Six Hikes in Brooklyn, part II: West

Dear Diary,

Hello again!  This part of this page concerns four park-like areas, none of which is actually officially a park, and one and a half of which are fenced off.  Weirdly, although this area is southwest of the area covered by the previous part and north of the area covered by the next part, both of which include UW buildings, the area I'm discussing in this part has none.

To avoid stuffing Blogspot too full of photos in any one part, I didn't make the area this part covers neat and boxlike the way the previous part's area is.  But here's a map:

University District P-Patch (D on map)

Well, at least this part includes one official place, even if it isn't really a park.  As usual, I don't have much to say about it.

I took that photo October 8, on the hike about city properties listed in the 2020 real property report.

The other NE 40th St island (E on map)

NE 40th St has an island from Latona Ave NE to 7th Ave NE, and another from 7th Ave NE to Eastlake Ave NE, that is, the University Bridge head.  The latter island is pretty much Peace Park, a Seattle Department of Transportation park on which the Seattle Department of Parks and Recreation has conferred the honour of its own Web page.

But the island I mentioned first?  I'm pretty sure it's also SDOT land.  But it isn't as steep as the Peace Park island, which I guess makes it unsuitable for the stairs that island has, so instead SDOT has just fenced it off.

It's that way on the other side of I-5 as well, except the first block, from Latona to 4th Ave NE, where it's open.  I took this photo on October 16, a hike about places that looked interesting on Open Street Map.  I wish enough other people were interested in this island to get SDOT to do something with it.

This is the area I added to this part.  Without it, this part would cover the area from I-5 to 9th Ave NE, and from NE 42nd to NE 40th Streets.

Land east of I-5, area 10 (F on map)

A week and a half ago, in a previous page about the parks of the same region, I broke my rule against identifying places where homeless people live with regard to land east of I-5, because I thought some had been swept from this area here and the next area I'm going to talk about.

But because I don't take photos of camps, I'm not sure.

The area I'm describing here is along NE 40th St between 7th and 5th Avenues NE, but it's actually between Pasadena Place NE and a gravel trail that goes from NE 42nd St's intersection with 5th Ave NE (slightly east of where 5th meets 40th) to 40th.  To the east of this gravel trail, the land under I-5 is fenced off.  Eventually one passes a working area, also fenced off, which presumably belongs to the land's owner, the State of Washington Department of Transportation.  Beyond that is an unfenced hill, down to 40th.

Strictly speaking, only some of this area is in any sense east of I-5, and so part of this page's remit.  But anyway, what's weird about this structure is that I remember tents on the hill, in the western part of the unfenced area, specifically because they constrained my photography, on the 16th when I first came here.  They were gone by the 23rd, if my memory is right; but it may not be.

Thing is, there's still a much bigger encampment uphill, behind the fence, as if sheltering from Seattle's sweeps in WSDOT's arms.  Also, the hill area I thought had been swept is clean, but the other area I thought swept is far from clean, as if two sweeping teams with completely different instructions had done the job.  It's really much simpler to assume my memory is making the whole thing up.

(In the next part of this page, we'll get to a real sweep that happened on the 25th, exactly while I was out looking for evidence of this probably imaginary sweep.)

Anyway, I think the hill would be a great place for kids to toboggan or sled, if we do get snow in the next week, but it might be a little risky, because for some reason it's all posted against trespassing:

Here's the best of the photos I took otherwise:

Both of these photos were taken on October 23rd.

Land east of I-5, area 11 (G on map)

This is a stretch of vacant land, at least some of which the King County Parcel Viewer says is WSDOT-owned, across Pasadena Place from I-5.  To walk past it is to see overgrown shrubbery interrupted several times by clearings.  On the 16th all these clearings were inhabited.  On the 23rd, only one, better hidden, and by the 25th the men living there told me they planned to leave soon.

Yesterday I walked along I-5 and saw that the camps I'd already mentioned are still there.  I hope the people in them find better futures, but until they do, I'd rather they not be handed worse ones with sweeps, so will stop breaking my rule from here.

As I implied above, these clearings were quite messy on the 23rd, when I took my photos.  Here are two photos of the northernmost clearing, showing mess:

and overgrown grass:

Next part, Southwest, probably tomorrow.  It includes Peace Park and several other parks recognised by, but not owned by, the Seattle parks department.  Until then, good night, dear Diary, and good day.