Three Hikes in Ravenna, part II: Northeast

Dear Diary,

This part's title is actually untrue:  I've recently made five hikes to this part of Ravenna.  So let's hurry up and get started.  Here's the map:

 

One thing I want you to notice on that map, dear Diary, is that dozens of homeowners north-northeast of Ravenna Park don't have back yards, they have back forest, and near as I can tell (this was the topic of today's hike), they pretty much don't treat it as their property.  That doesn't mean they want you hiking into it, but does mean that in every case I got the chance to look at, there's a pretty sharp dividing line between the areas they actually use, and the areas they seem to be aware they're stewards of.

Today's hike was also a lesson in the reliability of Open Street Map.  Those gray blotches reproduce OSM's map as best I could, because it checked out everywhere I was able to look.

On October 8 (hike #1), I went and visited most of the properties I knew to belong to the City of Seattle in the entire region, including this piece of it.

Olga Park (RB9 on map)

As before, I've numbered the blocks of Ravenna Boulevard with the numbers I used, counting from Ravenna Park towards Green Lake Park, in "Ravenna Boulevard", a much earlier page in you, dear Diary.

I'd forgotten in writing the previous part of this page that I did take one photograph of Ravenna Boulevard, of the specific extra-wide block of it that has the separate name Olga Park.  I took it because I was pleased to see that when Olga Park was swept, they didn't also sweep the sign declaring that name:

Ravenna Park

On this hike, I didn't take many photos in this park, other than of the water fountains and restroom doors.  (As in past hike series, the photos are in a shared folder at my Google Drive.)  I know perfectly well that I've shown you lots of photos of Ravenna Park in the past, dear Diary.  But I was pleased to notice that the alleged construction near the shelter there a) is supposed to be completed fairly soon and b) at the moment isn't fencing off the actual shelter.

Also, you may find this photo of just how the water fountain in "lower" Ravenna Park is malfunctioning mildly amusing:

Also, this time I found about about Ravenna Triangle, a tiny Seattle Department of Transportation property at one of the southeastern corners of gigantic Ravenna Park.  Notice two things about it, dear Diary:  It's nicely landscaped (something SDOT is sometimes good at), and the bench in the photo is on the parks department's side of the property (benches are something I haven't yet noticed SDOT doing).

Ravenna Ravine (A on map)

The core of the area where all those homeowners take care of woods is a reasonably big area where the city does instead.  It's in a maze of dead ends and has no plumbing, so I'm not sure I've visited it since May 2020, when I was telling you, dear Diary, about all the parks in the general vicinity of where I then lived.

So here are more photos of Ravenna Ravine, showing that at least here the city's Department of Parks and Recreation has not installed a new water fountain.  As before, I found it impossible to get further into the park than a few steps.

One reason I set out, last summer, to visit each city property known to me, was that I wanted to find all the Seattle Public Utilities parks.  SPU really likes to parkify its properties.  But it turns out most things with SPU's name on them in North Seattle are not only not parkified, they're invisible - sewers, standpipes, you name it.  However, it sometimes turns out that they're in interesting places, and so it proved this time.  Around the corner from the non-entrance to Ravenna Ravine I'd visited this time and before, on 24th Ave, there's a dead end on 61st St. to which I went looking for the fictional address SPU had used, and there I found a sign:

"Habitat restoration.  Please do not enter or climb on bank.  Thank you!"  Now I belatedly realise that this is actually a dead end into one of the private parts of Ravenna Ravine, not the city park.  So at least one homeowner is taking stewardship seriously.

Park Home Circle (B on map)

This is a pretty good tiny playground for kids, but really shines at Christmas time, when I hope I'll still be housed.  Meanwhile, another photo:

And that was it for my hiking of this area on October 8.  I went south and got onto the Burke-Gilman Trail and away.

On October 12 (hike #2), I came to make up for the one area I hadn't reached before sunset on October 8.

17th Ave NE Center Strip

Yes, that's what SDOT calls one of its more boring parks.  No fine landscaping here.

