A Requiem for Seventy-Seven Bus Stops, part VII: The Route 28 north of NW 97th Street; also, beaches and buses

Dear Diary,

No, I didn't sleep enough.  How about you?

Anyway, though, this is the last big heave of this page.  I want to talk not only about the sad collection of stops closing in the far northwest, but also about beaches, and bus service thereto.

I visited most of these stops on Saturday morning, then went back Monday afternoon, having found that Open Street Map maps three stops I'd ignored.  One of those, however, turned out not to be closing, because it's also a stop on the route D.  I also had doubts that two other stops (which I hadn't ignored) were really closing, but that was because I was applying the wrong standard of evidence to the new schedule; I should've been using preponderance of the evidence, not beyond a reasonable doubt.

See, the map shows a transfer point, no less, at NW 100th Place and 7th Avenue NW.

However, the schedule clarifies:  northbound trips end at that stop, stop #28680, where people can indeed transfer (to the route D).  But southbound trips, having turned at 3rd Ave NW and then at Holman Road NW, can't reach the stops across the street from the transfer point, and so they start instead at NW 97th Street:

This is apparently the way the route has worked ever since the extension north became a commuter-only route, which may be all the way back to when it started, for all I know.  (This extension is on the 1973 transit map but not the 1970 one.  The 28 reached NW 105th Street by the time of the 1965 map, but not further north.)  For some reason, none of my copies of the schedule map the Holman-route turn-around used by the non-commuter runs.  Now that every single run uses that turn-around, though, there's no excuse for not showing it.

As before, the links in the lists of stops go to my Google Drive, to folders there containing at least one photo of each stop listed.

Anyway.  The stops:

3rd Avenue NW

Northbound, three stops:

• Stop #28890, north of NW 143rd Street.
• Stop #28880, north of NW 140th Street.
• Stop #28870, north of NW 137th Street.

Southbound, three stops:

• Stop #27790, south of NW 145th Street.
• Stop #27810, just south of NW 140th Street.  A photo of a bus stop with none of the amenities I'm following:
  
  
  
  
• Stop #27820, just south of NW 137th Street.
   

NW 132nd Street

Northbound, one stop:

• Stop #28850, halfway between 4th Avenue NW and 3rd Avenue NW.
  

Southbound, one stop:

• Stop #27840, just west of 3rd Avenue NW.  This is one of the two closing stops on this route that I missed on Saturday.
  

8th Avenue NW

Northbound, two stops:

• Stop #28830, south of NW 132nd Street.
• Stop #28810, just north of NW 127th Street.
  

Southbound, two stops:

• Stop #27860, further south of NW 132nd Street.
• Stop #27880, south of NW 127th Street.
  

NW 125th Street

Northbound, two stops:

• Stop #28800, just east of 8th Avenue NW.
• Stop #28780, just east of Eldorado Lane NW.  This is the other stop that's actually closing that I missed on Saturday, probably because my attention was on a chat with a resident across the street.  While I was photographing it on Monday evening, the 28 bus actually pulled up and stopped.  I saw plenty of 20 buses while walking that route; few 73 buses Saturday evening, but several yesterday; but that was the only commuter bus I saw.  I wasn't on the 322's route at the right times, either Sunday or yesterday.
  

Southbound, one stop:

• Stop #27890, east of 8th Avenue NW.  At this stop, someone had recently installed a new cement pavement.  (Most, but not all, of the stops north of this one are unpaved, like stop #27810 above.)  Who paid for that apron, the home-owner, Metro, or someone else?  What will become of it now?  Does the home-owner get to use it for a grill, or for outdoor parties?
  

3rd Avenue NW

Northbound, five stops:

• Stop #28760, north of NW 120th Street.  This is the first, in this part, of four stops, both northbound and southbound, that have a rather bizarre appurtenance - I can't bring myself to call it an amenity.  Each of these stops has some fencing, of the same kind at each, clearly related to the stop, not the nearby residences.  I have no idea what it's for; it's hard to imagine crowd control ever being called for at the stops in question.
  
• Stop #28750, north of NW 117th Street.  117th is the northernmost route into Carkeek Park along public streets (as opposed to private back yards).
  
• Stop #28740, north of NW 115th Street.
• Stop #28720, north of NW 110th Street.  110th is the middle route into Carkeek Park along public streets.
  
• Stop #28700, north of NW 105th Street, and across the street from Viewlands Elementary School.  Also has fencing, not arranged in any plausible manner for student crowd control; just two panels, one leaning on the other.  This is the southernmost northbound stop closing.
  

Southbound, six stops:

• Stop #27910, some way south of NW 125th Street.  This is the northernmost of three southbound stops along this route that have benches.  While I was photographing this stop, a gentleman came out of the adjacent house and started discussing the closures with me.  He pointed out that it's fine for people on 3rd Avenue to walk over to Greenwood Avenue N, as the rider alert signs suggest, but that 8th Avenue NW is downhill from 3rd.  Were bus riders there supposed to walk five additional blocks uphill?  He said he'd written a letter.  I tend to think of commuter buses, buses that go only one direction in the morning, and only the opposite direction at night, as second-class bus service for a neighbourhood, but evidently there's a wide gulf between second-class and nothing at all, and people who live along commuter bus only streets are well aware of that gulf.
• Stop #27930, just north of NW 120th Street.
• Stop #27940, south of NW 117th Street.  Again, access (though difficult) to Carkeek Park.
• Stop #27950, just south of the line of NW 115th Street.  Has fencing.
  
• Stop #27970, just north of NW 110th Street.  Has a bench.  Again, difficult access to Carkeek Park.
• Stop #27990, just north of NW 105th Street.  Adjacent to Viewlands school.

NW 103rd Street

Southbound, one stop:

• Stop #28000, some ways west of 3rd Avenue NW.  Has both a bench and fencing:
  
  
  

NW 100th Place

Southbound, two stops:

• Stop #28010, just northeast of 7th Avenue NW.  On Saturday I was stunned and more than a little displeased to find that what I'd thought would be the first working stop is instead slated for closure.  Only when I reached 97th Street did I learn that the 28 is only hourly on weekends anyway.  I ended up walking all the way to NW 85th Street, going to a rummage sale along the way, and still made it just as the 28 did.  This stop is the nearest to the street access (6th Avenue NW) to the Eddie McAbee Entrance to Carkeek Park, which involves a whole lot more dirt trail than the NW 110th and 117th streets entrances mentioned above.  The stop across the street from this, which is not closing, is the remaining shred of an excuse Metro has for claiming that the 28 reaches Carkeek Park.  See not far below.
  
