From Meghan Walker with our sister site MyBallard

A new website aims to make it it easier for Seattle neighbors to connect and get things done around the house. Seattle-based start-up Knoq has developed a new type of social networking website, where users can find vetted local businesses that specialize in household services. The idea came from co-founders Karim Lessard and Ben Hanisko, who wanted to develop a tool to help foster more neighborly interactions.

Here’s how it works: users sign up for free, create a profile, specify what kinds of household services they need (such as cleaning, yard work, or even in-home singing lessons), and then peruse the featured businesses that pop up based on that user’s needs.

It might look similar to some of the daily deal sites, like Groupon, or Living Social, but Knoq’s focus is more on keeping it local. “The problem is people don’t interact the way we used to,” Lessard said. “There aren’t tools that exist to help you interact, and social networks have left that behind. That’s where the idea was born; we’re helping neighbors get things done in their house by connecting them with their neighbors and local businesses.” (more…)

One of Maple Leaf’s newest businesses used a contest to help its customers guess in which neighborhood the company was opening its new showroom.

The final clue, shown at right, was posted on LeBlanc Floors’ Facebook page on Jan. 4. “If you know your Seattle neighborhoods, THIS should be a dead giveaway…,” the company wrote.

Apparently not, because nobody won the contest. (An earlier clue: “This old Seattle neighborhood, annexed in the early 1950s, always has a cloud, and here be a Dragon….”)

But LeBlanc Floors is now open for business at 8501 Roosevelt Way N.E., right next to another new neighborhood business, Moonpaper Tent.

With the new year comes new opportunities, the most exciting of which is the opening of our new flooring showroom located just minutes from I-5 in the Maple Leaf neighborhood. We have carefully chosen to proudly showcase products & finishes from manufacturers that we feel have demonstrated continuous commitment to quality, durability, beauty, & sustainability.

LeBlanc has been in business for two decades, emails Pieter Sundgren, project manager. The old showroom was in Lynnwood, where the company’s current warehouse remains.

Sundgren says he works with a half-dozen crews, but that another arm of the company, Pro Home Services, Inc., works on a larger scale. “PHS is one of a select few contractors capable of supporting such install programs as are offered at big box stores like Costco and Lowes.”

While we are not eco-warriors, LeBlanc Floors is dedicated to the idea that we all share one Earth, and it is our responsibility to offer our customers healthy alternatives for use in their daily environment. We offer a broad selection of locally harvested wood species, in addition to offering our expertise in selecting, sorting, & working with reclaimed wood floor materials.

Somebody in the neighborhood has some access to extremely official-looking traffic signs.

Turns out the “Do Not Enter” sign that recently showed up on the corner of Northeast 105th Street and Eighth Avenue Northeast wasn’t actually installed by the Seattle Department of Transportation. Rick Sheridan, SDOT communications director, tell us:

“According to our records, this is not a City of Seattle installed traffic sign. SDOT will remove it shortly and replace it with a legitimate ‘One Lane Road’ sign. That sign will appropriately indicate that, though it is a one-lane road, two-way traffic can use the street.”

Huh. So who installed the sign?

This month Maple Leaf became home to a longtime Roosevelt business.

Moonpaper Tent - whose motto is “where magic is alive and dream worlds exist” - has moved to 8503 Roosevelt Way N.E., just by the Reservoir Bar & Grill and in the location that recently housed the Maple Leaf Coworking Office.

When we stopped by the director wasn’t in, but we left a card and asked her to email.

From the Moon’s web site:

Our Mission is to provide unique theatrical and art based experiences, to people of all ages that spark the imaginative process, cultivate personal creativity, and validate the power of diversity, originality and community.

Through a combination of creative drama, unique arts and crafts, interactive theatrical encounters, and surrounding visual dreamscapes, we are able to encompass guests in a rich and whole experience.

For years the non-profit business was just a few doors across Roosevelt from Whole Foods. Learn more at its Facebook page.

(This is a sponsored story written by John Madrid, Managing Broker with John L. Scott Real Estate).

What a difference a year makes … sale prices continue their climb and time on market continues to drop. It is definitely turning into a seller’s market.

For the 10 out of the last 12 months median sale price for single-family homes sold in Northeast Seattle, including Maple Leaf, University, Wedgwood, View Ridge, and Laurelhurst met or exceeded the sale price for the same period a year prior. Much of this trend can be attributed to a decrease in the supply of new listings in 2012 compared to 2011.

In addition to a shortage of inventory, record low interest rates, continued strong hiring by Amazon, Microsoft and a slew of smaller to midsize companies and a general belief that the market has hit bottom has resulted in strong appreciation for most Seattle home owners and sellers in 2012.

