February is American Heart Month, and a great time to add heart-healthy foods, exercises and supplements in to your routine. Heart disease remains the leading cause of death for both men and women in the United States, so whether you’re managing type 2 diabetes, high cholesterol, hypertension or you’re simply interested in cardiovascular protection, there are many lifestyle habits you can adopt. As always, consult your health care professional when it comes to implementing new exercises or supplemental products. 

Eat heart-healthy foods

Michael Pollan said it best when he said, “Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.” Hands down, a plant-based or Mediterranean diet takes the lead as the most cardioprotective diet. Concentrate on vegetables, especially dark leafy greens, healthy fats such as avocado and coconut, legumes and nuts, and berries for their anthocyanin content (which gives the fruits a purple hue and serves as an effective antioxidant).

Get your heart pumping!

If able, aim for at least a half hour of moderate intensity exercise per day, at approximately 70 percent of maximum heart rate. To calculate your maximum heart rate, take 220 minus your age, then multiply by 0.70.

Example: Maximum heart rate for a 45-year-old
220-45 = 175 x 0.70 = 122

Try supplemental cardiovascular support

CoQ10 is a common supplement used to optimize mitochondrial function, and has antioxidant qualities. Choose a high-quality CoQ10 supplement, or its more “active” and typically more absorbable form, ubiquinol.

Hawthorn can be taken for cardiovascular protection, as well as used a general heart tonic. It is a broadly safe herb and can be used for extended lengths of time without repercussions. 

Consider increasing garlic in the diet, or try garlic capsules. Garlic can help to mildly lower blood pressure, as well as decrease cholesterol.

Horse chestnut works as a venous tonic, helping blood flow to the heart, and modulates inflammation. This can be used in the case of venous insufficiency, such as edema or varicose veins. 

Visit the Madison Park Pharmaca to check out our complete selection of herbs and supplements that can help support cardiovascular health, and get additional product tips and advice from our team of licensed experts. Here’s to you and a healthy heart! 

Several people have asked about Bastille Bash 2015, so it is with a little sadness that I write this. There will not be a Bastille Bash Street Festival this year. The explanation follows:

Not Enough Volunteerism

There are a handful of organizers who conceived the idea of Bastille Bash, and worked to make it successful for the past three years, with the help of many participants and volunteers. Those organizers do not have the time to put into organizing the event this year. One is getting married this summer, one has a new job requiring travel, and one owns a business that is quickly growing.

If you attended the event you can imagine the months of preparation goes into the Bash: city permits, food, wine, entertainment, rentals, marketing, tickets, volunteer coordination, set up, tear down, etc.

In total the event takes about 3,500 hours. To put that in context, a full time job is 2,000 hours per year. Each year recruiting volunteers to work the event has gotten more difficult, and each year finding volunteers willing to help organize was almost impossible.

Not Making Enough Money

The event was not growing from a revenue perspective. The Bash costs approx. $60,000 to produce and generates approx. $70,000. That leaves $10,000 being donated to the charity each year. In the first years that was okay, but that is not enough to make it worth the effort of the charities, wineries, and sponsors donating to the event. They needed to see growth each year — which we were not able to produce.

Note, the Community Council, Merchants Association, and neighborhood did not receive any money from the event. All proceeds went to the charities.

The Original Goals

For the past three years, Madison Valley has hosted the French-themed street festival Bastille Bash. The idea for the event was born from a desire to create a signature event that would accomplish many goals:

• Create a memorable theme people would associate with the neighborhood.*
• Encourage people, who would not typically visit Madison Valley to do so.
• Encourage people who live/work nearby to visit shops and restaurants they may not typically frequent.
• Raise money for charity: In years one and two it was the Children’s Response Center, in year three the Detlef Schremp Foundation.
• Provide an enjoyable and unique experience for guests.

*Please note the French theme was never intended to exclude any population. It was simply an event that we could build a good theme around and market. Also, Bastille Day fell on a summer weekend that didn’t have a lot of competing events happening in the city.

The Good Stuff

• Annual attendance ranged between 2,500 and 3,500 guests.
• Madison Valley is now often sited as a “French-themed” neighborhood.
• Madison Valley and the event was written about in more than 100 publication and blogs each year.
• Guests seemed to enjoy the Bash.

