Two Hours and Two Hours

Dear Diary,

I was hoping today to update you on the local parks, but I should've known better:  even on days when I've started much earlier, I haven't yet managed to get to Magnuson Park and get to University Playground early enough that I can be sure a locked door is really locked, and not just for the night.  But today I could've done all the rest, except...

So instead I'll tell you the story of the evening of the 27th, last Wednesday, and then I'll explain why I also didn't get to Ravenna and Cowen Parks today, and also expound some more on the wisdom of our mayor.  Yes, it all ties together.

I took buses to get back from Maple Leaf Reservoir Park to campus that day, and as I lugged my cart down the steps to the place where I usually charge the phone on which I write in you, dear Diary - as I arrived there, the big clock there told me it was 6:00 P.M.  But before I could even plug the phone in, I was suddenly seized with a pressing need to do Number Two.  So I repacked what little I'd unpacked, lugged the cart back up the steps, and headed for upper Ravenna Park's restrooms.

But there I found one toilet clogged (again), and the other occupied by a guy even more desperate to spend his days inside again than I am; he had set himself up in that stall and would stay as long as he could.  I decided this interpretation might be wrong and I should wait ten minutes, at 6:43 P.M.  In the end I only had patience for five minutes, and left for lower Ravenna at 6:48.  I thought I heard him flush and move while I was barely within hearing range.

I saw a Seattle Parks and Recreation truck as I arrived at lower Ravenna, and felt relieved when it didn't head for the restrooms - but that was because it had just come from them, as a bystander explained when I found the doors locked.  As I trundled away, it was 7:00 P.M.

Next stop, University Village.  It had locked its public restrooms in early April, a few days after I left the last hotel, but had re-opened them a few days before.  Not, however, after 7 P.M.

So I wound up in Safeway hours earlier than usual, to use their beleaguered restroom, buy something to make up for it, and head back uphill to campus.  This time that big clock read 8:18 P.M.

So call that two hours.

I wasn't sure how to write about that, so put it off.  I mean, obviously the strict enforcement of the closing time for Ravenna Park's restrooms must be good for me, or the city wouldn't have done it.  But I just couldn't quite figure out how.

Tonight that's much clearer.  Tonight I found the lower Ravenna Park restrooms locked at 6:27 P.M., the upper likewise at 6:38.  I'm not really quibbling over the half-hour difference.  I'm sure it isn't really that risky to eat supper with sanitizer on your hands.  But it's renewed confirmation that closing time is still 7 P.M., not 9.  And so I finally understand how early restroom closings benefit me.  They're vocabulary lessons.

Let me unpack a bit.  The day I started to write you, dear Diary, I learnt (I thought from Erica C. Barnett, but now am not sure) of a a city restroom list (PDF).  This is, for example, where I got the term "sanican".  Another thing I got from it is that most park restrooms have two sets of hours:  7 A.M. to 7 P.M. normally, but 7 A.M. to 9 P.M. "Peak Season Only".

Now, when I first saw the restrooms in the Laurelhurst Community Center, they had signs on their doors, saying that those doors would be locked at 7:00 P.M. from October through March.  So when I saw the list, I interpreted this as meaning that "peak season" ran from April through September.

Do you remember, dear Diary, how a couple of times I've been "shocked" to find a restroom locked at 7:40 P.M.?  This is why.

So.  There's a seasonal restroom at Magnuson Park that isn't yet open as of today.  I haven't been there for nearly a month, but I bet the seasonal showers and restrooms at Matthews Beach aren't open yet either.  Time is running out for these "seasons".

But in what sense is it not "peak season" for Seattle's parks?  Does peak begin based on the weather?  So last year's cold summer it never happened?  Does it begin when school's out?  Funny, I thought school had been out since March.  Does it begin when parks get crowded?  "Crowded parks lead to closed parks."

In addition, there are emergencies to consider.  King County's executive Dow Constantine and Seattle's then-mayor Ed Murray both declared homelessness an "emergency" in 2015.  These declarations have not yet been revoked.  In addition, everyone in the world has declared COVID-19 an "emergency".  One element of the intersection of these "emergencies" is that unsheltered homeless people like me, and for that matter sheltered ones still put out onto the streets by day, have been told to use parks' restrooms; that is, after all, your entire premise, dear Diary.  Wouldn't you think this double emergency would call for, among other things, rigging every question of "seasons" in our favour?

No, of course not.  Because "emergency" really means "something about which nothing should be done".  Oh, my story implies other benefits.  I've learnt that Number Two may require me to walk miles, and wait hours, so I need much more self-discipline.  If I was right about that guy in upper Ravenna Park, thanks to the other U-District park restrooms being closed, he has more power these days, to monopolise a whole neighbourhood's park restrooms, than he's probably had in years.  These are not small benefits.  But I think the main good thing that arises from it taking me two hours to find a toilet, because the parks are closing two hours earlier than they should, is that it's clarified for me the meaning of "emergency".

State of the local parks, with pictures, tomorrow, dear Diary.  Good night.