By JOHN MARSHALL
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTER

Montlake is not quite heaven. The scarcity of parking remains a problem in the neighborhood, although a decade of permit parking and stringent city enforcement on Husky football game days has all but erased the sting that Montlake residents used to feel when Husky fans once set up tailgate parties on their parking strips at 10 a.m.

Petty crime can also be a problem. The peaceful serenity of Montlake parks is interrupted by signs warning "High car prowl area." Burglaries are not unknown in Montlake, either. The Daily Grind lost its cash register and stereo in a recent burglary, while across the street, Montlake Bike Shop has menacing metal bars inside its windows, installed after five burglaries in two weeks in 1985. "I don't like the bars," admits owner Neil Wechsler, who started as a one-man shop and did so well that he expanded to two satellite stores on the Eastside. "But they do work."