Dear Diary,
As I told readers of the Seattle Times last year, I've spent much of my career as a temporary office worker. This made it hard to learn skills in depth, though I did become "expert" in Form 5500 reporting during the 1990s, when this required a weird version of accounting, as a temp. However, temp work does expose a person to many workplaces. Thus, for example, I know that many working Americans prefer to think of their workplaces as uniquely crazy. It's important to humour this belief.
More to the point, I also know a great deal about norms of office restrooms, and have some experience with restrooms of other kinds of workplaces (some of my jobs were in warehouses, for example).
And I never found one without a sink.
(Let me note one thing about that: I'm aware that construction workers have to put up with "sanican"s without hand-washing stations daily. Do they call those "restrooms" ? Is that where the re-definition started? In any event, I feel sorry for them, but that doesn't change my general argument.)
This carries forward to your pages, dear Diary. Last month I visited every park restroom in North Seattle, and for every open men's room or all-gender room, tried to list for you the important contents. That wasn't just a game, and it wasn't just so I could complain, as I did, about the creeping elimination of urinals. I also wanted to establish that every park restroom in North Seattle has a sink in it, with the exception of the "Portland Loo" at Ballard Commons, whose sink is outside instead.
But during this pandemic, with the city of Seattle unable to make up for previous administrations' demolition of public restrooms, the city has been trying desperately to convince its homeless citizens that the "sanican"s it can afford to put all over are just as good as the restrooms it can't, even though health problems have repeatedly resulted when homeless people have been gullible or desperate enough to buy this claim.
In this quest, the city has gone far enough, as part IIA of this series demonstrated, to try to re-define an English word, "restroom", to define the sinks out of it. Imagine for a moment what would happen if the city applied this re-definition everywhere. "Wait a minute, where are the sinks in our new home?" "Well, Seattle no longer requires sinks in dwellings." Nope, homeless people are special. We (I was, after all, homeless much of the time the city has been doing this) are supposed to be able to withstand things that nobody else would tolerate.
And in the forefront of this evil deed has been the city's "Homeless Strategy and Investment Division", a part of the Department of Human Services. Perhaps serving the kinds of humans who become homeless is no longer part of that department's remit, and the strategy and investments are meant to sub-humanise us still further?
Let's look at what the Division did with a map bearing the title "City-Funded Hygiene Services Available During COVID-19". Let's see the version of their explanation there today:
Oh, dear Diary, is that print too small for you? Here:
COVID-19 forced hundreds of businesses and organizations to close their doors to prevent the spread of the virus. This map shows City-funded hygiene services that are open to people in need. These resources are provided by multiple City departments.
On the map below, please click on the Legend button for a description of what each of the different location symbols means.
All locations include access to restrooms. Some locations offer access to showers and laundry services. Some locations are open to the general public, whereas some are funded only for those experiencing homelessness and other locations are designed for specific groups of people such as women or children. Please click on the Filter Locations (Funnel) button to highlight specific types of services on the map.
Note: Layers must be turned on for filters to work properly. Please click the button in the upper right corner to Turn Layers On and Off. The map only shows OPEN restrooms and hygiene facilities. These facilities may unexpectedly close periodically due to vandalism, fires, and/or plumbing issues.
It's funny how they shouted their lies.
"All locations include access to restrooms."
They currently claim Cowen Park's restrooms are open. Well, that could've changed since yesterday, when I found them closed.
This is more typical of their lies, though. They admit that Gilman Playground's restrooms are closed, but bill the "sanican"s there as restrooms. (They also claim a hand-washing unit, which I don't remember. I guess I'll have to go back and look. Anyway, that's data, which is the Seattle Department of Parks and Recreation's bailiwick.)
I guess after that I don't need to explain what's a lie about "The map only shows OPEN restrooms and hygiene facilities." Right, dear Diary?