• Stop #28020, west and a little north of the intersection of 8th Avenue NW and NW 100th Street.
  

Beaches and buses

Two days before I started you, dear Diary, and a month after the March 13, 2020 lockdowns, Cliff Mass wrote a blog post arguing that outdoor air was safer than indoor air, and, essentially, that it was classist and ableist to close the parks, as was happening in many parts of the US, including (for large parks) Seattle.  It's probable that that post contributed to my decision to start you.

On July 1, 2020, I wrote in you, dear Diary, about Golden Gardens and Carkeek Parks for the first time.  I cited Cliff Mass's post, and then wrote:

"It's piffle anyway.  Seattle is a progressive city, no more capable of classism or ableism than of racism.  Next thing you know, someone will claim the President behaved badly."

Nota bene, at the time the United States President was the esteemed Donald Trump, not the current incumbent.  Anyway, I went on to suggest that if the powers that be really wanted to put a spike in Prof. Mass's argument, they should put a bus up Seaview Avenue NW.

I then wrote to Prof. Mass, saying I'd disagreed with him, and giving him the URL.  Some time later, I discovered he'd killfiled me:  I could no longer either e-mail him or comment on his blog posts.

Whatever that says about his sense of humour (well, there's a reason I stopped writing you all that satirically, dear Diary), I think this is a good occasion to say it straight:

Yes, there actually should be a bus up Seaview Ave NW, and into Golden Gardens Park, as there was from 1977 through September 2012, although toward the end of that time Metro had so completely lost the plot that the route 46 was, guess what? a commuter bus, Mondays through Fridays only.

And there should be, not just a bus that gets a rider within a mile or two of hiking to Carkeek Park's beach, but one that actually goes up NW Carkeek Park Road.  The beach itself is only reachable by stairs, but they're planning to build a new beach access soon, and dollars to doughnuts that'll have an accessible path too.  But instead Metro is getting rid of the risibly poor substitute they provided, that never got within a mile of Carkeek Park Road.

And there should be a bus that goes not just all the way down NE 65th Street, but then up Lake Shore Drive NE in Magnuson Park, all the way to the beach.  Just as if Magnuson Park existed in the same physical reality as the rest of North Seattle.

The lack of beach access by bus, all across North Seattle, isn't precisely ableist:  as far as I know, disabled people can use Metro's Access vans to reach beaches.  (Except, so far and probably for a few more years, Carkeek Park's beach.)  But it is ageist and it is classist.  And it contributes to parking problems well documented in signage all along Seaview, and about which I wrote in "Escaping Carkeek Park".

I don't get it.  This is the agency that invented Trailhead Direct.  So they can work with parks.  What do they have against beaches?  Is it illegal fires?  Who's more likely to start illegal fires at Golden Gardens - arrogant young people who drove there in cars that can carry wood or coal and kindling, or impoverished old people grateful to get to go there at all by bus?  Is it the near-nudity?  We'll get back to that in the last part of this page, but I'd hope not.

It would be stupid of me to expect my words, your pages, dear Diary, to have any direct impact, but all we can do is keep trying.  In any event, we're almost done.  28 stops on the route 20; 14 stops on the route 73 on 15th Avenue NE; 29 stops on the route 28 - that's 71.  There are six stops left, three of which are only route 322 stops, three of which are also route 73 stops as route 73 is (for a few more days) currently configured.  Soon.  Happy minutes or hours until then.

Thyme Patch Park on Monday

Dear Diary,

On Monday I visited all the City of Seattle park restrooms and water fountains known to me (which means, more or less, those I found in 2020) in the area I think of as Northwest - specifically, west of 3rd Avenue NW - except for those in Carkeek Park, which I intend to get to a little later.  (The 3rd Ave limit means I omitted also Sandel Playground and Sunset Place.)

All the restrooms were open.  (How weird it still is for me to write that line.  It won't be true of subsequent hikes in this series, though.)

All but a few of the water fountains were running.

In other words, I found exactly the boring baseline I was looking for.

Parks visited:

• Ross Park (restroom pair and water fountain)
  
• Gilman Playground (restroom pair and water fountain)
  
• Ballard Commons (pseudo-restroom and water fountain)
  
• The Burke-Gilman Trail (water fountain)
• Ballard Playground (water fountain) and Community Center (restroom pair)
  
• Thyme Patch Park
• Webster Park (water fountain)
• Salmon Bay Park (restroom pair and water fountain)
  
• Loyal Heights Playfield (water fountains) and Community Center (restroom pair)
  
• Golden Gardens Park (restroom pairs and water fountains)
• Soundview Playfield (restroom pair and water fountain)
• Crown Hill Park (water fountain)
• Baker Park on Crown Hill

The links point to folders of photos of the plumbing features.  Those folders are in my Google Drive account.

I didn't, on this hike, visit the Ballard Locks, where there are federal restrooms, which in the past I've found reliably open, and federal water fountains, which in the past I've found reliably on.

Water fountain issues:

At Golden Gardens Park, the south water fountain, right next to the Eddie Vine Boat Ramp, is un-usably damaged, as it has been for some time.

At Crown Hill Park, the water fountains, which had run fine in the past, gave no water at all:

And at Baker Park on Crown Hill, there continues to be no sign of a water fountain.  In the past, I've been fortunate enough to meet someone who said they'd grown up near there, and never had seen a water fountain there.  But the City of Seattle Department of Parks and Recreation continues to advertise such a water fountain:

Now that things are pretty much back to normal, the parks department should really redeem its word and put a water fountain there.   Until it either does so, or removes the claim on the park's Web page, I'm going to treat this as a defective water fountain on my maps.

That said, in NW things are, very much, back to normal.  N and NE will be less so, but this is still pretty much the boring baseline I expected.  Well done, parks department.

Some things I've done in the past which I didn't do this time:  I didn't test the restrooms' sinks and dryers, except at Ballard Community Center, where I had to, and found that the excessive water pressure in the water fountain was also in the restroom sink.

And I didn't look for neat stuff to photograph.  But a couple of pieces of it fell into my lap.  First of all, as always, doing the Ross Park restroom door shot also means photographing a mosaic:

And second, I accidentally walked right past Thyme Patch Park, one of those tiny one-lot nice parks, as I was looking for Webster Park.  I wrote how pleasant it is when I first visited it in 2020, and took photos of its art, but I hadn't been back.  On Monday it was a one-person park.  Someone was working in the attached P-patch, but left once I started eating tortilla chips fairly loudly; so I left when someone else showed up to work in the P-patch.  But as I was leaving, some red flowers caught my attention.  I don't think they actually show up in this photo, but here the photo is anyway:

All for now.  I still have three-quarters of this work left to do, and hiking for another of the pages I mean to write this month as well.  So we'll see how much I actually get done and when.  But until I have more to write about, happy days and pleasant nights, dear Diary.

