Hikes 3C and 6A: Mid-North, the Rest

Dear Diary,

This page concerns three of the parks of Greenwood, which thieves and my own qualms have kept me from timely discussing with you before.  That is, I visited them in June like most of the rest of the parks in North Seattle, but by the time they were next to write about, enough time had passed that I thought I needed to go back to one.  Then before I could do so, my phone was stolen.  So I ended up returning in October, resulting in the only page before this series to say much about them, October 29's "Bad Apples in the Bonny Green Wood".

The photos of Sandel Playground and Greenwood Park date to January 9, those of Licton Springs Park (whose "bad apples" in June had occasioned my delay) January 14.  I went to all three parks both days, though, and to Sandel January 13 as well.  The only material change was that a tent at Licton Springs that had given me photography trouble 1/9 was clearly uninhabited by 1/14.

All three of these parks have restrooms, and all three were on the map from the homelessness division of the Department of Human Services (HSD) on the morning of January 9 and at 10:30 P.M. as I write this January 25.  However, none was on last year's list of park restrooms to keep open.  The map didn't, I think, originally include Greenwood Park, but the other two made for a promising indication that more park restrooms actually were being kept open this winter, as had been reported.

In June, Greenwood and Licton Springs Parks had campers.  In October, only Greenwood Park did.  In January I found relatively few tents at each.

That reminds me.  I forgot to mention in the page on hike 3B that tents in Green Lake Park had become considerably more numerous again, from their low last October.  I also had more to do with that park's borders this time, so saw many RVs, but have no idea how long they've been there.

It's a pity this year's point in time count was cancelled.  There's a lot of noise, but I suspect the number of homeless is already growing, eviction moratorium or no.  It would be better to have a more reliable basis.  Anyway...

Sandel Playground

The restroom building:

The closed doors:

For complicated technical reasons I'll explain to you pretty soon, dear Diary, the people responsible for the map may experience more shame over lying about this park than over the other two, or more ahead.

Greenwood Park

The reason I'm pretty sure this park wasn't originally on the map is that I e-mailed another journalist - well, a rather more real journalist than myself - a list of the things I didn't believe in the map soon after it came out, and didn't list this one.  I've complained about this park's single restroom and its twin at Little Brook Park, coming up, on several grounds, but the one relevant here is the ventilation holes through which peeping Toms can look.  As this suggests, each restroom is just a big box.  I e-mailed Rachel Schulkin a list of three parks that shouldn't be on the map, and the next day, as I recall, this one was.  I'm amazed the people behind the map don't realise that such absurdities weaken their whole case.

The box:

The locked door, in whose vestibule someone has pitched a tent:

The "sanican" listed by the map:

Licton Springs Park

This park was on the list of improbabilities I'd e-mailed, but I had hopes.  I had, after all, that very day, found Woodland Park's Cloverleaf restrooms, closed in October, re-opened; its lawn bowling rooms, closing threatened and expected, still open; and Green Lake Park's Bath House rooms open for the first time in my (limited) experience.  So the mere fact that I'd seen early closure notices posted partly to get rid of the slobs camping there?  Pah, what matter?

I've recently learnt that Blogspot removes both the ways my phone's camera dates its photos.  Conveniently, in January daylight serves as a proxy:  since standard park restroom hours (7 A.M. to 7 P.M.) include all the daylight, a day photo settles things.  (But my work on all-night restrooms, later in this series, includes no photos, because at this time of year night photos of open doors convey nothing.)

Anyway, on January 9 I arrived just before sunset.  The photos were good enough, but I deleted them and took new ones around 1:30 P.M. on January 14.

The building:

That's its best side despite the full-on view of both trash and "sanican"s because of all the lovely shelter from rain it would have offered if the bad apples hadn't messed it up.

The closed doors:

The "sanican"s the map lists:

And that's all for this page, dear Diary, and from me tonight.  Tomorrow I expect to be busy, but I hope to tell you about lots of hikes and related incidents on Wednesday.