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

Maple Leaf was still a solidly blue-collar neighborhood when Tom Stephenson bought the local hardware store in 1973. Through the business' wide glass windows, Stephenson has watched it gradually evolve in recent years as longtime customers died or sold out and newcomers moved in.

Nowhere is the new face of Maple Leaf more clearly reflected than on the shelves of Mike Kelley's Reckless Video store.

The videos -- prize-winning, film noir, kid-friendly, subtitled, or of gay and lesbian interest -- mirror the mostly white, educated, professional community the store increasingly serves. "Sort of pre-Yuppie, coffee-drinking, office-commuting, shopping-on-the-Internet kind of people in their mid-30s," says Kelley, Stephenson's son-in-law.

These are the folks who snap up nearby bungalows, ramblers, colonials and builder homes as soon as they are listed, says Fiona Saulness, a Windermere Realtor who fell in love with the area 10 years ago.

"You really have everything you need here," Saulness says. "I refer clients to the aromatherapy place down the street. My chiropractor is nearby. I buy engraved door knockers for my clients a few doors over. You've got groceries, pharmacies, restaurants, and you're really close to downtown."

Good location usually comes with a stiff price tag.

"You can still get a house in Maple Leaf for under $200,000," says Saulness, who trods the neighborhood each morning with her aging labrador, Buddy.

Asking prices for the 21 homes for sale in Maple Leaf in May ranged from $119,950 to $310,000. The average price of those listings was $229,856 and the average market time was 17 days, Saulness says.