Two Last Strays

Dear Diary,

This page introduces two last parks, after which I think I'll have told you about all the Seattle Department of Parks and Recreation parks in North Seattle that can be found from two lists:  in the department's website, and in the city's annual "real property report" for 2020.  Now, that report is completed and sent to the city council in January of each year, so I can't claim to be genuinely up to date.  But at least last year, the new one wasn't available online yet by May, so for some months it'll probably be difficult to find out about additional incipient parks, which is what these two are.

I visited both parks on days I spent mainly visiting street ends, October 14 and 20.  I also spent most of October 17 on that.  You may remember, dear Diary, that I introduced street ends back on October 8, in "Lake Union's North Shore", and included in that page photos of varying quality.  This bothered me, so I thought about what photos would really be useful in presenting a street end, and visited or re-visited all those in North Seattle on those three days, trying to take three photos each.

Most North Seattle street ends belong to the Department of Transportation, not the parks department, and like other parks not Parks' I've found in North Seattle, have no water fountains, let alone restrooms.  The two parks this page is about also lack these amenities.  My purpose in visiting everything I could, between April and October, was simply to make sure I could say with confidence where water fountains and restrooms could be found.

These two don't have them, and probably won't either, but I might as well get on with introducing them.

Laurelhurst Recreation Center

I was astonished that one of the new parks in the 2020 real property report, as against the 2019, was right across from Laurelhurst Playfield, just a few blocks horizontally and no more than a hundred feet vertically from where I used to sleep most nights, before this year.  I couldn't for the life of me figure out where in that part of Laurelhurst, a neighbourhood I thought I knew pretty well, a "Laurelhurst Recreation Center" could be.

Well, here's what's at the stated address:

I wonder how many of its students think of Laurelhurst Elementary as a "recreation center".

Now, I'm not privy to whatever dealmaking led to that line in the real property report last January, but I can guess, and my guess is that the parks department is mainly interested in, and the school district probably mainly wants help with, the playgrounds:

Well, we'll see.

Morningside Substation Site

On June 27, I wrote in you, dear Diary, a page claiming victory, like this page, in fact.  One way I know that claim, in "A Heavy Mile Stone", was wrong, is that in that page I dismissed this place, already listed in the 2019 property report, as obviously not a park.  Oops - the neighbours disagree.

It isn't at all big, a third of an acre, but some neighbours claim to have named it ("Wedgwood Community Park"), and others were meeting there on October 20 (obviously before I took the photo above), spreading seditious ideas like these:

It's a pity our wonderful mayor won't be around much longer to stand steadfastly against such talk, but we can't demand her whole life from her, after all.

Anyway.  Maybe I'm wrong this time too, but as best I know, I'm done introducing parks department parks to you, dear Diary.  Tomorrow I hope to tell you about my trip to Ballard October 16, and then I'm afraid it'll be several pages only shore-lovers could enjoy, as I go through the street ends.  So it may look like business as usual, dear Diary, but actually, I think I'm almost done writing you.  Maybe another month; I have some time-consuming hiking to do once the street end photos are off my phone.  But the end is in sight.