There's a number near the bottom of each such info block that shows the total number of restrooms, as claimed by the city. Here's Gilman's block:
Restroom Building and Portable Restroom: GILMAN PLAYGROUND
Location Name GILMAN PLAYGROUND
Address 923 NW 54th St
Type Restroom Building and Portable Restroom
Operational Status 24 hours
Operating Hours 24 hours (Sanican Only)
Notes
24 Hour Yes
City Department Seattle Parks and Recreation
Total Restrooms (Buildings & Portables) 2
ADA Compliant Restrooms from Total 1
Hand Washing Units 1
Showers On Site No
Showers
Laundry
Accessible by General Public
Focus Population All
Zoom to
Let's compare the total at Sandel Playground. The parks department has actually been deploying "sanican"s at a furious clip - there are a bunch near the Green Lake Small Craft Center, and a new bunch in Ravenna Park, near the "upper" restrooms, apparently to replace the set that were near the "lower" restrooms but are now in Cowen Park. I'm pretty sure I've seen a "sanican" at Sandel, too, but if that's the case, the datum hasn't reached this map yet:
Location Name SANDEL PLAYGROUND
Address 9053 1st Ave NW
Type Restroom Building and Sink
Operational Status Open
Operating Hours 7 am - 7:00/9:00pm
Notes
24 Hour No
City Department Seattle Parks and Recreation
Total Restrooms (Buildings & Portables) 1
One of the things that have offended me about this map from getgo is that every "sanican" is counted as a "restroom", but an entire building that might have five toilets and a urinal in it is counted for the same number. There's a reason restroom buildings are more expensive than "sanican"s; it's because they're better. I'm not sure what those numbers are being used to prove, but if it's anything important, the people being shown them should know that they're essentially lies too.
In any event, this is another example, ostensibly directed towards the homeless, of the city trying to re-define "restroom"s into things that don't need sinks.
Now let's look at the map's legend.
Portable Restroom and Sink
Hygiene Trailer with Shower, Toilet and Sink
Restroom Building and Sink
Portable Restroom
Restroom Building and Portable Restroom
Portable Restroom and Sink
Hygiene Trailer with Shower, Toilet and Sink
Restroom Building and Sink
Portable Restroom
Restroom Building and Portable Restroom
Laundry Services
24 Hours
Clear as day, right?
Not the way it's been used. This, however, is a case where I don't entirely know where to assign blame.
The fundamental way the map lied to the homeless this winter was that it used the symbol for "Restroom Building and Portable Restroom" in cases where the restroom building was actually closed. It's still doing that today for Gilman Playground and Cowen Park.
It isn't obvious to me whether that's a data issue, the parks department doing the lying, or a design issue, DHS doing the lying. What I do know is that it's a lie. Moreover, because I called attention to this throughout the e-mails I sent to, ultimately, two DHS employees and one parks department employee, I know that DHS was informed, but did nothing.
There are, of course, many detail errors. For example:
Location Name Urban Rest Stop - U-District
Address 1415 NE 43rd St
Type Day Center
Operational Status Operating
DHS is the agency responsible for funding the Urban Rest Stop, so surely must know that that location has been closed since last November. I told them so too, in my last e-mail in March. But they continue to salve their consciences as to the shortage of actual restrooms in the U-District by sending homeless people to fenced-off, possibly demolished, rooms.
But fundamentally, here's the thing. Parks and libraries often have problems thanks to homeless people, and can't necessarily be trusted to do good things for the homeless. But the whole point of a "Homeless Strategy and Investment Division" ought to be that it tries to do good things for homeless people. They should not have succumbed to what I assume is a mayoral directive to set up the Big Lie that homeless people don't need to wash their hands as other humans do.
There's been a certain amount of press about how demoralised that part of DHS has become, because it's supposed to essentially fold in favour of the county-wide office that's being set up, and the staffers don't know whether they'll have jobs soon. I understand that stress; as a lifelong temp, I've had a great deal more of it than most people have had. But it's no excuse for their continued attempt to render anyone who lacks a permanent place of abode sub-human.
I'm sorry to leave you on such a bad note, dear Diary, but I've now spent three weekdays running on work for you, in the month in which I really must empty my storage. So good night, dear Diary, and a good week.
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