Tammy emails overnight:

We live on Northeast 81st Street and Eighth Avenue Northeast, and tonight witnessed two people trying to steal a nice bicycle.

We interrupted them as they were trying to shove the bicycle into a black car (looked like an old cop car like a Crown Victoria or something) that had a white front panel on the passenger side. It was a male and female team, both Caucasian and blond.

He had a short buzz cut haircut and she had longer blondish hair. The car sped down our street and parked. A few seconds later she rode up on the bike. We didn’t see the actual taking of the bike, only when they were trying to shove it into the trunk and then when that didn’t work shove it into the backseat.

We approached them and asked if they needed help or if they were just trying to steal someone else’s bike. Then we told them we were calling the cops and tried to take a photo of the license plate.

The cops were called, they took a report but we are hoping to help find the owner of the bike since it is obviously from our neighborhood and the cop said our efforts to place the bike will be much more successful than if we gave him the bike to take with him.

If anyone knows someone who is missing a bike from this evening, I wonder if they can email the [email protected] and then you could put us in touch with them.

And Jennifer reports on Monday in Nextdoor Northgate/Maple Leaf:

I came home from work this morning to find my neighbors’ and my mailboxes all opened and mail scattered on the ground. One of my neighbors had a package that had been ripped open and the item taken out. This was on Northeast 100th Street and Eighth Avenue Northeast.

I know this is an ongoing problem in this neighborhood, just wanted to alert others!

Hear any excitement overnight?

Seattle Police Detective Patrick Michaud this morning released this email:

Two officers were ordering food at a drive-through restaurant at 1 a..m. in the 2100 block of North. Northgate Way when they noticed something odd, a stolen car in line directly in front of them.

The officers called for reinforcements who arrived faster than the two people in the stolen car could get their food. The driver of the stolen car suddenly swerved out of the line and tried exiting the restaurant parking lot. Backup officers had already blocked all exits trapping the car.

The car stopped momentarily while the driver yelled that the female passenger had a gun. The stolen car suddenly sped backward ramming a patrol car six times before driving over a raised curb. Officers pursued the stolen car for 15 blocks before the chase became too dangerous to continue.

The King County helicopter, Guardian One, spotted the stolen car parked not too far from where officers called off the pursuit. As officers closed in on the stolen car it took off again, eventually going south on I-5.

Guardian One saw the car exit in the Eastlake area and drop off the passenger who was seen running into a nearby wooded area. The stolen car again sped away. Patrol officers, Guardian One, and Harbor Patrol units scoured the area, but were unable to find the suspects or the car.

Nearly a century old, this year’s summer program from The Seattle Public Library - “Summer of Learning” - begins Monday.

Called Wild Science!, this summer’s program encourages reading and activities around science, technology, engineering, arts and math.

The program runs from Monday, June 15 through Thursday, Sept. 10 and program guides and activity booklets for children, teens and parents of children from birth to age 5 are already available in the branch libraries.

New this year, thanks to our partnership with Woodland Park Zoo, we will award each participant two free tickets to the zoo, while supplies last. Participants are asked to complete as many programs and activities as they can and then fill out and return a simple survey starting Aug. 1. Zoo tickets are good Sept. 11, 12, or 13.

Here is the link for local programs at the Northgate Branch.

For a musical program for children ages 5 and up, on Friday Aug. 28th at 10:30 a.m. at the Northgate Community Center click here.

For programs at the Green Lake Branch click here.

More information, including links to the surveys, is on the Library’s website here. A link to activities parents can do with their children from birth up to age 5 is on the Library’s website here.

Update Thursday p.m. On the police survey, it’s now possible to take it online at SurveyMonkey.

Sgt. Newsom emails:

Wow, I want to thank the almost 200 people who filled out the survey in less than 24 hours. You are all awesome. After my email blew up I listened to all your great advice. I am attaching a link to survey monkey. This way you can answer the survey out and not have to print, fill out and respond.

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Two neighbors email to report break-ins - one of a car, the other a home.

