Ballard's Playgrounds and Commons Today

Dear Diary,

On Thursday, I mostly slept; in the evening I ran a few errands, one of which took me to Ballard.  I visited Gilman Playground while there, and decided to get back there today.  In the end, I stayed long enough today, and bought enough, that I couldn't make myself go on to downtown, so either I'll walk through rain tomorrow, or it'll have to wait another week.

Anyway.   Four parks in "NW" south of NW 65th St (not that that's a major street in "NW") are reputed to have restrooms.  Three are considered "playground"s by the Seattle Department of Parks and Recreation; I've disputed two of those labels, most recently writing about them in a page in you, dear Diary, that I think deserved more readers than it got, "What's in a Name?".  I've also disputed in your pages the use of the name "Ballard" for the southeastern corner of "NW", where one of the "playgrounds" is.  But the easiest way for me to title this page requires me to pretend that there really are three playgrounds in southern Ballard.  Enough of that.

Photos relevant to this page are in subfolders at a publicly viewable Google Drive folder:  Ballard Playground, Ballard Commons, Gilman Playground, and Ross Park.

I found all water fountains at these parks running.  This will probably change soon, perhaps within days, but for a year and a half now, I've found the same set of fountains left on most of the time, during winter and both years' "Durkan Droughts", by the "NW" maintenance people and/or plumbers.  Two of these are in Ballard Commons and in Gilman Playground.  Another is in Sunset Place, sort of near eastern Ballard, but not close to any of these parks.  The first two were, and one of them still is, near important homeless encampments, but Sunset Place never was, so I'm not sure to what extent this list may have held before the pandemic, and how it might change going forward.

Ballard Playground and Community Center

New lighting is being installed at Ballard Playground's playfield.  The contractor, a sign I neglected to photograph informs us, considered it best if the entire playfield were closed (in fact, fenced in, and nope, no photo for that either).  And by some strange coincidence, the "field closure" has led to:

The restrooms built into the Ballard Community Center are closed each winter anyway.  This obviously isn't because they lack heat, so ought to be because of "historic low usage".  But I think it's because they're close to downtown Ballard, where many homeless people live, and the good folk who live a few blocks west of downtown Ballard have no wish to see those homeless people visit their neighbourhood.  At any rate, I have to say, I'm not surprised that, with Gilman Playground's restrooms closed all year, the parks department came up with an excuse to close Ballard Playground's too.

Of course, Ballard Playground has an actual playground as well as a playfield, and that playground was in use today.  It's on the other side of the Community Center from the restrooms, water fountain, and playfield, but like most community centers in North Seattle, the building isn't open to the public at present.  However, it's well known that all small children are perfect angels, and as such never need toilets or sinks, so they won't be bothered by the restroom closure, right?

Ballard Commons

Ballard Commons has a "Portland Loo" in it.  Inside, there's a toilet and a spot for sanitiser, which in the Ballard Commons Portland Loo has been rendered unuseable.  Outside, there's a tiny inset alcove masquerading as a sink, with buttons to push for water, soap, and air (for drying).  I've never found all three buttons working; today, only the water one was, but there was a bar of soap handy in one of the bowls of the water fountain nearby.  The parks department considers the Portland Loo a "restroom".  I beg to differ - one whole point of a "restroom" is that one should touch as little as possible between excretion and washing, which should be indoors; but it's certainly more like a real restroom than the "sanican" I at first thought it.  Anyway, there are also three actual "sanican"s there, and a hand-washing station.

The same source that indicated a coming sweep of Woodland Park also mentioned one coming to Ballard Commons.  Well, it hasn't been swept all that recently.  I didn't stay long, but this is my second visit, I think, this year in which I didn't notice any conflicts among the people there, homeless or housed; comparably short visits earlier had consistently encountered people arguing or fighting.  Perhaps what I've called that park's "terrible feng shui" has somehow been ameliorated a little bit, though still not enough actually to attract housed people to the place.

Seattle Public Library, Ballard branch

I didn't risk going in, unfortunately for my bodily comfort; what if I found a Korean drama I really wanted to watch?  But the Ballard library is one of those already open seven days per week:

Gilman Playground

All park restrooms in "NW" are seasonal or coastal, with few exceptions.  Two years ago, the restrooms built into the Loyal Heights Community Center were announced as open all year.  Last winter, only Golden Gardens and Carkeek Parks, profoundly inaccessible to most people in "NW" who might need public restrooms.  Also, the Portland Loo doesn't close in winter; and to be fair, restrooms were open at the Ballard library from April 2020 on.

