I'm very sorry this is late again, but I can't swear it won't happen again, because it probably will, tomorrow night and the one after. I told you I'd tried to visit the parks of northeastern Seattle when I was in touch with Erica C. Barnett. Well, it's time to make good on that promise.
Tonight's set is the parks between I-5, Lake City Way, 110th St, and the water, but only the parks shown on my old 2003 Rand McNally map of Seattle. Unfortunately I lost that map on one of the last visits, so I can't violate its copyright and show you pictures.
Tomorrow I'll use the official list of parks to cover the ones between Lake City Way and I-5, on Thursday whatever I can of the ones west of I-5. I hope one of those days also to cover parks omitted from the following list because they weren't on my map.
Anyway, I'm not trying to provide full overviews of all these parks, just put the parks I am covering more fully into context. I wanted to know whether two aspects of the local parks were unusual:
- Lots of closed restrooms; and
- Most water fountains not running.
In this group of parks, both these things are extremely unusual, but in opposite directions. I only found one more closed pair of restrooms to add to the four I already knew about. But the two running water fountains I'd already found are all the running water fountains I could find in the parks of this half of northeast Seattle.
I'm using this list to identify year-round restrooms and, by exclusion, seasonal ones.
So to proceed up Sand Point Way from where I sleep to:
1. Burke-Gilman Playground Park.
Restrooms, one pair, open, seasonal.
Water fountain, running.
I arrived at 7:14 A.M. to find the restrooms already open, and the water fountain, which projects from the restroom building, running. So I did my morning routine, eating the deli salad I'd bought the night before and drawing three bottles of water, drinking one.
Further along Sand Point Way to:
2. Warren G. Magnuson Park.
Three restroom pairs (plus one dead pair and three ghosts), two pairs open, the beach one year-round, the other two seasonal.
At least four water fountains, none running.
I wanted to cover things I'd left out of previous posts this time. So:
- The dryer still doesn't work in the beach men's room. (The beach water fountain doesn't project from the building, but is actually inset into it. It's a mystery to me why that fountain is ever shut off. EDIT 10/19 - Because it isn't inset into the building. I believed this when I wrote it, but it's never been true.)
- There in fact are no "sanicans" near parking lot E4.
- Someone got halfway through updating an events board, leaving the old listings piled next to the board:
- I wanted to get a better picture of the ducks. People kept walking their dogs off-leash along that stretch of shore, breaking two rules at once near as I can tell, and sending the ducks wherever we homeless go when swept (I later saw one pair along the Burke-Gilman Trail), but finally I got a chance:
Up Sand Point Way to 95th, before checking the map and finding the turn at 93rd, oops. This part of the trip provided opportunities to play many entertaining and instructive geographical games such as "Find the Sidewalk".
3. Matthews Beach.
Two pairs of restrooms, one pair open, which is open year-round.
One water fountain, projecting from the restroom building, not running. I may well have missed more.
The restrooms that are open are two single-user "all-gender" rooms, as at Laurelhurst Community Center. The ones that are closed are men's and women's, and include showers. Those could be helpful to the stressed-out employed homeless mentioned in my previous post, but the sign on the women's room door says it's a "seasonal" closure, and I'm sure nobody could want an out-of-season shower.
Back up Sand Point Way to 95th, then along 95th:
4. Thornton Creek Natural Area.
I not only didn't see any sign of plumbing, I didn't see any sign of trails that might lead to plumbing. (EDIT 10/19 - This part of the massive Thornton Creek complex of Natural Areas was renamed "Chinook Passage Natural Area" in 2019.)
Further along 95th to 35th Ave, then north on that to:
5. Meadowbrook Swimming Pool, Community Center, and Playfield.
Presumably the swimming pool has showers, closed as it is. The community center is closed too, not keeping its regular 9 A.M. to 9 P.M. hours, except that its child care still runs 8:30 A.M. to 2:30 P.M. and it offers showers, according to a woman encountered in the parking lot, 2 to 7 P.M. Presumably people there for either purpose also have access to toilets, sinks and water fountains. In the playfield behind the building(s),
One restroom pair, open, seasonal
Three water fountains, one projecting from the restroom building, none running
My map confused high school playfields with parks, but skipping on past Nathan Hale, along 110th Street the short distance to 30th Avenue, then down 30th Avenue, which turns into Ravenna Avenue, to 103rd, beyond which my map showed more of Thornton Creek Natural Area. (EDIT 10/19 - This is "Lavilla Meadows Natural Area".) Still no trails.
On to 98th St, where I crossed to Lake City Way. The long hike south on Lake City Way took me past much of Thornton Creek's backside, whether it was a Natural Area or just a sort of natural area. (EDIT 10/19 - Apparently the latter.) The hike also provided many opportunities for such exercises in self-knowledge as "Watch Myself Sunburn". I bought a bag of tortilla chips, my preferred salt delivery system, at the first food source on my side of the road, a Seven-Eleven. Finally, at 72nd St and 12th Ave (LCW having been et by I-5):
6. Froula Playground.
I saw no plumbing. (EDIT 10/19 - It's actually a park built on a still-operating reservoir's land. So this was careless of me to say, but it was also careless park-building.)
Not only my old map, but my much less detailed new 2016 map also thinks Roosevelt High School is a park.
