Under Construction, part I: Introduction

Dear Diary,

Yes, it's been a long time.  I've been in school now for nine straight quarters, with at least three more to go before a break.  I'd thought not to take any classes this quarter, but that didn't work out.  Maybe next summer...

However, the Seattle Times recently ran an excellent article, by Ann Duan, about construction going on this year in the parks owned by the City of Seattle's Department of Parks and Recreation.  It's accompanied by a map, by Winnie Yao, showing eight of those projects in North Seattle.

That looked like an easy hike to do while still in class.  Just seven destinations.  (Magnuson Park, of course, has two projects.)

But I was curious about Duan's sources, and it turns out that Parks's home page now links to two things, one of which seems to be new:

1.  For years, the home page has linked to a list of current and future projects, and still does.  When that link first appeared, it was next to squibs about recently completed projects at two parks.  As that part of Parks's home page fell into neglect, those two projects got steadily less recent.
2. So a few weeks ago, Parks started linking in that space to a map of projects completed from 2023 on.

So currently, the goal is that completed projects move off the list and onto the map.  I hope that continues to be maintained, but anyway it's current now.

Well, dear Diary, as I confessed long ago now, it's been years since I last saw most of the parks you're primarily about.  I plan to spend September, between quarters, at long last getting what I think of as a "baseline", knowledge of working and non-working water fountains and open and closed restrooms, for use in winter hikes in December.

But I hope to visit Duan's list of North Seattle projects, plus a few more up north, and also Matthews Beach and Green Lake Park, where there are supposed to be summer-only restrooms that I've never actually visited in summer, this month and next.

And then while getting the baseline, I'll spice those hikes up by looking at the completed, and the less shovel-ready future, projects.

We'll see what actually happens.  Besides my current class, I have several other demands on my time this summer, and anyway I'm normally pretty lazy in summers.  But I hope to see you soon, dear Diary, with reports of Green Lake, Woodland and A. B. Ernst parks, and Meridian Playground.

Let me not forget:  Downtown parks actually pull under their weight in projects.  Duan and Yao mapped only one, at the ID-Chinatown Community Center.  The sources listed above have some more.  I'm going to hold off on making plans for downtown, though, until I see how North Seattle is going, and also until I know whether I'll be working downtown.

Anyway, happy days and nights until we meet again, dear Diary.