Building a Baseline, part V: Around Bitter Lake Reservoir

Dear Diary,

This part here is a throwback.  All four of  the properties are city-owned (well, half of one seems to be an easement, but much more of an easement than the usual street one).  And there are no outdoor water fountains, let alone public restrooms.  But that last may change in a few years, because Seattle Public Utilities is burying the titular reservoir.

Two more of the new-to-you parks are in this part, too.  So let's start.  Oh, but first a map.

Linden Avenue Parcels (A on map)

What if you threw a park, and nobody came?

This small vaguely park-ish place at 14301 Linden Ave N consists of two legal bits of land

that the Parcel Viewer describes thus:  the northern one belongs to "Northline Apts (Vac Easement)" but Seattle City Light is the taxpayer, while the southern one just plain belongs to Seattle City Light.  (Overhead power lines are pretty thick here, but not exceptional; still, I can't think why else SCL would care.)

It basically consists of a ditch with a path mostly west and above the ditch.  I'm guessing this culvert represents the parcel boundary:

And made me think the ditch was meant to daylight a creek, but, well, no water came; but actually lots of places in that area have ditches, and they can't all represent real creeks.  Any real creek that might be involved would certainly flow towards Bitter Lake a few blocks south.

It's not much of a park, and I don't know why it hasn't been incorporated into the plans for C below.  But the stones, examples shown below, west of the trail for most of its length, are at least a minimal design gesture, so it may be worth seeing for someone who's in the neighbourhood.

Bitter Lake P-Patch (B)

This is in the park discussed next, and I didn't see anything I wanted to photograph.  It seems to be a priority, however, that this will expand in the coming events.  That said, the Department of Neighborhoods page doesn't yet hint at an expansion at all.

Bitter Lake Reservoir Park (C)

In view of this park's upcoming promotion to major park status - after 2029 it'll more than triple in size (2.88 acres now, plus over 6) - its old name, which ended in "Open Space", has nearly disappeared.

Oh, size.  I remember making much of being unclear about the boundaries between park and reservoir, partly because areas in both were evidently open to the public.  I can't get away with that claim any more, because if you look closely, dear Diary, at the OpenStreetMap map above, it does show park boundaries, and they're even clearer in this from the King County Parcel Viewer:

I've never found this park, at 14201 Linden Ave N, all that photogenic, and my standby, shooting the amphitheatre benches from above, is now blocked by construction fences.  Construction?  Yes, but not yet Seattle Department of Parks and Recreation construction, so it doesn't belong in "Under Construction", which is about 2026 Parks construction.  That said, Parks is well along in planning for the bounty, and at the engagement hub the "Preferred Schematic Design", a one-page PDF, can be downloaded.  The fourth of the five "new" parks I visited last Tuesday doesn't exist yet, but the version in that PDF should be rather more worth visiting than the existing park.

That design lists the restroom (hopefully not actually singular as at Little Brook and Greenwood parks) last, and Parks is very clear about not having the money lined up yet to do this all at once.  Nor is a water fountain mentioned at all.  But look, folks.  All Parks properties in North Seattle larger than nine acres, except for Kingfisher Natural Area and Llandover Woods, which are a different kind of park, have water fountains, and all except the same two and the Burke-Gilman Trail have restrooms.  If this park turns out to be the exception, the neighbours will have the right to ask why.

Bitter Lake Reservoir and Pump Station (D)

Meanwhile, the star of the whole show is hidden behind construction equipment and dust:

Seattle Public Utilities's project page dots all the i's and crosses all the t's, which means I don't have to.

Why did I think, in the past, that areas of the reservoir land were public?  Well, there's always been some sort of trail along Linden Ave N, in the park part.  But I'd seen people just as winded arrive at the Fremont Ave N side of the park.  So I inferred a similar trail on that side.

Baseline around Bitter Lake Reservoir:

Nothing now.

Anyway, dear Diary, this is it for today.  I was up all night hiking for you, and will spend tomorrow doing the same by day.  I'm going to have to make changes to this page, that is, "Building a Baseline", and will talk about that and many other things over the week to come.  Happy days and nights until we meet again.