The reason for closing Gilman Playground's restrooms is "historic low usage", not the building's vulnerability to cold.  Considering that there was a large homeless encampment at that park the entire winter of 2020-2021, there can hardly have been a more flagrant example of current higher usage anywhere in North Seattle, but these restrooms were closed last winter.  They were then apparently re-opened early enough that by the time I got to them in the spring, they'd been closed again for vandalism.

And closed they still are, although the homeless have certainly moved on.

There are several "sanican"s, and again a hand-washing station.  However, here as at Cowen Park, I haven't encountered evidence of closed-restroom-related fire, as at Bitter Lake Playfield, University Playground, and Licton Springs Park.

Ross Park

The parks department calls this park Ross Playground, and it fits among the playgrounds as regards, for example, size, but not comfortably - it has far more of the things the department considers "amenities" than most playgrounds.  (A playfield for baseball, a basketball hoop, a playground, art, restrooms, water fountain.)  Anyway, the parks department sign at the most convenient entrance calls it Ross Park, and so do I.  Additionally, I consider the residential neighbourhood between Fremont and the industrial part of Ballard, where this park is, to be "Ross", after a village that existed there in the 1890s, partly as retribution for the way some Ballard parks stuff other elements of 1890s local history down one's throat.

Anyway, Ross Park is the only park in southern "NW" with open restrooms this year.  Unsurprisingly, I saw evidence that some mobile homeless people had moved in, difficult though it is for most to find places to sleep in such neighbourhoods.

Probably within days, they'll have to move again.  Ross Park's restroom building is vulnerable to cold, and so must be shut down pretty soon.  (In general, I'm a big fan of replacing such buildings with heated ones, but this one has such a nice mosaic, I can't help wondering whether there's a better way.)

I have a great deal more to tell you about Ballard, dear Diary, but I'd forgotten that I intended to consult a book at the Central Library first.  Oops.  So I'll go at least that far downtown tomorrow, and probably visit Freeway Park too; but I make no promises about parks further north in downtown that I still haven't told you about.  Until tomorrow, then, good night and good day.

Today's hike: Most fountains running in southern NW

Dear Diary,

I'm writing this page on my phone using the app, which means I can't do much with it, so will keep this brief.

Today I went to Golden Gardens Park, Loyal Heights Community Center and Playfield, Salmon Bay Park, Webster Park, Ballard Playground, Ballard Commons, the parts of the Burke-Gilman Trail that include both the actual and the published locations of its western water fountain, NW 60th St Viewpoint (which is near the published location), Gilman Playground, Ross Park, and Sunset Place.  So I went to every park water fountain known to me in "NW" south of 85th (but not to the imaginary one at Baker Park on Crown Hill), every park restroom ditto, and here's what I found:

All fountains were running except the southern one at Golden Gardens Park.  I drank from those at Ballard Playground and on the Burke-Gilman Trail, and found their water OK.

All restrooms were open except Gilman Playground's (still posted), and Ross Park's, but that was at 8:40 P.M.  Even if park restrooms are keeping their advertised hours for summer - 7 A.M. to 9 P.M. - that's within a reasonable amount of leeway.

I'm beginning to hope that year two of the Durkan Drought is finally over, at least in North Seattle.

All for tonight, dear Diary.  Tomorrow I'd hoped to hike again, but I hurt too much, so should have plenty of time to tell you whatever else needs telling about the two latest hikes.

Another RUNNING street fountain in today's hike

Dear Diary,

I went hiking for you today.  I don't have time to write for you today the page that occasioned that hike, but will try to get the stuff that I should write today so as to keep certain photos dated, that stuff I'll try to get written.

