parkwatch: nanny state takes over denny
making the shadows safe for the kids (image [g00g])[ed: and now, an inadvertent counterpoint to samantha's post [mb] . . . ]
First they went after the malt-liquor drinking bums and the lapdancers and then the smokers. Now they’re going after the drug dealers and prostitutes. Using the argument that Seattle isn’t kid-friendly enough for their South Lake Union private school kids, “neighborhood advocates” have convinced the city to drop $100 grand to freshen up Denny Park [seattle] with a play space. The P-I’s article is full of choice quotes that sum up the tone of impending gentrification:
It can play a small role in making the area more attractive to families and provide a more pleasant place for employees to eat takeout from the Whole Foods expected to open next year. [p-i]
We really should have seen this coming. After all, they turned Heroin Park into a little fenced in dogpark in Belltown a couple years ago.
With Cal Anderson downright pretty, Freeway Park under construction, and a fresh new Colonnade Park, it really seems that Seattle’s parks are losing their edge. Wither the Topography of Terror?
I couldn’t find anything that says where (and if) the bodies from the gravesites were moved to. I’ve decided that they were never moved, and that whatever bones are found intact should be put in a great big sandbox. Then it’ll be all, “look mom! I found a femur!”
who needs a $100,000 theme park when you’ve already got a boneyard to stimulate budding archeologists and forensic investigators?!
Bet on it: This classic old densely wooded park will be clear-cut like the proposal for Freeway Park or like that odd little park at the corner of Boren and Pike that’s been turned into a concrete wasteland that mostly looks like a turn lane for the two neighboring streets. By getting rid of the benches and the little scraggly spots of grass that used to be there, it becomes an uncomfortable spot for anyone who would actually want to use the park as a place to park themselves.
So, yeah. They’ll make it kid-friendly or dog-friendly or view-from-outside-friendly or anything else that makes it unfriendly to anyone who has the time to just hang around.