James this morning said:

Just wanted to give you guys a heads up.

My driver’s side front window was broken tonight at around 9:30 p.m. (I’m guessing), looked like someone hit it with the end of a hard blunt object. Small entry hole, near the top of the window. Didn’t look like they tried to steal anything as it was so high away from the handle/lock button. I was parked on the street.

Nothing was stolen, just vandalized. Pretty crappy thing to do.

James lives at Northeast 96th Street and 20th Avenue Northeast.

And this email was sent both to us and to NextDoor Northgate/Maple Leaf:

Hello neighbors - We were the unfortunate victims of an attempted break-in at our home today. We have an ADT security system and have signs posted at the end of our long driveway and all over the house; this was not a deterrent.

I got home around 11:30 a.m., disarmed the alarm, then took my dog out for a walk for 15 minutes around the block. At 11:45 a.m., I noticed a TAN JEEP CHEROKEE with TWO MALES - they were sitting, engine running - in front of my house.

I took a close look because they looked suspicious, then when I peered harder, they drove off slowly, didn’t stop, and kept going… my suspicions were confirmed when my husband came home later and we attempted to set the alarm when we were heading out for another walk. The alarm would not set….

My husband then went downstairs and saw that our basement bathroom window had been pushed open, likely with a crowbar, and the sensor for the security system had been knocked off. The prowlers knocked this in while I was away for those 15 minutes!

This occurred on First Avenue Northeast and Northeast 90th Street.

Meanwhile, the police North Precinct, which covers Seattle north of the ship canal, sent a survey to the NextDoor Northgate/Maple Leaf group.

Sgt. Dianne Newsom says: “We would really like to hear from as many Neighbors as possible. The policing plans are to assist us in giving you the best service we can with the resources we have available. Could you fill out the surveys at your convenience and return them?”

Here is a .pdf of the survey. Here it is as a Word .docs. You can return it to dianne.newsom(at)seattle.gov

Its top two questions:

1.) What are the top three public safety issues that make you feel unsafe in your neighborhood?
2.) Tell us what you want to see from the North precinct to address the three concerns you identified above.

The closest Farmers Market to Maple Leaf, in Lake City, opens this afternoon at 3 p.m.

But it won’t be cold and raining, like in the picture above from 2013.

It will be dry, cool and delightful.

The market will be open Thursdays from 3-7 p.m. until October 1st. It’s located at Northeast 125th Street and 28th Avenue Northeast.

Update June 11: The Stranger has an update on the mayor’s $930 million proposed transportation levy.

In addition to the video of last week’s City Council forum, the Maple Leaf Community Council sent all local candidates a questionnaire, as it has done for every citywide election since 2011.

The questions, and the candidates’ answers, are now posted here.

We have delivered the questionnaire to all candidates for Seattle City Council in District 4, District 5, Position 8, and Position 9 who were registered by the city’s registration deadline…. The deadline for responses from the candidates was June 1, 2015.

The amount of work that went into this is considerable. Each of 18 candidate replies can be downloaded. (Five candidates did not respond.)

Reading the responses takes a fair amount of work, too. Some can be rough slogging.

Things to look for:

* Does the candidate rely on Mayor Ed Murray’s $930 million Move Seattle levy - the largest proposed levy in Seattle history - to fund improvements?

The city believes the levy - at about $300 a year for a half-million dollar home - will be strongly supported, but Crosscut talked to several experts who aren’t so sure. Seattle PI columnist Joel Connelly has a similar take.

* How does the candidate reconcile affordable housing with increasing density?

* Does the candidate believe it’s necessary for our neighborhoods to form additional taxing districts (LIDs) to pay for things like sidewalks?

Tents and nets fill the center of Maple Leaf Reservoir Park this morning.

Several osprey are also in the neighborhood, dining al fresco on fish.

And the National Weather Service has issued a heat warning:

A VERY WARM DAY IS IN STORE FOR AREAS FROM AROUND SEATTLE SOUTHWARD IN THE INTERIOR TODAY….