The Not So Good Stuff

• Volunteer participation and enthusiasm for the event waned each year.
• Participation by the retailers was waning.
• The city of Seattle was not going to allow us to close Madison, after many tries.
• The cost of the event continued to rise.
• The revenue from the event was not growing – keeping charities and sponsors away from the event.

Big Thank You

It takes a lot of reliable people with skills, time, and willingness to participate to pull off an event the scale of Bastille Bash. We didn’t have enough of those people to make it sustainable.

That said, I don’t want to leave out the people who have helped with Bastille Bash along the way and there are quite a few of you. For everyone who helped organize, manned a water station, sold tickets, or helped in all the ways – my sincere thank you, and I’m sure the community thanks you too!

What Now?

Honestly, I’m not sure. The organizers of the Bash are discussing organizing a Bastille Dinner. The plan would be to close 28th alongside of Luc and have provide a prix-fixe meal along with entertainment. It would be a much smaller event and the proceeds from the dinner would go back into neighborhood improvement projects. As this concept develops I’ll let you know.

Want to Help Organize the Bastille Dinner?

If that’s something of interest to you, let me know. Part of our decision to put on the dinner or not will be interest in helping put it together.

Want to Volunteer in the Community?

I’m not sure if you are aware but we do some cool things in Madison Valley.

• Spring Cleaning Day
• Sip and Dine Events
• Holiday Lights
• A variety of beautification projects
• Articles for the website
• Public Safety
• Traffic/Transit
• Greenways

If you want to be involved, reach out.

Join us on Friday, March 6th as we celebrate the Eighth Anniversary of The BottleNeck Lounge. In addition to an extended Happy Hour from 4–8 PM, we’re rolling out our new cocktail menu featuring (you guessed it) eight new drinks at the special price of just $8 until midnight. Our 850 sq. ft. bar is certainly on the smaller side in Seattle but our penchant for celebration knows no bounds. Grab a friend or make a new one here — the party will go all night.

Friday, March 6th
Extended Happy Hour from 4 until 8 PM
No Cover

The BottleNeck Lounge
2328 E. Madison St.
bottlenecklounge.com

There were 58 Madison Valley incidents reported to the police during January 2015, almost the same as the number for January 2014 (60 incidents). As usual, car-prowl theft and vehicular theft (28 incidents) constituted the largest category of the reports, but there was also a spike in property damage/graffiti reports (9 incidents). There were also 6 burglaries reported during January.

1. On Jan. 9, police were called to a home on 30th Ave. near Denny to investigate a burglary that had occurred earlier that day. The burglar entered by smashing a window and then stole approximately $4000 worth of items, including a tablet computer and video gaming equipment. The resident who notified the police told them that she suspected that a neighbor, who had previously burglarized the home, was responsible and that she might have evidence from surveillance cameras in the home. Police found no fingerprints at the scene.

2. Also on Jan. 9 someone entered a residence on 23rd Ave. near Olive through an unsecured garage and took a bag containing electronic equipment, including a laptop, from an upper story bedroom. No fingerprints were found at the scene.

3. On Jan. 12, sometime between 11 AM and 9 PM, a burglar broke into a residence on Madison between 26th and 27th by breaking a ground floor sliding glass door. The burglar stole $80 in cash and an unspecified number of laptops. Police found no fingerprints at the scene.

4. Also on Jan. 12 the owner of a business on Mercer near 19th called police to report that a burglar forced open a window of his business and had stolen computer equipment worth approximately $3600. Police found possible fingerprints on the window.

5. During the afternoon or evening of Jan. 18 someone smashed open the bedroom window of an apartment on 27th near Pine. When the tenant returned to the apartment at around 10 PM, she found the smashed window and some damage to a wall. However, she could find no evidence that the burglar had searched her apartment or that anything had been taken from it. The police were unable to find fingerprints.

6. Sometime during January there was apparently a burglary at a location on John St. near 20th Ave. E., but the police have given no other information about it.

