In the past year or so, I've followed a routine of showering once a week, usually Thursdays, at the University District branch of the Urban Rest Stop. Except every fourth time, about once a month, I'd instead go get clean clothes out of my storage on Capitol Hill, go to the main downtown Urban Rest Stop to shower and put those clean clothes on, and put the dirty ones back into storage to wait for washing.
Recently, the first hotel, where I spent two weeks, had a shower in the room, so I got really clean. The next did not, and I only made my peace with showering there once, on Thursday, April 2.
Then I luxuriated in being able to skip the weekly interruption, and put off showering again until Thursday, April 30. This is where the title of your May 2 page, dear Diary, "Becoming Clean", your most popular page, comes from, though I forgot how I'd intended to work the shower in, and ended up leaving it out.
I meant to do better after that, but didn't. The first week, I just got lazy. Then on Wednesday, May 13, a friend watched my cart while I went to the U-District branch. They were closed for cleaning, the whole day.
On Thursday, May 21, I brought the cart along, but was greeted halfway through getting it up the steps: "You can't bring that in here." "Well, my backpack was just stolen; I'm certainly not leaving my cart in this alley." "Oh, don't worry; we wouldn't have let you bring a backpack in either." I am not making this up. Possibly this branch of the Urban Rest Stop no longer wants a homeless clientele. The next day, downtown, the branch of the Urban Rest Stop there said the cart would be fine, but I'd have to wear a mask, and they were out of free ones. (Our wonderful mayor's dastardly critics should chew on this: she actually did do a good job of getting masks to us when the time came.)
So just to maintain showering every four weeks, I should have gone downtown May 28, but I was too tired from my recent trip to Lake City, Northgate and such. Finally I decided to start with a quick shower at Green Lake Community Center to make myself less offensive on a train or bus south.
Hence my trip, June 5, up Ravenna Boulevard, which turned out to put me at the Community Center's doorstep. I did arrive in time to shower there, thank Heaven. (The hours are 10 A.M. to 8 P.M.) The towel I'd carried with me was in the stolen backpack, so they supplied two "disposable" "towels" - huge, thick paper towels. I'd showered at a community center once before, at Miller Park, where they have individual rooms, as at all branches of the Urban Rest Stop. Green Lake instead has a six-man shower, as in high school gym.
About 2/3 of the men I saw there were black. Isn't this a wonderful city we live in, where people of all races can share a space? Gosh, how progressive we are.
Green Lake Park
The shower also began my visits to about 2/3 of the parks in the Seattle parks department's list of 413 that a) are in North Seattle, and b) have addresses in "N" rather than "NE" or "NW" (as explained in yesterday's page, "Ravenna Boulevard"). I skipped 8 north of 80th St, but visited the 18 south of there. Three of these are major, famous Seattle parks, Green Lake the most so, and I decided there were probably enough photos of those, but there are photos of less famous parks later, and even my first two videos.
Anyway, there's a map of Green Lake which is pretty useful; among other things it shows the restrooms. In the park, you can find it near each pair of restrooms, including the community center's, but most are helpfully covered with "Crowded Parks Lead to Closed Parks" signs right now. There are several photos online, though, such as this one. I later took a picture of a smaller map:
The bulge of land on the maps' east side is where the community center is. I'd planned to go counter-clockwise, taking breaks from Green Lake to visit four nearby parks; the loop path is fortunately currently one way that way.
The Community Center has, of course, restrooms as well as showers. I suspect both closed shortly after 8 P.M.; I definitely found them closed at 9:51 P.M. A water fountain nearby was not running.
Next are restrooms at the park's north end, near the exit to Wallingford Ave. I found these open shortly after 8 P.M. Two water fountains are attached to the restroom building, a double fountain (as in Laurelhurst Playfield) nearby; none was running.
Near the bulge of land into the lake on its northwest is a theatre. The two restrooms near it are supposed to open only in summer; I found them closed at 8:30 P.M. A water fountain near them was not running.
