Past Work and Gas Works

Dear Diary,

I didn't get far today - barely dipped a toe into "NW" - but have enough pictures that it seemed best to update you tonight, before I forget what they all are.  That said, I didn't take pictures of Gas Works Park's copious neat stuff.  It was 2 to 1.   Yes, take pictures because it's the closest working restrooms to the southern U-District.  No, don't because it's outside my focus area.  And decisively, no, because there are already professional photographers making their livings off this extremely photogenic park, and I'm not interested in competing with them.

Anyway, we start somewhere much smaller:

Christie Park

When I last visited, I found two workmen who knew nothing of a water fountain in the new park.  Well, on a Sunday evening this time I sure didn't find any workmen, but, well, I found a water fountain:

No, I don't know whether, when the park opens, the fountain will be running.

The Burke-Gilman Trail

I didn't find any new plumbing here, just an example of the sort of tree covering that gave me the willies at first sight at Meridian Playground:

Imagine that farther, higher up, taller, and at night, then multiply by five.  That's what my phone's video camera couldn't capture.

Waterway 19

I'd forgotten what a life-threatening nuisance it is to enter Gas Works Park on a paved path as a pedestrian.  So after I'd taken care of an urgent need to do Number Two and yet again, sigh, an overdue need to do Number One, I looked for a paved path, without stairs, down to the picnic shelter.  The one I found is not all that paved - tree roots have turned it into a complex landscape - but anyway I figured I could start exploring by going north.  Which led me to signage I'd ignored the first time, for Waterway 19.

Thus informed, I walked the loop trail, and of course saw, um, running water, for some value of "running", but not plumbing:

Waterway 18

Emboldened by having figured out one Waterway, I sought the other.  It turned out to be pretty far - I'd say "blocks away" except that Northlake Way doesn't have blocks.  Pedestrian access is, of course, risky.  I still have no idea who owns it; here's the only sign:

And it more or less is a beach, nowhere near the pseudo-wilderness of 19:

It's about twice as wide as what that picture shows.

Gas Works Park

It turns out there's rather more paved walkways in this park than I'd thought, but it still quickly became clear why I've never really explored it before.  I did unbend enough to photograph the flock of geese whose Numbers Two were making my twilit navigation just a bit dangerous:

But my main purpose was to look for additional restrooms or water fountains, and of course I didn't find any.  I did, however, find this sign:

Now, I think it would be wonderful to have safer, more accessible ways to enter the park, and up to date restrooms (yes, the city of Seattle prefers a newer-fangled euphemism, "comfort station") - well, that would be great too.

But I don't think this was built in 2017:

Yep, doorless stalls.  Also, you probably can't see an absence, but there's no dryer.  The women's room's stalls face the entrance, so it's a good thing they have doors, as this timidly taken photo may not make clear:

I saw a woman waving her hands to dry them when I was doing the same, so presumably that room also lacks a dryer.

I have no idea where the money allocated to the project ended up.

So that's my report on Gas Works Park and some others, dear Diary.  Tomorrow, back to two Fremont parks to tidy up more loose ends, and on to Ballard.

This and That

Dear Diary,

I haven't done anything major this week to tell you about, but have noticed a few things worth mentioning before I head west again tomorrow.

Yesterday I had greasy dishes to wash and some free time, so I started the day at Laurelhurst Community Center's restrooms.  I'm now sure that they can be locked from inside.  As of yesterday, none of the water fountains in Laurelhurst Playfield were running.  And here's a photo from the peak of the bridge mentioned last time, towards the playfield:

It's lucky I did start the day there, because when I got to Burke-Gilman Playground Park for water, its restrooms were locked - apparently we're back to Friday closures again.

Today I had occasion to go back to the University branch of the Seattle Public Library to do Number Two.  They aren't exactly thronged with customers, so they only have one room open, and I noticed today that the lock it normally has has been removed.  On the other hand, last time I was there, the water fountains were wrapped and unusable; I complained about that.  So I was pleased to see that today they were open, and the man staffing the area even offered me a drink.

All for now.  I'll be on the road for several days, and am not sure whether I'll write anything in you, dear Diary, while gone, but the next page, whenever it comes, should be about Gas Works Park and maybe Waterways 18 and 19.

