There’s a little-known bit of green space just south of Sacajawea Elementary School, and tonight there’s a meeting over how to improve both it and the school’s upper playground.

According to the project’s website:

The school’s current play structure and asphalt surface are in extremely poor and unsafe condition, and both the playground and adjacent city park suffer from poor drainage issues from the connecting wetland that is contributory to Thornton Creek.

The meeting, from 6-8 p.m. at the school’s lunchroom, 9501 20th Ave. N.E., “is intended to gather community input and ideas and to discuss where to focus funding, with the wetland area being key.”

More details are available at the project website, but they are promising free pizza and activities for the kids attending!

If you can’t attend the meetings but would like to share your ideas or ask a question, fill out a feedback form. Thanks!

Students may not have to make up all three school days they missed during this month’s snow storm. Officials at Seattle Public Schools (SPS) want to waive two days instead of tacking them onto the end of the year, which they say would cost the district $500,000.

Photo courtesy Dane Doerflinger Photography

SPS is asking the Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI) for a waiver for the January 19th and January 20th snow days. During the storm Governor Gregoire declared a State of Emergency for those days. “This [the waiver] is contingent on a decision allowing the Emergency Proclamation to apply to schools in King County,” the release states. “OSPI officials said they will have more information next month on how to apply for waivers.”

One of the days was made up last Friday, leaving the other two. According to the district, they cannot make up the days during mid-winter break because families and staff have already arranged their schedules around the time off.

As a side note, next year’s mid-winter break is not a full week, but a four-day weekend with the Friday before President’s Day a day off and that Monday.

To support Children’s Oral Health Month, Dr. Veronica Bello is offering free dental exams and cleanings to kids 1-8 years old who don’t have dental insurance.

The appointments are on Saturday, Feb. 11th, from 9-3 p.m., at Avila Dental, 11050 5th Ave NE. Suite 202.

If you or someone you know has a child who could benefit from this offer, please RSVP by completing the appointment request at the bottom of our website.

Who knows the answer to this? Emily emails:

I live at the corner of Northeast 80th Street & Roosevelt Way Northeast, and after being out of town for a couple days, we came home to find two midsize trees gone from the parking strip on 80th!

There are some tree parts and some assorted plastic bits from a car left behind… Was there a terrible accident over the weekend? Did someone take offense to the trees and pull them down? I am bewildered!

Update Jan. 29: Several other residents have recently emailed us about break-ins at neighboring homes or businesses.

One reported that Olympic View Community Church, at Fifth Avenue Northeast and Northeast 95th Street, was broken into twice last weekend. The expanded police reports, now available, show several thousand dollars of damage and stolen electronics.

In addition, a week ago another resident at Roosevelt Way Northeast and Northeast 88th Street emailed:

My neighbor just came over to warn me that his apartment had been broken into on Friday. He’s unsure of what’s been taken at this point but the front door sustained damage. A police report was filed. The resident suspected it happened in the afternoon but piecing together details, we now believe the break-in happened sometime between 8 a.m. and possibly noon. I was home, as were several other people but we didn’t see or hear anything suspicious due to noise from expected maintenance work.

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Sarah emailed overnight to report her home, on Northeast 90th Street near 15th Avenue Northeast, was broken into.

My husband and I were out for two-and-a-half hours between about 6:45 and 9:00 p.m. and came home to find our back door kicked in. They didn’t get much - looks like whoever it was never turned on the lights (also, our neighbors were home and never noticed this was happening).

Whoever it was grabbed some booze and personal electronics, and emptied our change jar (maybe $10?) while ransacking the bedroom. The police said it was a very juvenile burglary.

Thought everyone should know! Sigh. Off to clean up.

It’s too soon for Sarah’s burglary to show up on the police crime map, but here (above) is how it looks for the year to date. It includes a dozen home or commercial burglaries, plus stolen and prowled vehicles.

A new BECU branch just moved into the neighborhood, and already they’re making friends with the locals.

Aiko Schaefer with the Olympic View Elementary School PTA tells us that at the location’s grand opening ceremony Thursday, BECU donated family season passes to ZooTunes that the PTA will auction at its annual fundraiser, the Red Carpet Stars OV School Auction on March 31. (She adds that BECU also made a donation to Northgate Elementary.)