More details of yesterday's hike

Dear Diary,

Now that I can write in you from my laptop again, it turns out I already told you everything that mattered from Saturday's hike in "NE" and elsewhere.

My plan for yesterday's hike was actually more ambitious than just for "NW", but, well, I haven't hiked for you in summer before, dear Diary, and as I should've remembered from long summer hikes in years past, I don't move as fast when it's hot out.

Anyway, there are some things worth mentioning from the parks of southern "NW".

I'm sure you remember, dear Diary, but perhaps people who read you need to know that all the photos of running (or not) water fountains and open (or closed) restroom doors are in a public Google Drive folder.  All these photos are dated partly by including the relevant day's newspaper, and photos of those newspapers' front pages, for comparison, are in a sub-folder titled, um, "Front pages".

Golden Gardens Park

The park's hours are being cut, lumped in with Alki as a violent beach (apparently for good reason).  Before the pandemic, the park was open the usual schedule, 4 A.M. to 11:30 P.M.  During the lockdowns, it was one of the parks whose closing time changed every few months.  And now that that's apparently over, it isn't going back to normal, but to the less common standard schedule, 6 A.M. to 10 P.M.:

In more pleasant news, the external water supply that enables showering has definitely been turned on.  I saw the lower spigot used, and the amount of wet pavement, plus an actual puddle (not shown in this photo), near the spigots makes it plain:

The only water fountain I found that I couldn't elicit water from yesterday was here.  I'm pretty sure it wasn't running, and it had a hole in it that suggests it was disabled, but based on a previous photo, it has an unusual control:

Yesterday I didn't notice that control:

Okay, looks like I didn't ignore that dial, but rather it was actually missing.  The thing intruding into the lower photo's bottom is one of the earpieces on my glasses.

Loyal Heights Community Center and Playfield

At the Community Center, child care is still the main thing going on.  As a result, during summer at least, the entire upper half of the Playfield, which was a construction site when I last visited, has replaced construction's metal fences with orange plastic fences.  Nobody showed hostility to my photographing the water fountain.  But remember, children are still ineligible to get vaccinated, so for them, the pandemic is still in full swing.  I saw a sign urging that park visitors mask up and keep distant, and couldn't justify photographing it as an oddity.  Anyone who visits upper Loyal Heights Playfield anytime soon should mask up and keep distant.

On the other hand, this sign still stuck to the fence of the playfield proper, lower down, is surely past its time:

Is anyone really going to try to close a park in Seattle this summer because it's busy?

The water fountain attached to the Community Center, but in the lower half of the Playfield, is running, but its drain seems to be clogged.  The bowl was full the entire time I was there:

Webster Park

The water fountain which only supplied a trickle of water all last year is now actually running properly:

Seattle Public Library, Ballard branch

This time, the door to the restrooms appeared to be locked, as on a previous visit, but the security guy was right next to the door, ready to let people in.  On the other hand, that won't last much longer:

Now, naively, this looks like bad news.  But the restrooms at Ballard Community Center are open, if not too reliably on Sundays.  Or if one specifically wants library restrooms, the Green Lake branch is open Mondays, and the Northeast and University branches are open Sundays.  And,y'know, the libraries have been expanding their hours every couple of weeks; it's possible, if somewhat unlikely, that by July 21st, the Ballard branch will actually be open seven days per week.

Or, of course, people could just discipline themselves not to need restrooms on Sundays and Mondays.  Isn't self-discipline what homeless people need most anyway?

Speaking of downtown Ballard and homeless self-discipline, during my visit to Ballard Commons yesterday, I didn't hear any yelling or arguments.  How unusual.

The Burke-Gilman Trail

In Seattle Public Utilities's pseudo-map of street water fountains, one is listed with an address of "6049 Seaview Ave."  Now, assuming this to mean Seaview Ave NW, it turns out 6049 is a real address, quite a few yards north of the NW 60th St Viewpoint:

It's private property.  I didn't see any water fountains, street-style or no, in any of the areas more or less publicly accessible, nor on the verge.  There is a street fountain on Seaview, but it's half a mile south, near the NW 57th St Street End, and also on the Burke-Gilman Trail, which in the relevant block is the sidewalk on the south side of Seaview.

Mind, SPU has done something rather impressive here.  That fountain had been knocked over and eviscerated by metal thieves.  It takes some guts to put another in the exact same place.  But I don't understand why they're advertising the wrong location for it.  Metal thieves are very unlikely to consult SPU press releases to find targets.

 

Anyway, the new fountain's water is good.

OK, that seems to be it for yesterday's hike.  Something different soon, dear Diary.  Until then, happy days and good nights.

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.

Yesterday's Hike in More Detail

Dear Diary,

As I told you last night, I visited thirteen parks yesterday, hiking from about 8:30 A.M. to about 7:30 P.M. to do it.  I can't do that every day, if only because then I'd never be able to tell you about it at all.  So today I'm writing in you instead of hiking.

This hike covered everything left west of I-5 except for five NW sites:  Ballard Commons, Ballard Community Center and Playground, Loyal Heights Community Center and Playfield, Salmon Bay Park, and Webster Park.  I also tidied up a loose end between I-5 and Lake City Way NE.  There may be a similar loose end west of I-5 among the parks I visited yesterday, but otherwise most of what's left is the entire set of parks east of both I-5 and Lake City Way NE, fifteen parks, including such convenient, easily visited ones as Cedar Park and Magnuson Park.  Oh, well.

I hope to visit all twenty remaining parks - specifically, all restrooms and water fountains in them - before the month is over, but we'll see.  Meanwhile, yesterday, first by function, then by park.

Most of the photos, as for the previous hike, are in a public folder at my Google Drive account, URL:

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

Most photos in this page aren't in that folder, however.

Restrooms - Closed at Licton Springs Park.  I speculate that this is to discourage the unbelievably messy campers who were there last year from returning.  However, it's also possible that whoever opened restrooms yesterday morning just forgot this park, so I suppose I should go back a couple of times, as I did with Maple Leaf Reservoir Park, which I finally found open yesterday morning.  Otherwise, open; this includes Northacres Park (two pairs of restrooms, which I identify as park and playfield), Bitter Lake Playfield, Carkeek Park, Greenwood Park (only one restroom, and my photo happened to catch a wide beam of light coming in through one of the peepholes), Sandel Playground, Soundview Playfield, and Golden Gardens Park (two pairs of restrooms, which I identify as upper and lower).

