Has anybody in southwest Maple Leaf noticed unusual truck activity around Northeast 75th Street and Banner Way?

Sound Transit announced earlier this week that work already has begun on the North Link light rail line that will run between the Roosevelt station at Brooklyn Avenue Northeast and Northeast 65th Street, and our own Northgate Transit Center.

This week, it said that truck-mounted rigs are drilling holes along the proposed route to evaluate soil and ground water conditions just east of Interstate 5 around 75th Street and Banner Way, noting that:

During this work you can expect:

• Noise similar to a truck engine running with occasional hammering.
• Restricted parking around the drilling area.

Drilling will continue through spring every couple hundred yards along the light rail route, and it can take two to five days for the work to be completed at each drilling site.

Questions? Contact Wilbert Santos at (206) 370-5516 or [email protected], and stay up to date on North Link events via the North Link project site.

Last night’s monthly meeting of the Maple Leaf Community Council Executive Board ended with a bittersweet celebration after longtime Board Members Barbara Maxwell and Janice Camp announced that they would not be running for re-election next month.

Maxwell, who is moving back to her native state of Montana after living in Maple Leaf for 35 years, promises she’ll still allow the council (and Maple Leaf Life) to continue to pick her brain for her wealth of Maple Leaf history.

Meanwhile, Camp, who is moving to Laurelhurst after living in Maple Leaf since 1986, is passing along the duties of treasurer to new Executive Board Member Meg Stockbridge.

We will share more about Maxwell and Camp and their contributions to Maple Leaf before they leave us.

Let’s hope the sun peeks out tomorrow around lunchtime for the appearances of Lumpia World and Molly Moon’s Homemade Ice Cream.

From 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Thursday, Lumpia World will be parked outside the Washington Dental Service building, 9706 Fourth Ave., and Molly Moon’s will join the fun from noon to 1:30 p.m.

Seattle Mayor Mike McGinn will hold a Q&A town hall meeting to hear from local residents this Saturday.

According to his office:

As part of the Engage Seattle initiative this year, in order to ensure that as many people as possible who live, work, or play in Seattle are able to voice their concerns and offer their feedback directly to the Mayor, we’re going to be holding a series of town halls, neighborhood visits, and other outreach events in every part of the city.

The one for our neighborhood is from 11:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Saturday, March 19, at Aljoya Thornton Place, 450 N.E. 100th St.

According to Thomas C. Whittemore of the city’s Department of Neighborhoods, there is a tentative plan for the mayor to first take a small walking tour:

We are planning a Mayor’s Neighborhood Visit for March 19th starting at 10:30 a.m. The planned route will take us from the Northgate Community Center, through Thornton Creek Park #6 to the Maple Leaf Community Garden (where we hope to meet P-Patch gardeners/neighbors). After a walk along the new daylighted section of the creek, we will check out the Metro Transit Center then return to the Aljoya Thornton Place community meeting room for a Q&A session.

(Note: Saturday is expected to be partly sunny and 55 degrees.)

McGinn was last in the neighborhood almost exactly a year ago to hold a youth rally attended by more than 250 people. That gathering generated ideas to help children and families succeed.

Excited about the new Mexican restaurant that’s moving into the former location of Divine, 7919 Roosevelt Way N.E.? Here’s a news release hot off the presses:

COA Mexican Eatery & Tequileria plans to open their doors in mid-May in Seattle’s Maple Leaf neighborhood at the intersection of 80th and Roosevelt Way NE. COA plans to serve lunch & dinner six days a week and will open at 11am Tuesday through Sunday. The former house-turned-eatery will feature a dining room which seats 50 and a small bar to seat over a dozen.

Entrepreneur and COA owner, Edgar Carreon, will bring his family-style Mexican background to Seattle to create a new concept. “I’m excited to bring the Mexico I know to Seattle, says Carreon. “I come from three generations of Mexican restaurant entrepreneurs and this is our first venture in Seattle. The roots that you see in the food from Mexico exist just as much in tequila and we have an opportunity to combine those and create a new experience.”

COA is a sophisticated, low-stress neighborhood eatery that will offer lunch specials, a dinner menu and an extended happy hour. COA will offer authentic, handcrafted Mexican cuisine such as tacos, molé, carne asada and more that will pair well with over 50 hand-selected tequilas offered in the bar. COA’s initiative is to combine local, fresh ingredients with simple, bold flavors to deliver traditional dishes with an edge.

“I have always loved the Maple Leaf neighborhood and knew it was where I wanted to bring this concept,” says Carreon. I have watched the area grow so much over the past 10 years and I know COA will fit great in the neighborhood. My fiancé, Juanita, and I look forward to getting further connected with the community,” he concluded.

