All photos courtesy Dane Doerflinger Photography

Sacajawea Elementary School has now completed its Move-a-Thon to raise money for the upper playground.

From an email by the organizer:

The Move-a-Thon is an all-school event, every student is walking/running for 20 minutes. They sought pledges per/lap and flat donations from family and friends. All students will receive a T-shirt that has been completely paid for by sponsorships of local businesses! The design is by a fifth grade student - they turned out GREAT!

Sacajawea, 9501 20th Ave. N.E., has been planning and fundraising to improve the park for months.

The list of sponsors for the October event includes:

T-SHIRT SPONSORS:

Sacajawea Family business owners:

1. The Watershed Company, Dan Nickel

2. Pitcher Painting, Patrick Pitcher

And our community sponsors:

3. Seattle Children’s Hospital Foundation

4. The Eye Site

5. State Farm of Laurelhurst

6. Kumon @ University Village

7. Site Workshop

8. PacLand Civil Engineering

9. Blossoming Buds Cottage

10. Polyclinic

11. Design One

(more…)

This weekend, a silly production of the classic fairytale “Rapuzel” opens at Maple Leaf’s Northwest Puppet Center, 9123 15th Ave. N.E.

Photo from “Rapunzel” from Northwest Puppet Center.

The show by Paul Mesner Puppets is described as:

This is a veggie wonderful story of two gardeners, Okra and Romaine, who have a beautiful daughter named Rapunzel. But not all is well, Romaine had promised his first-born child to an evil witch! Rapunzel is locked up in a tower and her future looks bleak until the Prince Arrives. Rapunzel hatches a plan to escape her evil captor and , as with most fairy tales, they all leaf happily ever alfalfa!

Showtimes are at 1 and 3 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays from Nov. 3-18. Tickets cost $10.50 general admission, $8.50 for children (up to age 16) and $9 for seniors (65 and older), and are available at the box office 30 minutes before showtime or can be purchased in advance at Brown Paper Tickets.

The “For Lease” sign at 9634 Roosevelt Way N.E. has come down and Tattva’s Herbs Organics, an established business in Roosevelt that sells Ayurvedic herbs and oils, is moving in with plans to open in early December.

Owner Susan Bowes tells us the current business at 902 N.E. 65th St., Ste. D, is moving to make way for condos, but it’s still open for now if you’d like to check it out to see what to expect when the store opens in Maple Leaf.

Previously, 9634 Roosevelt Way N.E. has been the home of Glassique and Revolution Cycles. We’ll keep you posted with progress at Tattva’s and tell you more about the business after it opens.

Seattle Parks is hosting a book swap Friday, Nov. 2, from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the Northgate Community Center.

“Bring a book, Trade a book. Already dozens of good titles to choose from,” the Parks Department writes. “If you don’t have a book, it’s a buck a book.”

The community center is at 10510 5th Ave. N.E.

View the book swap flier here.

Sound Transit might not be rolling into Northgate Station until 2021, but the design of the light-rail station in the corner of Maple Leaf is already 60 percent completed.

You’re invited to learn more about the design at an open house from 6-8:30 p.m. Nov. 7 at Olympic View Elementary School, 504 N.E. 95th St., with the presentation set to begin at 6:30 p.m. On the docket are updates on bicycle facilities, pedestrian, transit connections, park-and-ride facilities and future transit-oriented development plans.

But possibly of interest to a broader swath of Maple Leafers than previous open houses, Sound Transit also will unveil details about landscaping and progress for public art. Following a national search, local artists Mary Ann Peters and Cris Bruch have been chosen to create original artwork for Northgate Station. According to the project update page:

In the coming months, Peters and Bruch will work with the Northgate Station design team to develop artwork for the station windscreen glass and a sculpture for the plaza area that respond to the character of the neighborhood and station. Their proposals will be presented to the community next year.

What kind of art and landscaping would you like to see at Northgate? Do I hear a shoutout for maple leaves, anyone?

Downed power lines shut Roosevelt Avenue Northeast between 98th and 104th avenues.

Noon update: street reopened, City Light trucks clearing.

Put on your dancing shoes and head to the Eagles Club on Nov. 4 for Louisianathon! The ninth annual Northwest Cajun-Zydeco Music & Dance Festival is coming to Maple Leaf for the first time, and the whole community is invited to the event featuring seven bands for $10.

The event is from 2-8 p.m. at Eagles Mother Aerie No. 1, 8201 Lake City Way N.E., and the live bands include Swamp Soul, Troupe Acadian, Folichon, Bayou Beat, Richard Allen & the Louisiana Experience, Les Chattes Creloes and Sassafras. Don’t know how to dance to Cajun or Zydeco music? There will be free lessons for the willing!