I cover restrooms near the south end below.
The last pair of restrooms is near the 64th St exit from the park, on the southeast. I found it open at 9:42 P.M. Apparently it's already peak season at Green Lake, though not anywhere else. I visited it the next day; neither by day nor by night did I find a water fountain near these rooms.
I saw not only several tents but many people visibly homeless. If the surprisingly late open hours for some of the restrooms are concessions to this crowd, I'm surprised but pleased.
No map of Green Lake Park I've seen acknowledges the Green Lake Golf Course at the park's southeast corner. (EDIT 10/19 - False. See "South of North Once More, Part I".) It is rented by a company other than the one that rents Jackson Park. It has a clubhouse at the course's own southeast corner, open 9 A.M. to 8 P.M. in appropriate weather from February through October. And that clubhouse has one small restroom. I'm told, however, that this is for customers only.
Smaller Parks near Green Lake
Only one of these has restrooms and water fountains.
Crescent Place
This is a traffic circle or some such up (and I do mean up) Orin Court from East Green Lake Drive. The Wallingford Ave exit I took from Green Lake Park may not have been the best choice. I didn't dare approach closely because something like a block party was going on.
Linden Orchard Park
This is at the northwest corner of 67th St and Linden Ave; I reached it by exiting the loop at 68th St. It's the most enjoyable of this bunch, a P-Patch and a grassy area on which, when I visited, five boys with bikes may have been using a hillock to play king of. The park brags (both online and up close) of its tool shed, which the neighbours built as volunteers, and rather deserves the brags. Some photos of it:
Green Lake Small Craft Center
This is where the old Aqua Theater was. It's in Green Lake Park (at the south end of the loop, as postponed above), but has its own web page at the parks department. More importantly, here, and nowhere else in "N" south of 80th St, someone has turned the water fountains on. There's one attached to the restroom building between the rooms (which I found open at 9:17 P.M.), and one attached to the building next door, near the Small Craft Center's office. The Center itself is closed for the pandemic, but it left something wonderful behind. I got my water for June 6 there and found it good.
Keystone Place
A large traffic triangle where 57th St splits on reaching the street named Keystone Place, for finding which see below. I reached it through a maze of twisty little streets. All grass and trees.
Corliss Place
A large traffic triangle where Keystone Place (the street) splits on reaching 50th St. All grass and trees; I found it slightly less gracious than its slightly larger neighbour to the north, but that may just have been because this one hadn't been mown in longer. Anyway, if you want to see Keystone Place (the park) find this one and head north.
Meridian Playground
This is rather a large park to be called just a playground - over seven acres - but I suppose, since it offers essentially nothing to athletes, it's stuck. It has three entrances worth noting: 1) through the Good Shepherd Center, opened as recently as 1907 as a girls' orphanage and "home for wayward girls", now a nonprofit landlord to other nonprofits like the local University Heights; 2) through its archway at 50th St and Meridian Ave, which won't get you anywhere but can be fun; 3) up a ramp where Bagley Ave (one block east of Meridian) ends, between private houses, north of 47th St, which is the practical entrance, especially for wheeled folk like me.
Meridian Playground is deeply peculiar, and announces this in its sign:
Archway? Yes. I first entered Meridian Playground thus at night, and found it really creepy. This two-minute video, made two nights later (June 7), attempts to recapture that feeling:
If you don't want to be scared, here's a (rather shorter) daytime view:
And if you just don't like videos, here's a still shot:
The playground proper is surrounded by a low wall, with several gates, each of which has a small, uncredited, sculpture atop each post. The most prominent gate has images of the site's past, but the rest come from children's books. The first ones I noticed are of a scraggly crow, and three bats, to my mind continuing the horror theme:
I have no idea why an orphanage had a bandstand, but the reason the park advertises it isn't just that it's old, but also that it has a stained glass ceiling:
Unfortunately, one other weird thing about Meridian Playground is that it's in the process of not having a water fountain:
Some homeless people, but not a lot, are camping in this park.