I went to:

• Ballard Community Center (restrooms) and Playground (water fountain)
• The Burke-Gilman Trail (no plumbing where I was then)
  
• The Broadview branch of the Seattle Public Library (both)
  
• Bitter Lake Playfield (both; I didn't look, today, at the Community Center there)
• Northacres Park (both)
  
• Virgil Flaim Park (water fountain)
  
• Albert Davis Park (water fountain)
  
• The Lake City branch of the Seattle Public Library (both)
  
• The Burke-Gilman Trail again (water fountain)
• Ravenna Park (both)
  
• Ravenna Boulevard (neither)
  
• Cowen Park (both)
  
• Greenwood Ave N just south of N 85th St (water fountain I hadn't previously known of)
• And back to N 45th St just east of Wallingford Ave N (water fountain)
  

I'll update the spreadsheet in the shared folder tomorrow - that is, this folder, dear Diary:

<https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1cfrNdJI9NVY3ux7OoGI7B8Vg3Klq3liT?usp=sharing>

But I also set up another shared folder.  Community Centers and Pools are at least run by the same department as runs the parks, but libraries are a whole separate city department, so I set up a folder for libraries too:

<https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/10OrFusDTEySPSu7-Ophv35VCKZq-zAaF?usp=sharing>

In general, nothing has changed from what I previously told you, dear Diary (I want to emphasise that, in case there are new readers here), but here are the exceptions:

Ballard Community Center

You may remember that last time I went to this place, I considered its front doors too crowded to approach.  That wasn't the case this morning.

Here's a detail:

I doubt very much that the Community Centers are preparing to re-open to the general public, or at least those in North Seattle.  If they are, they're planning to surprise everyone.

Ballard Community Center, again

This time I found the restrooms at the back of the building, whose doors open outward, open.  I did not find yellow spots on the toilet seats.  However:

These are single-user stalls, each with one toilet, no urinal, one sink, one old-fashioned dryer that doesn't work, and one soap dispenser.  Neither sink splashed me, but one - the one with two buttons for calling the water - was under high enough pressure that it really wanted to.

Northacres Park

One of the single-user stalls there was closed for maintenance:

I remembered that I hadn't tested the sinks and dryers of those, so I washed my hands (I'd touched the toilet seats at Ballard Community Center, after all) and thus found that the dryer in the stall currently open (on the left as one faces the water fountains, north of the closed one) does work, but one has to push the button a few times to convince it to do so.

Virgil Flaim Park

I have to eat a whole lot of crow here.

I made a judgement last time I was at this park, that the damage to the water fountain was obviously the fault of homeless people who use bottles.  I was wrong, completely wrong.

I managed this time to take a photo that showed how the water now comes out.

Darn, no it doesn't, and I'll have to go back there.

Basically, the water comes from above the pipe I showed you last time, dear Diary, this pipe:

As a result, no, it isn't any better for filling bottles than it is for drinking from.  Turns out it comes from a hole in another pipe:

so no wonder it comes out diffusely.  I was unable to screw the pipe that's loose back into that hole, so I strongly suspect whoever sabotaged the water fountain removed something, anything from a washer on up.  Given how much other metal they left alone, I doubt this was a metal thief; I think the saboteur was someone who wanted to deny users of Virgil Flaim Park water, very probably specifically homeless users in the neighbourhood.  So I must apologise heartily to you, dear Diary, and to anyone who read the page I'll correct tomorrow:  I blamed the victim.

The Burke-Gilman Trail

This was, at the time, the only working water fountain I expected to encounter after Bitter Lake, it was hours later, I hadn't brought any bottles, and I was parched.  So I tried to drink from this fountain:

but found that the stream was so interrupted, whether by the wind or by something internal to the fountain, that I couldn't really drink from it.  At the time I wondered whether I was just out of the habit of drinking directly from water fountains.

Ravenna Boulevard

I will emphasise, again, dear Diary, that nothing has changed from what I previously told you unless I mention it here (or in a later embarrassed page).

The street fountain at 85th & Greenwood

One of the most frustrating aspects for me, dear Diary, of your readers never commenting, is that I get too many opportunities to be ignorant.  I spent a few days hiking past this intersection, in January, while I was at the Travelodge near there that saved my life (as recounted in "Escaping Green Lake Park", part II and "Fear of Rain"), and never noticed this fountain.  Unsurprising since at the time I couldn't wear glasses, but my point is, surely someone who's read you knew about that fountain and didn't tell us.  I have no idea how many more street fountains are scattered around North Seattle, running or otherwise, that I've missed; I only found this one because I happened to get off a bus there this evening.  So anyone who reads this now.  This is what a street water fountain in Seattle usually looks like:

Notice especially the stepped base.  This is something street fountains can do:

usually all year round when the city has a mayor who doesn't have some sort of personal hatred for homeless people.