Finally, two robberies were reported during January, but the police have released no information about either of them beyond when and where they occurred. The first was at a location on 22nd Ave near Denny at 11 P. M. on Jan. 23, and the second was on John St. near 29th Ave. E. on Jan. 31 around noon.

Lowell Hargens is a Madison Valley resident and former University of Washington professor of sociology specializing in the statistical analysis of data.

We are all aware of the high volumes of vehicle traffic cutting through our neighborhood, often at high speeds. This problem is only going to worsen with the removal of the eastbound SR-520 ramp from Lake WA Blvd. We are urging Seattle leaders to immediately fund and implement effective traffic calming measures on our streets as part of the Lake Washington Loop Greenway project. Please join us to help plan and advocate for safer streets in our neighborhood!

Map legend: Big Orange lines = arterial streets. The thin Green line is the future Lake Washington Loop Greenway.

Running from Madison Street to SR-520, the Greenway would address:

1. Traffic Flow Change. Concentrating both eastbound SR-520 commuter ramps at the Montlake Blvd interchange will cause more drivers to seek cut-through routes through our neighborhood.

2. Neighborhood Livability. Cut-through vehicle traffic today presents a significant unmitigated danger to people walking, biking and playing in our neighborhood. Cut-through traffic has adversely impacted both our quality of life and our sense of community.

3. Regional Bicycle and Pedestrian Network. The existing Lake Washington Loop signed bicycle route is not only essential for local non-motorized mobility options, but is a critical segment of the 2014 Seattle Bicycle Master Plan, a plan which was unanimously passed by the City Council and the Mayor. It is also a very popular jogging and walking route for the neighborhood. 

4. Safe Route to Schools and Jobs. The Lake Washington Loop route is only remaining non-arterial northbound residential through route connecting E Madison St to the University of Washington. Our neighborhood is in the McGilvra Elementary School attendance area. This is the only viable route for our children to bike or walk to McGilvra Elementary School. We need one safe route to not only our only public school, but also local preschools, private schools, junior and high schools and the University of Washington, the largest public school and employer within the City of Seattle.

5. The City of Seattle has studied and recommended cut-through traffic mitigation along this route numerous times.

6. It’s Really Cheap. For a negligible fraction of the cost of major road projects being implemented in this corridor, excellent all-ages-and-abilities walking and biking routes can quickly be established. Transportation planners call this amount of money “decimal dust.”

Read the minutes from the Feb. 18 Meeing of the Madison Valley Community Council.

Yesterday I had a good meeting with two representatives from SDOT, Sara Walton and Maria Koengeter. Nat Stratton-Clark, president of the Madison Valley Merchants Association, was also there. The focus of the conversation was BRT. 

Here are my notes from our meeting: 

• SDOT has received a lot of feedback suggesting they extend the BRT to Madison Valley, so they are adding the extension to the Valley to the study. The feedback and research does not support taking BRT to Madison Park, so that is no longer on the table. 

• The BRT busses will be mixed in with cars from Madison Valley up to 23rd, where the BRT will have a dedicated bus lane. This is because Madison St is not wide enough for a dedicated lane beyond 23rd coming down the hill. 

• SDOT does not know yet if the dedicated bus lane will be only for BRT or for all buses. 

• Locations for BRT stops in Madison Valley are still under consideration, but they are looking at an eastbound stop on Madison in front of Essential Baking, and a westbound stop in front of Bailey-Boushay House. 

• The location for the bus turnaround and layover station is also being studied, although it’s looking as if the station will be on E. Arthur Place behind the dry cleaner & Jae’s Bistro. This does mean the one way on E. Arthur will change to the opposite direction. (See photo below) 

• There will be BRT meetings in Madison Valley in March, for those who want to provide input or get additional information. 

• BRT is electric and runs on wires. This means the busses have minimal noise and exhaust, but it also means a mesh of overhead wires. 

• If the BRT comes to Madison Valley this could change the schedule of the #11 bus, though more study needs to be done regarding routing and scheduling. 

• The study will end this summer. 

• If BRT is approved, estimated construction and completion will be in 2018-2019.

• This study cost $1 million. The proposed BRT is estimated to cost $87 million.