Two blocks of this park are in the area on this map, three in the one covered in the next part of this page.  I took one photo per block, plus one extra, but that one is south of here.  I didn't get the idea of really varying the shots much until the third block, too.  Sorry, dear Diary; I hope tomorrow to show you more interesting pictures than these.

On October 14 (hike #3), I came back intending to visit the areas I'd noticed as worth attention on Open Street Map.  There was only one of these in this part of Ravenna.

Traffic circle, 17th Ave & 63rd St (C on map)

Wow, wouldn't it be nice if all traffic circles, which I experience as terrifying places where no driver ever signals a turn, were as pleasant as this one!  It's got nice landscaping:

nice paths, adding up to a significant chunk of its area, with one nice bench and several things that clearly belong to that genre of street furniture designed primarily so as to be uncomfortable enough that homeless people won't monopolise them, otherwise known as cutting off your nose to spite your face, well anyway, it's got furniture:

And it's even got a Little Free Library:

The safety cone visible in the second photo and the truck in this third are because it's also now got construction nearby.  A "sanican" is, in fact, across the street from it.  Nevertheless, I found that even as tiny a park as this, even with construction noise, could soothe me, and I recommend it.

So that was the only one I'd noticed on Open Street Map, but as I walked away, I chanced to notice something all on my own.  I'm not very observant, dear Diary, so I was pretty proud of finding it.

Battlement bench (D on map)

No bus goes down 63rd St or, for that matter, 21st Ave, so by Seattle logic, no bench is needed on those streets, but someone saw fit to put one there, and not only that, to give people who sat there something to look at.  I recommend this one, too, to anyone who comes to these parts to see the traffic circle done right.

Yesterday (hike #4), making my second attempt at the map up top, I noticed something on Open Street Map I hadn't noticed before.  Well, actually, a bunch of somethings, so I incorporated them into yesterday's hike.  But again, only one was in this map's area:

Ravenna Trollbooth

Given my own interest in fantasy - I long intended to write a history of it - of course I came and looked.  It isn't actually very easy to find, but fortunately the artist puts the exact address conspicuously on his website.  Anyway, here's a photo:

One result of going six places in Ravenna yesterday was that I forgot to go look more thoroughly at the woods around Ravenna Ravine; another was that I ran out of time to do so.  So I finally convinced myself to come back today (hike #5) and do the job right before writing this.

In the first area, every single place I tried was just as obviously private property as it was woods.  I didn't think I had any business taking photos.

Turns out the easiest path between the areas where streets contact the woods is through Ravenna Park.  So I also investigated two more things I'd noticed in the park as rendered by Open Street Map.  One turned out to be a large slab of concrete on the western side of the park.  The only obvious thing about it was two basketball hoops; a full court would occupy about a third of the space, and I have no clue what the other two thirds were intended for.  The only attractive thing about it was the couple using the basketball hoops, so I took no photos.

The other thing didn't turn out any more attractive, but I figured in case anyone else's curiosity was whetted by "Ravenna Park Sulfur Spring" (F on the map above), I'd better photograph it anyway and save some people the trip.

As I walked away, I did indeed notice a faint smell of sulfur.  Huh.

Anyway.  There are two bridges at the south end of Ravenna Ave as it reaches the park.  One takes people to 61st St northwest of the park, the other to 60th St east of the park.  I thought from Open Street Map and what I remembered from the King County parcel viewer (which for some reason won't load on my phone) that those bridges marked the park's boundary.  So I took photos looking northish from each of them.  This one, G on the map, actually probably looks into private woods:

But once I got home and could look at the parcel viewer again, turned out the other is parks department property, an inaccessible part of Ravenna Park across that bridge from the rest.  H on the map.

A railing of the bridge is visible on the lower left of that photo.

The few remaining places on the east side of the woods were as un-photo-worthy as those on the west had been.

Well, all for tonight, dear Diary.  Tomorrow I hope to finish, or at least nearly finish, surveying the buildings of UW's Seattle campus, and then come home and tell you about the remaining part of Ravenna.  Until then, a good night and a good day.