For most of the men's or all-gender rooms, I took notes of how many of each major item it had, and tested the sinks and dryers by starting the water running, waving my hand around trying to get the water to splash me, and then drying my hand off (if there was a dryer).  By default, for each park for which I list items, the sink did not splash me, and the dryer, if any, worked.  I note exceptions.

Water fountains - Running at Bitter Lake Playfield (fountain near the playground, which I hadn't noticed before), Licton Springs Park, Greenwood Park, and Crown Hill Park.  Present (including the southern Golden Gardens Park water fountain, which I hadn't seen either in October or in January, and fountains I observed for the first time at Carkeek and Green Lake Parks) but not running at the rest, except for Baker Park on Crown Hill, where I finally found people other than me who attested the absence of the water fountain.

By park:

Maple Leaf Reservoir Park

As noted above, the third try was the charm.  This is the second series of hikes on which I've had trouble with this park's restrooms not being open; so I'm guessing this isn't coincidence, but a park whose restrooms are often forgotten, or opened last and closed first, by door openers.  This park has a free-standing double water fountain, and one of those is one of the fountains for which my photo doesn't include my finger pressing the button.  The men's room has one toilet with a stall door, one urinal, one sink, one dryer, and one soap dispenser.

It appears currently to be illegal to walk 1st Ave NE from 95th St to 103rd St owing to construction on both sides of the street having closed both the sidewalk on one side and the shoulder on the other.  Luckily, no police were around when I did so.

Northacres Park

I started with the playfield side, which one approaches via 3rd Ave NE.  The water fountain there is unusually full of stuff that is unlikely to allow it to function well in whatever far-off day water fountains are allowed to run in North Seattle again:

The playfield side men's room has two toilets without stall doors, a wide urinal that without social distancing would easily fit two men and with difficulty three, one sink with a really wide counter, one dryer and one soap dispenser.  This men's room sink has delivered water under such high pressure that most of it ends up on the user's clothes ever since I first visited this park last May.

The parks department probably refers to the other set of restrooms as "playground" or "pg" (I can't be sure because the map I hiked last January to check still doesn't admit that these are open), but since Northacres's signage refers to "Northacres Park and Playfield", I figure the non-playfield part is simply the "park".  Anyway, these rooms are single-user stalls, and in Seattle parks in general, that means what it means here:  one toilet, one sink, one dryer, one soap dispenser, and no urinals.  I forgot to check the sinks and dryers at this location.

The water fountains here are designed to run all winter, but were shut off last winter.  I've complained about this before, attributing my knowledge to an employee of Seattle's Department of Parks and Recreation whom I met at this location last spring.  However, it turns out I had another source of information:

I was told last winter that the department's plumber averred that the department owns no winter-proof water fountains.  So is this water fountain an interloper owned by some nefarious third party, or was he wrong?  Or is he simply helping cover up the extent of the current city government's reluctance to provide water?

From Northacres it's a pretty easy and quick hike across, um, Aurora to the next park.

Bitter Lake Playfield

It seems Bitter Lake Playfield is soon to be blest with its own lack of urinals.  Right now the men's room there has one toilet with a stall door, one urinal, one sink, one dryer and one soap dispenser.  I used the urinal, being unsure what some spots on the toilet's seat were.  However:

Plans are afoot to renovate these restrooms, about a year from now, and turn them into single-user all-gender stalls.  This conversion, seems to me, normally has two effects:  it reduces the total number of stalls available; and it gets rid of urinals.

Perhaps the sight of a urinal is traumatic to some women and/or transgender people.  But the sight of yellow spots on a toilet seat is irksome to a whole lot more women, and some of pretty much every other category of human.  The usual response to this argument seems to be that men should be better than we, in fact, are; in other words, it's wishful thinking, or perhaps punitive thinking - until men are perfect, it's better that everyone suffer.  I have the impression that over the longer term, this conversion is likely to come to many parks, so people in Seattle in general, and in the area around Bitter Lake right now, should assess whether they're OK with this probable result, and if not, speak up.

As for reduction:  Why on Earth, having lived through the current pandemic, would anyone think fewer park restroom stalls is a good idea?  Why hasn't this experience driven a stake through the unbeating heart of this process?  Inquiring minds want to know.

In the meantime, in a photo that is at the Google Drive folder, someone seems, this past winter, to have expressed displeasure at the "sanican"s that alone were available:

PubliCola has just reported on the evil deeds of the terrorist pedophiliac Satanists who camp in this park, which include starting both the COVID-19 epidemic and World War II, and now we can add illegal fires to the long list of their crimes.

I dawdled on the way to the next park to wait for an advertised garage sale to open.  I bought a book there.

Carkeek Park

A few feet to the side of the Environmental Learning Center's "sanican", the one that's now locked each night against intruders (but nobody was keeping watch by day to enforce its notional restriction to certain users) - anyway, a few feet to the side, sits one of the oldest water fountains in North Seattle:

It's similar to one in Woodland Park, the one adjacent to the N 50th St restrooms, and not to anything else in North Seattle.  It looks like it could have been made by the same people who made the shut-down water fountain in Freeway Park that's obviously over a century old.

I'm ashamed that I allowed my aversion to "sanican"s to blind me to this fountain's existence for so long.  To be a little more precise:  I've explored the ELC on, I think, each visit, and can easily imagine that I'd seen the fountain before but not recognised it for what it is.  But in general, once I knew there were no restrooms with doors opening outside in the ELC, it fell off my priority list, and I'm pretty sure at least one or two explorations were by night.  Oops.

Oh, and by the way.  Carkeek Park is by far big enough to have two or even three or four pairs of restrooms.  I presume the reason it doesn't is that the ELC has restrooms.  However, the parks department's web page listing ELCs currently says:  "Though the Environmental Learning Center at Carkeek Park is available for rentals, we regret that because of budget reductions, it is no longer open to the public."  Oops.  Carkeek Park should get more restrooms of its own.

Of course, it does already have restrooms of its own, a mile or so from the ELC.  These are amazingly large, as if quantity could make up for distance.  The men's room has three toilets with doors, an oversized urinal as at Northacres playfield, two sinks, one soap dispenser, and no dryers.  The sinks do not splash clothes.