A coa is a tool that jimadors have used for hundreds of years to harvest agave. It is a tool that has endured and represents a culture that hasn’t been replaced with advanced technology.

Follow @coatequileria for updates and progress.

Eric sent us this photo, which he said was taken at Northeast 79th Street and Eighth Avenue Northeast.

The hail has died away now (3:15 p.m.) but it’s rained a third of an inch since this morning. That’s on top of 0.60 inches on Tuesday and 2 inches Sunday through Monday.

For an animated look at current rain and a one-hour forecast, go to Seattle RainWatch.

Good news! The forecast calls for a sunny day Thursday. But only Thursday.

Did you catch the feature in last weekend’s Pacific Northwest magazine about the future — or perhaps lack thereof — of Seattle’s parks?

The piece, titled “Seattle’s parks in peril: the choices are to shrink, skimp or pay up,” paints a grim future that could make even the most optimistic Maple Leaf resident shudder.

Donna Hartmann-Miller, head of the Friends for a Greater Maple Leaf Park committee, expects to kick off fundraising for the new Maple Leaf Reservoir Park at the next Maple Leaf General Meeting, from 7-9 p.m. Wednesday, April 27, at Olympic View Elementary, 504 N.E. 95th St.

Although the money mainly will be used for matching funds or to top off grants, we have to wonder if the supply of those grants is about to dry up, or if we should have more long-term concerns if Seattle Parks and Recreation continues to be unable to maintain its parks, as the article suggests. After all, the new Maple Leaf Reservoir Park will be adding 15 acres of parks space that will need to be maintained to the already 5.5-acre Maple Leaf Playground.

But that’s also a 20.5-acre park that Maple Leaf residents really want, and are willing to fight for. And maybe even pay up for. (more…)

North Helpline just keeps making it easy to help them in their effort to end hunger in the North End. On April 2, the food bank is inviting the community to recycle their electronics from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at Lake City Christian Church, 1933 N.E. 125th St. And if you’re heading there anyway, why not bring some food to donate to the food bank that has seen demand grow more than 37 percent in the past year?

Another event that community members can benefit from while also helping North Helpline is coming up March 31, the “Lake City Supper Club Dinner to Benefit North Helpline”:

“Talented, local chef, Cameo McRoberts (who has worked for the likes of Kathy Casey and Rick Bayless) will host a benefit dinner for North Helpline. Enjoy delicious Mexican fare and locally made brews while ending hunger in our community.”

There will be two seatings at 6 and 8 p.m. A minimum donation of $35 per person is requested, and seating is limited so reservations must be made in advance. All proceeds will go to North Helpline. To make a reservation, email [email protected]. While you mull it over, here’s the menu:

Roasted tomato salsa and sikil pac and chips (Yucatan version of hummus, made with pumpkin seeds so similar to chips and dip)

Appetizer: Mochomos fried shredded beef served with a bright guajillo sauce and roasted Serrano guacamole limes and hot tortillas

Ensalada Fresca: (Served on a platter family style) Cucumber, jicama, orange and served with tequila spiked lime vinaigrette

Main: Cochinita pibil — slow-braised achiote pork served with black beans, pickled onion, and roasted habanera salsa and tortillas

Vegetarian Main: Slow-braised squash and mushrooms with vegetarian black beans, pickled onion, and roasted habanera salsa and tortillas

Dessert: Pastel de tres leches

Find any lost keys on the street? Michelle would like hers back.

Call her at 206-522-2767.

(She posted this on Saturday at the Dog Oasis, 12th Avenue Northeast and Northeast 89th Street. )

Earlier this week, Edgar Carreon contacted us to let us know that he’s the new tenant at the former location of Divine, 7919 Roosevelt Way N.E. Are you ready for COA | mexican eatery & tequileria?

We’re still trying to get the details from Carreon, so stay tuned. In the meantime, COA’s Facebook page has enough tidbits to make your mouth water while you wait!

It rained 1.5 inches over the past 24 hours in Maple Leaf. More is on the way, according to the National Weather Service in Seattle.

And wind. Our news partners at The Seattle Times have a headline today that reads: “High winds, intense rain in Thursday forecast.”

The day is likely to start with winds between 10 and 20 miles per hour, (meteorologist Johnny) Burg said, and the wind strength will gradually increase in the late morning.

“By noon, we’ll have gusts up to 50 miles per hour” in the Seattle area, Burg said. A wind advisory is in effect from 10 a.m. until 10 p.m. Thursday.

Almost there … but not until it stops raining.

