Cal Anderson Park (Seattle, WA)

While visiting Seattle, WA last month, I stopped by Cal Anderson Park, a public park in the city’s Capitol Hill neighborhood.  It’s located in the middle of the city, not too far from the downtown area.  The park has a fountain, reflecting pool, walking paths, a plaza, and sports fields.

The park isn’t small, but it’s not too large either.  It’s about three city blocks long and one-and-a-half blocks across.  According to the Seattle Parks and Recreation website, its entire circumference is 2/3 of a mile.  It seems like a nice place for walking dogs, playing sports, and otherwise getting some fresh air.  Despite its small size and urban location, it does offer adequate open space for outdoor activities.

According to the Cal Anderson Park Alliance website, Calvin “Cal” Anderson (d. 1995) was the “first openly gay Washington State elected official.”  He was a U.S. Army veteran who served in the state’s House of Representatives and Senate from 1987 to 1995.  He fought for several issues, including low-income housing, gun control, and civil rights.  He is known for advocating for laws to prohibit discrimination based on sexual orientation.  Senator Anderson died in 1995 of complications from AIDS, a year after being elected a state Senator.

There are walking paths intersecting the park from each side.  On its northside, a stand-out feature is a cone-shaped concrete fountain with cascading water.  Also on the park’s northside, there is a walking path called the AIDS Memorial Pathway (AMP).  It includes several pieces of artwork.

A series of protest signs commemorate Seattle’s response to the AIDS crisis.  Besides being a space for recreational activities, Cal Anderson Park is known as a location for protests and social activism.  In recent years, it was known as being the center of the Capitol Hill Occupied Protest (CHOP) in 2020 to protest the killing of George Floyd and police brutality generally.

 

 

Continuing along the AMP, “Ribbon of Light” sculptures are made of laminated glass.  I was here during the daytime so they weren’t illuminated.  They are placed here for reflection and remembrance.  In addition, the “Names Tree” is a digital memorial to the thousands of lives lost during the AIDS epidemic in Washington state.

Nearby, there is a nice reflecting pool.  I didn’t notice anyone going into it, but I can imagine people dipping their feet into it or sitting around it.

In the middle of the park, there is a lot of open space for recreation and picnics.  Some the grass was dead and sparsely planted.  It was the middle of August after all, so I guess it wasn’t the right time for a perfect lawn.

Continuing southward, there are full-size soccer and baseball fields, complete with soccer goals and a baseball diamond with a backstop.  The fields were well maintained.

Next to the recreation fields, there are basketball and tennis courts, complete with abundant graffiti.  They are located right next to residential buildings.  I didn’t see anyone playing here at the time.  Right next to the courts, there is a small skatepark with many ramps and jumps.

At the southern end of Cal Anderson Park, I saw a large group of people doing yoga-like exercises.  By far, this part of the park was the most populated while I was visiting.  People seemed to be having a lot of fun.

 

Cal Anderson Park is an interesting place to visit.  Since it’s in the middle of an urban neighborhood, it provides a necessary greenspace for local residents.  According to Historic Seattle, its origins date back to the late 19th century.  While it’s not the most noteworthy tourist spot in Seattle, it is worth checking out due to its place in contemporary social movements.

Key Bridge Collapse

Earlier this week, the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore, locally known as the Key Bridge, collapsed in the middle of the night.  A large container ship attempting to pass beneath the bridge appeared to lose power and propulsion around 1:30am on March 26th.  The crew lost control of the ship, and it struck one of the bridge’s support legs.  In mere moments, the iconic 1.6-mile bridge was reduced to a huge pile of twisted metal and broken concrete in the Patapsco River.

I happened to wake up at 4am and decided to check the news on my phone.  I couldn’t believe what I was seeing.  The Key Bridge really collapsed?  Is this true?  I checked my Waze app, and reports confirmed what I saw.  I turned on live news on the radio and TV and listened throughout the day.  The whole nation was in shock.

Eight construction workers were working on the bridge at the time of its collapse.  Two of them were rescued, but six others were unable to be located following the collapse.  After a rescue mission failed to find them, the U.S. Coast Guard ended its search, and they have sadly been presumed dead.  Luckily, a distress call was made from the ship prior to its crash, and it enabled officers to stop traffic across the bridge which certainly saved lives.

Photo from Wikimedia Commons

The Key Bridge has been an important piece of regional infrastructure since 1977, linking the I-695 Beltway into a loop over the Baltimore Harbor.  It was one of three major Patapsco River crossings along with the Baltimore and Fort McHenry Tunnels.  It has provided a route for trucks that were too large to fit through the tunnels and for those that were carrying hazardous materials.

Photo by Al Drago / Bloomberg via Getty Images

Marine passage has stalled for the time being, and this disruption will likely affect the prices of many goods.  The bridge’s remains will be extremely difficult to remove from the water, and the clean-up will no doubt be lengthy and costly.  Water and highway traffic will be forced to take alternate routes for quite a while.  I thought of doing some on-the-ground reporting from the scene this weekend, but I’ve used my better judgment to stay away while the experts get to work.  Preliminary plans for reconstruction and funding are already underway.  It is expected to take several years and to cost hundreds of millions of dollars, which means the project could easily exceed $1 billion.  Only time will tell.