Some good info from an article on the Capitol Hill blog:

“Is this just a re-branded bus route?

“Nope. Former mayor of Bogotá Enrique Peñalosa describes his city’s BRT, TransMilenio, like this:

“TransMilenio bus system actually works much more like a subway on wheels than a traditional bus. Buses go on exclusive lanes. People pay when they enter the station. When the buses arrive, the station doors open simultaneously with the bus doors [which align with the station floor]. You can get a hundred people out and a hundred people into the bus in seconds.

“In their own lanes, BRT buses bypass traffic jams; riders hop on and off in the time it takes to type a text message. See? Like light rail, but with buses.”

More info at The Urbanist Blog.

At this month’s Madison Valley Community Council meeting, I will propose that the Council change its schedule from monthly meetings to one annual meeting, with additional sessions as needed. 

Low turnout is the reason. At a typical council meeting only four to five people show up. There does not seem to be any widespread neighborhood interest in attending council meetings or tackling more significant community improvement projects. 

Catherine Nunneley and I will continue to organize Sip & Dine events in the neighborhood. These social events are well attended and are a great way for neighbors to meet one another. 

The Community Council will partner with the Merchants Association and local schools for the Madison Valley Spring Clean and this year’s Bastille event (which will NOT be the same event as in past years; another casualty of low volunteerism — more information on that to come).  

We are trying our best to keep the website (madisonvalley.org) up and running, but even this is uncertain. Articles are written by volunteers (and our sincere thanks to them), but participation has been low generally. Without enough content there really isn’t a purpose for the site. 

If residents have concerns, grant proposals, ideas, etc., they can contact me directly or attend the monthly Merchants Association Meeting, where I am usually in attendance and we cover most of the topics, troubles, and gossip as it relates to the Valley. 

Yesterday I had a good meeting with two representatives from SDOT, Sara Walton and Maria Koengeter. Nat Stratton-Clark, president of the Madison Valley Merchants Association, was also there. The focus of the conversation was BRT. 

Here are my notes from our meeting: 

• SDOT has received a lot of feedback suggesting they extend the BRT to Madison Valley, so they are adding the extension to the Valley to the study. The feedback and research does not support taking BRT to Madison Park, so that is no longer on the table. 

• The BRT busses will be mixed in with cars from Madison Valley up to 23rd, where the BRT will have a dedicated bus lane. This is because Madison St is not wide enough for a dedicated lane beyond 23rd coming down the hill. 

• SDOT does not know yet if the dedicated bus lane will be only for BRT or for all buses. 

• Locations for BRT stops in Madison Valley are still under consideration, but they are looking at an eastbound stop on Madison in front of Essential Baking, and a westbound stop in front of Bailey-Boushay House. 

• The location for the bus turnaround and layover station is also being studied, although it’s looking as if the station will be on E. Arthur Place behind the dry cleaner & Jae’s Bistro. This does mean the one way on E. Arthur will change to the opposite direction. (See photo below) 

• There will be BRT meetings in Madison Valley in March, for those who want to provide input or get additional information. 

• BRT is electric and runs on wires. This means the busses have minimal noise and exhaust, but it also means a mesh of overhead wires. 

• If the BRT comes to Madison Valley this could change the schedule of the #11 bus, though more study needs to be done regarding routing and scheduling. 

• The study will end this summer. 

• If BRT is approved, estimated construction and completion will be in 2018-2019.

• This study cost $1 million. The proposed BRT is estimated to cost $87 million.

Some good info from an article on the Capitol Hill blog:

“Is this just a re-branded bus route?

“Nope. Former mayor of Bogotá Enrique Peñalosa describes his city’s BRT, TransMilenio, like this:

“TransMilenio bus system actually works much more like a subway on wheels than a traditional bus. Buses go on exclusive lanes. People pay when they enter the station. When the buses arrive, the station doors open simultaneously with the bus doors [which align with the station floor]. You can get a hundred people out and a hundred people into the bus in seconds.

“In their own lanes, BRT buses bypass traffic jams; riders hop on and off in the time it takes to type a text message. See? Like light rail, but with buses.”

More info at The Urbanist Blog.

