With June just (egads) a day away, election season is right around the corner.

Already, a number of candidates have joined the race for the Seattle City Council, and one of them is bringing his message to Maple Leaf tonight.

From 7:30-9 p.m., Position 3 candidate Brad Meacham will be available to discuss and answer questions at Maple Leaf Grill, 8929 Roosevelt Way N.E.

Meacham is running against incumbent Bruce Harrell, who has been in office since 2007.

However, if you can’t make tonight’s meeting, remember that the Maple Leaf Community Council is gathering questions for Seattle City Council candidates that it is asking them to answer by the Fourth of July. The community council expects to have the answers from each of the city candidates posted on its website and available to discuss by the Maple Leaf Ice Cream Summer Social, from 6:30-8:30 p.m. July 27.

A couple of sample questions provided by David Miller, a member of the community council’s executive board:

• Do you support building sidewalks where residents request them? If not explain why. If yes, please provide specifics on how you’d accomplish building more sidewalks in our neighborhood.
• Maple Leaf is located between two future light rail stations. Do you support changing our current single-family zoning to allow for larger buildings and higher density in the Maple Leaf neighborhood?

To submit your own questions, email Miller at [email protected].

Eva lives in Maple Leaf with her foster family, and wants to stay in the neighborhood.

She’s looking for a new family to adopt her for good, through the Seattle Animal Shelter’s pet adoption program.

Julie writes:

I am a resident of Maple Leaf and have been fostering two dogs for approximately 8 months.

I would *love* it if I could get them adopted into the neighborhood. They love living in Maple Leaf and love the people who live here. (They wouldn’t be adopted out together.)

The animal shelter’s adoption program normally costs in the range of $165-$200, although it could be considerably cheaper. For details click here.

Eva is a 6-year-old miniature poodle, who has slightly impaired vision and is on medication to prevent seizures.

Julie is working on a flier for her other foster dog, a Havanese.

By Katie Melton

The former Seven Seas Restaurant, 8914 Lake City Way N.E., might soon become the newest bachelor party destination in the wake of Rick’s demise. According to a neighborhood flier (click to see a larger version), construction to turn the restaurant into a strip club will begin June 1.

“I found out yesterday when one of my friends went to the Seven Seas Restaurant and the doors were closed,” Marilee Catero, a resident nearby the proposed strip club, told sister site Wedgwood View earlier this week. “She asked what was up and they told her they lost the lease and a strip club was now renting the space. Today was an incredible scramble trying to find out what happened.”

The permit, for an adult cabaret, has already been issued to the owner, Jack Johnson of Mill Creek. The strip club can be authorized for use in a commercial area because it’s located more than 800 feet from legally recognized or permitted public park and open spaces, community centers, elementary or secondary schools, or child care centers.

According to the Wedgwood Community Council, the Sacajawea Elementary School, 9501 20th Ave. N.E., is the closest school to the site at about 1,500 feet away. The closest child care center, at about 1,000 feet, is the Ryther Child Center, 2400 N.E. 95th St., which provides outpatient and prevention programs, as well as residential services for children.

Since the strip club is authorized for commercial use, no public notice was required for the permit to be issued, the council says.

However, Catero has been conducting her own public notice, circulating the above fliers around the neighborhood in hopes that the Seattle Department of Planning and Development will conduct a neighborhood impact study.

That’s not the only strip club action this week on Lake City Way. Yesterday, the U.S. Department of Justice announced that it will auction off Rick’s Strip Club, 11332 Lake City Way N.E., and the offices of Talents West, 8600 Lake City Way N.E., on June 29.

The buildings belonged to Frank Colacurcio Sr., who passed away last year, and his family, who ran the establishments for years. Allegations of prostitution, organized crime and money laundering led to an FBI investigation, which shut down the Colacurcio businesses. (more…)

This post is from our partner site My Green Lake. We last wrote about the “locksmith scammer” in January.

The “locksmith scammer,” whom we have reported on twice before, continues to knock on Green Lake doors.

The man known as the “locksmith scammer” is described as being between 5’6″ and 6′ tall, of slight build, African American, and balding.

The man typically claims to be a janitor working at a nearby school and he sometimes says that his partner works at Microsoft. He’s new to the neighborhood, he says, and is locked out of his house. However, he claims, he is a few dollars short of the money he needs to pay a locksmith.