So please, dear Diary, if you notice anyone reading you who knows of such fountains in North Seattle, beyond the former two, now one, on the Burke-Gilman Trail, the one on N 45th St out front of QFC, and this one I stumbled on today, could you please persuade them to say something?  Whether or not the fountains are currently running or the reader even knows one way or the other.  Thank you, very, very much.

On the strength of that (and two very long drinks from it) I went back to the one on 45th, but it's still off.

Good night, dear Diary.  I just signed a new lease that said I'd observe the quiet hours, and here I am typing in you during them again.  Good night.

 

NW finished; one more water fountain; one more closed restroom pair

Dear Diary,

Are you bored with the titles of recent pages?  So am I, but there'll be two or three more like that.  Today I didn't get to NE, but did finish NW, with what's become the usual need to go back to one site to see whether its restrooms are really closed or not.

I visited nine city parks today, in six hours - street grids are such wonderful conveniences for hiking!  Predictably, all the slow parts were when I went off grid, to find the Burke-Gilman Trail's western water fountain and to investigate whether water fountains were running in the place I will, here, just call the Ballard Locks.  (About two of those hours went to that, with two city parks involved.  So the other seven took just four hours.)

Let me start, again, by function, then go by park.  As on previous of these hikes, most of the photos of restroom doors and water fountains are at a public folder on my Google Drive, URL:

<https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1cfrNdJI9NVY3ux7OoGI7B8Vg3Klq3liT?usp=sharing>

but most of the photos in this page aren't in that folder.

Restrooms - Ballard Community Center's restrooms with doors that open to the outside, which are two gendered single-user stalls, weren't open around 3:50 P.M. today.  Also, at about 4:07 P.M., the restrooms at the Seattle Public Library's Ballard branch were unavailable due to a staff break.  The Portland Loo at Ballard Commons was available, but we'll get to that.  Gilman Playground's restrooms are still closed.  All other restrooms were open, including all those at the Locks.

As on previous of these hikes, I've been counting major items at men's and all-gender restrooms.  For each restroom for which I indicate such a count, unless I say otherwise, I tried the sink, it did not splash my clothes, and the dryer, if any, worked.

Water fountains - I've yet to find the water fountain at Ballard Commons not running; it ran today.  Gilman Playground's still runs.  Every single water fountain I found at the Locks was running, even though the Locks still have a mask rule applied both outside and inside.  I found no other running water fountains; the one on the Burke-Gilman Trail, eviscerated by metal thieves last year, and one at Loyal Heights Playfield, damaged last year, have both been removed.

Now by park.

Loyal Heights Community Center and Playfield

All three water fountains ran last October, but the north one (near the basketball area and the playground) was damaged.  Last January the baseball field was a construction site, and the water fountain attached to the Community Center was running; I couldn't find the northern or southern free-standing fountains.  In the case of the southern one, that's because it isn't as far south as I looked; it's closer to the ballfield's third base than to its home plate.  The northern one was within a construction site in January, and still is, but this time I was able to see through the fence that it had been removed, whether because it was damaged, or in order to prevent more damage, or what, I don't know.

The men's room in the Community Center with a door that opens outside has one toilet [EDIT 5/24:  with a stall door], one urinal, one sink, no dryer, and one soap dispenser.

The Loyal Heights Community Center is not yet swayed by the siren call of re-opening:

The schedules on the left are for the first quarter of 2020.

Salmon Bay Park

This park is nowhere near Salmon Bay, or any body of water; some developer had boats on the brain, naming streets north and south of this park "Canoe" and "Sloop", and the park itself wound up with a name that confuses even park staffers.  (I called once about the restrooms here being closed, and it took a while before they'd believe me as to the park's location.)

Anyway, its restrooms were open and the attached water fountain isn't running.  The dryer in the men's room is not the usual no-touch thing found in most park restrooms that have dryers:

 

Privacy in the men's toilet here is not much better than at Dahl Playfield.  There, someone walking in has to turn in such a way that he'll then see anyone on the toilet unless he makes an effort not to.  At Salmon Bay, someone walking briskly probably won't notice someone on the toilet, but otherwise...