Two Downtowns and Two Malls

Dear Diary,

On Monday I finally got to watch a movie my cousin had worked on, in the way I wanted to watch it.  I didn't find his name in the credits; they went by too fast, so I'll probably have to look on a DVD to say I've seen him listed.  But anyway.

I had some errands to run first.  One of them should've been on Capitol Hill, but ended up taking me downtown, where the others were anyway; the upshot was that I was in Bellevue in the evening instead of the afternoon.  But while I was in downtown Seattle, I found a street fountain I'd found before and forgotten about, which isn't on Seattle Public Utilities' list.

R. [595 Pine St]

I hadn't bought a newspaper - none of my plans for the day involved finding water fountains or restrooms, and although it was a splurge to go to the movie in the first place, I don't splurge quite so thoroughly as to buy something I normally can't afford just because I'm splurging.  I also forgot to take a location shot.  But this water fountain is at the southwest corner of 6th Ave and Pine St, and was running strongly Monday afternoon:

and giving good water.  (I expected trouble at the theatre over satchels, so didn't even bring a bottle, let alone food, for the journey.  Pretty soon I'll tell you, dear Diary, about another water fountain I drank copiously from Monday afternoon.)

On my way from the Bellevue Transit Center to the cinema, I found another street fountain:

a. [10501 NE 6th St, Bellevue]

It was not running strongly, in fact so weakly that I'd pretty much have had to kiss the bowl to drink from it:

For various reasons, I went back to Bellevue on an expiring transfer yesterday, so I was able to take proper shots, running with newspaper, and location, but again I forgot the location shot.

Lincoln Square North

Lincoln Square Cinemas does indeed have a box rule, and I'm pretty sure the satchel I carried exceeded it that day, but the ticketseller let me past.  I enjoyed the movie a great deal.  However, it only started after about twenty minutes of commercials and ten of previews, and it's a really long movie in the first place, and I really had drunk copiously from water fountains in downtown Seattle.

So when I left the theatre, I was thinking two things:  1) it was really unfair for me to generalise about Bellevue street fountains on the basis of one example, and 2) I couldn't do anything about this unfairness until I'd found a restroom.

This resulted in the shocking discovery that there are no public restrooms in Lincoln Square North.  Who ever heard of an indoor mall without restrooms?  I even found a map that showed no restrooms.  However, when I went back yesterday, instead of going all the way up to that map, I settled for one at the entrance, and that does show restrooms - in a different building, Lincoln Square South.

(Look closely at Level 2, dear Diary.)

This presented three possibilities:  i) The lack was unique to this particular mall.  ii) The lack was in common among the malls that present themselves as "The Bellevue Collection".  iii) The lack was normal for Bellevue, perhaps for suburban, malls generally.  Considering that I'd just finished an epic list of libraries for which I fairly often recommended shopping malls as nearby places with restrooms, this last possibility was concerning.

Bellevue Square

Fortunately, the lack of restrooms is in fact just something about that particular mall.  Bellevue Square, across the street from Lincoln Square North and also part of "The Bellevue Collection", has restrooms, and has good signage enabling me to find them.

 

The first photo shows the sign inside the Macy's through which I'd entered, the second in the actual shopping mall space.  The mall's restrooms aren't what I'd think it would supply for its wealthy target market, but aren't by any means bad.

On the other hand, Bellevue Square does take some trouble to hide its food court, which isn't at the center of the first floor as usual, but hidden in a corner of the second.  I'd gotten kind of hungry, and anyway it took no time at all to determine that the only thing I could buy to compensate for using their restroom would be food.  (Normally, I'd just buy a couple of gumballs.  But Bellevue Square has no gum machines, and anyway I had no change.)  Once I finally found the food court, it turned out to include a Great State Burgers location.  I see that chain favourably because of employees who offered me food from there when I slept down the street from a location, and more so after something I'll tell you about soon, dear Diary.  But I'd never eaten their food.  So I decided to extend the splurge far enough to get a cheeseburger.

(It was somewhat discouraging, given my own current search for work, that all three of the Great State employees whom I saw are middle-aged like me.  The two ticketsellers I saw at Lincoln Square Cinemas are at least middle-aged, possibly actually old.  Do businesses in Bellevue hire teenagers for upper management to make up for depriving them of more usual teenage jobs?)

