Dear Diary,
Are you bored with the titles of recent pages? So am I, but there'll be two or three more like that. Today I didn't get to NE, but did finish NW, with what's become the usual need to go back to one site to see whether its restrooms are really closed or not.
I visited nine city parks today, in six hours - street grids are such wonderful conveniences for hiking! Predictably, all the slow parts were when I went off grid, to find the Burke-Gilman Trail's western water fountain and to investigate whether water fountains were running in the place I will, here, just call the Ballard Locks. (About two of those hours went to that, with two city parks involved. So the other seven took just four hours.)
Let me start, again, by function, then go by park. As on previous of these hikes, most of the photos of restroom doors and water fountains are at a public folder on my Google Drive, URL:
<https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1cfrNdJI9NVY3ux7OoGI7B8Vg3Klq3liT?usp=sharing>
but most of the photos in this page aren't in that folder.
Restrooms - Ballard Community Center's restrooms with doors that open to the outside, which are two gendered single-user stalls, weren't open around 3:50 P.M. today. Also, at about 4:07 P.M., the restrooms at the Seattle Public Library's Ballard branch were unavailable due to a staff break. The Portland Loo at Ballard Commons was available, but we'll get to that. Gilman Playground's restrooms are still closed. All other restrooms were open, including all those at the Locks.
As on previous of these hikes, I've been counting major items at men's and all-gender restrooms. For each restroom for which I indicate such a count, unless I say otherwise, I tried the sink, it did not splash my clothes, and the dryer, if any, worked.
Water fountains - I've yet to find the water fountain at Ballard Commons not running; it ran today. Gilman Playground's still runs. Every single water fountain I found at the Locks was running, even though the Locks still have a mask rule applied both outside and inside. I found no other running water fountains; the one on the Burke-Gilman Trail, eviscerated by metal thieves last year, and one at Loyal Heights Playfield, damaged last year, have both been removed.
Now by park.
Loyal Heights Community Center and Playfield
All three water fountains ran last October, but the north one (near the basketball area and the playground) was damaged. Last January the baseball field was a construction site, and the water fountain attached to the Community Center was running; I couldn't find the northern or southern free-standing fountains. In the case of the southern one, that's because it isn't as far south as I looked; it's closer to the ballfield's third base than to its home plate. The northern one was within a construction site in January, and still is, but this time I was able to see through the fence that it had been removed, whether because it was damaged, or in order to prevent more damage, or what, I don't know.
The men's room in the Community Center with a door that opens outside has one toilet [EDIT 5/24: with a stall door], one urinal, one sink, no dryer, and one soap dispenser.
The Loyal Heights Community Center is not yet swayed by the siren call of re-opening:
The schedules on the left are for the first quarter of 2020.
Salmon Bay Park
This park is nowhere near Salmon Bay, or any body of water; some developer had boats on the brain, naming streets north and south of this park "Canoe" and "Sloop", and the park itself wound up with a name that confuses even park staffers. (I called once about the restrooms here being closed, and it took a while before they'd believe me as to the park's location.)
Anyway, its restrooms were open and the attached water fountain isn't running. The dryer in the men's room is not the usual no-touch thing found in most park restrooms that have dryers:
Privacy in the men's toilet here is not much better than at Dahl Playfield. There, someone walking in has to turn in such a way that he'll then see anyone on the toilet unless he makes an effort not to. At Salmon Bay, someone walking briskly probably won't notice someone on the toilet, but otherwise...
That's intended as the view from the doorway. Note the thing on the left; that's the toilet.
Also, Salmon Bay Park's men's room has no urinal. One toilet without a stall door, one sink, one touch-driven dryer, one soap dispenser. I did not look for yellow spots on the toilet seat, but because this park has no sports facilities, it wouldn't have been a fair test.
Webster Park
I then cut hard west to get to this park which just has a water fountain (which only trickled last year, both in June and in October). Now it isn't even trickling.
On going south, I found myself at the Locks, and figured it was already late enough (1:19 P.M. for my first photo there) that I was unlikely to make it to "NE" by 7 P.M. So I might as well spend my spare time exploring the place.
Hiram M. Chittenden Locks
None of the photos in this section are in the Google Drive folder.
The first place I went was the Visitor Center. Now, strictly speaking, this is outside your remit, dear Diary, seeing as how it's a building whose doors opening to the outside don't, far as I know, include restroom doors. But I wanted to find out how open the Locks actually were.
This was partly because CDC or no CDC, the Locks still have a mask requirement:
and I figured, what's the point (to a housed person) of turning on water fountains in a place where nobody can drink from them? But I hadn't reckoned with the no-nonsense nature of the federal government, and in particular its squarest single institution, the U.S. Army, a post of whose this place actually is. (Really. See its website if you don't believe me, dear Diary.) So although the website doesn't deign to mention water fountains...
That's the Visitor Center's. I decided not to try to photograph restroom doors this trip, partly because the Visitor Center was pretty crowded, partly because the whole place was thronged. I also didn't take tourist photos, not even when an adjacent teenager pointed out a seal to her parents, but I sure photographed a whole lot of working water fountains. The men's room in the Visitor's Center has one toilet, one urinal, one sink, one dryer, and one soap dispenser. I don't think I tested the sink and dryer. The Visitor Center is currently open only Friday through Sunday, 10 A.M. to 6 P.M., so is not a major factor in a homeless person's decision about where to live, but I have some reason to think that might change soon.
The rest of the place, however... Its hours are 7 A.M. to 9 P.M. seven days per week, and although the restrooms might well open later or close earlier, I saw no reason to think so.
The city's employees might reasonably object that the Army can provide a lot of effectively free labour, but how much of that labour is plumbers? I was impressed.
