Short takes

Madison Park Beach makes Seattle Weekly’s 2009 Best of Seattle List: In choosing our beach as the “Best Spot to Run into the Random People You Thought You’d Never See Again After High School,” the Weekly claims that “the beach is literally divided into elementary-school, middle-school, high-school, and college zones, from north to south.” Who knew? Literally? Anyway, the paper designates Madison Beach as “the unofficial stomping ground of all of Seattle’s youth,” commenting on the “beer, pot, and cigarettes galore” to be found there. (The Harvest Vine in Madison Valley, incidentally, also made the paper’s list as the “Best Place for a High-Heeled Date”.)

Harasser of Madison Park Resident Gets No Jail Time: State Assistant Attorney General Jonathan Milstein, who once lived in Madison Park, has pleaded guilty in a very bizarre harassment case which was covered in some detail today by the Seattle Post Intelligencer. Milstein, who now lives in Kirkland and is married to KING-TV reporter Deborah Feldman, admits going onto sex-related websites to impersonate the victim, a married woman who resides here. As a result of Millstein’s actions, the victim began receiving dozens of phone calls from people thinking she might be interested in engaging in various sexual acts with them. Milstein, who received only 240 hours of community service as his sentence, apologized for his actions and resigned from his state position today (his job was to represent the state Department of Social and Health Services in child protection cases). However, neither the PI story nor a similar report in the Seattle Times provides any explanation of Milstein’s motivation for perpetrating this gross misdemeanor.

Hit and Runs Not Confined to Land: There have been several hit and runs reported in the general area during the summer, including one on Monday. Now comes a report from the Seattle Police blog that there was a major boating hit and run on Lake Washington about a half mile south of the Evergreen Point bridge last week. “According to the victims, their boat was adrift in the water. The adult male victim was swimming while the adult female victim remained in the boat. The suspect’s boat bore down on the victims and did not change direction. The suspect’s boat collided with the victim’s boat and went over it, damaging and disabling it. Both the male and the female sustained minor injuries from the collision.” The Harbor Police brought the victims and their boat safely to land. The suspect has not been apprehended.

Lakeside Mansions of Madison Park Featured in New Book: Lake Washington boater David Dykstra, who is fascinated by all of the mansions that ring the Lake’s shoreline, has just self-published a book, Lake Washington 130 Homes, which provides an opportunity for the curious to view pictures taken from the water side of some of the more notable examples. Among the Madison Park homes that Dykstra profiles are four in the Reed Estate (those of Howard Schultz, Jack Briggs, Gregg Maffei, and Colin Moseley, although he incorrectly identifies Colin’s father, Furman Moseley, as the current resident). Also included are the area mansions of Joel Diamond, Martin Selig, Brooks Ragen, and Russell Horowitz, whose 1929 manse is probably the classiest of the lot. (Brigg’s spectacular property, which is for sale, was featured on this blog earlier this summer in “A glimpse beyond the gates”). In addition to his misidentifications (he is totally wrong about the site of actor Tom Skerritt's residence, for example) Dykstra provides no architectural commentary or context with his pictures. Still, it's interesting to see these mansions from the water side, even if you can't trust that identified owner really lives there.

[Beach photo by David Hutchins.]