What Can a Hill Do with a Crown?

Dear Diary,

I thought "Crown Hill" surely the most aspirational neighbourhood name in Seattle, but no, it's named after the cemetery.  This, however, just defers the question.  There's a perfectly clear association between crowns and death in Christendom, but however did that cemetery come to hold any martyrs' remains?

Anyway.  Six parks to look at today, none big.  I first saw two the night of June 23, but looked again by day at those, and saw the others for the first time, June 24.  This page goes in June 24 order, so I start with where I slept.

Soundview Playfield

I reached this from the top of Golden Gardens Park by taking 85th St from 35th to 24th Avenues, hiking north to 90th St (for reasons that will soon become clear), then going most of the way to 15th Ave.  Once I found some benches, not so brightly lit that I'd be visible from the street, I settled.

In the morning I found myself facing the playfield; the playground was to my left (north), further away from 90th.  It took me a while to explore (at 10.5 acres it's this page's biggest park), and I had to ask a man working on the playfield about the restrooms, which were locked and therefore not my goal when I first tried their doors.

A small building well to the park's southeast, that is, towards 15th and 90th, has three doors.  On that day they were unmarked, but the two that opened (on a second try) were single-user restrooms.  One had a dryer, the other two dryers, the older one not working.

The water fountain which my memory claims is near the playground wasn't running.

There are five mosaicked pillars marking off the playground, easily the neatest thing I found.  I don't know who made them; there are no plaques, and if the info is online, I don't find it.  Here are photos from each end, but neither does the set justice.

Nature in North Beach

The neighbourhood behind the beach described in yesterday's page is named after it, and I assume these two parks, neither remotely beach-like, are named after the neighbourhood.

North Beach Ravine

This was supposed to be the next park after Golden Gardens, and on the 24th it was.  I considered its official address ambiguous, so I went up from 85th St on 31st Ave first.  This was the wrong way:

but I didn't regret the hike because 31st offers great views of the water:

In fact the proper dead end through which to approach this ravine is the one on 92nd St going west from 28th Ave:

although the view from 28th is mostly trees:

North Beach Park

This 8-acre park at 24th Ave and 90th St, was my first destination on the night of the 23rd; I figured it had to have something to offer to be called a "Park".  Well, it did:  it offered enough darkness that I could do Number One.

See, if North Beach Ravine is the ordinary, hostile kind of Natural Area, North Beach Park is the marginally friendly kind with signs and trails:

But that's all it is.  There isn't even a bench, so I had to plan the trip to Soundview standing up.

Dude, Where's My Park?

Can you guess what these three parks have in common?

Crown Hill Glen

This is on 19th Ave just before it ends at 89th St.  It used to be called "Crown Hill Natural Area".  It's a third of an acre.

From here on, there are homeless people (other than me) at many but not all parks.

Crown Hill Park

This acre-plus on Holman Road east of Mary Ave abuts yet another old school turned into housing for non-profits.  One of these took over the school's offer of its playground to the public, but like Nathan Hale High School broke its promise during the pandemic:

I didn't find anything especially neat at this bland park, whose neighbourhood schizophrenic decided he wanted to fight me once I was safely distant, and no, of course its water fountain didn't work, but it does have one weird thing:  a sort of half-skatebowl it calls a "skatespot".

Baker Park on Crown Hill

If Crown Hill Park is the neighbourhood meeting place, Baker is more the boutique spot.  It's smaller, 2/3 of an acre on 14th Ave behind Safeway, more pretentious (it even has the 6 A.M. to 10 P.M. schedule, alone of this page's parks), and more peaceful.  Of course it has no water fountain.  It does have a totem pole, and even though I have doubts about the thing's provenance and placement, I was so starved for art by this evening that I photographed it anyway:

It can be, and is, prouder of its "butterfly garden", and if that means the slightly dull-hued plantings that face the street, contrasting strongly with Seattle parks' usual bright green, then I thought they were neat too:

I haven't played entirely fair here.  Ballard has Playground, Commons and Corners all in a row, with the Pool nearby, and I said hardly a word.  Well, but this kind of thing isn't fair.  Ballard can get away with such repetition, but when Crown Hill does it (or rather, the parks department does it on Crown Hill's behalf), mockery fits.

Next page, dear Diary, bad news.  But not tonight.