The median sale price for single-family homes sold in 2012 in NE Seattle was $442,000 compared to $410,000 for 2011, an almost 8% increase. The average time on market decreased to sold 29 days in 2012 from 55 days in 2011.

A less than a 3 month supply of homes is generally considered a Seller’s market. The overall supply of NE Seattle homes averaged around 1.6 months of inventory for 2012 relative to a little more than a 3 month supply for 2011.

Expected trends for 2013 include continued low interest rates and inventory as well as multiple offers situations for competitively priced homes in popular neighborhoods including most of NE Seattle with its great walkability, popular schools and proximity to downtown.

More stats on other Seattle neighborhoods can be found here.

Tip: Even in a strong home Seller’s market amazing photos and professional marketing materials (including a custom website and full color two sided flyers) can result in a quicker sale and the best sale price.

John Madrid is a Managing Broker with John L. Scott Real Estate - University Village and is a 2005-2012 Seattle Magazine “Five Star” Agent. His clients include both home buyers and sellers. He can be reached at 206-498-1880, [email protected] or www.live206.com.

(Statistics are deemed reliable but are not guaranteed. All information should be verified to the users own satisfaction.)

One-way streets abound throughout Maple Leaf in an effort to keep non-locals from jetting through our neighborhoods to and from Northgate Mall and our various arterials. But one of those one-way streets, Northeast 105th, has been unique in that it allowed cars to travel both directions despite being large enough for only one car at a time.

Looks like those days are over. This weekend, we noticed that there’s now a “Do Not Enter” sign at the corner of 105th and Eighth Avenue Northeast for cars traveling west.

In the minute or so that we were in the area, we also saw two cars drive right past the Do Not Enter Sign and up the road in the wrong direction. Perhaps they didn’t see the sign, or perhaps they just didn’t know where else to turn if they’ve been traveling up that road for years.

What are your thoughts on the new truly one-way version of 105th? Did you even notice it?

Starting tomorrow, Dragon Arts Studio is bringing a two-weekend run of “Images of China” to Maple Leaf’s Northwest Puppet Center, 9123 15th Ave. N.E.

“Crane and Turtle” courtesy Northwest Puppet Center.

“Images of China” is a a collection of vignettes drawing from Chinese culture and literature, including “Crane and Turtle,” shown above, which is a traditional puppet act inspired by a classical poem.

“Donkey’s Best Friend” photo courtesy Northwest Puppet Center. (more…)

Seattle Police report that earlier this month a woman was robbed at gunpoint at Eighth Avenue Northeast and Northeast 104th Street.

The robbery occurred at about 7:15 p.m. on Jan. 10. Details are now available through the city’s crime map.

According to the police report, the woman was walking on 104th street when a man pointed a semi-automatic handgun at her and demanded, “give me your phone.”

She gave him the phone, worth about $40, according to the report. The man ran off.

So far this year, the map also shows five home burglaries in Maple Leaf, and six stolen or prowled cars.

A new tool lending library serving northeast Seattle is having its grand opening on Saturday.

We will officially start lending tools at our Grand Opening on January 19, 2013. The building will open at 10 a.m. for new member registrations and meet-and-great, followed by the official speeches and ribbon cutting at 11 a.m. We’ll stay open until 2 p.m. for tool lending, plus “Taste of the Tool Library” demonstrations.

The library is in space leased from the North Seattle Friends Church, at 2415 N.E. 80th St. For an inventory of tools, click here.

Membership is free, but donations are encouraged. “Anyone over 18 is welcome to use The NE Seattle Tool Library, whether you live in NE Seattle or anywhere else in the region. Members are just required to fill out a membership application and a liability waiver as well as present two forms of ID to Tool Library staff.”

For more information click here.

Join your neighbors on Jan. 30 to discuss some of the issues that are important to fellow Maple Leafers!

The January Maple Leaf General Community Meeting is from 7-9 p.m. at the Olympic View Elementary School Cafeteria, 504 N.E. 95th St. Free licensed child care service will be provided.

The main topic of the meeting will be transportation challenges, which are front and center in many Maple Leaf neighbors’ minds after last week’s bus fire on Interstate 5 that brought traffic both on the freeway and through Maple Leaf to a standstill.

But cars aren’t the only topic bound to come up in the transportation discussion, which likely also will include pedestrians, bicycles, buses and more. You’re invited to share you concerns with the Maple Leaf Community Council’s executive board, along with representatives of local government agencies who have been invited.