Woodland Park
Woodland Park is a park in two parts, which the city accounts for, as real estate, as "Lower Woodland Park" and "Woodland Park Zoo". I think those are blocks: the block bordered by Green Lake Way, 50th St, Aurora Ave, and West Green Lake Way isn't all physically "lower", and the one bordered by Aurora, 50th, Phinney Ave, and 59th St isn't all zoo. Nobody seems to have made a useful map of the whole park, either. See instead:
- The official zoo map (sort of covers the rest of its block)
- The city's map of northwestern "Lower" block (most of which isn't all that low)
- The city's map of southwestern "Lower" block
- A map outlining the eastern "Lower" block (which is, as this map suggests, mostly athletic fields).
Woodland Park has more restrooms than any other park I've visited in Seattle: at least five pairs, all open, in the "lower" block, and at least nine in the zoo block. Unfortunately, the latter are not only paywalled in the zoo, but currently closed with the zoo.
The non-zoo parts of the zoo block are in the corners. The southeast and northwest ones matter most. In the southeast is the Woodland Park Rose Garden, bolded because it's a separate park in the parks department's list of 413. Its only entrance seems to be the one I found adjoining a zoo parking lot, which says it's closed, as is the zoo. In the northwest is the park's playground and other basic park features, but no water fountains. (EDIT 10/19 - False. See "South of North Once More, Part II".) There are trails around the rose garden and in the northeast; I don't remember much from the southwest, but the zoo's map says there's a war memorial.
In the athletic fields with which Woodland Park faces east, there's one bona fide baseball field, with restrooms behind it as well as two water fountains broken as the one at Meridian Playground is, apparently by piping thieves:
Somewhat north of there, four sandlot ballfields form a "cloverleaf", at whose centre are restrooms and a water fountain that actually is running, but only in a trickle:
The non-zoo parts of the zoo block are in the corners. The southeast and northwest ones matter most. In the southeast is the Woodland Park Rose Garden, bolded because it's a separate park in the parks department's list of 413. Its only entrance seems to be the one I found adjoining a zoo parking lot, which says it's closed, as is the zoo. In the northwest is the park's playground and other basic park features, but no water fountains. (EDIT 10/19 - False. See "South of North Once More, Part II".) There are trails around the rose garden and in the northeast; I don't remember much from the southwest, but the zoo's map says there's a war memorial.
In the athletic fields with which Woodland Park faces east, there's one bona fide baseball field, with restrooms behind it as well as two water fountains broken as the one at Meridian Playground is, apparently by piping thieves:
Somewhat north of there, four sandlot ballfields form a "cloverleaf", at whose centre are restrooms and a water fountain that actually is running, but only in a trickle:
The restrooms and water fountains on the Aurora side of the block need less attention. Two are where the city's maps show them, south and central, and their water fountains aren't running. One is near the lawn bowling greens on the maps. The water fountain near those is inside a fenced green, so although it doesn't look like it's running, I can't be sure. Near where Woodland Park Ave ends at 50th St, there's a water fountain unaffiliated with any restrooms, not running.
Many homeless people are camping in this half of the block, and they've gotten at least one picnic shelter sink turned on; it was being run to overflowing while I was there.
There are three pedestrian overpasses over Aurora Ave between 50th and 59th Streets. The southern one provides access to the southeastern trails in the zoo block, whose sole purpose seems to be to let hikers run up against the rose garden's fence. The middle one bumps straight into the zoo's wall. The northern one might well reach the northeastern trails, which I saw people apparently enjoying, but I'd had enough and didn't try it.
I probably didn't miss, in the hours I spent in Woodland Park, more than five restrooms, or twenty water fountains.
Whew. All for today, dear Diary. Tomorrow the parks of Fremont, and further south in Wallingford.
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