In order to check the water fountain at the Eddie McAbee Entrance, as well as to go south, I left the park by the Piper's Creek trail, the same one described in "Escaping Carkeek Park".  This is the trail by which I entered it for the second time last spring, and at that time I described, in "The Ballard Seacoast" part II, 

| many deteriorating posts advertising 

| a "story trail" whose text can be found various places, 

| including online.  They date to 2004 and aren't online any 

| more, not even at the Internet Archive.  Maybe a physical 

| copy survives.

Unfortunately, I didn't take, or at least didn't show you, dear Diary, a photo of these posts, and now they're gone; I thought so in January and now am sure.  I did find a couple of signs branded "Salmon Stories", but they aren't new and I saw only two.

However, many posts seem to have held signs of about that size in the past, but to have had them removed, presumably by vandals.  So maybe "Salmon Stories" was some sort of successor to "Story Trail", but it isn't any more, and now "Story Trail" itself has been not only forgotten, but also erased.  Not only does this mean I can't now show you a picture of the posts, dear Diary - and a quick Google Image Search turns up none as well - but I also doubt I still have the URL they used to be at, which was on those posts.

As your next page will make clear, dear Diary, I care about stories, and I care about cultural loss, so this bothers me more than it may bother other people.  Maybe I should go on to the next park, but anyway, I want to register my unhappiness with this decision.  [EDIT 5/23:  No, the next page didn't make that clear; I was in a hurry, and forgot.]

Licton Springs Park

As I said, the trash is gone:

But I assume the restrooms' closure is a lingering effect of that trash and the reprehensible homeless people who left it.  The water fountains are running; I'd set out with two full bottles of water that morning, so as not to have to turn aside to buy water, but by this point in the afternoon had drunk more than one.  So I filled the empty bottle there, and if the water didn't taste great, it was certainly good enough, and I drank most of it before getting home.

Greenwood Park

Restroom open, water fountain running.

Sandel Playground

Restrooms open, water fountain off.

Baker Park on Crown Hill

Last October, I visited this park, unlike most parks without water fountains, because the parks department's web page claims it has one.  I also asked people who were there - young parents - if they knew anything, but they all said they hadn't been visiting the park long enough to be aware of any water fountains.

Well, I tried that again this time, but got the same results.

Finally I plucked up my courage and approached the party in one corner of the park.  They appeared to be a group who knew each other from some combination of school and/or work, probably all in their twenties but probably not early twenties.  Their first reaction was to offer me alcohol (like the mayor!), then they found some fizzy water and offered me that, but several of them were quite definite that they remembered the park's re-opening from renovations last year, and did not remember a water fountain being present then or since.

So it isn't just my imagination.  There really isn't a water fountain at this park, and I'm wondering how long the parks department is going to go on advertising its presence without actually installing the thing.

I stumbled on something odd in the pavement that might be, but probably isn't, the intended hookup; this picture is at the Google Drive folder, being all there was to photograph of the supposed Baker Park on Crown Hill water fountain:

Oh, darn, it isn't even in the pavement.

Crown Hill Park

This park is adjacent to a playground that used to belong to a school.  Now the building in question is a landlord to non-profits, and the playground was inherited by some sort of child care center, which promised to keep the playground open to the public on a similar basis to what the school had offered.  This promise is still not being kept, nearly a year after my first visit:

There were girls' games going on in the ballfields at both this park and Soundview Playfield, but here they had a working water fountain, while there they had restrooms.

Soundview Playfield

Soundview Playfield's restrooms distinctively have no signage at all.  No "men's" or "women's" or even "all-gender".  Just nothing.  The photos at the Google Drive folder, dear Diary, make this clear, since the single-user stalls here are hard to prop open, so I just shot the fact that I could open them enough to stick my newspaper in.

Perhaps the absence of the "all-gender" label is how they get away with having a different suite of features from those at, say, Laurelhurst Community Center, or Northacres Park park-side:  Each stall has one toilet, one urinal, one sink, one or two dryers (the old one in the south-facing stall doesn't work), and one soap dispenser.  It's easy to imagine that this old-looking building was originally meant for male athletes only, and that's why the stalls both have urinals.  But anyway, they show that it's at least physically, if not culturally, possible to put urinals into single-user stalls.  The girls I saw dealing with the south-facing stall did in fact get grossed out, but by a spider, not by the urinal.

The south-facing stall's sink has, as I previously reported, a sink whose water pressure is so strong that way too much of it lands on clothing.  In this case I didn't dodge fast enough, and since I had my vaccination card in my shirt pocket, this was a sub-optimal result; but the card seemed undamaged in the end.  The east-facing stall's sink is just fine.

The water fountain is not on.  Rachel Schulkin, communications manager for the parks department, told me last October that all the water fountains that could be turned on had been.  I hope in general that this isn't true - all those fountains with busted controls - but in this particular case I think it's realistic to hope it isn't true, because the water fountain is near a water play area that isn't on, so it's plausible that they can't turn the one on without the other.

Golden Gardens Park

Was crowded, as usual.  Both pairs of restrooms were open, and I have to revise my previous statement that the beach pair is extra-capacious.  The upper pair, usually referred to in relation to the off-leash area for dogs' people nearby, has a men's room with two toilets that lack stall doors, a wide urinal as at Carkeek and Northacres Parks, a sink, a soap dispenser, and no dryer.  The lower men's room has one toilet with a stall door, two urinals (as opposed to the just-described wide urinals), one sink, one soap dispenser, and one dryer.  There were two men in safety fluorescent vests, parks department employees, in the doorway of the lower women's room when I went to photograph it; one walked away, the other told me yes, they were there to close it, but while I photographed the open doorway he walked away, and I'm not sure when they did get around to actually closing the restrooms.  I saw them later directing traffic; they seemed assigned to the park for the day.

[The above paragraph edited later the same day.  The upper restrooms' toilets don't have stall doors; I'd mis-read my notes.]

The last two times I visited Golden Gardens Park I didn't find the south water fountain.  It is now clear to me that this is because I didn't go far enough south.  More precisely, in October I left via the Burke-Gilman Trail.  The south water fountain is so far south that it's essentially adjacent to the Eddie Vine Boat Ramp; the trail is some distance from it.  And in January I didn't even try; my whole visit to this park was while I waited for a friend to bring a replacement cart, so I rushed.

Like other water fountains I saw on this hike, it's weird.  But that photo (which is at Google Drive) is timed 6:51 P.M.  I noted the time as I passed the open doorways of the upper restrooms:  7:09 P.M.  So I didn't go on to Loyal Heights Playfield.