Once I'd eaten (at an outside bench, of course), I started cudgeling Open Street Map, which unlike Google Maps tries to show street fountains.  What I found then on my phone turned out to be all the street fountains Open Street Map actually shows between NE 12th St and the line of SE 4th St, and between 100th Ave NE and I-405.  Here's a map of that area from Open Street Map:

That turns out to be on just a bit too large a scale to show Open Street Map's symbol for a water fountain, which I've finally figured out - it shows a very small tap delivering water into a slightly larger partly-filled cup.  (I'd always thought that cup was a flowerpot, and couldn't figure out what it was doing there.)  Fortunately, Bellevue itself thinks its downtown is somewhat smaller:

and the symbol shows just fine on that scale:

One of those is fountain a above.  Here are the other two:

b. [10840 NE 6th St, Bellevue]

This fountain I remember, sort of in front of the Bellevue Transit Center's visitor's center.  It was of the type in Northacres Park and Cal Anderson Park, where you have to wait for the water because of the freeze-proofing.  I don't remember ever visiting in winter to see whether it was on, though.

Maybe it's still there behind those hoardings, but I'm not betting that way.  In any event, it isn't accessible this year.

c. [375 106th Ave NE, Bellevue]

The fountain at this location is definitely still there and accessible.  It just isn't running:

So where Seattle has, let's see, at least twelve outdoor water fountains downtown outside the parks, Bellevue's rather smaller downtown has at least three. [1]  Fair enough.  But where six of Seattle's were running strongly last week and/or Monday, none of Bellevue's were running strongly yesterday.

That said, Bellevue, like Seattle, does have downtown parks, and one of them has working water fountains.  But this page has already gotten long enough, so I'll tell you, dear Diary, about that park and about my hike home afterward in another page later today.  Happy hours until then.

[1] Bellevue's street fountains are even less documented than Seattle's, which is an impressive achievement on the part of whomever they belong to.  So of course, since Bellevue's downtown is much less familiar to me than Seattle's, it's possible there are more in places I haven't looked.

Downtown Seattle's Street Fountains This Week

Dear Diary,

After three afternoons and evenings of returning to downtown parks, I've re-visited three-quarters of my list.  But it's going to take me a bunch of work to write the pages most of those places need, and I wanted to get something written before then.

So I'm singling out one category of place.  Or maybe two.

To start with, twelve drinking water fountains that Seattle Public Utilities maintains on the streets of downtown Seattle.  Their pseudo-map of these fountains was updated after I last discussed it in July 2021, and now includes most fountains known to me.  Specifically, what I refer to as a "street fountain" is two related things:  a drinking water fountain on a city street, but also a specific style of drinking water fountain that in Seattle, in my experience, is usually used on streets but not in parks.  All twelve of these fountains are recognisably that style.

Five other water fountains downtown that SPU doesn't list are also in the same style.  Four of those latter five are on sidewalks adjacent to parks owned by the Seattle Department of Parks and Recreation; the fifth is actually inside such a park.  The parks are Westlake Park, Prefontaine Place, Pioneer Square with two fountains, and Hing Hay Park where the fountain is inside the park.  However, SPU isn't really consistent about this.  It lists a fountain in Occidental Square, and in North Seattle one (out of two) on the Burke-Gilman Trail.  Faced with such inconsistency, this page includes the five park-proximate ones too.

I haven't, in my hikes around downtown this week, been specifically looking for more street fountains; nor, for that matter, was I when I hiked around downtown last fall.  On the other hand, I did add a bunch of places to my initial lists last fall, and did add two so far this week; I'm not being completely unobservant.  But the fact is, SPU's initial June 2021 map showed fewer fountains than the current one shows.  So possibly there are downtown street fountains I haven't found and SPU still doesn't list.  Anyway, this page lists those known to me, in the order used by SPU, with the park-proximate fountains merged where I thought best.

Here's a map.  The SPU ones are black; the one in Occidental Square that's both SPU and parks is gray-green; and the ones that are only parks are green.