That's intended as the view from the doorway.  Note the thing on the left; that's the toilet.

Also, Salmon Bay Park's men's room has no urinal.  One toilet without a stall door, one sink, one touch-driven dryer, one soap dispenser.  I did not look for yellow spots on the toilet seat, but because this park has no sports facilities, it wouldn't have been a fair test.

Webster Park

I then cut hard west to get to this park which just has a water fountain (which only trickled last year, both in June and in October).  Now it isn't even trickling.

On going south, I found myself at the Locks, and figured it was already late enough (1:19 P.M. for my first photo there) that I was unlikely to make it to "NE" by 7 P.M.  So I might as well spend my spare time exploring the place.

Hiram M. Chittenden Locks

None of the photos in this section are in the Google Drive folder.

The first place I went was the Visitor Center.  Now, strictly speaking, this is outside your remit, dear Diary, seeing as how it's a building whose doors opening to the outside don't, far as I know, include restroom doors.  But I wanted to find out how open the Locks actually were.

This was partly because CDC or no CDC, the Locks still have a mask requirement:

and I figured, what's the point (to a housed person) of turning on water fountains in a place where nobody can drink from them?  But I hadn't reckoned with the no-nonsense nature of the federal government, and in particular its squarest single institution, the U.S. Army, a post of whose this place actually is.  (Really.  See its website if you don't believe me, dear Diary.)  So although the website doesn't deign to mention water fountains...

That's the Visitor Center's.  I decided not to try to photograph restroom doors this trip, partly because the Visitor Center was pretty crowded, partly because the whole place was thronged.  I also didn't take tourist photos, not even when an adjacent teenager pointed out a seal to her parents, but I sure photographed a whole lot of working water fountains.  The men's room in the Visitor's Center has one toilet, one urinal, one sink, one dryer, and one soap dispenser.  I don't think I tested the sink and dryer.  The Visitor Center is currently open only Friday through Sunday, 10 A.M. to 6 P.M., so is not a major factor in a homeless person's decision about where to live, but I have some reason to think that might change soon.

The rest of the place, however...  Its hours are 7 A.M. to 9 P.M. seven days per week, and although the restrooms might well open later or close earlier, I saw no reason to think so.

The city's employees might reasonably object that the Army can provide a lot of effectively free labour, but how much of that labour is plumbers?  I was impressed.

These show a double fountain near the main restrooms.  Those have - prepare to stay calm, dear Diary - two toilets, four urinals, three sinks, two dryers, and three soap dispensers.  I did not try all the sinks and dryers; the one of each I tried worked fine.  One of the soap dispensers did appear to be low on soap.  Now, this is the kind of thing where more or less free labour makes a big difference - cleaning and maintaining a monstrosity of this size.

This is a water fountain by what appears to be the Locks' main tourist attraction, the chance to watch boats actually locking one way or the other.  As a result, it's hard to get to while observing social distancing; patience is an asset to those who wish to drink from this fountain.

These are the two attached to the southern restrooms, which actually, dear Diary, aren't in North Seattle at all, but they're such a short hike from North Seattle that I decided to tell you what's in the men's room anyway:  two toilets, two urinals, two sinks, two dryers, and yes, we're in a very square place indeed, two soap dispensers.  But there turn out to be limits to free labour, and these photos show that:  both these fountains are badly overshooting their bowls.  I would be reluctant to fill a bottle at either, and the second one, the one on the right as one faces the building, also back-splashes enough to give my newspaper its first water damage of the day.

Still, wow.  Don't you wish we lived in a city that worked this well, dear Diary?

Carl S. English, Jr. Botanical Garden

Has no restrooms open to the public nor water fountains available to the public, at least not along any of the paved or the more obvious of the gravel trails.  Does have many attractive and interesting plants.

Some day, dear Diary, when we have time for park appreciation again, I'll tell you as much as I reasonably can about the whole place, but right now, a drought's on, everywhere except downtown and the Ballard Locks, so it'll have to wait.

The Burke-Gilman Trail

Somehow recently I'd convinced myself that the western water fountain on this trail was way east of what I've previously told you, dear Diary.  So I walked all the way to, I think, 26th Ave NW looking for it, eating lunch on a bench outside the Nordic Museum again on the way, before realising my mistake and turning back.  Then I walked all the way to the NW 60th St Viewpoint (which is today's extra, no plumbing, park) without seeing the fountain.  Finally I had to consult your old pages that mentioned it - "The Ballard Seacoast" part I and "The Water Fountains of Ballard" - to find it, and even blow up the photos.

