This morning at the park. Thanks to John Wolff for cleaning up the last graffiti - and giving directions for how he did it.

Absentee ballots for the April 28th special King County election — what? You didn’t know there was one? — started arriving this week.

But that election has only one issue for Seattle residents: Replacing police and fire radios that date back to the 1990s.

(The total is $246 million. Estimated cost is $2 monthly for the median homeowner. The levy lasts nine years. Today’s Seattle Times editorial in support is here. The only opponents appear to be rural folks worried about levy lids. Why it takes a special property tax levy to buy emergency radios is … complicated. But it’s worth noting the radio system spans 39 cities plus the county and lets their first responders talk to one another.)

The election of major interest comes this fall, when Seattle City Council members will be elected by districts. The filing deadline for that contest is May 15.

Since we last wrote about the Fifth Council District, which includes almost all of Maple Leaf, one additional candidate has filed - Debadutta Dash. The latest filings are here.

That election is generating mounting interest. Mian Rice (son of former mayor Norm Rice) stopped by Maple Leaf Life South recently while out doorbelling. A supporter of Sandy Brown (“transit investment and sidewalks”) showed up with fliers last week. And David Toledo commented on our previous post, introducing himself (sidewalks!).

From time to time people wonder what’s being built on Maple Leaf’s major streets.

This is often time-consuming to find out, but now there’s a better way.

It was featured earlier this month by Seattle Times columnist Danny Westneat: Growth gone wild? Website map pins it down.

The column was about a new tool that posts and updates works in progress:

Ethan Phelps-Goodman, formerly of Facebook, built a website and app that displays every big development project as a pin on a map of the city. Seattleinprogress.com is updated daily from city records, charting all the developments from day one of application through permitting and construction.

The map above shows such projects in Maple Leaf. Clockwise from Maple Leaf Park they are:

* 8521 ROOSEVELT WAY NE

Jan. 12, 2015: Land Use Application to allow a 20-unit residential building above 2nd floor office and 1,067 sq. ft. 1st floor retail. Parking for 25 vehicles will be located within the structure .Existing 5,000 sq. ft. structure to be demolished.

* 9550 1ST AVE NE

July 24, 2014: Land Use Application to allow a 6-story hotel with 167 rooms (Hampton Inn & Suites). Parking for 135 vehicles to be provided in a parking garage on site and 15 spaces in an adjacent off-site surface parking lot. Project includes 4,600 cu. yds. of grading. Existing structure to be demolished.

* 301 NE NORTHGATE WAY

Design Review Early Design Guidance application proposing a 2-story parking garage and surface parking for a total of 700 vehicles located below and at grade.

Karri emails:

Free Raspberry Starts!

From successful plants. Starts are in a bin with water at 9212 8th Ave. N.E., next to the straw bales.

Take what you’d like, but please leave the bin. Enjoy!

This Easter morning two Mallards were visiting our park - adding a 38th species to the Maple Leaf Reservoir Park bird list.

These male and female Mallards are the first waterfowl we’ve seen swimming in the park. (The bird list includes Trumpeter Swan and Great Blue Heron, but they were seen flying overhead.)

Happy Easter!

Photos from the Lux Communities egg hunt at Maple Lear Reservoir Park. (It’s still on ’till 12:30 p.m.)

Update Easter Sunday - Maple Leaf’s Flying Coyote?

Mark notes on our Facebook page: “We saw a coyote walking down Fifth Avenue Northeast right by Flying Squirrel last Thursday night around 10:00 p.m.”

——————————

Tammie emails this morning: “I’m pretty sure I saw a coyote cross in front of my car as I was leaving for work this morning.

“It had a black animal in its mouth that it dropped when it saw me. Probably a rat but maybe a cat.

“This was on Northeast 90th Street and 20th Avenue Northeast. Please warn neighbors with outdoor cats and chickens to be careful.”

A previous coyote sighting in late January by Gregg (that’s his photo above) drew 21 comments, including a knowledgeable one from Erin that began:

Hello! I’m adjacent to Maple Leaf at Burke Ave. N. up against Washelli cemetery. Coyotes have lived peacefully for decades in the cemetery; occasionally we hear them singing or see one, but they are shy, avoid people, and eat wild food.

The coyote pictured is part of a new pack that just came into the area. They are not like the cemetery coyotes. They are large in size, bold, unafraid of people, are out in the middle of the day in high density areas as well as night, and hunt pets. They seem to be ranging as far south as Greenlake and as far north as 155th.

Police dog in action! Video by King County Sheriff Air Support.

A police helicopter and K-9 team assisted in the arrest of four people near Northgate Transit Center about 11 p.m. Thursday.

Two others got away after a confrontation that included a knife, police said. The arrests were made about 10 blocks away in Maple Leaf, at Northeast 95th Street and First Avenue Northeast.

From Seattle Police this morning:

Last night, shortly after 11:00 p.m., two victims and four witnesses were in the Transit Center when they were approached by a group of six black males. One of the suspects said, “There are six of you and six of us,” and displayed a knife.

One of the suspects attempted, unsuccessfully, to take one of the victim’s cell phones. Failing that, he tried to take the victim’s wallet, while another suspect struck another victim in the face.