The pseudo-map presents the twelve as street addresses, and it can't be magnified to show downtown clearly.  So I name them both by the street addresses and by whatever else I think appropriate.  However, first:  I'm aware that my tagging system (well, Blogspot calls 'em labels, but they're tags) - anyway, I haven't tried to adapt it to downtown in any detail, let alone to specific street fountains there.  On top of which, the "labels" aren't even shown to readers reading on their phones.  So here are links to previous pages in which I've discussed downtown street fountains, and I'll cite those pages under each individual fountain as relevant.

1 - "Water Fountains:  Things We've Lost, Part II", 5/1/2020.

2 - "Ways to Fight Water Addiction", 6/18/2020.

3 - "Water Fountains - an Interim Report, Part III", 10/3/2020.

4 - "Credit Where It's Due:  Downtown Street Fountains", 7/5/2021.  This page includes two photos for each fountain covered, one to show where the fountain is, the other to show whether it provided water.  Page 2 did the same for the only fountain it covers; below, for fountains not covered by either page 2 or page 4, I provide location shots as well as water shots.  Page 4 also identifies three models of street fountains, differing at their bases.

5 - "Foolish Mortal Tackles Street Fountains Again", 7/6/2021.  This page includes no new visits to fountains, but mentions a few and maps both downtown and North Seattle street fountains.

6 - "Today's Hike: Many water fountains turned on in areas around the University", 7/10/2021.

Summary of this week's results:

• Running strongly - 7 (6 SPU, 1 park)
• Running other than strongly - 3 (1 SPU, 2 parks)
• Stripped to their bases - 4 (2 SPU, 2 parks)
  
• Completely missing - 3 (3 SPU, 0 parks)

Here they are:

A. 501 Olive Way

At the intersection of 5th Ave, Olive Way, and Westlake Ave.  Specifically, southeast of Olive and northeast of 5th.  Previously 1 (photo, damaged beyond use), 3 (photo, same condition), 4 (photos, damaged but useable).  Several of the northernmost ones downtown, in particular this one, now have a different bowl from the models shown in previous pages, in particular the three models shown in 4.

Yesterday evening, running strongly:

B. Westlake Park

This one is on the northeast side of 4th Ave, adjacent to the park.  If SPU gave it an address, that might be 1520 4th Ave.   Previously, 1 (photo, not running), 3 (photo, not running), 4 (photos, running strongly), 5 (only mentioned).

This afternoon, running unpredictably, but this photo is from yesterday afternoon:

C. 1529 3rd Avenue

On the southwest side of 3rd Ave, southeast of Pine St.  I haven't previously mentioned this specific one to you, dear Diary.

Yesterday afternoon, completely missing:

And a location shot taken this afternoon:

D. 1520 Pike Place

Near the northern corner of Post Alley and Pike Place.  I haven't previously mentioned it to you, dear Diary.

Yesterday evening, running strongly:

And a location shot taken this afternoon, which I obviously couldn't keep as clear of people as I prefer:

E. 100 Pike St

At the north corner of 1st Ave and Pike St.  Previously, 2 (photos, 1- location and 2 - damaged beyond use), 3 (photo, same condition), 4 (no photo, running).

Yesterday evening, running weakly:

F. 1000 2nd Ave

At the north corner of 2nd Ave and Madison St.  Previously 4 (photos, running), 5 (only mentioned), 6 (no photo, running, I didn't like the taste).

Yesterday afternoon, running strongly:

G. 1398 3rd Ave

At the east corner of 3rd Ave and Union St.  Previously, 1 (photo, not running), 3 (photo, not running), 4 (photos, running strongly), 6 (no photo, running, I didn't like the taste).

Yesterday afternoon, running strongly:

H. 898 3rd Ave

At the east corner of 3rd Ave and Marion St.  Previously, 6 (photo, not running).

Yesterday afternoon, stripped to its base:

This afternoon, a location shot:

Sorry it isn't clear, dear Diary.  You can see part of the fountain base there at the bottom.  I had trouble taking this picture because someone was standing just outside the frame; I think he was a messenger waiting for another delivery order, and he showed no sign of moving until he got one.  So I settled for this.