This is the current state of the BGT's western water fountain:

In case anyone reading you goes looking for it and even that much is gone, the clue I found it by is that it's at the NW 57th Street Street End, left of the entrance as one faces the water, near a yellow fire hydrant.  (And no doubt that's why there's water there available for a fountain.)

Ballard Community Center and Playground

I couldn't get close to the building, because the front was crowded and the back was taped off, so I couldn't ask its opinion of the "re-opening" concept.

However, its outside-facing restrooms were closed.  I think this is the first time I've found them so.  I will, of course, go back to see whether they stay that way, but my guess right now is that, thanks to where homeless people are nearby, they probably will.  Still, today was Sunday, the day when people outside are expected to fast, so there is another explanation, and I'll just have to add it to my list of things to investigate.

The water fountain was also off.  Nope, nothing for homeless people here, now just move along...

Ballard Commons

As noted above, I've never found the water fountain here off, and that includes today.  This park also has water on the side of the "Portland Loo", and in a hand-washing station, but the SPU sink I found here in January has been removed:

Also, the dryer on the side of the "Portland Loo" has been fixed and now delivers air.  However, I've yet to get results from the soap dispenser, either January or today around 4:03 P.M.

The "Portland Loo" has one toilet, no urinal, no sink, no dryer, and no soap dispenser.  Outside its door is a microscopic analogue to a sink with water, plus an old-fashioned dryer, plus an empty or broken soap dispenser.

On my way away I took a look at the Ballard branch of the Seattle Public Library.  The sign announcing that the restrooms were open was clearly visible:

but it was one of the two days off "curbside services" (well, that's better than "pickup" anyway) currently have at that location, so wasn't a real test.

Gilman Playground

Kitty-corner from this park's northwest corner I saw an unexpected sign:

Let me translate for you, dear Diary:  Someone's trying to build an SRO.  In Seattle.  In the 21st century.  I can hardly believe it, but am awfully glad they're trying.

It would take about a hundred of those or more, to bring every homeless person in Seattle inside.  The entire time I was homeless here, I figured Seattle would only be serious about housing the homeless when it started talking in thousands, the number there actually are, rather than hundreds, the number it's convenient to build for every year.  One SRO is not the answer, but adding SROs back to the city's toolkit is an important step toward the day in the 22nd or possibly 42nd century when Seattle might be ready to consider the answer.

I can't tell you, dear Diary, what's in Gilman Playground's men's room, because it's still closed.  The park's water fountain is still running.

Ross Park

The restrooms are open, the water fountain not running.

The men's room, which I had to use, since I hadn't been near an open men's room since the Locks and hadn't used any since leaving home, has one toilet with a stall door, one urinal, one sink, one dryer, and one soap dispenser.

I used to enjoy swinging on University Playground's swings, when I slept near there, until there were so many uncertain people around every time I went there that I wasn't willing to leave my stuff unprotected while I did so.  Well, there were no visibly homeless people at Ross Park this early evening, and no families using the swingset to annoy, so I swang away.  Yes, I share the bias against homeless people, and did even when I was homeless, but that doesn't mean I wanted everyone denied water.  There's a difference between bias and hatred.

Whew.  I've managed to tell you about this hike the same day, dear Diary.  I have no reason to expect the NE hikes to be like that, but they might be.  Anyway, I expect to spend tomorrow on other stuff, including but not limited to updating (and correcting) the maps, and updating (and expanding) the spreadsheet that's in the public folder.  I'll probably show you the updated maps when I'm done.  But until then, good night and a good day, dear Diary.

Hike 15: Northwest

Dear Diary,

Wonder of wonders!  The map actually told the truth about at least nine restrooms!  Let me explain.

This morning I checked the map the hikes in January were checking on, and found six parks whose restrooms were clearly announced as re-opened.  (There may have been others hidden by the lying setup whereby a "sanican" is mapped the same as an open restroom; I didn't spend long enough with the map to investigate.)  The six:

1. Ballard Community Center.  Previously covered April 4 in "Hike 8C".
2. Loyal Heights Community Center.  Previously covered February 8 in "Hike 4B".
3. Meadowbrook Playfield.  Still to be covered in hike 9C.
4. Ross Park.  Previously covered March 23 in "Hike 8B".
5. Sandel Playground.  Previously covered January 25 in "Hikes 3C and 6A".
6. Soundview Playfield.  Previously covered February 13 in "Hike 5A".