Fearing for their safety, the group being attacked ran away, being chased by the suspects. As they were fleeing, one the victim’s shoes came off while he was running, and was picked up by the suspects. Employees of a nearby business heard the chase and called 911.

Officers arrived in the area quickly, along with a K-9 team and the King County Sheriff’s Office helicopter, Guardian One. Containment was set up, and the K-9 and his handler began a track.

With the assistance of Guardian One, four of the six suspects were located and arrested without incident in the 100 block of Northeast 95th Street. The victims were able to positively identify one of the suspects as the main suspect, and he was later booked into the Youth Services Center.

Two other suspects were booked into YSC and the King County Jail, while the fourth person arrested was identified and released from the precinct, with charges being requested.

The victim only suffered minor injuries and declined medical attention. Detectives will handle the follow up investigation.

The lure of high-speed Internet connections (1 GB per second - read “really, really fast”) has been around for years in Maple Leaf.

Unsuccessfully.

Gigabit service through fiber-optic lines, perhaps 1,000 times faster than a “typical” Internet connection, has been tried twice thrice here (we forgot Google), by the city and by GigaBit Squared - that one died a little over a year ago.

But several readers, including Scott, noticed utility trucks last month were stringing fiber along our utility poles.

In my neighborhood around Northeast 75th Street and Roosevelt Way Northeast (south end of Maple Leaf), CenturyLink has been laying fiber on the utility poles today. When I saw lines being put on the poles, I asked one of the installers and he confirmed that it was fiber for CenturyLink.

When CenturyLink recently said they were adding Greenlake as a neighborhood for gigabit Internet, I guess they consider this area part of that. I have no idea how far the wiring is going, and where it ends.

Here at Maple Leaf Life South, we, too, have confirmed the installers say they are working for CenturyLink.

We have a query into the company now. GeekWire says of the service:

It costs $79.95 per month when bundled with other qualifying CenturyLink services like a home phone or TV subscription, usually for a minimum combined cost of $115 per month.

The 2014 egg hunt, before the deluge.

Maple Leaf’s Lux Communities is planning its second annual Easter Egg Hunt this Saturday at Maple Leaf Reservoir Park.

This is Micah from Lux Communities. We are having an Egg Hunt again this year. It is a free event for the community. It is this Saturday, April 4th from 11 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. We will have age-graded egg hunts for children ages 2-10.

Their first hunt last year was quite a success.

Lakeview Free Methodist Church, which in the past has sponsored a hunt on the church’s 15th Avenue Northeast campus, appears to this year be holding a Neighborhood Carnival on May 30th.

Update 7:39 p.m. Wednesday: Hail, for the second evening in a row!

Update Wednesday a.m. National Weather Service in Seattle says 60 percent chance of showers today and possibly a thunderstorm after 11 a.m.

This evening’s hail - and lightning strikes - have killed power to several dozen in Maple Leaf.

KL emails:

Hello MLL:

This morning my daughter and I managed to wrangle a black hen (I think ) from the roundabout of Northeast 90th Street and Eighth Avenue Northest to our backyard coop.

She’s full grown and seems pretty tame. Currently she’s finding her place among our hens and I’m more than happy to keep her safe here until someone claims her.

Please let me know if she’s yours and we can figure a time to come get her.
KL

John emails: “Found small jewelry item in box 3/23/15 a.m. about 30 yards west of Cloud City Coffee on Northeast 88tth Street north side. Describe and claim.”

This morning the east side of upper Maple Leaf Reservoir Park looks like a crowd of drunken golfers left huge divots in the turf.

Dozens of them.

??

Also, somebody tagged the fence at the north entrance.

Seattle Police this week are asking the public’s help in identifying two criminal suspects.

One shot a man during a robbery in Meadowbrook, the other attempted to abduct a woman at gunpoint near the University of Washington.

Neither crime occurred in Maple Leaf, but both are nearby and we are posting as a public service.

The bearded police sketch is of the abductor.

“Police have compiled a sketch of a man who tried to abduct a woman at gunpoint near the University of Washington campus last month, and detectives are hoping someone out there recognizes him.

The suspect pulled a gun on a woman around 10 pm near 15th Avenue Northeast and Northeast 55th Street on February 22nd, and tried to force her to follow him.

Two men interrupted the suspect’s abduction attempt and walked the woman home.

The victim described the suspect as a white male in his 20s, 5-foot-4 with blue eyes and a “scrawny” build. He had blonde hair and a goatee, and was wearing a blue coat, dark jeans, and a backpack.

If you have any information about this case or recognize the man in the sketch, please contact detectives at (206) 684-5550.

The Meadowbrook robbery may have occurred during a drug deal gone wrong, police say.

Police are still looking for two robbers who burst into a Meadowbrook home on March 12th and shot a man during a struggle. Detectives haven’t yet identified the robbers, but they’re hoping video—captured by a security camera inside the home–may lead them to the suspects.

If you recognize the men in the video, please contact the SPD Robbery Unit at (206) 684-5535.

Well, that was wet.

The deluge at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport measured 2.20 inches, shattering the previous record for the Ides of March by a full inch.

It rained 4-5 inches over some of the Cascade foothills.

The weather shut down Stevens Pass Ski Area and several trains.

(It wasn’t capably forecast, either.)

But here at Maple Leaf Life South the rain total was only 1.85 inches. Whew!