Green Lake Park

Later that evening I passed a park water fountain where I didn't at all expect one, though many people walk past it every day.  It's at the intersection of East Green Lake Way N and NE 72nd St.  I showed you, dear Diary, a picture of it in the previous page, and my other picture of it (with newspaper) is at Google Drive, so there's no point in reproducing either photo here, but the entire control is gone.  There is something metallic just inside there, seeming loose.  I think it's extremely unlikely that metal thieves came and restrained themselves to only taking the controls, because taking that next piece would just be greedy, so this only strengthens my belief that control damage is usually not done by conscious evildoers, but by parks employees, for reasons I'll discuss in a page a week or two away.

Anyway, that's what I saw in and around Seattle parks yesterday, dear Diary.  I hope still to write one more page in you tonight, and after that we'll see what happens.  Happy hours, or perhaps days...

Running water fountains FOUND in N, and northern NW

Dear Diary,

Today I went to thirteen parks.  I only crossed Ravenna Boulevard, but the other twelve all have, or are supposed to have, water fountains, and some have restrooms.

The big news is that I found water fountains actually running at Bitter Lake Playfield, Licton Springs Park, and Greenwood Park, the three last parks in the part of the city between NE and NW that I had to visit.   I also found that the double fountain in Crown Hill Park was running.

Also significant:  Licton Springs Park's restrooms are still closed.  All the trash left by the incredibly messy encampment that was there last year has been removed, but I guess the Seattle Department of Parks and Recreation isn't taking any chances on them returning, so isn't going to both turn on water fountains and open restrooms until there's reason to doubt that could happen.

Also significant:  I found additional water fountains at Bitter Lake Playfield and at Carkeek Park, or anyway its Environmental Learning Center; also, at Green Lake Park.  I'm sure these were there all the time; I just hadn't explored either northern park thoroughly, and since I hate walking on gravel, hadn't found Green Lake's non-trail fountain.  (I probably don't have enough years left to live to explore Carkeek thoroughly anyway.)  The additional one at Bitter Lake is near the playground, and is the one that's running at that park.  I did not, however, find the water fountain the parks department's web page for Baker Park on Crown Hill still claims is there.  Moreover, at that park I found a party of youngish people who admitted to remembering the park back to its re-opening from renovations last year, and none of them remembered ever seeing a water fountain there.

I've uploaded all relevant photos, and even a video (to show that Northacres Park's freeze-resistant water fountains are still not on), to the Google Drive folder I pointed to last time.  Here's the URL again:

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

I got a little sloppy this time; I had to settle for a photo of the Carkeek Park women's room door with no newspaper in it, and for some water fountain a photo that didn't show my finger pushing the button.

Anyway, I have other things to do with my loud laptop before quiet time, so will tell you all about it tomorrow, dear Diary.  But briefly, here are the parks.  Their restrooms were open except at Licton Springs (and I didn't re-check Green Lake); their water fountains were not running except at the parks named above (but again, I didn't re-check Green Lake).

• Ravenna Boulevard (neither fountains nor restrooms)
  
• Maple Leaf Reservoir Park (both)
  
• Northacres Park (both)
  
• Bitter Lake Playfield (both)
  
• Carkeek Park and Environmental Learning Center, Piper's Creek Natural Area, and Eddie McAbee Entrance (both)
  
• Licton Springs Park (both)
  
• Greenwood Park (both)
  
• Sandel Playground (both)
  
• Baker Park on Crown Hill (neither)
  
• Crown Hill Park (just water fountains)
  
• Soundview Playfield (both)
  
• Golden Gardens Park, where I was when 7 P.M. came (both)
  
• Green Lake Park (both, but I only photographed one fountain)
  

Good night, dear Diary.  Sweet dreams until tomorrow.

Hike 4B: Mid-Northwest

Dear Diary,

Pushing my damaged cart, I proceeded on my hike.  I finally confirmed through Google Maps that I'd screwed up, misremembering NW 65th St rather than NW 85th St as the address of Golden Gardens Park.  This, of course, meant that the damage to the cart described in the previous page need never have happened.  The mistake, however, did enable me to cut a big chunk out of the Ballard hike.  So off I went.

Salmon Bay Park

This is a smallish, pleasant park, nowhere near Salmon Bay, which I first told you, dear Diary, about June 28 in "A Lazy Day on Loyal Heights", and have only discussed since then on December 16 in "The Water Fountains of Ballard, mid-October 2020".

This park's restrooms were not on last year's list of restrooms to keep open, and also weren't and still aren't on this year's map of open restrooms, the map I was hiking around North Seattle to check.  So in other words, the expected outcome was that these restrooms would be closed, and in contrast to all the surprises I'd found in and north of Woodland Park, that's exactly what I found.

The restroom building:

The closed doors:

I parked the cart by a bench to take those photos, and then ate breakfast there.  This gave me time to think.  I'd consciously skipped Ballard Pool, but if I really went on without it, I'd have to go much further north on the Ballard hike.  And Salmon Bay Park seemed pretty quiet and safe.  So I left my cart there and hurried back southeast.

Ballard Pool

This, being a building whose restrooms all open to the inside, wasn't on last year's list, and since it's a building that has yet to re-open, it isn't on this year's map either.  Well, it wasn't open, but there was something weird about that...

I'd introduced this to you, dear Diary, in "A Lazy Day", as the one pool which, when all the pools got renovated in winter 2019-2020, got delayed.  I found it in June still surrounded by construction fences.  So the visit last month was my first chance to look at its doors.

The postcard shot:

The closed door:

At Ballard Pool, in other words, COVID-19 hasn't happened yet.  It's stuck in a time warp.  Or more prosaically, nobody's thought to go update the signage.

Anyway, its doors were locked.

So I went back to Salmon Bay Park, retrieved my cart, and proceeded to 

Loyal Heights Community Center

This community center is in a playfield of the same name, and has restrooms whose doors open to the outdoors.  I told you about these places in the same pages, dear Diary, as Salmon Bay Park.  Now, Loyal Heights Community Center's restrooms were on last year's list, and at the time I visited were also on this year's map.  Yes, I know, dear Diary, if you look at the map today, it isn't there.  But it was.

So I was extremely surprised by what I found.

The postcard shot:

The closed doors:

The running water fountain:

I was in Topsy-Turvy Land.  I believe, however, that the water fountain has been shut off.  Now, this is an attached fountain, and on November 12 in "To a Land of Water and Honey" I suggested leaving it on, in the expectation that the building it's attached to would remain heated.  This is actually still the case, here, even though the restrooms are closed.  But notwithstanding the boasts of a Jackson Park employee in the page in question, one of the secrets to keeping outdoor water fountains running in winter is to know when to fold them, and although I was pleased to find that fountain running January 10, it has no business being on in the weather now expected for the next week.