That’s the word from the city Department of Transportation about the 15th Avenue bridge reopening, which should have been about now.

And, in fact, it’s about ready, according to e-mails between Joshua Newman, president of the Maple Leaf Community Council, and Kit Loo, of SDOT.

When we last wrote about the bridge, which closed May 17 for repairs and upgrades, it was waiting for a concrete overlay on the deck surface. That work was expected to require seven rainless days. In a row.

THAT hasn’t happened. Instead, it rained for 22 of February’s 28 days.(Heck, have you looked outside today? It rained another half-inch between daybreak and noon.)

The city and the bridge contractors have puzzled out a way to cut the needed dry spell to three days, but even that is not in the forecast.

According to Loo’s e-mail on Tuesday:

If we were able to get the good clear weather window, the Contractor had anticipated completing the project by next week.

But as you can see the weather has stymied our efforts. We have been working with the Contractor to figure out some ways to work around the short weather windows that is typical during this time of the year. We have been able to work out a plan that has compressed the weather window down to at least 3 days without rain.

Once the weather cooperates and the concrete (yes, it’s still going to be concrete, @chris), overlay is down, it will take about ten additional work days to open the bridge, Loo said.

We had also looked into the possibility of suspending work and opening the bridge temporarily… in consultation with Metro regarding the re-routes, the costs, and the confusion that drivers may have regarding the re-opening and reclosing the bridge in order to complete the overlay, suspending the work to future date was not an attractive option.

A few months ago we had a reader wonder, in response to a post about Northgate Mall, “is this a paid advertisement?”

Mai Ling responded, “absolutely not.” And she is absolutely correct.

Although Maple Leaf Life is published online, both of us have old-line journalism values and ethics. We don’t trade news coverage for advertising. Ever.

We also don’t accept gifts of any kind from people or businesses involved in our news coverage.

That said, we do need advertisers - they are what pays the bills. We want them to advertise with us as a trusted local business because we’re a good value for them. And we believe readers would want to support our advertisers.

With our one-year anniversary just behind us, traffic at Maple Leaf Life is approaching a thousand page views every day (we attracted 25,000 page views in December, from over 8,000 unique users). And well over a thousand people follow us on social media — we have right at 500 Facebook users, and 650 followers on Twitter.

The North Seattle network of sites that we’re a part of — Next Door Media — draws 1.2 million page views per month, from 236,000 unique users.

This month we’ll be sending local businesses an offer to advertise with us (pdf) including, for no additional charge, online discount coupons through North Seattle Guide that are promoted through social media.The big selling point there is the money stays with our local businesses and customers, unlike mega-sites like Groupon that take as much as 50 percent. More details about advertising can be found here, and there’s a coupon FAQ here.

Update: To compare our neighborhood’s crime, check this similar post from our sister site Queen Anne View.

Major crimes in the city and in the neighborhood, including robberies, are trending downward, according to 2010 numbers just released by the Seattle Police Department.

As of the end of 2010, Violent Crimes were down by 9% compared with 2009, led by a 20% decrease in robberies. Property Crimes were down by 5% across the City, with a slight increase only in vehicle thefts.

And in Maple Leaf? Pretty much the same picture, which is what police told a neighborhood meeting in January.

Here are some numbers for crime in the patrol beat that most resembles the neighborhood, Union1.

Robberies. There were 16 robberies in Union 1 in 2010 verses 32 in 2009.

Burglaries. There were 190 burglaries in 2010 vs. 188 in 2009.

Stolen cars. There were 113 cars stolen in 2010 vs. 96 in 2009.

(Note, though, that although Union 1 most resembles Maple Leaf, about half of it doesn’t.)

Speaking of those crimes, since our last neighborhood crime report on Feb. 23, police report: (more…)

Update: Curry Now! has canceled for Wednesday. Also, our news partner The Seattle Times has a piece on proposals to make street food more readily available.

It appears that we made it through the winter with enough business heading to our lunchtime street food vendors that they’re sticking around for more.

After a dead-of-the-winter departure from the regular stopping spot at the Washington Dental Service building, 9706 Fourth Ave., Molly Moon’s Homemade Ice Cream is returning from noon to 1:30 p.m. Thursday, along with a handful of other mobile food vendors this week.

Tomorrow, Got Soup? will park in its regular spot from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m.; followed by Curry Now! from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Wednesday; Lumpia World from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Thursday; and Charlie’s Buns ‘n Stuff from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Friday.

Yes, we realize that the last time we posted almost all of these vendors’ names, they canceled their appearances, but apparently the very-below-freezing weather that week was a bit too much for those kitchens on wheels.