Character Builders is a community karate class held every Saturday from 10–12 at the Montlake Community Center. 

Sean Gorman, the instructor of the class, is a Madison Valley resident and the COO of a tech start-up. He started the program to teach values to his son and provide a supportive environment for other kids to hone their characters through a disciplined practice.

Character Builders will be offering a free demonstration class on February 21 at 10 AM. Here is a short video that shows what the class offers. 

Character Builders
Montlake Community Center
Feb 21, 10 AM

Cafe Flora keeps your romantic date night healthy and nutritious yet hearty and filling, with a four-course menu of vegetarian, vegan, and gluten-free options. 

First course begins with Breaded Fried Artichoke with lemon-herbed marrow bean pate, romesco sauce, micro greens (vegan and gluten-free). Second course offers Pommelo and Cara Cara Orange Salad with seared fennel, watercress, pomegranate, fresh beets, spiced orange blossom vinaigrette (vegan, gluten-free). For the main enjoy mouth-watering Wild Mushroom Ravioli with truffle scented cauliflower toasted pine nuts, roasted leek sauce, asparagus (vegan and gluten-free options available). Top it off with the special Valentine’s Pavlova with mango curd, passion fruit, whipped cream, raspberry coulis, fresh tropical fruit compote, vanilla bean meringue (gluten-free), or Theo Dark Chocolate Hazelnut Cheesecake (vegan and gluten-free options available).  

Cafe Flora’s deliciously colorful Valentine’s Day menu is available Saturday, February 14, 5-10 p.m. The four-course menu is $65 per person. Reservations are required for parties of all sizes. Call 206.325.9100 or visit cafeflora.com to make reservations. Cafe Flora is located at 2901 E. Madison St., Seattle.

There was a Madison Valley burglary about once a week during 2014, but the burglary rate varied greatly during the year.
Forty seven residential burglaries in Madison Valley were reported to the police during 2014. As a rate, this is slightly less than one per week and 3.9 per month. However, there was great variation around this overall rate. For example, February, April and August each had only one residential burglary, while there were eight in May and nine in November. During 2014 there was no clear seasonality in burglaries; high burglary months were preceded and followed by low to medium burglary months.

The Madison Valley burglary rate for 2014 was about the same as it was in 2013.
For the ten months that I covered Madison Valley police reports in 2013 there were 37 residential burglaries, a rate of 3.7 per month. Thus, the rate for 2014 was probably not much different than it was in 2013.

What was the likelihood that a household was burglarized during 2014?
In principle, one could easily calculate the likelihood that a Madison Valley residence was burglarized during 2014 by dividing 47 by the number of households in Madison Valley. However because the area we think of as Madison Valley encompasses parts of several census tracts, I cannot determine the number of households in our area. I therefore examined only the data for King County census tract number 77, which comprises the heart of Madison Valley (with approximate boundaries of Roy and Union on the north and south and 23rd and 31st on the west and east). According to the 2010 Census and recent American Community Survey figures, there are roughly 2100 households in Census Tract 77, and during 2014 there were 29 residential burglaries in that tract. So the likelihood that an individual household in Tract 77 was burglarized in 2014 was approximately 1.4 percent (29/2100), or about 1 out of 72.

Only about half of the 2014 residential burglaries involved forcible entry.
Of the 47 residential burglaries during 2014, just under half (47 percent) involved forcible entry. Thus, in slightly more than half of the reported burglaries the burglar(s) entered through an unlocked door, window, or garage. This suggests that many 2014 residential burglaries in our area were opportunistic rather than planned. If so, the 2014 residential burglary rate would have been substantially lower if people had been more careful in keeping their residences securely locked when they were absent.

Are some parts of Madison Valley more prone to residential burglary than others?
The accompanying map shows the approximate locations of the residential burglaries during 2014, indicating whether each was a forcible-entry burglary (red) or not (green). There appears to be no clear difference between forcible entry and non-forcible entry burglaries as far as their spatial distributions are concerned, and both appear to be more frequent south of E. Madison than north of it. However, the greater burglary prevalence south of Madison during 2014 may be due to higher residential densities or to random variation rather than to any greater likelihood that an individual household will be burglarized there. Determining which of these alternatives is correct will require more time and more detailed data than those currently available.