As for the restrooms.  Only two restroom pairs in North Seattle are closed this winter that were on last year's list.  The Woodland Park pair called Rio has signs indicating vandalism as the reason, and a substitute nearby, the Cloverleaf rooms.  But the Loyal Heights signs just say "Seasonal Closure" as if this happened every year, and the obvious nearby substitute, Salmon Bay, is closed.

My best guess is that Topsy-Turvy Land was created for the benefit of people working on the playfield.  There's a major operation going on to replace artificial turf at a bunch of fields, mostly in North Seattle; we saw part of it at Magnuson Park, dear Diary, more is at Woodland Park, and one piece is at Loyal Heights.  Anyway, if the workers had keys to the restrooms, it would all make sense.  With the rooms locked, they'd get fewer annoying intruders; with the water fountain on, they'd get convenience.  This is, however, only my guess.

At any rate, these were the only park restrooms on the Northwest street grid open last winter, and this year they're closed.  Whatever the reason, it should be a good one.

Golden Gardens Park

Dear Diary, I've had four carts in the past three years, and they've all been gifts from the same person, who'd been keeping late hours in early January.  When this person had bought the damaged cart (#3), it turned out that two carts were almost the same price as one.  So there was a method to my madness, traipsing about northwest Seattle instead of hieing to my storage to lighten my load.  I was waiting until it was late enough to call and ask for cart #4.

While I waited for it, of course I took the photos of Golden Gardens Park.  Here there was another surprise.  Both pairs of restrooms in that park were on last year's list, and both were then on this year's map.  But the upper pair, the one near the off-leash area for dogs, was locked:

There was no sign, as there had been at Salmon Bay Park and Loyal Heights Community Center, and it dawned on me that it was a Sunday.  So on January 13 I went back, and found them open.

Now, dear Diary, I notify people who work on the map of what I find, by e-mail, before telling you about it.  This is so I can tell you as much as I want, but provide them the same information in a less wordy form.  I think those e-mails are why Sandel Playground and Loyal Heights Community Center have been removed from the map.  I greatly fear, however, that by telling the above story in an e-mail, I may have greatly inconvenienced a lot of dogs' people, because for some reason the upper restrooms at Golden Gardens Park have also been removed from the map.

Anyway, here's the restroom building:

I'm relieved to report that there were no surprises at the lower, beach, restrooms there.  The building (I had to back up almost to the water to get it all in):

The open doors:

The "sanican"s, just as indicated on the map:

Now, dear Diary, you may remember that January 10 was the day an atmospheric river began drenching us.  My plan was to wait it out in Carkeek Park's palatial shelter 2.  It took a while for my friend to bring cart #4, and then of course it had to be assembled, and, well, the days were a good deal shorter a month ago than they are now.  So I dropped one park after another from my itinerary, discarded cart #3 (a move I would later regret), and headed for shelter.

I need to take some more photos to write the next page, dear Diary, and also need to do things about my shelter today, so it'll probably be a few days before you hear from me again.  May they be happy ones.

The Water Fountains of Ballard, mid-October 2020

Dear Diary,

As mentioned in some earlier pages, and in a bit more detail in "Two Last Strays" yesterday, on October 16 I returned to Ballard.  My first trip to the parks of Ballard, in June, was reported in the pages "History and Parks, part I" and "part II" on June 25, pages that to this day hardly anyone has read, apparently inferring from the title that each page ends with a test.  Actually those pages are about the strong impression some of Ballard's parks gave me, that they were about history, indeed that Ballard is obsessed with certain parts of its history.  In part II I got to parks that at least concerned other parts of Ballard history.

This page also deals with the water fountains of areas sometimes seen as parts of Ballard, but which I think of as north of it, to wit the water fountains first mentioned in "A Lazy Day on Loyal Heights" June 28, and "What Can a Hill Do with a Crown?", July 1.

It was on this June trip that I finally allowed myself to take landscape and other such photos, so I took relatively few this time.  Therefore this page also has room to report on water fountains in Golden Gardens Park and on the Burke-Gilman Trail, which I first told you about, dear Diary, in "The Ballard Seacoast:  Parks Not Parks', part I" and "part II", June 30 and July 1, even though I didn't reach these until October 17 this time.

Enough introduction; let's get started.

In Gas Works Park the water fountain still wasn't running, as I already reported October 8 in "South of North Once More, Part I".

Ross Park

On June 22, as reported in "History and Parks" I, I found the restroom open and the water fountain not running.  On October 16, this was flipped.  As at Bitter Lake Playfield ("Top of the City, part III" November 12 and "Hygiene Is a Luxury I Can't Afford" November 18), the restroom was locked but the water fountain (free-standing, near the restrooms) was ON.

I was particularly annoyed by this situation because I'd wanted to take a picture of a mosaic between the restrooms.  I did anyway.

So you can see why I was annoyed.

I asked Rachel Schulkin, communications manager for the Seattle Department of Parks and Recreation, about the locking, and she said the unlocker goofed.  Well, he must have, but we'll get to that.

Ross Park's restrooms are not year-round, so I won't be able to take that picture until next spring.

Sunset Place

This is a small park on one slope of a hill, where I managed to miss a water fountain on my first visit, so had to go back for it.  The advantage of nobody having read "History and Parks" I right away is that any future hypothetical readers will get the revised version.

The drama continued this time.  As I prepared to climb up to the bottom of the park, I had to adjust my mask.  Now, I told you, dear Diary, about my masks from Target that did such a good job of covering my eyes, in "Six Parks in Search of Another" November 30.  As I said there, on the long hike October 8 to 14, I wore a different sort of mask.  But for this shorter hike I reverted to a Target one; those were, after all, the majority of my masks.  

Well, two blocks from the top of Sunset Place, I stopped to adjust that mask, when at last it achieved the goal it and its five siblings had sought since June:  by snapping away from my hand, it managed to flip my glasses off my ears and nose, I didn't manage to catch them, and, well, I haven't been able to wear my glasses much since.

So now I have fifteen masks.  Six from Target, waiting in my storage until I figure out what to do with them, and nine from Naturepedic.  All of those are gifts.  I tried to buy a pack, but they only ship Fed Ex, which my address can't accept.  So I called them, and they decided the best solution was to send me a free pack.  Anyway, those have never fought my glasses as assiduously as the Target ones did, but I'm still not planning to get new glasses until mask time is over, at least if it does end.