TODAY WILL BE SUNNY AND WARM WITH HIGHS IN THE 80S TO NEAR 90 FROM ABOUT SEATTLE AND BELLEVUE SOUTHWARD.

THE WARMEST TEMPERATURES WILL OCCUR LATE THIS AFTERNOON IN TYPICALLY WARMER URBAN AREAS.

IF YOU ARE OUTDOORS DURING THE HEAT OF THE DAY…SLOW IT DOWN A LITTLE AND MAKE SURE YOU DRINK PLENTY OF WATER.

Update June 6: Erica C. Barnett has reported on the forum. In which she calls out sidewalk funding, “also known as The Most Important Issue Facing North Seattle Ever.”

More than 70 people attended Wednesday’s candidate forum sponsored by the Maple Leaf Community Council.

The council has now posted video of the event. Other photos are on the council’s Facebook page.

Beginning Saturday, a number of changes take effect on local bus routes - funded in part by passage of Seattle’s Proposition 1 last November, which adds 110,000 hours to dozens of routes in the city.

The easiest way to determine if this affects you is to use this online tool provided by King County Metro.

For example, for Maple Leaf’s popular Route 41, the tool advises:

On weekday evenings, seven southbound trips to downtown Seattle and seven northbound trips to Lake City will be added.

On Saturday, five southbound and eight northbound trips will be added.

On Sunday, two morning and two evening southbound and northbound trips will be added.

These changes will improve service frequency to about every 15 minutes on weekdays and Saturday. Early morning and evening service frequency will improve to about every 30 minutes.

If you’re a regular bus rider and want to flag Maple Leaf changes, please do so in comments.

For more information visit Metro Online.

Now there’s another way to tell where your bus is - on Google Maps.

Starting today in Google Maps, relevant journeys are handily arranged and summarized in the app—so it’s easy to know at a glance how long you’ll be waiting and what your other options are if you just miss that bus.

Sound a lot like OneBusAway, the app used for years by thousands of Seattle commuters to figure out when to be at their stop?

That’s in part because the guy who wrote OneBusAway- as a University of Washington grad student and was then hired by Google - is responsible. From Geekwire:

The new data is being included thanks to Brian Ferris, who created the popular OneBusAway app before being hired by Google in 2011. Google added real-time data for Portland, Ore., later that year, and other cities like Chicago and London have been added since then, but Seattleites have had to rely on timetable data until now.

The change means users will now receive real-time information instead of relying on timetables. Route options will include the on-time status of different transportation options. This means you may be advised to jump on light rail if traffic is slowing down buses, or told to switch to a different bus line if you just missed your normal bus.

Good news? Mostly.

Using the transit data involves calling up Google Maps, remembering how to add layers to it, selecting the “Public transit” layer, not noticing anything new on the map, zooming WAY in and noting bus stops have been added as little blue bus icons.

Touch the icon and bus routes and times appear in a swipe-up menu at the bottom of the screen.

It’s like OneBusAway except that the original, stand-alone app is faster and also tells you if buses are delayed - and by how much.

But it lives in an app - Google Maps - you almost certainly already have and use.

(Thanks to the Seattle Transit Blog for Tweeting about this earlier today.)

Two things happening this weekend:

Beginning Friday afternoon, Olympic View Elementary School is holding its annual used book sale.

We have collected over 5,000 items, and we are now trying to get the word out about our sale this weekend. Would you be able to post about the event? Here are the details:

The sale is this Friday, May 29th, (3:45-6 p.m.) and Saturday, May 30th, (9 a.m. to 3 p.m.). It will be a great chance to stock up on some summer reading.

We will have over 5,000 used books, CDs, and DVDs, with prices ranging from 50 cents to $2 for most items. The sale will be held in the auditorium at Olympic View (504 N.E. 95th St.).

On Saturday, we will have a raffle, with prizes including restaurant gift certificates, a Kindle, a one hour massage from Seattle Athletic Club, and Funko toys. Of course, all proceeds benefit the students at OV.