Pictured left to right: Aiko Schaefer, OVPTA President, BECU Northgate Branch Manager, Elisa Miller and Joy Strechowski, OVPTA Auction procurement chair/photo courtesy the Olympic View PTA

You can read more about it on the PTA’s blog.

The Thornton Creek Alliance is inviting the community to its meeting tonight that will focus on the restoration at Maple Leaf’s Beaver Pond Natural Area, volunteering, crime/safety and any other topics you would like to discuss.

Last month, the branches of nearly 50 trees were illegally pruned in Beaver Pond Natural Area, raising both ire and support from the community.

A variety of city leaders will be in attendance, including:

• Seattle City Councilwoman Sally Bagshaw, chair of the Parks Committee
• Terrie Johnston, Seattle Police Department community liaison
• Joanna Nelson de Flores, Green Seattle Partnership project manager
• Chris Saleeba, with Seattle Greenways

The open disucssion is from 7-9 p.m. at Meadowbrook Community Center, 10517 35th Ave. N.E.

Maple Leaf’s own speed sign and radar gun were on display Wednesday night.

Crime took a holiday during the snow last week, and also at Wednesday night’s annual January community meeting.

In place of a discussion of crime and public safety, which drew police officials, City Council members and scores of neighborhood residents to the meeting in 2010 and 2011, the agenda started with a discussion of emergency preparedness.

That was followed by an overview and partial update on the Maple Leaf Reservoir Park, which opens next year, with many more details promised at a meeting in April. (Spoiler: the proposed 90-foot zip line appears to have been replaced by a “hill slide.”) Update Jan. 26: We get to KEEP the zip line! See comment below from Donna Hartmann-Miller, chair of the parks committee and Wednesday night’s presenter on this issue. We apologize for misunderstanding.

Development in the Northgate area was also discussed at the meeting, which is the January general meeting of the Maple Leaf Community Council. The council has a special page on its website dealing with the development issue.

Of particular interest are changes in bus service when LINK light rail opens in 2021. The direct bus service from Maple Leaf to downtown will be largely replaced by light rail from Northgate.

We’ll be circling back on some of these issues in coming weeks.

Tonight’s meeting is almost over (we posted briefly, below, when it started) but the community council is also looking for direction from residents on the development and light rail issues, and on what other issues the council should emphasize. You can join their community email lists here.

Annual community council meeting has started - focus on emergency preparedness. Two dozen attending.

This summer, plenty of Maple Leaf neighbors gathered for National Night Out, but you don’t have to wait until summer for another reason to get together with your neighbors.

Feb. 11 is Seattle’s 18th annual Neighbor Appreciation Day, a special day to reach out to neighbors, create new friends, and express thanks to those who help make your neighborhood a great place to live.

The city suggests several ways to participate:

• Plan an activity for your neighborhood such as a block party, potluck, or work party. The city’s Neighbor Appreciation Day website provides ideas, tools, resources and templates to help community members organize an activity. Once organized, the event can be posted to the online calendar (the submission can be made public or private).
• Send out Neighbor Appreciation Day greeting e-cards to your neighbors. The selection of e-cards feature artwork from past winners of the Neighbor Appreciation Day Student Art Contest.
• Share a story or two about your favorite neighbors. Community members can visit the Neighbor Appreciation Day website to post stories about great neighbors or their neighborhood.
• Attend one of the many community activities listed on the online calendar. Seattle Fire stations, Seattle Parks and Recreation community centers and pools, and other organizations have special Neighbor Appreciation Day events and work parties planned.

For information, contact Wendy Watson at [email protected].

We’ve been getting emails since 3 a.m. about police activity near St. Catherine of Siena, including one from a woman who believes somebody tried to break into her home.

Last night around 2:45 a.m. my husband and I heard a loud banging on a window in our house. My husband got up to see what was going on and there were multiple cops outside our house with a search dog. They were chasing someone who tried to break into our house.

The suspect was apparently fleeing police officers, who had arrived in response to a 911 call at 1:30 a.m. That call came from a man who was watching an SUV cruising in the 500 block of Northeast 85th Street with its lights off, said Detective Mark Jamieson.

As the man was on the phone to 911, he saw the SUV stop almost directly in front of his house and a suspect get out and start to rifle a parked car, Jamieson said.

With police on the way, the suspect started running north through neighbor’s yards, hopping fences, Jamieson said.

