Dear Diary,
On Thursday, I mostly slept; in the evening I ran a few errands, one of which took me to Ballard. I visited Gilman Playground while there, and decided to get back there today. In the end, I stayed long enough today, and bought enough, that I couldn't make myself go on to downtown, so either I'll walk through rain tomorrow, or it'll have to wait another week.
Anyway. Four parks in "NW" south of NW 65th St (not that that's a major street in "NW") are reputed to have restrooms. Three are considered "playground"s by the Seattle Department of Parks and Recreation; I've disputed two of those labels, most recently writing about them in a page in you, dear Diary, that I think deserved more readers than it got, "What's in a Name?". I've also disputed in your pages the use of the name "Ballard" for the southeastern corner of "NW", where one of the "playgrounds" is. But the easiest way for me to title this page requires me to pretend that there really are three playgrounds in southern Ballard. Enough of that.
Photos relevant to this page are in subfolders at a publicly viewable Google Drive folder: Ballard Playground, Ballard Commons, Gilman Playground, and Ross Park.
I found all water fountains at these parks running. This will probably change soon, perhaps within days, but for a year and a half now, I've found the same set of fountains left on most of the time, during winter and both years' "Durkan Droughts", by the "NW" maintenance people and/or plumbers. Two of these are in Ballard Commons and in Gilman Playground. Another is in Sunset Place, sort of near eastern Ballard, but not close to any of these parks. The first two were, and one of them still is, near important homeless encampments, but Sunset Place never was, so I'm not sure to what extent this list may have held before the pandemic, and how it might change going forward.
Ballard Playground and Community Center
New lighting is being installed at Ballard Playground's playfield. The contractor, a sign I neglected to photograph informs us, considered it best if the entire playfield were closed (in fact, fenced in, and nope, no photo for that either). And by some strange coincidence, the "field closure" has led to:
The restrooms built into the Ballard Community Center are closed each winter anyway. This obviously isn't because they lack heat, so ought to be because of "historic low usage". But I think it's because they're close to downtown Ballard, where many homeless people live, and the good folk who live a few blocks west of downtown Ballard have no wish to see those homeless people visit their neighbourhood. At any rate, I have to say, I'm not surprised that, with Gilman Playground's restrooms closed all year, the parks department came up with an excuse to close Ballard Playground's too.
Of course, Ballard Playground has an actual playground as well as a playfield, and that playground was in use today. It's on the other side of the Community Center from the restrooms, water fountain, and playfield, but like most community centers in North Seattle, the building isn't open to the public at present. However, it's well known that all small children are perfect angels, and as such never need toilets or sinks, so they won't be bothered by the restroom closure, right?
Ballard Commons
Ballard Commons has a "Portland Loo" in it. Inside, there's a toilet and a spot for sanitiser, which in the Ballard Commons Portland Loo has been rendered unuseable. Outside, there's a tiny inset alcove masquerading as a sink, with buttons to push for water, soap, and air (for drying). I've never found all three buttons working; today, only the water one was, but there was a bar of soap handy in one of the bowls of the water fountain nearby. The parks department considers the Portland Loo a "restroom". I beg to differ - one whole point of a "restroom" is that one should touch as little as possible between excretion and washing, which should be indoors; but it's certainly more like a real restroom than the "sanican" I at first thought it. Anyway, there are also three actual "sanican"s there, and a hand-washing station.
The same source that indicated a coming sweep of Woodland Park also mentioned one coming to Ballard Commons. Well, it hasn't been swept all that recently. I didn't stay long, but this is my second visit, I think, this year in which I didn't notice any conflicts among the people there, homeless or housed; comparably short visits earlier had consistently encountered people arguing or fighting. Perhaps what I've called that park's "terrible feng shui" has somehow been ameliorated a little bit, though still not enough actually to attract housed people to the place.
Seattle Public Library, Ballard branch
I didn't risk going in, unfortunately for my bodily comfort; what if I found a Korean drama I really wanted to watch? But the Ballard library is one of those already open seven days per week:
Gilman Playground
All park restrooms in "NW" are seasonal or coastal, with few exceptions. Two years ago, the restrooms built into the Loyal Heights Community Center were announced as open all year. Last winter, only Golden Gardens and Carkeek Parks, profoundly inaccessible to most people in "NW" who might need public restrooms. Also, the Portland Loo doesn't close in winter; and to be fair, restrooms were open at the Ballard library from April 2020 on.
The reason for closing Gilman Playground's restrooms is "historic low usage", not the building's vulnerability to cold. Considering that there was a large homeless encampment at that park the entire winter of 2020-2021, there can hardly have been a more flagrant example of current higher usage anywhere in North Seattle, but these restrooms were closed last winter. They were then apparently re-opened early enough that by the time I got to them in the spring, they'd been closed again for vandalism.
And closed they still are, although the homeless have certainly moved on.
There are several "sanican"s, and again a hand-washing station. However, here as at Cowen Park, I haven't encountered evidence of closed-restroom-related fire, as at Bitter Lake Playfield, University Playground, and Licton Springs Park.
Ross Park
The parks department calls this park Ross Playground, and it fits among the playgrounds as regards, for example, size, but not comfortably - it has far more of the things the department considers "amenities" than most playgrounds. (A playfield for baseball, a basketball hoop, a playground, art, restrooms, water fountain.) Anyway, the parks department sign at the most convenient entrance calls it Ross Park, and so do I. Additionally, I consider the residential neighbourhood between Fremont and the industrial part of Ballard, where this park is, to be "Ross", after a village that existed there in the 1890s, partly as retribution for the way some Ballard parks stuff other elements of 1890s local history down one's throat.
Anyway, Ross Park is the only park in southern "NW" with open restrooms this year. Unsurprisingly, I saw evidence that some mobile homeless people had moved in, difficult though it is for most to find places to sleep in such neighbourhoods.
Probably within days, they'll have to move again. Ross Park's restroom building is vulnerable to cold, and so must be shut down pretty soon. (In general, I'm a big fan of replacing such buildings with heated ones, but this one has such a nice mosaic, I can't help wondering whether there's a better way.)
I have a great deal more to tell you about Ballard, dear Diary, but I'd forgotten that I intended to consult a book at the Central Library first. Oops. So I'll go at least that far downtown tomorrow, and probably visit Freeway Park too; but I make no promises about parks further north in downtown that I still haven't told you about. Until tomorrow, then, good night and good day.
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