Ways to Fight Water Addiction

Dear Diary,

You may remember a page long ago about "Water Fountains" in which I presumed that the reason for recent neglect of both park and street water fountains was a lonely struggle to mend Seattle's reputation as a town soft on water addiction.

Well, today for the second time recently I passed a fountain at 1st and Pike (downtown, not "NE") that wasn't and isn't running.  This time I could take pictures, from which you'll see, dear Diary, that this is a typical street fountain.

Now, 1st and Pike is one of the city of Seattle's front doors, a place tourists flock to.  I'm concerned that they may draw the wrong message from the non-functional water fountain.  They may have heard of how Seattle coddles addicts of all kinds, even such lowlifes as water addicts.  They probably have not heard of our present mayor's attempts to fight the scourge of water addiction.  As far as I know she hasn't announced this initiative, and I seem to remain the only journalist to report on it.

So I suspect tourists who encounter this fountain will think "How incompetent!" instead of seeing it as the glorious blow it really is in the struggle against the water barons.

Mayor Durkan, it isn't enough to walk the walk; if you don't talk the talk too, you'll just confuse people.  Own your proudest accomplishment, your reversal of decades of "Seattle Nice" toward those who facilitate innocent children getting hooked on water.  Construct a context for that water fountain, declaring it the first blow in a new War on Drugs.  A grateful nation, weary of the gang warfare over water rights and the desperation of the waterless, will acclaim you as a leader for our time.

A Night View of View Ridge Playfield, and a Name

Dear Diary,

Last night, I kept at another project of mine way too late.  And then around 12:30 A.M. I suddenly needed to go do Number Two.  My options included Safeway, if I could get there enough before 1 A.M.; View Ridge Playfield; or Gas Works Park.  Since I was, as usual, in the northeast of the main campus, the easier direction by far was east, towards Safeway and then, since I got there at 12:57, View Ridge.  Fearing all the while that I'd been misinformed, last week, and the playfield's restrooms wouldn't really be open.

I needn't have feared.  (More precisely, I needn't have feared that.  I should've feared the cliffs in nearby sidewalks more.)  Yes, dear Diary, it's the return of the dreaded door shot:

I remembered that in the page in which I'd forgotten View Ridge's restrooms, I'd been paying attention to privacy.  View Ridge's men's room is in the common category of not-quite-worst:  the toilet stall has no door, but does face a wall at the far end of the room from the main door.  In this particular case, you can see that there used to be doors; I have no idea why two of them:

One aspect of the playfield had puzzled me on both previous visits, because it involves stairs.  Since the park was deserted, it seemed a good time to walk away from my cart and climb those stairs.  Now, all I've seen people do at the top of the stairs is turn around to look at the view, which doesn't work at all well at night, but here is, as promised, a night view of the playfield:

There turned out, though, to be an open door at the top, and I couldn't resist going through it.  There I gradually found what seemed a whole new park:  a ballfield, a playground, picnic tables ... ?  Finally came View Ridge Elementary School, and light dawned.  The neat stuff I found there, a mosaic near the picnic tables, is almost certainly on the school side of the border, but here's a picture anyway:

One of the few who've been reading you, dear Diary, in the slow time that I hope will end soon, asked me a question the other day.  He wanted to know what I thought of the current protests.  I replied, essentially, that they've become too big to have a single opinion of.  I can't forget, for example, that I shop daily at a store that was attacked under cover of a protest.

But that evades a central aspect of the question.  I have continued to write you, dear Diary, instead of running off to join the rallies, so I suppose it's only fair that I be asked, but my answer is unambiguous:  Black lives matter, and should not be taken at anything like the current horrendous pace by those who claim to protect and serve us.

Several of my first publications were about race relations in Chicago.  My work on a student newspaper there is almost my only published writing not available online, but if you watch this page, currently pretty much up to 1984, eventually you should find:  "A Study in Black and White", early 1989, history; a story about crime in spring 1990; and two items in September 1990, "Analyze Don't Memorize:  There Will Be a Test", chronology, and "Segregation", maps.