“We brought in a bunch of officers for containment and had a K-9 brought in,” Jamieson said.

By then it was 3 a.m., and another neighbor was emailing Maple Leaf Life: “Two to three squad cars are zooming up and down my block (88th between 5th and 8th) and neighboring blocks, blipping their siren, spot lighting between houses, etc.

“OK, now they’re on foot, search yards close to 5^th on the south side of 88^th.”

Jamieson said officers were in the area for about two hours, and that another neighbor called to report the suspect was in the back yard. The arrest was made in the 500 block of Northeast 88th Street, he said.

“We had a lot of people calling in and giving us updates, and that was great.”

The 29-year-old suspect was booked into King County Jail on suspicion of two car prowls, he said.

Overnight car prowlers were also arrested in the area last August.

Update 1:30 p.m.: The community council has just emailed an agenda. No mention of public safety/crime, although it was on the list in this month’s council newsletter.

1. Introductions & Announcements

2. Emergency Preparedness and Maple Leaf Neighborhood Disaster Response

3. Maple Leaf Reservoir Park update

4. Northgate density and transportation changes

5. Community Q&A/Guidance - Tell us what you want us to work on in 2012

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The January general meeting of the Maple Leaf Community Council has, in the past two years, put a spotlight on crime in the neighborhood.

The second big issue has been the development of the Maple Leaf Park. (Is there really going to be a 90-foot zip line there?)

For Wednesday night’s meeting, add development at Northgate.

In the community council’s newsletter, which came out earlier this month, the emphasis is placed on Northgate, where apartments are expected to bring thousands of new residents in addition to the redevelopment that’s coming with LINK light rail.

“If the development is done poorly, it will mean the beginning of the end for livability and quality of life in the Maple Leaf neighborhood,” David Miller, chair of the council’s Transportation and Land Use Committee, writes in the newsletter and at a special online page the council has created.

We also expect an announcement about Maple Leaf’ acquiring our own radar gun and hi-tech speed sign.

The meeting is from 7-9 p.m. Wednesday, Jan. 25th, at Olympic View Elementary School, 504 N.E. 95th St. Free, licensed day care is provided.

Watch out Maple Leafers, the secret is out!

We’ve known for years that we have some of the city’s best coffee shops (and Chinese restaurants!), but it appears that the rest of Seattle is starting to catch on.

A Big Blog post proudly displayed now on the home page of SeattlePI.com, “Seattle’s 15 best coffee shops, and why Starbucks made the list,” includes both Cloud City Coffee, 8801 Roosevelt Way N.E., and Cafe Javasti, 8410 Fifth Ave. N.E. (and in Wedgwood at 8617 35th Ave. N.E.), as Nos. 3 and 4, respectively.

For Cloud City, the P-I writes:

A friendly staff, a kid-friendly atmosphere and a $1 honor-system coffee bar. You’d want to come back every day, too.

And for Javasti:

This cafe and bakery in Wedgwood and Maple Leaf has god-awesome crepes. Enough said.

Yay for Maple Leaf!

Update Monday Jan. 23: Actual top wind speed here on Sunday = 21.9 mph.

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Shortly after 2:30 p.m. the National Weather Service issued a new wind advisory that’s in effect until 10 p.m. increasing today’s predicted wind gusts to 45 mph.

* SOME AFFECTED LOCATIONS…EVERETT…SEATTLE…TACOMA.

* TIMING…WINDS WILL INCREASE EARLY THIS EVENING.

* WIND…SOUTH 20 TO 30 MPH WITH GUSTS TO 45 MPH.

* IMPACTS…WINDS THIS STRONG CAN SNAP SMALL BRANCHES AND CAUSE

LOCAL POWER OUTAGES. TREES THAT HAVE BEEN DAMAGED BY THE

RECENT ICE STORM MAY BE SUSCEPTIBLE TO LOSING LARGE BRANCHES.

That wind overnight gusted to 33.3 mph here in Maple Leaf, between 4 and 5 a.m.

As it happens, that’s exactly the wind gusts predicted here for Sunday evening - steady south-southeast wind at 18 mph with gusts to 33 mph. And a 90% chance of rain.

The last time we remember winds of that speed was last March, when they came with the added attraction of hail.

PS: 2 1/2 inches in the Maple Leaf Life rain gauge this a.m.