Neighborhood is another one of Seattle's best-kept secrets

By KIMBERLY A.C. WILSON
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTER

Never has a fortune cookie's message rung more true than on this day at a restaurant in Seattle's Maple Leaf area:

"Your life is currently in a good place."

Philosophically and geographically, the sentiment is as close to prescience as a baked good can get.

This is, after all, one of Seattle's best-kept secrets, an unassuming neighborhood of shady streets, sturdy houses, hardy businesses and loyal residents who settle in for life.

From its working-man's barbershop (the Tree Top) to its antique kitchenware store (the Cellaret), Maple Leaf is a neighborhood both a bus-driving Honeymooner like Ralph Kramden and Martha Stewart could love.

"When I bought my home (in 1992), I thought I'd gone back into the 1950s," says third-generation resident Renee Young. "The day we moved in, somebody was at the door with a rum raisin cream pie. People just don't do that anymore in other places."

Not that Young, 36, has had much experience in other places: She was born, reared and educated within the almost wholly residential grid of streets wedged between Interstate 5, Northgate Way, Lake City Way and Northeast 75th Street. Baptized at St. Catherine of Siena, displayed to her grandparents' friends over meals at The Bells -- Young is as Maple Leaf as they come.

Still, she moved onto Queen Anne Hill after marrying Joe Young.

Four years later, Young was itching for a rural, idyllic neighborhood where her three children could experience joys she remembered from her childhood.

Like a number of single professionals, young couples and modest-income families, she sought -- and found -- that certain something in the shadow of the giant blue water tower emblazoned with white maple leaves, hardly a mile northeast of Green Lake and three miles west of Lake Washington.

Even the most loyal advocate will concede that Maple Leaf is not known for any remarkable visual attractions or cultural centers. Like much of Seattle, there are sporadic views of the Olympics and the Cascades. Perhaps the area's greatest claim to fame are personalized traffic circles, designed with decorative maple leaves.

Still, Maple Leaf has won national attention for its access to good public schools -- including the new Olympic View Elementary -- well-attended churches, a popular cafe, tavern, barbershop, ballpark, puppet museum, mall and a smattering of good family restaurants.