ANYWAY.  At Sunset Place, the water fountain was ON, as it had been in June.  I decided it was time, at a park so obviously created for its view, to photograph that view:

Gilman Playfield

The official names of the parks named for Ross and Gilman, per the parks department website, are both "Playground".  My theory is that they aren't allowed to outshine Ballard Playground.  In my opinion Ross is obviously a Park, Gilman a Playfield, and I'll go by that until and unless someone gives me a good reason not to.

Anyway, as I reported euphorically in "History and Parks" I, Gilman's free-standing water fountain near its restrooms was ON.  It still was in October.  On the other hand, those restrooms were open in June, but not in October.  I asked Rachel Schulkin about this too, but she never got back to me.

Now, the obvious assumption is that the same unlocker screwed up twice, but it isn't that simple.  You see, in June I observed a bunch of homeless people's tents at Gilman Playfield.  I considered their occupants well-behaved.  Those tents were gone this time.  Some trash, however, remained:

So, dear Diary, doesn't this remind you of Licton Springs Park?  ("Bad Apples in the Bonny Green Wood", October 29.)  A park whose campers were induced to leave by the locking of the restrooms?  Except that those campers were abominable neighbours, while, from my admittedly brief observation, it looked like Gilman's were good neighbours.  It sends a very bad message to us unsheltered homeless if our behaviour has no effect on the treatment we get.

So I hope it was just an unlocker's screwup, but I don't know whether we'll ever know.  Of course, those doors would be locked now anyway, since Gilman Playfield's restrooms are not year-round.

Ballard Commons

Of course people were still camped here.  I still couldn't find the restrooms, the only ones in Ballard proper listed on the 2019 list of year-round restrooms.  Rachel Schulkin finally ended my suspense; it turns out the parks department sees fit to claim the "Portland Loo" as a restroom.

Triple free-standing water fountain ON both in June and in October.

As a precaution, I went to the Ballard branch library to use its restroom before proceeding, but I needn't have.

Ballard Playground and Community Center

The single-user restrooms at the Community Center both have dryers, and that afternoon both still had toilet cleaner in their bowls.  The only explanation I can think of for why these restrooms, built into a heated building, are not open year-round is that neighbours are afraid we homeless will use them, when the other park restrooms are closed.  Well, October 16 was a kind of experiment in that regard, and on its showing such fears would be overblown.  Dear Diary, if anyone in Ballard reads this page, I hope they'll be kind enough to check whether those restrooms are really locked, and report back in a comment.

The free-standing water fountain nearby but technically in the Playground had not been running in June, but was ON in October.

Webster Park

Free-standing water fountain mid-park:  TRICKLE, as in June.

Salmon Bay Park

The restrooms were open.  The men's room has a dryer but no stall door.  These are not year-round restrooms.

Attached water fountain, men's side:  ON (it had been off in June).

Loyal Heights Community Center and Playfield

The restrooms were open.  Weirdly, these have stall doors but no dryer.  They're also the first year-round restrooms mentioned in this page, unless there really is a mistake about the Ballard Community Center ones.  The attached water fountain, off in June, was ON in October.

Free-standing water fountain in the Playfield's southwest, near the baseball diamond:  ON (previously off)

Free-standing water fountain upstairs:  ON BUT VISIBLY DAMAGED (previously off)

Baker Park on Crown Hill

The parks department website offers a set of symbols under the heading 'Amenities' on most parks' individual pages.  A symbol I've interpreted as meaning "water fountain" has indeed pointed to a water fountain very reliably - this is how, for example, I found out about the one at Sunset Place.

But that symbol is on the page for this park to this day, and I still couldn't find the water fountain.  Nobody I asked at the park knew anything about one, but they all said they hadn't been visiting it long.  The page talks about an expansion opened in 2020; maybe a water fountain was removed due to that, or as at View Ridge Playfield for fear of COVID-19.  Or maybe the page is wrong, or I've misunderstood the symbol.  I asked Rachel Schulkin, but she never got back to me.

Crown Hill Park

Free-standing double water fountain ON, both bowls' flow low but probably useable

You'll remember, dear Diary, that one of the first parks I visited at the beginning of my October hikes showed the official re-opening of the playgrounds.  But the one adjoining this park, not parks department property, was still locked in the evening of October 16.

Soundview Playfield

The restrooms were closed, but it was 7:20 P.M. and I didn't expect any different.

Free-standing water fountain near the water play area:  OFF, as in June

Water play areas didn't open this year.  It seems likely that this water fountain is on the same pipe as the water play area, and there may not be separate shutoffs.  Rachel Schulkin has told me that all the working water fountains were turned on this year, but I'd find it quite plausible if this one were an exception.

Golden Gardens Park

That night, rain was expected, and so tempting though the benches at Soundview were, I knew I had to reach a shelter.  You already know, dear Diary, from "Standing Room Only" V, that the shelters at this park are very, well, un-sheltering, but I didn't know that as I careened fearfully down Golden Gardens Drive, where no sign survived of its time as a "Stay Healthy" street.  It was full dark, so I didn't turn aside to look for water fountains near the upper restrooms, which I hadn't found in June.

There was a ton of traffic at the bottom.  Most seemed to be for the 24-hour Eddie Vine Boat Ramp, but there were more than a handful in the park as I clambered along looking for the shelters.

Rain had already begun too, occasioning the remarks I used as an epigraph for "Standing Room Only" I from a loud young woman in a party of young people who eventually coalesced at the south end of the beach around a fire.  As I understand it, the city plans to evict all the homeless from Cal Anderson Park because, among other things, of two illegal fires.  Will the city eject half the young people from Golden Gardens because of one?

Anyway, I spent a miserable night in that shelter, and in the morning apparently I was careless.  I had reported, in "The Ballard Seacoast" II, a water fountain near the restrooms and another at the south end of the beach, both off.  This time I only noted

Double free-standing water fountain near the restrooms:  ON, both bowls a bit low flow

The restrooms were opened between 7:49 and 8:30 A.M.

The Burke-Gilman Trail

In my October hikes, I walked all but about two miles of the trail, but largely without my glasses.  I think it's unlikely, but not quite impossible, that there's another water fountain on the trail besides the one on 30th Ave NE and this one at 37th Ave NW.

Well, that's a sad photo, but "NW" actually did considerably better, this year, water fountain-wise, than "N".

Tomorrow, starting the street ends.  None have restrooms or water fountains, and none of those we can visit have lockable doors, so the photos, much more numerous, may also be more interesting.  Good night, dear Diary.