So here's the last thing that got my attention in View Ridge Playfield last night:

And here's a display in front of University Unitarian Church, not far away, that names some names:

I want to try to return to the conversation a name that hasn't been said nearly enough, these last weeks.  In my first publication in Seattle, I made the following extravagant claim:  "as a mentally ill homeless man, I give thanks daily that I haven't found myself in law enforcement's gunsights."

Extravagant, but mostly true to this day; and if I don't fear police as much as might a black man in my shoes, I still do fear them.  That's due to several attacks on people like me, but especially the murder of John T. Williams, 1960-2010, in my old neighbourhood.

Williams was, like me, not black, but unlike me he wasn't white either.  He grew up in a First Nations village on Vancouver Island.  He became a carver, as is often said, but rather less often have we been shown his work; here's an example from the 1980s.  We hear that he also grew up alcoholic, and he was living at 1811 Eastlake, not technically homeless, when shot; but he was also, apparently, separately, mentally ill.  He was known to the policeman who shot him.

Apparently there was some saying of indigenous names on Capitol Hill lately, so by rights he should already be known to many protesters; but it was time anyway for me to say his name.

Bye for now, dear Diary.  I'm currently planning a very long trip to take in all the remaining North Seattle parks known to me, to begin next week if the weather actually does improve, as forecast.

Hours and Doors

Dear Diary,

In telling you at such great length about the parks of north-central Seattle the past two days, incredible though it may seem, I left something out.  As I've told you before, Seattle parks have two main schedules, open either 4 A.M. to 11:30 P.M. or 6 A.M. to 10 P.M.  In the "NE" parks I covered earlier, the shorter 6 A.M. schedule is pretty common:

• Albert Davis Park
• Laurelhurst Playfield
• Matthews Beach
• Northacres Park
• Ravenna Park
• University Playground

This schedule is much less common in southern "N":

• Gas Works Park

Another schedule, unknown in "NE", is more common in "N":  parks open 24 hours.  This applies to:

• Green Lake Park
• Sunnyside Ave N Boat Ramp
• Wallingford Steps

And as in "NE" Jackson Park has a unique schedule, in "N" the Woodland Park Rose Garden does:  7 A.M. to 10 P.M.

Of course, most of Jackson Park is managed by a concessionaire.  This is also true of the rose garden, of the zoo and lawn bowling greens in Woodland Park, and of the golf course in Green Lake Park.

The coronavirus has wrought massive changes in these schedules.  Sunnyside Ave N Boat Ramp has gone from 24 to 0 hours; the Woodland Park Zoo and Rose Garden, both run by a single outfit, are also closed.  I'm not sure about the lawn bowling; the Green Lake Golf Course, like the Jackson Park one, seems to be modifying its methods but not its hours.

Also, however, there's the extremely soft new closing time, 8 P.M., for the big and popular parks.  In "NE" this applies only to Magnuson Park, where I don't remember seeing the signs recently, so I'd thought it was over with, but no, in "N" it's alive and well.  The following parks I've discussed in those two pages theoretically close at 8:

• Gas Works Park
• Green Lake Park
• Woodland Park

If you'll remember, dear Diary, I mentioned Green Lake Park restrooms as open or closed up to 10 P.M., and nobody bothered me.

Now that Green Lake Park has a closing time, it needs an opening time, but I haven't been able to find it.  Maybe it's now officially closed 24 hours, like the Sunnyside boat ramp.  (EDIT 10/19 - Nope.  Rachel Schulkin, communications manager for Seattle's Department of Parks and Recreation, told me long ago now that Green Lake Park, while not open 24 hours, opens at 4:30 A.M.)

To switch topics.  I was supposed to go south today; what happened?  I woke up, saw rain, and got lazy.  Rainy days I spend mostly in a place where there's nowhere to sit, so the previous days had been hard.  Soon after I got to the day's first park I made a deal with myself:  look at the local restrooms, and I could goof off the rest of the day (which was already drying out).  What with the apparent return of unpredictable closures, I meant today to bring back door shots, but Blogspot won't let me upload pictures today, lucky for you, dear Diary.

Executive summary:  Burke-Gilman Playground Park either opened really late or closed, otherwise normal.