But this had brought me to 12th Ave and 65th St; a quick walk along the latter and some fiddling with other streets got me into:
7. Ravenna-Eckstein Park
This is so dominated by a community center that I didn't expect any outdoor plumbing, but I was wrong; near a parkward door in the building is
One water fountain, not running
More fiddling got me to 25th Ave, which I took to 77th St and:
8. Waldo J. Dahl Playfield
One pair of restrooms, open, year-round
One water fountain, I don't remember where, not running
One of the biggest deficiencies Seattle's park men's rooms really have is privacy. I suppose some of the, for example, missing doors, could be the result of vandalism, but in most cases it seems designed that way, probably to ensure nobody has any fun in there. (Admittedly, some of the fun thus deterred tends to leave needles behind.)
Anyway, I'd talked myself out of testing men's rooms after Matthews Beach (which passed), but I needed to do Number One pretty badly by this time. And thus found out that in that men's room, anyone who walks in immediately sees the toilet, and anyone seated on it. (EDIT 10/19 - Not quite true. Anyone who walks in will collide with a wall unless they turn left, and then they'll immediately see the toilet.) I was lucky, nobody walking in while I was there, but seems to me that's a lawsuit begging to happen.
That men's room was also out of soap, and has no dryer. Not recommended.
East on 80th St to ... 28th Ave. Both my maps said 80th went through to 45th Ave; both lied. So up to 85th St and across, then back down to 80th to actually reach this part of 45th, which I took until it ended. This part of the hike, and the next, were enlivened by an incredible profusion of Little Free Libraries and such, though I didn't find any books I wanted.
9. Inverness Ravine Park.
I left this park convinced I hadn't found it, only to be set right by a friendly neighbour. Turns out it has three accesses, but two are blocked by blackberry bushes. The one on 45th is thus the only way in, but only across private land, and until a few years ago the owner blocked it. So there's no signage, and no such "improvements" as I'm telling you, dear Diary, about, but he said there is "plumbing": a sewer line runs through the ravine.
Back down 45th all the way to:
10. View Ridge Playfield
One pair of restrooms, open, year-round
One water fountain, not running
This time I decided to ask some people where all the water fountains were hidden. Turns out there was a water fountain near the restrooms as usual, but it was removed so as "to not spread germs".
Now I'd like to,believe this means the device was, say, hopelessly infested with E. coli, but I actually suspect this is a preview of Seattle's main excuse for discarding its inheritance for the next fifty years. I mean, "Let's wreck this before the junkies do", or "the homeless", always seemed obviously idiotic, for all that it often won anyway. But the nihilism behind "to not spread germs" isn't so clear. (Hint: "I don't know who's touched this car / house / clothing / food, so I won't use it.") And in Seattle, I suspect it'll mainly be used, as here, to get rid of public amenities.
Further down 45th, plus some more fiddling:
11. Bryant Playground
One water fountain, not running
I then returned to BGPP (this is when I saw the ducks on the trail). EDIT: By this time I was really thirsty, after all, and if I wanted more water, that was where I had to go.
My old map showed a waterfront park in the Windermere complex, Windermere Park, but said it was private. Now, I don't know it's still private. I do know that through an imposing gate one can see no buildings, and that the whole block in front of that gate is full of "No Parking" signs except where one black car is parked. But mainly I know that there's no Seattle Parks signage, which means I don't have to cover this park
From there I went through the local parks, except for BGPP. But there was a surprise at the first, Laurelhurst Playfield. A clock seen through a community center window read 7:40; the sun was going down, so this was P.M. But the restrooms (year-round) were locked. I knocked on the doors - were both just in,use? No answer. Well, the community center had been closed since before the time change - surely it was really 8:40? That got me out of the park, but six pieces of evidence over the next forty minutes showed the clock really meant 7:40 P.M. PDT.
Between hiking and a stop at the U-Village Safeway, none of the other times were shocking. Ravenna Park lower (year-round) was locked at 8:56. (I'd turned my phone back on.) The Ravenna Park upper (seasonal) men''s room was locked at 9:10, but the women's room wasn't, and I'm sorry, dear Diary, but we have a solution to the mystery of the light in the night. That light keeps coming on at night, but probably both times I've found doors there unlocked have been the work of non-parks employees such as the persons I found near the women's room that night.
Anyway, Cowen Park's rooms (seasonal) were locked at 9:29, but this time they were brilliantly lit, so I could see that the huge drift of leaves at the men's room doorway hadn't been disturbed. University Playground's doors (seasonal) were locked shortly after 10 P.M. But the main reason I re-visited all these parks was to check their water fountains. None ran except Ravenna upper's, just like last time.
I came back to campus via one last park on my old map, Christie Park. It was a tiny one at the southwest corner of 43rd St and Roosevelt. But the Jack Straw Cultural Center is there now, closed. EDIT: THIS IS COMPLETELY WRONG. SEE NEXT POST.
Further on my way, I drank from the street water fountain on 15th Ave just south of 43rd, and noticed that the building whose shrubbery it's in is to be demolished.
What a weird series of events! Dear Diary, I may not have time today to go to Northgate after all; I haven't even started going through the official list of parks. So maybe today's proper page will come before midnight after all.
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