Lake City Ain't Big Enough for the Both of Us!

Dear Diary,

From Jackson Park I took 135th St to Lake City.  And this is how, for the first time, I found a mistake in my physical map (Rand McNally, 2016) that Google Maps doesn't copy:  Google Maps knows about the blocking of 135th between 27th and 28th Avenues, but my map doesn't.

Anyway, in the fullness of time I reached

Little Brook Park

Introduced May 28 in "Top of the City, Part I".

As I arrived, the single restroom was occupied, as evidenced by the man in there singing while using the sink, but I was able to verify that the water fountain, which had been running in the dark days when few were, was no longer doing so.  Maybe it was out of order, but given that this is a neighbourhood that only gets one park restroom - not even the usual two - I can't help but wonder if maybe there's water rationing in Lake City, such that the two fountains I found had been turned on farther south required this one to be turned off.

Anyway, I then decided to find out whether the park's namesake brook really is at the bottom of its lawn, and yes, it is:

Returning to the park's entrance, I took a picture of the park from there:

and then got antsy.  Surely that man had been in the restroom for at least ten minutes since I arrived?  Well, maybe, but the time stamps on those two photos differ by only 3.5 minutes, so probably not.  Anyway, I walked up to the door and called out "Excuse me, please".  All I needed to do was check whether there was a dryer, after all, and I could leave him in peace.

Or maybe not.  As soon as I spoke, he switched from singing to a torrent of obscenity focused on his not being allowed to do Number Two in peace.  He came out of the restroom shortly, shepherding a child's bike.  (Maybe he was psyching himself up for a family birthday party?)  He was probably two decades younger than me, somewhat taller, and much more muscular; he was obviously dying to pound me into the pavement, but had enough decency or fear of the law to wait for me to attack first.  So he rammed the bike into my cart and walked away, still ranting as obscenely and insultingly as he could.

The restroom at Little Brook Park does have a dryer; I've already written voluminously about its lack of a meaningful door; I found that the soap was stolen.

This page's title has more meaning than just "two guys who deserved each other barely avoided fighting".  When it comes to park restrooms, Lake City doesn't have room for any "both".  And any time now, or perhaps already, since that restroom is seasonal, it won't have room for anyone at all.

Cedar Park

Introduced in the same page.

This is one of the two parks whose water fountains had been turned on.

It's a school playground, so its basketball "court" is even more problematic than might be the case in another park:

Again, I tried to take a general picture of the park.  As I'll someday explain, I hope, dear Diary, I've gotten less concerned, since the visit to Woodland Park earlier in this hike, about people being included in my photos if they're far enough away.

Lake City Hub Urban Village Acquisition

This was the first of the 'last seven' parks I visited June 27, and again October 11.  It's on 33rd Ave, north of 125th St.  It didn't look like much on either visit, but in June a poster was up announcing a contest to name the park.  Not so in October:

I can't predict the park's name when it gets one, but can predict two other things.  It won't have restrooms.  And it won't have wooden benches; any furniture it gets will be metal, to remind visitors that parks should never be visited in the rain or cold.

I'm pretty sure that it was after this that, fumbling my cart near a bus stop, a gentleman I wouldn't have hesitated to call "older" five years ago offered me his seat in a bus shelter.  I happily refused, but it got me thinking some more about what Lake City's big enough for.

Little Brook Creek Natural Area

This second of the last seven is a substantial area on 35th Ave, roughly filling the east side of the bend between, on the west, 33rd Place and 34th Ave.  Much is wooded, and a sign in a part that isn't promises, as in so very many places in North Seattle, "another future healthy forest".  There is no other signage.

Homewood Natural Area

The third of the last seven is halfway between 117th and 120th on Lake City Way.  It's a much more established Natural Area.  It has one of those Thornton Creek signs:

and also actually has, well along its only trail, Thornton Creek:

Virgil Flaim Park

Introduced in the same page as Little Brook and Cedar Parks.

Its water fountain had been turned on.

I took a picture of the park.  I wanted to photograph the basketball area specifically - it has two hoops facing each other, though with lines around only one.  But it was too crowded.  So only this:

in which you can barely see the backboards.

As I returned to downtown Lake City, I found part of how the area gets by with such neglect of park plumbing.  I did my first splurge from the $500 I'd been given that morning, a meal at the Dick's Drive-In at 123rd, and found that they have not just a "sanican" but actual restrooms, just out of reach of sustained employee observation, and keeping more or less park hours.  Isn't it wonderful when private citizens step up to fulfill neglected public responsibilities?

Albert Davis Park

I didn't pay much attention to the huge encampments in the downtown Lake City parks (introduced in the same page) this time, but did verify that the water fountain at this one remains off.

Then I had to go all the way back to Cedar Park for a stupid reason, after which Pinehurst Playground, already covered in the last page, was the last park I had time to visit on October 11.

All for now, dear Diary.  Good night.