A Hike along Easy Market Street

Dear Diary,

The next several stops in my tour of city-owned properties in southern Ballard were along NW Market St, as the first set of stops had been, but what a different street:  flat, and crowded.  The crowds weren't so thick as to impede walking much, even given social distancing, so the flatness made a huge difference.

EDIT 5/11:  Map:

Fire Station No. 18

This region's fire station is near 15th Ave NW.  I didn't look closely at its door, given how many people were walking around.  It was also problematic because the sun was setting, meaning photos would better be taken from the west, but for half a block west of the station door, there were fire engine access driveways.  (There's no fire station in the region north of here; just two stations essentially cover all of "NW".  So no wonder.)  So all I did was try as best I could to take a postcard shot, which is this:

This building's predecessor is one of only three landmarks in this region.

Bergen Place

I first encountered this park right after the one next in this page, which I really like.  So I was primed for disappointment, and pretty much got it, but was so disappointed that I got things wrong and had to go back to correct them.  Then in the January hikes I wound up sleeping at this park in order to get to a charity that keeps rather early hours.  So by this time I figured I owed it.  I did what I could to take a good photograph of the art by Jenn Lee Dixon that I so dislike:

The Seattle Department of Parks and Recreation website says the title is "Witness Trees".

And looking around, seeing the difference from the bustle of the rest of Market St, I realised that however they may disappoint picky people like me, refuges right in the middle of the bustle are essential.  So I also, near as I can remember for the first time at this park, took just a landscape shot, without a specific target:

But hey, it also helps establish that no, the department has not gone and installed a water fountain here in the past year.

Marvin's Garden

This and Bergen Place each occupy roughly half a block, at opposite ends of the block.  So Marvin's Garden is maybe a hundred feet further from the bustle, and can be that much more serene.  So yes, I was probably unfair to Bergen Place in the past because of that contrast, but also because Marvin's Garden is really good at serene.  It dawned on me that while, in "History and Parks", part I, I had praised this park's landscape, I hadn't actually put it to the test of a photograph perpetrated by me.  So I did:

And no, no new water fountain here either.

Market Street Substation Site

Well, it turns out Seattle City Light isn't do-gooding everywhere.  The 2020 real property report says this site near 28th Ave NW is "Underutilized", is currently used for "Storage (Uncovered)", is planned for future use as "Microgrid", and has "Transformer & rectifier on Site".  I didn't see much storage going on:

and that looks to me like plenty enough space for a bunch of tents.  The transformer and rectifier are probably the equipment visible behind these stern warning signs:

and I admit some of my not-current peers are handy enough that it might be troublesome to let them camp next to those.  On the other hand, the city seems quite fond of this Phoenix Patrol security company I've mentioned in connection with Laurelhurst Community Center's and Green Lake Park's restrooms; why not give them a real security job?

Northwest Senior Center

This is at the southwest corner of 32nd Ave NW and NW Market St.  Near as I can tell, the city is the landlord of at least two of these; the current tenant's website sounds much more like a non-profit's than like a city website, and the addresses differ slightly, though there's only one actual door regardless.  Anyway, it's a refreshingly not-fully-closed door, that:

But of course when I got there, at 7:23 P.M., it was fully closed, and though I'm ageing I'm not yet what most people consider "senior" anyway, so I went on.  I passed what seemed to be several retirement-home buildings of considerable size not far from this place.  If there can be only two city-supported senior centers, seems like this has become a good spot for one of them.

When I passed those buildings, I was on my way to the third-last site in this region.  None is all that close to Market St, so those three sites belong to the next, and for tonight last, of these pages.