I. 200 Columbia St

Somewhere near 2nd Ave and Columbia St, presumably on the north corner.  Previously, 6 (couldn't find it).

I couldn't find it yesterday afternoon, either.  So this afternoon I came back and walked from Cherry to Marion streets and from 1st to 3rd avenues on both sides of the street, eight blocks of walking in all, just to see whether I could find any trace of this fountain.  And I couldn't.  My two leading hypotheses are:  1) Subsequent work on the sidewalks has erased the telltale signs of a completely removed fountain; or 2) This is SPU's little joke on anyone who relies on the map.

While SPU's addresses aren't all that reliable, they aren't nearly as bad as the parks department's.  So I looked particularly hard at the north corner, and took three photos to show that the pavement on that corner and for quite a way beyond it in each direction looks quite undisturbed.

J. 298 James St

At the west corner of 3rd Ave and James St.  Previously, 6 (no photo, damaged but useable).

This afternoon, stripped to its base: 

Also this afternoon, a location shot:

Another constrained shot.  Really, downtown is a lot more crowded than it was a year ago.

K. Prefontaine Place

This one is on 3rd Ave just north of Yesler Way.  If SPU gave it an address, that might be 501 3rd Ave.  I don't think I've previously mentioned this one to you, dear Diary.

Tuesday afternoon, stripped to its base:

\

And this afternoon, a location shot:

Pioneer Square

L. East

This one is on the north side of Yesler Way just west of James St.  If SPU gave it an address, that might be 120 Yesler Way.  Previously, 4 (photo, running, no location shot) and 5 (only mentioned).

Tuesday afternoon,stripped to its base:

And, you guessed it, dear Diary!  This afternoon, a location shot:

M. West

This one is at the northeast corner of 1st Ave and Yesler Way.  If SPU gave it an address, that might be 100 Yesler Way, or 600 1st Ave.  Previously, 4 (photos, running strongly), 5 (only mentioned).

Tuesday afternoon, and this afternoon, running strongly as a spray, which isn't to say it's the light, gentle kind of spray, but the kind you want for washing an inanimate object, say, or maybe watering a garden:

N. 201 Occidental Ave (Occidental Square)

At what would have been the southwest corner of Occidental Ave S and S Washington St if the park weren't there instead.  Previously, 4 (photos, running strongly; this is the one wrongly identified there as at the north end of "Occidental Park").

Tuesday afternoon, running strongly:

O. 201 S Main St

At the northeast corner of 2nd Ave and Main St.  (That address is wrong, implying the southeast corner.)  I haven't previously mentioned this one to you, dear Diary.

Tuesday evening, running strongly:

And one last location shot taken this afternoon:

P. 398 Occidental Ave S

At the northeast corner of Occidental Ave S and S Jackson St, a block south of Occidental Square.  Previously, 4 (photos, running strongly; this is the one doubly wrongly identified there as at the south end of "Occidental Park").

Yesterday afternoon, completely missing:

Q. Hing Hay Park

Well within the park, but near Maynard Ave S, the northwest corner of Maynard and S King St.  I accidentally included what amounts to a location shot in the page that introduced Hing Hay Park a year ago.

Tuesday evening, running strongly:

And here, as a reward for anyone who's actually read all the way through this page, is a revised map.  Bright blue for running, bright red for not running.

 

And that's all for tonight, dear Diary.  Once my bus pass runs out, I hope this weekend to finish "Library Hours Six Months Later" with the last of the private libraries, and then use what appears to be a lot of dry weather coming to hike the North Seattle parks before settling down to the academic libraries perforce left over from "Six Months Later", and then a much less ambitious series "Library Hours One Year Later".  There should also be much more coming about downtown, but first, I still have about 25 places to visit there tomorrow.  (Mainly Seattle Center and Westlake Ave.)  And I don't yet know how fast I can write all these many pages up, because I don't yet know whether I'll find work quite soon, or instead become homeless again quite soon.  So happy nights and days until we meet again, dear Diary.