Also on Saturday, the Lakeview Free Methodist Church is holding a free Community Fair from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the church, 9412 15th Ave. N.E.

We will have food, bouncy house, games, raffle and more. Fun for the whole family.

Chelsea emails:

Found near Northeast 86th Street and Ravenna Avenue Northeast - male cat, short hair, all black.

He’s been in our neighborhood for at least three-four weeks but only just approached us this past weekend and hasn’t wanted to leave since. He took up residence on our porch Saturday morning and has hardly left.

Seems like he’s been out on his own for a while - is very bony and hungry and has some cuts on his ears and scars.

Contact: Chelsea at (cell) 785-550-5317 or [email protected]

Crews, cranes - even a portable office.

All have taken up residence at Maple Leaf Reservoir Park as 10 months of work begins to bring the underground reservoir up to the correct earthquake standards.

The park opened in October of 2013.

Update May 26 with this link from coverage of the last District 5 candidate forum.

This email arrived this morning from the Maple Leaf Community Council:

We have invited candidates for District 4, District 5, Position 8, and Position 9 — some 23 candidates in all — to attend our June 3 Candidate Forum. This will be Maple Leafers’ best chance to hear directly from candidates before ballots arrive in July.

Because of the huge number of candidates, we are deviating from our normal routine of having community members ask questions of the candidates directly. Instead, we are asking you to send your questions to us in advance. Our moderator will then ask as many of them as time will allow..

As a reminder, Maple Leaf’s candidate forums not only help you be a better voter, they help Maple Leaf. When we have a great turnout, candidates remember this. It makes the job of your Executive Board much easier down the road.

So we hope to see a great turnout on June 3rd.

The forum is from 7-9 p.m. at Olympic View Elementary School.

Christina emails:

On Tuesday, May 19th, between 9 a.m. and 1 p.m. thieves broke into a house on Eighth Avenue Northeast between Northeast 85th and 86th streets.

They smashed a door window in the back to let themselves in and ransacked several rooms stealing cameras, tablets, cash, and jewelry. This was particularly brazen as it occurred in the middle of the day across the street from a church and school (St. Catherine).

No one claims to have seen anything or anyone suspicious on that block, but one neighbor said a man was seen that day on Northeast 88th Street falsely claiming to be a meter reader.

The Seattle Police crime map above shows six home burglaries so far this month in Maple Leaf. Most of them follow the pattern Christina described. (The gray circles are business burglaries, not homes.)

Another burglary report was emailed on May 12th: “Just emailing you to let you know of a break-in on the 2000 block of Northeast 97th Street on Monday 5/11 around 4:30 p.m.

“Back door kicked in, house ransacked, TV, empty purse and some family heirloom jewelry stolen. A neighbor identified the car as an older model large white sedan, possibly a town car or similar, with dark tinted windows”

Car Crimes

On Twitter, Gabi asks of both us and police: “I heard from a neighbor there have been car break-ins, but have not heard anything from @SPD. Can anyone confirm this?”

She mentions Northeast 80th and 85th streets and around the Maple Leaf Reservoir Park.

A different neighbor emailed this story of a car prowl May 14th on Northeast 97th Street.

I woke up in the middle of the night last night and thought perhaps I’d forgotten to lock the door to my new car (now that I have to press a fancy button instead of just hand-locking the door!!!).

Sure enough, when I woke up my car had been ransacked. Lucky for me, it’s new so I have nothing in it.

I saw my neighbor and told her what happened, she laughed that she never locks her doors, and lo and behold, her car also had been ransacked.

They stole some of her change and a nice pair of sunglasses, and my old-ass iPod. Hardly worth the work. So annoying. We both filed reports

The map at right shows car prowls and stolen cars in Maple Leaf so far this month.

In response to Gabi, Seattle Police tweeted: “Appears #SeaStat data for Maple Leaf/Roosevelt/Ravenna area shows 19% drop in prowls for 1st 5.5 mos of the year.”

However, that number would not include the Northgate Transit Center and mall, as SPD says they are in the Northgate section of SeaStat.