Burke-Gilman Playground Park, 8:55 A.M., closed.

Lower Ravenna Park, 10:33 A.M., open.

Upper Ravenna Park, 11:41 A.M., open.

Cowen Park, 12:04 P.M., closed.

University Playground, 12:32 P.M., closed.

Still no water from the water fountains at lower Ravenna and Cowen Parks and University Playground.

South tomorrow, I hope.  Coming soon:  Ballard.

At the Centre of the Universe, Does Gas Work?

Dear Diary,

Two pages back, I wrote about the parks with "N" addresses, as opposed to "NE" or "NW", between about 45th and 80th Streets.  I neglected to mention two things.

First, I spent the night of June 5 in bus shelters near Meridian Playground.  So I saw that park both at night and in the morning, and saw Woodland Park mainly in the morning and afternoon of June 6.

Second, park restroom stalls without doors are pretty much the default in that area, though there are certainly exceptions.

OK, then, it's time to move south.  Since I'd just finished (ha) with Woodland Park, I stayed that far west, so started with Fremont, which has no large parks, and only one water fountain.  Fremont has much more folklore than most Seattle neighbourhoods, most of which I suspect I'll never get, not being a baby boomer.  In particular, it's called the centre of the universe.  Well, then, the centre is seriously under-parked.

Small Fremont Parks

The only kind there is.

Fremont Peak Park

I reached this by going south on Greenwood until I could switch to Palatine.  This is a silly route even if, like me, you're coming from Woodland Park.  Much better to just take 45th St to its end, and then turn south a little.  Anyway, this park is primarily about its view, which I found boring, but it has a sort of mini-Stonehenge meant to tell the seasons:

which looks cool whether or not it works.  The park knows this, too, using circle imagery in a couple of other places.

Fremont Canal Park

Verizon pretended to be unable to retrieve the parks department website most of the afternoon of the 6th, so I didn't learn until I was much further on the trip that I'd ignored this park's western half.  It spans two long blocks between the Burke-Gilman Trail, which there runs alongside the Ship Canal, and the street (Canal Street).  The eastern block is full of dinosaurs:

OK, yeah, topiary ones, but still.  The western block is in "NW" anyway.  By this point it was clear enough that I'll have to go to Ballard after all, so I'll just look at that block then.

A. B. Ernst Park

This is next to the Fremont branch library.  It's basically a transformed stairway:  riotous vegetation all around it, and the upper half turned into a gentle ramp, along which are some weird tiers.  It's apparently slated for expansion (and presumably construction), so if this interests you more than it does me, you might want to hurry there.

Troll's Knoll Park

No, this doesn't include the famous sculpture by, um, Steve Badanes, Will Martin, Donna Walter and Ross Whitehead, which is about the only bit of Fremont folklore that works for me.  It's to the left, as you face the troll, where all those concrete bollards are that you always see people leaning against.  The park apparently wants to move those people way uphill to a small grassy strip next to a P-Patch; fortunately, instead the kids and the gardeners stay at a distance.  The park is more successful in its claimed ambition to assist people in getting uphill; it features a fully paved, gently sloped trail with lots of switchbacks that took me from 36th St almost to 38th.

B. F. Day Playground

This park is, at 2 1/3 acres, not only the biggest in Fremont, but bigger than the other four put together.  This gets it not only a water fountain, but one that gave a tablespoon of water before going dry when I tried it.  It also, at the opposite end of the park, has a "sanican", not something I saw many of in this trip.  It's easiest entered from Linden Ave, just south of 41st St.

Four or More Wallingford Parks

Wallingford Playfield

This is bigger than all the Fremont parks added together.  That is, it's 4 1/2 acres.  By this point I wasn't up for much exploring; the park is easy to find along Wallingford Ave at 42nd St, the open restrooms and non-functional water fountain easy to find within.