Well, I had an errand in Ballard today, so I figured I should check on the five in Northwest.  Then realised this left only two parks there with regular restrooms to look at, and they were both convenient, so why not?  (This omits, of course, Golden Gardens and Carkeek Parks, which aren't on Ballard's street grid, are way downhill from the rest of Ballard, are time sinks, and were open all winter anyway.)

So here goes:  Which park restrooms on Ballard's street grid opened today?  Wonder of wonders, the map was almost entirely truthful.

Sandel Playground

This is the only place where the map was off.

So far so good, but...

Soundview Playfield

I'd gotten a newspaper before starting, but forgot to use it at Sandel.  Here's its front page, for easier recognition:

So.  Soundview has two effectively all gender single user stalls.

I used the one shown with door open.  It turns out to have the kind of sink that sends water mainly horizontally to soak the user's clothing, a kind of sink I've noticed more of recently.  That one is the one that faces south towards NW 90th St.  (I didn't try the other sink, which may or may not do the same.)

Loyal Heights Community Center

No, the map didn't announce that the Community Center had re-opened.  Both Community Centers in Northwest have restrooms that open to the outside, and are effectively the restrooms for their parks, in this case Loyal Heights Playfield.

In winter 2019-2020, Loyal Heights was announced as staying open for the winter, the only one of these so announced.  This winter, it was on the map as open, but closed anyway; I speculated that this might be because of construction nearby in the playfield.  The construction is now uphill from these restrooms, and this time they really are open when the map says so:

Salmon Bay Park

Previously covered February 8 in "Hike 4B".  Has yet to be shown as open on the map, and I've yet to find it open since October.

Yes, I forgot the newspaper again.

Ballard Playground

Obviously, one reason I came back to Northwest in such a big way today was embarrassment at having to say, over and over as I wrote three days ago, that I didn't know the current situation.

Well, these doors should have been open all winter, but they're open now:

One of the things I was unsure about was a "sanican" at the east side of 26th Ave NW, across that street from Ballard Playground.  It's gone now:

Ballard Commons

Previously covered April 4 in "Hike 8C" with some similar uncertainties; the other of the two places still to be covered in hike 11A, besides the Ballard branch of the Urban Rest Stop.

In the page from April 4 I made a mistake.  I said there were two buttons on the side of the "Portland Loo", for washing water and drying air, and neither worked.  This was inobservant of me in January.  Look:

I'd only noticed the left lower button, not the right lower one, which as you can see, dear Diary, in fact draws water.  The upper one, for air, and the lower left one, probably for soap, are the ones that didn't work in January nor today.

In fact Ballard Commons is overflowing with water.  It has a working water fountain, running now:

And on top of both those sources, I'd speculated it might have gotten an SPU sink.  Nope, but it does have a much bigger hand-washing station, and it was working today:

Notice all the wet pavement.  The green object in the corner is a bottle of hand soap.

Gilman Playground

Previously covered March 23 in "Hike 8B".

Apparently the restrooms here opened back up sometime when I wasn't looking and have already closed again:

I wonder who vandalised them.  There are again plenty of tents in Gilman Playground.  Oh, and yes, I forgot the newspaper again.

Gilman Playground does still have running water:

Ross Park

It only takes one picture to show both restrooms as open:

And yes, that's the mosaic I've complained to you, dear Diary, so many times, that I couldn't photograph.  So even before taking the shot above, I took this one:

This goes to show something important about recent photos I show you, dear Diary.  My phone has decided that the proper way to respond to sunlight is to get very dim.  As a result, when photographing by day, all I can do is point, pray, and shoot.  I'll have to go back to Ross Park with some other camera some day.

Meanwhile, I'd obviously better get on with telling you about hikes 8D through 11C, from January, before everything has re-opened.  But not tonight.  Good night, dear Diary.