Since our last two stories on this topic ran late last year, several Green Lake residents have contacted us to report that a man meeting the description of the locksmith scammer has asked them for money.

In the last two months alone, we have received tips about this scam from five different Green Lake households, and on April 4, Roosiehood reported on the locksmith scammer’s appearance in Roosevelt.

Most recently, a tip came in on Monday night (May 22, 2011). According to the west Green Lake resident who wrote to us, there is a new twist to the familiar story: the locksmith scammer is now claiming to work at the Green Lake Community Center.

Update, 8:30 p.m., Wednesday – Kailea Ball, who manages an apartment building just west of Green Lake, reports that the locksmith scammer recently knocked on the door of one of her tenants. “I guess he got REALLY pushy until he realized her [boyfriend] was there,” Kailea tweeted earlier this evening. “Wouldn’t leave. Kept asking to come in, saying ‘Let me in. I’m gay – I’m not going to hurt you.’ When they gave him $ he demanded more.”

Update, 11:50 a.m., Thursday – Similar stories have been reported in Laurelhurst, Maple Leaf and Ballard.

The proposed “Family Terrace” that will replace the current Maple Leaf Playground will be the subject of a meeting next Wednesday, June 1, from 6-8 p.m. at Olympic View Elementary, 504 N.E. 95th St.

The Family Terrace will be a part of the new Maple Leaf Reservoir Park, now expected to open in 2013.

The final schematic design offers a traditional play area similar to the existing play area, plus an adventure play area and a children’s garden. Parks invites the public to attend and share ideas on favorite types of play equipment and design ideas.

Several neighborhood Q&A sessions are planned in advance of Wednesday’s meeting. They are listed on our Events Calendar.

Although a $5 million levy is expected to cover the cost to put the lid on the old reservoir and pay for much of the design for Maple Leaf Reservoir Park, a committee is raising money to pay for a few unfunded details, including a picnic shelter in the Family Terrace, completion of a walkway around the perimeter of the park, trees and furnishings.

People unable to attend the meeting can visit the website to learn more about the project and provide input through an online survey.

The Aljoya Farmers Market returns to the neighborhood this afternoon from 4-6 p.m., and will continue the last Thursday afternoon of each month through September.

Hosted by Ajoya Thornton Place, 450 N.E. 100th St., the market promises:

• Homemade baked items
• Fruits
• Vegetables
• Cut flowers

Bring cash or credit card to pay for your fresh goods. The market will be held outside the Bistro patio at Fifth Avenue Northeast and Northeast 100th Street.

Rico emails us:

If anyone is missing a kids’ bike, let me know. Someone appears to have abandoned a bike on the street in front of our house a couple days ago. I wonder if someone took it for a joy ride and ditched it.

You can e-mail me a description of any lost bike and I will respond back with an address if it is a match.

[email protected]

Here’s a question we hope our readers can answer. It comes from Tracey.

My husband and I live in New Westminster, B.C., and we were in Seattle for the weekend. We visited the Maple Leaf neighborhood because I learned that my great uncle once lived in a house at 423 N.E. 91^st Street. We met confusion when we saw that the house numbers on 91^st St. go from the three-hundreds to the five-hundreds, skipping the four-hundreds altogether. Any idea if the numbering system has been changed since the 1940s? I’d love to see if the house is still there under a different number.

She’s quite correct. There’s a 300 block on one side of Fifth Avenue Northeast, and a 500 block on the other, east side, but no 400 block addresses at all.

Northeast 92nd has a 400 block, but 90th and 89th do not. (Clue: Fourth Avenue Northeast doesn’t go through.) Northeast 88th does.

Who knows if those missing blocks ever existed?

This Maple Leaf Life co-editor woke up just after 6 this morning to dozens of CDs strewn across Northeast 97th Street, near Roosevelt Way Northeast, and is looking for the owner (artists include Brooks & Dunn and Stix, as well as a number of mixes).

We’re imaganing a car break-in was involved, but because of the early hour it may not yet be reported on the Seattle Police incident map. The only Maple Leaf car prowls listed today are on the 8000 block of 14th Avenue Northeast on Sunday and the 800 block of Northeast 88th Street on Monday.

If you think these might be your CDs and you’d like them back, send me an email at [email protected]. P.S. Some of them aren’t in very good shape.

Wondering about the “No Parking” signs that have sprouted outside Wild Root Salon and the Roosevelt Ale House?

