosk clean and got it ready for a new coat of paint. A resident artist stenciled “No Dumping” signs at the storm water drains.

Gary painting No Dumping next to the storm water drains.

Sticker Removal — so many stickers! 

Finally, thank you to the Merchants Association for paying for the landscape crew who was hired to pull weeds in the sidewalk cracks, tree wells, along the sides of buildings, and who also cleaned up the traffic triangle on MLK behind Essential Baking Co. 

Erica, removing stickers

Aaron, Owner of MoveMend, not only swept up but also manned the sign in table all morning. 

Thanks to everyone for taking such good care of our community. Special thanks to Luc and Cafe Flora for providing coffee and pastries. Photos by neighbor Gary Wood. 

Volunteers needed to help tidy up the neighborhood.

The Madison Valley community and McGilvra Elementary School are getting together on Saturday morning to clean up Madison Street. We’ll be scrubbing the storefronts, removing stickers, pulling weeds, planting flowers, and doing paint touch-up. Meet your neighbors and help fight the blight!

We'll have some supplies on hand: garbage bags, paint, cleaning supplies, etc. Please bring: gloves, paint scrapers, and garden hand tools.

Sign up to Participate

Saturday, April 25, 9:00-Noon

Meet at Fast Frame at 9 AM
2840 E Madison Street

Free coffee and pastries provided by the Merchants Association and Community Council.

Cash donations are also welcome to help offset the cost of the cleanup. You can make a donation online at MadisonValley.org — just click on the Donate button. Be sure to write Spring Clean in the notes field. Contributions of any amount are appreciated!

For questions contact: Lindy Wishard, [email protected]

Request for Qualifications

The non-profit groups the Madison Valley Merchants Association and Madison Valley Community Council (501c3) are soliciting qualifications from individuals or organizations interested in a planning and design effort for the intersection of 28th Ave East and East Madison Street.

Scope of Work

Planning and design of the project should include:

• Analysis of existing conditions
• Facilitating at least two community meetings to gather public input for the project
• Developing concept materials
• Developing final design and construction cost statement for the approved design concept
• Communicating with the Seattle Department of Neighborhoods and Seattle Department of Transportation to obtain project approvals and permits

Compensation

$19,000, awarded as a Neighborhood Matching Fund Grant, is available for the current planning and design phase of this project. For the construction phase, Madison Valley will be seeking additional funding, including additional grants, and private funds.

The Design Team

Candidates must have significant experience designing similar project types, landmarks, signage, and streetscapes.

Additional Information

The location of Madison Valley is unclear even to those familiar with Seattle, hence the need for a landmark. This intersection is the center of the business district, and nearly 10,000 people pass this central point by car, bicycle, and on foot everyday. As such it should be an aesthetically pleasing identifier and focal point for the neighborhood.

Confusion exists over the demarcation of Madison Valley vs. the Central District vs. Madison Park. A symbolic landmark in the center of our neighborhood would foster community pride while beautifying the area.

Our plans for the renovation may include restoration of existing traffic triangle and crosswalk, creation of a new neighborhood landmark, and a means to advertise seasonal events.

Submittals

• Submittals should include your firm’s qualifications and experience and how it relates to this project.
• Identify team members and their roles, include resumes.
• Provide thoughts on your approach to and interest in the project.
• Provide project descriptions for three of your recent (within the last 3 years) projects of a similar scope and nature. For each of the projects, please provide references.
• A description of knowledge gained from working with community groups, city departments, and public input processes, will enhance the strength of your submittal.

Submittals may be mailed to Lindy Wishard, 4111 East Madison Street #290, Seattle, WA 98112, or may (preferably) be sent electronically to [email protected].

Direct questions to: Lindy Wishard, [email protected].

Final day to submit RFQ responses: March 8, 2013, 3:00 PM

Proposed Schedule

March 2013: Hiring Committee hires design team
March 2013: Public Design Meeting #1, public input
May 2013: Design team develops concepts, revisions, and with Committee plans next public meeting
June 2013: Public Meeting #2 to present design concept
August 2013: Design is finalized

Thank you for your interest,
Lindy Wishard, President, Madison Valley Community Council
Nat Stratton Clarke, President, Madison Valley Merchants Association