Hike 8C: Near Northwest

Dear Diary,

Of course I didn't hike to Ballard on January 19, as recounted in "Hike 8A" March 21 and "8B" March 23, and then skip downtown Ballard.  I actually had to go there twice, and one reason I've dawdled so much to tell you about those hikes, dear Diary, is that I wanted to present the two visits in one page.  But I haven't found a way to make that work.  So this page is strictly about my first visit, in mid- to late afternoon of January 19.

The Urban Rest Stop, Ballard branch

My first stop was a dud.  Because I hadn't checked the map first, I hadn't looked at this place's open hours, which turned out to end at 2:30 P.M. that day.  This is certainly as good a postcard shot as I could reasonably hope to take:

but because I got there at 3:21 P.M., gives a mistaken impression.  This is one of the two reasons I came back to downtown Ballard on the night of January 21, as a future page will recount.

Ballard Commons

Rachel Schulkin, communications manager for the Seattle Department of Parks and Recreation, had finally filled me in on why the department claims there's a "restroom" at Ballard Commons:  they mean the "Portland Loo".

Now, dear Diary, when I've told you about this sad little park before, June 25 in "History and Parks", part II, and December 16 in "The Water Fountains of Ballard, mid-October 2020", I've mocked that "loo" as a fancier "sanican".  This turns out to have been untruthful of me:

An outhouse retains our excreta indefinitely.  A "sanican" retains them for a few days.  A toilet removes them promptly.  Clearly, the "Portland Loo" offers a toilet.  My apologies.

Ballard Commons also does have "sanican"s:

but I didn't find that hand-washing station working.  Nor were either of the push buttons on the side of the "Loo", which apparently are supposed to deliver water to wash with and air to dry with:

Fortunately, this is the last of the three parks in northwest Seattle whose water fountains had been left running:

I haven't been back to check its current status, but have noticed SPU sinks replacing hand-washing stations elsewhere, so hope that's happened at Ballard Commons too.

Seattle Public Library, Ballard branch

When I got there, there was an actual crowd - you're too young to remember crowds, aren't you, dear Diary? - anyway, a crowd waiting to pick up library materials.  There were also a lot of tents along the edges of the sidewalks.  Navigating my cart among all this was challenging, and I just couldn't find evidence that the restrooms there were open.  I also found taking a real postcard shot hopeless, but here's the best I could do:

Anyway, after several minutes of confusion, I decided to knock on the door to the restrooms, which I found locked.  A library security guy answered; he had to spend a few seconds doing something that sounded like removing tape before he could open the door.  I introduced myself and you, dear Diary, and said I wanted to take a photograph that would demonstrate that the restrooms were open (even though they plainly weren't!).

His reply was nearly classic.  He pointed out that a pandemic was happening.  And then said "So if you aren't here to pick up library materials, and you aren't here to use the restrooms, I'm going to have to ask you to move along."

You could tell how gratified he was to have an opportunity to use that last phrase on an actual homeless person, just like before the pandemic.  Although I generally consider it a little presumptuous of me to claim the title "journalist" on the basis of you, dear Diary, I do find myself wondering whether a housed journalist would've gotten quite such a reply.

Anyway, soon thereafter, I had recovered enough from my confusion to notice this:

It was adjacent to the front of the pickup line, which may or may not have been optimal placement.

So there it is, evidence that the Ballard branch's restrooms were open in mid-January, whether or not they actually were.

Ballard Community Center and environs

Well, hully gee!  The map I took these hikes to check on had seemed frozen for some time.  Now it's getting populated with what looks like summer data.  In particular, it claims tonight that these restrooms are open.

But that doesn't mean it's incorporated all the info I e-mailed to the people responsible.  My last e-mail, covering all my January hikes not already summarised, was sent February 15.  (I figured I should give them a chance to digest what I'd sent before publicly calling them all liars, which is why I put that off until February 18.)  But the map still doesn't show this:

It was across the street from Ballard Playground, in which Ballard Community Center with its then-closed restrooms sits, on January 19.  It was also in the street, which means it was on city property.  I should think, then, that it was there because of a city contract with the Honey Bucket people, but it wasn't and still isn't mapped.  I wonder whether it's still there.

Anyway, the Ballard Community Center.  An attempt at a postcard shot:

The closed door:

The closed doors:

I think my return to Ballard a little over two days later is about five pages away in this story.  I'll probably write another page tonight that isn't part of that story.  Until then, dear Diary.