They’re warning you not to park along that side of the 8800 block of Roosevelt Way Northeast on Wednesday. Look for lights and movie crews there instead.

Scenes for “Safety Not Guaranteed,” an indie movie involving time travel and Kristen Bell (you haven’t been Forgetting Sarah Marshall, have you?) will be shot Wednesday afternoon at Wild Root, and we’re told the cast and crew will be lunching at the Ale House.

No, Kristen won’t be here. But co-star Jake Johnson will.

As to the movie…here’s the advance word from The New York Times:

Darius, a young magazine intern, is recruited to help a staff writer, Jeff, with a story about a bizarre young man who has advertised for a time-traveling partner. She, Jeff, and fellow intern, Arnau, travel to a small town to get information on the paranoid but strangely compelling young man. But Darius feels torn, underhanded and disloyal when she begins to have genuine feelings for her subject, who is clearly smitten by her as well.

According to Internet lore, the movie started with a fake classified ad:

It seems people who care about Thornton Creek want to know more about the plants that grow native in our watershed.

At the last Thornton Creek Alliance meeting, renowned Seattle plant expert Arthur Lee Jacobson discussed “Native Trees in our Watershed,” and this month he’s “back by popular demand” to talk about ”Native Plants in our Watershed.”

The meeting, which is free and open to the public, begins with social time at 6:45 p.m. Thursday, May 26, at Lake City Presbyterian Church (Room B2), 3841 N.E. 123rd St. Jacobson will give his presentation at 7 p.m., and the group will hold its business portion of the meeting afterward.

For more information, contact alliance Vice President Dan Mahler at 206-523-8813 or [email protected].

Want to learn even more about watersheds? Come to the 2011 Seattle Watersheds Forum, from 6-8:30 p.m. Wednesday, June 8, at the flagship REI, 222 Yale Ave. N. (more…)

By Katie Melton

In February 2010, Heather Lerch was a college student at Centralia College, with her whole life ahead of her, when she made a tragic decision to text while driving. A mere 3 miles away from her home, she struck a guardrail and died instantly.

On Monday and Tuesday, Lerch’s car will be on display at the north end of the Northgate Mall from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., along with members of the Seattle Police Department.

Heather’s parents have created a campaign to discourage youth from texting while driving, and have created the website Heather’s Story, dedicated to Heather and their cause.

“Heather’s parents have released the remains of her vehicle to be used as an educational display about the dangers of texting while driving,” said Steve Hardy, director of public safety at Northgate Mall.

Beth Brunton, an instructor at Northgate Middle College High School, will be taking her students to see the vehicle and to be reminded of the dangers of distracted driving.

“We need to be reminded to avoid all distractions while driving and we need to see a visual image of what can happen to us, those we love, and those we will never know,” Brunton said. “We need to take a stand that we will not ride in any car while the driver is drunk or distracted by texting.”

The Seattle Police Department will also have documents reminding people of the new Text Talk Ticket.

For more information, call Steve Hardy at 206-362-4778, ext. 219.

Katie Melton is the intern for Maple Leaf Life. She is a journalism student at the University of Washington.

OK, so it’s a little hard to soak in the sun today. (But we DID hit 70 degrees Friday, as we predicted.)

Make up for it by picking up some free day lilies, out this morning in front of a home at 9011 Eighth Ave. N.E.

The sun is shining and Memorial Day is right around the corner, which means it’s once again yard sale season. And already, there’s a big one planned this weekend.

Maple Leaf resident Karen let us know about a coordinated yard sale that starts at 9 a.m. Saturday on Northeast 98th and 100th streets between Eighth Avenue Northeast and Roosevelt Way Northeast:

“We are going to be selling furniture, kid’s stuff, and other useful items on Saturday, May 21. Well-placed signs on Roosevelt, 8th and 5th will guide you along to the houses participating.”

Are there any other big yard sales in Maple Leaf planned this weekend?

Cyclists started whizzing down Roosevelt Way Northeast’s new bike lanes early this morning on Bike to Work/School Day.

Later this morning Olympia View Elementary School, 504 N.E. 95th St., is slated to have a visit from Seattle firefighters and police officers.

From the school’s website:

Starting at 9 AM, the OV community will welcome some very special guests to our playground. Come get a special stamp for biking, walking or riding the bus to school on Friday—any way you can help reduce pollution from cars!

Bikes at Olympic View Elementary