Dear Diary,
Yesterday I went on a long trip that included visits to two libraries in two counties. I didn't bring water along on this trip, but did bring my bottles, so I could fill them along the way.
In Seattle's Central Library, I filled one without even thinking about it, and certainly without taking a photo.
But in a suburban library outside King County, that I was told had just re-opened last week, I was shocked to find this, and certainly did take a photo:
After seeing that, and other things nearby, I went on a long, and increasingly parched, hike with very dispiriting results.
People complain that the homeless flock to Seattle because it's "Free-attle", full of things homeless people can get for free here. It hadn't occurred to me before that one of the things these complainers object to Seattle providing is free water. But based on my hike yesterday and my pounding on the relevant park district's website already this morning, I fear it is. Indeed, I wonder whether twenty years from now Seattle will be thought irresponsibly easy on the homeless because it won't have started charging them for the air they breathe.
I can't call the relevant agencies during the holiday weekend - in particular, the parks I visited yesterday (but not that library) could have lead as a better explanation for their paucity of fountains - and I can't really hike today, as I'd planned, because I still hurt from yesterday's unplanned hike. I don't intend to let up on Seattle, and will still be doing water fountain hikes in North Seattle soon. But as I get chances to go elsewhere, I'll take them, and as I learn more, I'll report it. Because Seattle should also get what credit is due, and places that claim to be cities but are barbarously lacking in the basics of life, in things the Romans had already mastered two millennia ago, should get what shame is due.
Results of a relatively short hike, in Seattle but not North Seattle, tomorrow, I hope. Until then, dear Diary.
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