A Detour

This was as close as I'd gotten to a supermarket all day, so I went and bought my daily salad, and also a bottle of water.  Which latter made me feel very stupid when I found this in front of the store:

The Wallingford Steps

Exactly what it sounds like:  stairs by which Wallingford Ave continues to the canal.  Or anyway to the next park.  What makes it a park is the usual luxurious plantings, plus some gussied-up landings, of which this one, by Benson Shaw and Clark Weigman, has pride of place:

Gas Works Park

I think every time I've visited this park I've been in a hurry, tired (as this time), or both, so I've never really explored it.  Maybe I'll try to do it justice before I finish writing you, dear Diary, but it isn't actually that close to the U-District - along Meridian same as the playground by that name, but way south.  Anyway, this is the closest to the U-District of the parks whose restrooms have been opened 24 hours, not that I've tested that.  I did want to use those rooms, but a look at the way both men's toilet seats appeared to be decorated with Number Two dissuaded me.  The water fountain attached to the restroom building isn't running.  But I don't know whether there are other restrooms or water fountains elsewhere in the park.

Waterways?

Either at the eastern end of Gas Works Park, or adjacent to it, are Waterways 18 and 19.  The parks department website doesn't list them.  The City of Seattle real estate report (PDF) I'm using for areas lists 19 but not 18.  I didn't explore either at all thoroughly:  I couldn't bring my cart, and my getting anywhere near one enraged the nearby crows.  They don't look like the kinds of parks, or parts of parks, that have restrooms or water fountains.

Sunnyside Ave N Boat Ramp

This is officially closed, but still has a "sanican".  It's hard to reach from Gas Works Park, along the sidewalks-optional Northlake Way; I suggest taking 36th St instead.  Geese were in possession when I arrived, but took offense at me and left, giving me a chance for another mediocre duck photo:

From there I caught the Burke-Gilman Trail straight to University Village and Safeway.  I'd forgotten, at the Wallingford QFC, that I no longer have the handy cutlery my backpack held.  Safeway was in a panic because a rally was getting close, and closed early, so I never did get to a toilet that night, but it worked out OK (and I did get a fork to eat the salad).

For the past two weeks I've been aware that it isn't the right time to state my own grievances.  And the inspiring sight of thousands of people cooperating in marching down (NE) 45th St does nothing to make my course of action seem nobler.  Dear Diary, I had hopes at the start that powerful people might read you, and might do things as a result.  Maybe that's still possible, but probably not before I finish writing you.

As my energy allows, here's what I think is left.  There are eight parks left in "N" between 80th and 145th Streets.  That real estate report alerted me to six parks I hadn't known about in the northern parts of "NE", though four are Natural Areas, unlikely to offer restrooms or water fountains.  And since I still haven't found an area with water fountains consistently on, such that I could say the problem is local, I might as well endure the forty-odd parks of "NW" so I can sort of talk about North Seattle as a whole.

But this all assumes we aren't going back to the days of randomly closed park restrooms.  And assumes that the rain will occasionally pause for a day or two.

Sorry, dear Diary.  I just don't know how much longer until I finish you.

A Tiresome Repetition

Dear Diary,

I just had an adventure similar to the one described in the page of yours titled "Two Hours and Two Hours".  Except this time both Number One and Number Two were urgent.  So finding the men's room, but not the women's, locked at upper Ravenna Park shortly after 8 A.M. was concerning, but it wasn't until I found both rooms locked at lower Ravenna at 8:30 that I really got worried.  And it probably wasn't until I'd tried two of the four University Village restrooms I tried today that I first lost a bit of control of Number One.

This is, of course, no big deal.  I'm sure nobody on the train tomorrow will mind the reek of nearly-fresh Number One, and I'd already planned to do laundry once I'm south.  On a larger scale, probably many homeless people are younger than I, and have more reliable control.

So I appreciate the fitness program, in making me walk 2.5 miles to reach a 1-mile distant destination.  But I thought yesterday's page, and the one planned for later today, might have shown that I already hike just fine.

Last Friday I found Burke-Gilman Playground Park's restrooms open.  This was, of course, great, except that for the previous three Fridays they hadn't opened by 10 A.M.  I haven't found any other predictabilities about park restroom closures, throughout.

I try to keep my end of the bargain, and use park restrooms rather than burden companies.  I thought we were almost past the point of pleading for the city to keep its end of the bargain, and open those park restrooms for us to use.  Are we really going back to that as a daily concern?

Dear Diary, I thought I was close to finishing you.  We'll just have to see.