Well over a hundred neighbors (and at least six dogs) have started up Roosevelt Avenue North in the annual Maple Leaf Parade of Costumes.

Even KIRO-TV is there shooting video.

A map of the route is here. The parade should end between 4-4:30 p.m.

The Parade will wind thru our business districts and neighborhood trick-or-treating and ending at Perkins School where special treats from Peaks Frozen Custard and the Eagles will be available.

Nancy emails to say burglars attempted to break into at least three homes last night about 8:45 in the area of Northeast 95th Street and 12th Avenue Northeast.

“On two of the houses windows were pushed in. At my house, they moved a deck chair to a window and tried to open it and failed, but they ended up pushing in the locked back door.”

The police report map shows right at a dozen home burglaries here so far in October, in addition to a commercial burglary at COA Mexican Eatery & Tequileria.

The new ones just reported aren’t on the map yet.

The first parade of the day (above) got started early on 12th Avenue Northeast.

Let’s hope this year repeats the 2011 parade (photo above) - dry!

Only four hours to go.

A neighbor emails this morning: “We had a window broken out of our car last night, but nothing was stolen. Northeast 104th Street & 12th Avenue Northeast.

“Hopefully there wasn’t a rash of window breaking in the hood last night.”

The overnight police incident map shows one car stolen, at Roosevelt Way Northeast and Northeast 104th Street, and cars prowled at First Avenue Northeast/Northeast 102nd Street and at 19th Avenue Northeast/Northeast 107th Street. (Your report hasn’t shown up yet.)

However, the police report map for October to date for our neighborhood - shown above - includes some 12 vehicles stolen and 18 broken into. (Some of the icons stand for up up to seven incidents.)

Note that much of the activity takes place in the general area of the Northgate Transit Center.

Speed cameras on Fifth Avenue Northeast alongside Olympic View Elementary School were installed earlier this week and are now operational.

We reported on them this summer. The city says speeding on Fifth by the school, 504 N.E. 95th St., is among the fifth worst in Seattle school zones.

The units are like the automatic red light cameras, but focused on speeders. Those caught speeding will receive citations in the mail.

They are on Fifth at approximately Northeast 94th and 96th streets.

The Christmas shopping season is kicking off early this year for North Seattle bargain hunters!

At 9 a.m. Thursday, Nov. 8, the new Nordstrom Rack store on the south end of Northgate Mall is swinging open its doors, but not without a little fanfare.

The festivities begin at 7 a.m. with a live DJ, breakfast treats and more, including your chance to enter a drawing for a $2,000 “Race Through the Rack” shopping spree; the drawing will be held at 8:30 a.m.

Once you’re inside, it’ll be time to rush to the registers because the first 1,000 shoppers to make a purchase will receive a free Nordstrom Rack tote.

That’s not our headline (above), but we like it.

It was written by Jonah Spangenthal-Lee, now working for the Seattle Police Department, for a press release he sent out this afternoon about the incident Tuesday at the Northgate Transit Center, 10200 First Ave N.E.

The 31-year-old suspect’s bout of bad behavior all started around 7:45 p.m. when he began harassing a woman sitting at a bus stop.

When another man at the bus stop tried to get the suspect to leave the woman alone, the suspect turned on the man and started following him through the Transit Center. The suspect then grabbed the man from behind, shoved him, and demanded money. The man then handed his wallet over to the suspect.

A second man saw the suspect robbing the first man, and stepped in to confront the suspect. The suspect then turned on the second man, punching him in the face and kicking him in the leg.

Already on quite a roll, the suspect then began harassing two other women at the transit center, offering them a graphic and unsolicited description of his genitalia.

When the women ignored the suspect, he spit on the women, prompting the King County Metro driver—who was waiting to start his next bus run at the transit center—to leap into action.

The driver tackled the suspect to the ground and held him there until police arrived.

Karen Stephenson, who with her husband Tom opened and ran what is now Maple Leaf Ace Hardware here for 31 years, has died. She was 73.

Many Maple Leaf residents remember her from the store, which was Stephenson Ace Hardware until 2005, when she and Tom sold it to their daughter Kathy and her husband Mike Kelley, the current owners.

More information can be found on the store’s Facebook page, where Laurel has commented: “I was so blessed to have spent quality time with Karen. She enriched my life and no doubt countless others. One great lady.”

According to the page:

A condolences card is available in the store for signing and donations may be made to the hospice of your choice or the American Cancer Society. A memorial service will be held on Sunday, November 4, 2012, at 1 p.m. at the University Christian Church, 4731 15th Ave. N.E.

We are all grateful to Karen for helping to build this family-run hardware store in the Maple Leaf neighborhood. She will be missed.