Abandoned Pages, part VII: Downtown

Dear Diary,

I apologise for not getting you part of "Building a Baseline" last night.  I was too tired.  Not much hiking today, so it should happen.

Why?

I was working near downtown, and because my problems with mornings are magnified by where I live, I was working pretty late.  It irked me not to have anything to write in you five days a week.

Separately, The Seattle Times had invited me to ask a question in a mayoral debate on homelessness they were sponsoring.  Based on my belief then that Magnuson Park had once had seven restroom pairs, and on my knowledge of restrooms in downtown parks, I asked how we could stop throwing away restrooms. [1]  For months afterward, I tried to back up my claims.  Hence "Magnuson Park Restrooms:  A Relative Chronology", and hence "The Parks of Seattle's Downtown".

What?

I wasn't, at that time, the happiest of people, and I didn't want just to barrel into the depressing story I had to tell.

So I asserted, correctly enough, that I couldn't count on anyone else writing about the downtown parks as I would have, so I'd do park appreciation first, then the plumbing.  And this was November 2021, when I was still at maximum OpenStreetMap, so my list of parks kept growing.

It grew considerably more once I realised that the parks near downtown, many of which had restrooms that hadn't been thrown away, were part of the story.

Downtown:  waterfront to I-5, Mercer to Dearborn.  Near downtown:  within one mile of those boundaries. 

Why not?

Well, for one thing, I haven't worked downtown since.

But also, I've always preferred to credit artists whose work I show you, dear Diary, and I'd gotten massively behind, because every downtown official park has art, and it's often impossible to photograph the park without including the art.

And most importantly, I still didn't feel strong enough to write about downtown Seattle's public restrooms. 

Well, I may be strong enough now, but can't do that now.

What now?

I'm pretty sure I've told you, dear Diary, during this revival, that I'm leaning toward giving downtown (and, you now see, near downtown) parity with North Seattle.  This is, obviously, not quite true.  When I faced the reality that I couldn't do both regions this year, I unhesitatingly chose the larger one.

Still, I figure I've admitted not only Freeway Park but also Dr. Jose Rizal Park, and even whatever Amazon still has, to our remit, and sooner or later I'll get back to those.  This isn't an abandoned page your readers need to comment on to get me to revive it.

[1] The debate was between Bruce Harrell and Lorena Gonzalez.  Harrell tried to answer the question, although he must have known that "we'll just have to try harder not to throw restrooms away" isn't much of an answer.  In fact, there are more park restrooms in downtown Seattle than there were when his term began; I didn't vote for him either time, but he actually did that right, and that makes the psychic burden of telling the story lighter, so thanks!  Gonzalez didn't even try to answer the question, instead mouthing pieties.  All this from memory, as the debate now seems to be paywalled.