These show a double fountain near the main restrooms. Those have - prepare to stay calm, dear Diary - two toilets, four urinals, three sinks, two dryers, and three soap dispensers. I did not try all the sinks and dryers; the one of each I tried worked fine. One of the soap dispensers did appear to be low on soap. Now, this is the kind of thing where more or less free labour makes a big difference - cleaning and maintaining a monstrosity of this size.
This is a water fountain by what appears to be the Locks' main tourist attraction, the chance to watch boats actually locking one way or the other. As a result, it's hard to get to while observing social distancing; patience is an asset to those who wish to drink from this fountain.
These are the two attached to the southern restrooms, which actually, dear Diary, aren't in North Seattle at all, but they're such a short hike from North Seattle that I decided to tell you what's in the men's room anyway: two toilets, two urinals, two sinks, two dryers, and yes, we're in a very square place indeed, two soap dispensers. But there turn out to be limits to free labour, and these photos show that: both these fountains are badly overshooting their bowls. I would be reluctant to fill a bottle at either, and the second one, the one on the right as one faces the building, also back-splashes enough to give my newspaper its first water damage of the day.
Still, wow. Don't you wish we lived in a city that worked this well, dear Diary?
Carl S. English, Jr. Botanical Garden
Has no restrooms open to the public nor water fountains available to the public, at least not along any of the paved or the more obvious of the gravel trails. Does have many attractive and interesting plants.
Some day, dear Diary, when we have time for park appreciation again, I'll tell you as much as I reasonably can about the whole place, but right now, a drought's on, everywhere except downtown and the Ballard Locks, so it'll have to wait.
The Burke-Gilman Trail
Somehow recently I'd convinced myself that the western water fountain on this trail was way east of what I've previously told you, dear Diary. So I walked all the way to, I think, 26th Ave NW looking for it, eating lunch on a bench outside the Nordic Museum again on the way, before realising my mistake and turning back. Then I walked all the way to the NW 60th St Viewpoint (which is today's extra, no plumbing, park) without seeing the fountain. Finally I had to consult your old pages that mentioned it - "The Ballard Seacoast" part I and "The Water Fountains of Ballard" - to find it, and even blow up the photos.
This is the current state of the BGT's western water fountain:
In case anyone reading you goes looking for it and even that much is gone, the clue I found it by is that it's at the NW 57th Street Street End, left of the entrance as one faces the water, near a yellow fire hydrant. (And no doubt that's why there's water there available for a fountain.)
Ballard Community Center and Playground
I couldn't get close to the building, because the front was crowded and the back was taped off, so I couldn't ask its opinion of the "re-opening" concept.
However, its outside-facing restrooms were closed. I think this is the first time I've found them so. I will, of course, go back to see whether they stay that way, but my guess right now is that, thanks to where homeless people are nearby, they probably will. Still, today was Sunday, the day when people outside are expected to fast, so there is another explanation, and I'll just have to add it to my list of things to investigate.
The water fountain was also off. Nope, nothing for homeless people here, now just move along...
Ballard Commons
As noted above, I've never found the water fountain here off, and that includes today. This park also has water on the side of the "Portland Loo", and in a hand-washing station, but the SPU sink I found here in January has been removed:
Also, the dryer on the side of the "Portland Loo" has been fixed and now delivers air. However, I've yet to get results from the soap dispenser, either January or today around 4:03 P.M.
The "Portland Loo" has one toilet, no urinal, no sink, no dryer, and no soap dispenser. Outside its door is a microscopic analogue to a sink with water, plus an old-fashioned dryer, plus an empty or broken soap dispenser.
On my way away I took a look at the Ballard branch of the Seattle Public Library. The sign announcing that the restrooms were open was clearly visible:
but it was one of the two days off "curbside services" (well, that's better than "pickup" anyway) currently have at that location, so wasn't a real test.
Gilman Playground
Kitty-corner from this park's northwest corner I saw an unexpected sign:
Let me translate for you, dear Diary: Someone's trying to build an SRO. In Seattle. In the 21st century. I can hardly believe it, but am awfully glad they're trying.
It would take about a hundred of those or more, to bring every homeless person in Seattle inside. The entire time I was homeless here, I figured Seattle would only be serious about housing the homeless when it started talking in thousands, the number there actually are, rather than hundreds, the number it's convenient to build for every year. One SRO is not the answer, but adding SROs back to the city's toolkit is an important step toward the day in the 22nd or possibly 42nd century when Seattle might be ready to consider the answer.
I can't tell you, dear Diary, what's in Gilman Playground's men's room, because it's still closed. The park's water fountain is still running.
Ross Park
The restrooms are open, the water fountain not running.
The men's room, which I had to use, since I hadn't been near an open men's room since the Locks and hadn't used any since leaving home, has one toilet with a stall door, one urinal, one sink, one dryer, and one soap dispenser.
I used to enjoy swinging on University Playground's swings, when I slept near there, until there were so many uncertain people around every time I went there that I wasn't willing to leave my stuff unprotected while I did so. Well, there were no visibly homeless people at Ross Park this early evening, and no families using the swingset to annoy, so I swang away. Yes, I share the bias against homeless people, and did even when I was homeless, but that doesn't mean I wanted everyone denied water. There's a difference between bias and hatred.
Whew. I've managed to tell you about this hike the same day, dear Diary. I have no reason to expect the NE hikes to be like that, but they might be. Anyway, I expect to spend tomorrow on other stuff, including but not limited to updating (and correcting) the maps, and updating (and expanding) the spreadsheet that's in the public folder. I'll probably show you the updated maps when I'm done. But until then, good night and a good day, dear Diary.
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