Dear Diary,
This is one I'm not sure about.
Why?
In October 2022, I was working on a regional hike for the region most of UW is in, and I thought, this is silly. Yes, there are parks in UW, but none of those in that region have outdoor water fountains, let alone restrooms whose doors open to the outside. It's actually worth comparing UW's land to Seattle Center's, which also originated in a World's Fair, and which has both those things.
So I went where the money is, where, that is, UW's actual plumbing is, and public access to public buildings turned out to be much less than it had been, or ought to be. So I wrote about it.
What?
I was making maps with a mildly complex colour scheme to symbolise ownership as well as status (open/operating), for the regional hikes in general. I made that much more complex for the buildings of UW. I doubt I have the software to do that now.
Also, it turned out that many of the buildings in West Campus have perfectly good reasons to keep the public out. They're dorms, medical places (although one of those did offer public restrooms), research labs... If I'd started with Central Campus, although it has dorms too, the point would've been much sharper. (South and East campuses are, in this respect, rather more like West.)
Mind, about as many West Campus buildings are closed to the public for no obvious good reason. The point was certainly made: out of about 60 buildings, only five offered public restrooms, fewer on weekends. Climatologists hunkered down behind locks in fear of the deniers so famously numerous in Seattle. Fenced playgrounds. Posters advising fear of every stranger. UW was no longer the friendly campus on which I'd spent my days a few years earlier. I documented part of that, had a good talk with one of UW's security leaders, and went on to a very demanding job.
Why not?
To a certain extent, I'd already met my goal. Since, that winter, I wasn't even able to complete a restroom hike, I had no business picking on UW any more.
Fall quarter had ended, and since one of my targets had been unclear hours signs (I'd called one West Campus building a "trap" for that), I certainly hoped the signs had changed. So I'd have to photograph them all again. Since the doors were, in fact, closed, that was a physically arduous task.
And as 2023 wore on, the same lack of psychic strength that afflicted the downtown page kept me from returning to this one.
What now?
My main concern, to be honest, is that UW's Seattle Campus is by far the most extensive collection of public buildings in Seattle. Much larger than downtown's (and City Hall is actually a reliable place to find public restrooms). Only Green Lake/Woodland, Washington and Discovery parks, and Boeing Field, are about the same size, and none is mostly buildings.
So I'd have to go out of town to find a comparable case, to be fair to UW, and even then it would probably be another school, and I'd be anti-intellectual.
I can get to Olympia's Capitol Campus, but I doubt I can stay long enough to do the job.
Even in North Seattle, the only alternatives are North Seattle College, or Northwest Hospital (owned by UW, and medical).
The difficulty of photographing the hours signs remains, especially while I'm in school myself and have more important things to do at the quarters' starts.
Dear Diary, I think your readers' comments would be the only reason I'd tackle this before fall 2029.
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