Lowell Hargens is a Madison Valley resident and former University of Washington professor of sociology specializing in the statistical analysis of data.

I sat down with Jim Henkens for a chat about his new store, Marine Area 7, here in Madison Valley. It’s a kitchen store with new and vintage items for sale, including cookbooks, wine, pantry items, linens, and tools. The store is located at 2814 E. Madison.

What title would you give yourself — you do so many things!
Photographer, kitchen-store owner

What drew you to the Madison Valley area?
This is definitely a nice little storefront. We did a lot of research on which neighborhoods would support this kind of place and we thought this would be a great choice. It already has a built-in network of home-related stores that bring people in. And we didn’t want to pick a place with a super loud, busy nightlife.

What made you want to open up your shop?
I’ve been doing food photography for a dozen years or so and we’ve collected so many props and you get to a point where you have no more room for things and you can only re-use props so many times before people start to notice the same cutting board in all your pictures. At first we were thinking about doing all vintage things but we started adding in cookbooks and pantry items and that’s what this turned into.

So are you a good cook?
I think so, yeah.

What do you like to cook?
Well I really like to cook outside — I like barbecuing, my friends have a pizza oven...I’m definitely not a vegetarian.

How did you get into food photography?
I love to travel and I love food...I started photographing chefs and then it evolved into working on cookbooks.

What’s your goal for the store?
Our goal as a store is to find out what people want - whether it’s the vintage stuff or the pantry items...so far it’s been a bit of everything. Our big goal is to get the kitchen in the back ready to go for classes and demonstrations - stuff like pickling and canning and all kinds of cooking.

Is there a story behind the store name?
There are a 13 marine areas in Washington and number seven is the San Juan Islands. We (my wife and I) have a cabin up there where we do a lot of food photography and dinner parties and go crabbing and it’s just a very inspiring area. You have to fill out all kinds of forms for fishing and boating up there, so we just kept writing “Marine Area 7” and when we couldn’t think of a store name, we thought that sounded good.

What do you think is the best gift in the store?
I think you can never go wrong with a cookbook. And there’s the wine which is a good bet for the vast majority of people. The gourmet pantry items are always a good choice. And from there everything becomes a little more personal, I think.

Marine Area 7
2814 E Madison St.
206 323-9141
[email protected]

Neighbors! Are you interested in how traffic (and the road construction on 520 and 23rd Ave E) affects our neighborhood? Introducing Arboretum Neighbors for Safer Streets! 

Join us on Saturday to meet with your neighbors and learn about what’s happening to traffic and streets in our neighborhood. We’ll discuss the traffic circles and walking path. You can share your ideas and hear what others have already been working on in regards to traffic, construction and crime. A great way to socialize with your neighbors, too! 

26th Ave will be closed (from East Galer to East Ward is our plan) that day to facilitate the work (we have not gotten the final permit so the length of closure is subject to change). 

Bring the kids — we’ll have cookies! 

If you are interested in these topics, and even if you can’t make the event, sign up for our new group on Nextdoor- Safer Streets. That way you can find out more about events and projects. Also please sign up on the email list for updates at [email protected]

Saturday, February 7
Noon – 3:00 PM
1210 26th Ave East

The Madison Corridor Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) Study has launched an online survey. The survey will be online until February 5th. The Madison BRT Study is developing a concept design for BRT from Colman Dock to Martin Luther King Jr. Way.  

The current discussion is should the BRT extend to Madison Valley or stop at 23rd. If it comes to Madison Valley, where should the bus turn around and stop be located? 

In the coming months, the Study will examine two alternatives to evaluate travel-time savings, traffic impacts, ridership projections and parking impacts. 

SDOT is seeking input on key elements before this analysis begins, including transit connections, routing options, station locations, and an alternate bike facility. After the analysis is complete, SDOT will launch a round of outreach to share the results and discuss community preferences about the design options. 

The last question of the survey is a map exercise; don’t forget to share your map. #MadisonBRT

For more information on the Madison BRT study, visit the project website.