Other topics at the meeting will include:

• An update on Maple Leaf Reservoir Park
• Information on the Take Winter by Storm program

In just two weeks in December, after the new school-zone speed cameras west of Olympic View Elementary School went live, they generated 437 speeding tickets at $189 apiece.

In a story published Sunday, our news partners The Seattle Times indicates fines totaling $82,593 were issued along that stretch of Fifth Avenue Northeast between approximately 94th and 96th streets.

There are four school-zone cameras sites - on Martin Luther King Jr. Way (1,510 tickets), Greenwood Avenue North (881 tickets), Fauntleroy Way Southwest (435 tickets), and here, the Times reports. The tickets were issued between December 10 and 21.

The last time we wrote about this, in November before fines were being issued, Seattle Mayor Mike McGinn told the Times he was “surprised” at the high number of trial citations the cameras were generating - up to $2-4 million in fines annually, he said.

Now, though, should tickets continue at the current rate the city projects it could issue $1 million in fines a month.

The cameras were expected to bring in around $800,000 this year, and McGinn said the city would spend any excess on public safety improvements near the schools. The city also pays the Arizona-based operators of the cameras a fee of $456,000 annually.

Seattle-based real estate site Redfin today named its top 10 hottest housing neighborhoods in the country for 2013.

Eight of them are in California. One is in Chicago.

The 10th is us, Maple Leaf, north Seattle.

Here in “N. Maple Leaf,” according to Redfin, prices are up 22 percent, year over year, and sales up 15 percent. Listings are down by 44 percent.

The hottest neighborhoods are all seeing shrinking selection, increasing sales, and increasing prices—often at rates far above the metro areas that contain them.

Today’s Puget Sound Business Journal, picking up on the post, quoted a Redfin agent: “North Maple Leaf is in the Roosevelt School district and has lower prices than some of the surrounding neighborhoods like Wedgwood and Ravenna. There is easy access to I-5 South to commute to downtown. Homes that go on the market sell very quickly in this area.”

By LISA STRUBE-KILGORE
UW News Lab

Tucked away in the heart of Maple Leaf is a little house that’s home to big dreams. At Midwife Seattle, Cindie Brown and Amanda Deardorff are challenging the traditional image of midwifery to include a broader spectrum of women’s health care.

View a slideshow of Midwife Seattle.

Most locals not actively seeking a midwife have probably only noticed the little gray house at 8927 Roosevelt Way N.E. as being the north edge of the Snappy Dragon parking lot. It looks less like a medical clinic than a private home, and that’s by design. When I visited I caught myself hesitating at the front door, wanting to knock instead of walking in. Inside, the waiting room looks like most of my friends’ living rooms: shelves of toys open to little hands, comfortable couches, and nature-inspired art on the walls. Tension doesn’t stand a chance in the face of herbal tea and ABC blocks.

Midwife Seattle is growing: The afternoon I was there, Cindie and Amanda were scheduled to interview a potential third midwife to join the practice. “My take on it is that there’s actually a lot of demand, it’s just there’s not a lot of education about what midwives do,” said Cindie. “I actually think a lot of women would want the kind of care that we’re giving if they knew what we did and what our educational background was. So the demand is there, it’s just there’s a gap between what is actually communicated and what people’s impressions are.”

She’s not wrong. I freely admitted I knew next to nothing about midwifery (any vague notions I might have had related to giving birth in a yurt while chewing on willow bark don’t count), and asked for a primer. It turns out that the gap between impression and reality is pretty wide. “We’re nurse practitioners,” said Cindie, “so we come from a more traditional kind of nursing background, but we love complementary medicine. I think that we offer people a holistic approach with many options.” (more…)

Good morning!

It’s mid-morning and still below freezing out there.

And the forecast calls for next week to be just like this.

From the National Weather Service special weather statement: “USE CAUTION WHEN TRAVELING AND ALLOW FOR

SOME EXTRA TIME TO REACH YOUR DESTINATION.”

Also read Cliff Mass on “A dangerous night.”

Earlier this hour the state traffic department tweeted: “Sounds like an echo, but try anything but I-5 SB into Seattle. If you can fly, now’s the time to break out that power.”

Those who can’t fly are attempting to commute through Maple Leaf.

Above is the scene on 15th Avenue Northeast, where cars trying to bypass the Interstate 5 bus fire fiasco are backed up southbound for literally miles. Same scene on Roosevelt Way Northeast.

And THAT means that frustrated drivers are clogging the side streets, such as 12th Avenue Northeast, where a steady stream of cars, moving vans, buses and even parking police scooters are passing by. Be careful, walkers and dogs!

What all those cars in our neighborhood are trying to avoid.