As parks go, California Place Park, a quarter-acre patch of grass in
the Admiral Way neighborhood of West Seattle, is a blank slate. The
park is pretty but ill-used, with just a few large trees on 1,900
square feet of otherwise naked grass.

So you might expect that a proposal by a neighborhood group to add a
natural playscape for children—featuring plants, logs, boulders,
rocks, and trees—would be greeted with cheers by neighborhood
residents.

Not so fast. Residents of nearby homes, including a retirement
facility less than two blocks away, are adamantly opposed to the
project. They showed up en masse at a recent city-sponsored meeting to
protest a plan proposed by a neighborhood group called Friends and
Neighbors of North Admiral (FANNA) to add a playscape to the park.
FANNA has received a $15,000 Neighborhood Matching Fund grant from
Seattle’s Department of Neighborhoods to fund the planning stages of
its project.

The opposition is as fierce as their arguments are bizarre. “If they
put in a natural play area, it would provide a place for people to
hide,” says eight-year Admiral Way resident and senior citizen Janis
Bailey. She says the playscape would turn a park that had been
“beautiful, safe, and crime free” into a haven for “vagrants [and] drug
use in the bushes.” Fellow playscape opponent and 69-year-old Admiral
Way resident Dennis Ross adds, “If you change the configuration as it
is today and include these other materials, there is not enough space
for other people to enjoy it. It would just be for the small kids.”

FANNA cochair Manuela Slye, noting that the “playscape” doesn’t
actually include any play equipment, says the park will be “intended
for any age.”

City council parks committee chairman Tom Rasmussen says “people are
really polarized… in the neighborhood. We want to be kid-friendly and
family-friendly… whether it’s at the current park site or somewhere
nearby.”

Rasmussen sent an e-mail to park opponents and supporters on
November 17 emphasizing that the project is only in the early stages
and “may or may not include a play area.” Slye agrees, “We don’t have a
plan or a design, just a bunch of ideas and a group of neighbors who
want to see [California Place Park] used.” recommended

14 replies on “Played Out”

  1. Janis Bailey is not a senior citizen and NO CHANGE TO PARK has many many young supporters, some who have small children and realize this is not a good place for children to play. Much to close to the busy street. Those who would like the park to remain as it is far outnumber the playground supporters.

  2. I’ve always wondered why there are more “dog-parks” than play areas in Belltown, (actually there are no actual playgrounds in Belltown). Not that familiar with West Seattle but I would imagine there are more playgrounds there than here.

    But would you write about how Belltown hates kids? Nah, hipsters and condo owners are allowed to be anti-children, it’s only uncool when you’re old I guess.

  3. I can’t stand strollers and toddlers, and more so, the snippy parents of toddlers. Even when my kids were toddlers, I only tolerted them because they were mine. I hit my wall the day I was at the Wallingford playground and observed a self-absorbed mom dictating play directions to her kids, with a pitbull in a sweater in tow. In a sweater. Playscape trash.

  6. Isn’t this park 100 years old?
    And isn’t the real point that it has remained unchanged for all those years?
    West Seattle just recently got a playground for kids. I drive by it on the way to my parent’s house. For years, it was just a big, open stretch of grass, I want to say just someone’s giant side yard. It was beautiful. Now that beautiful open expanse of grass which would have been perfect for running across in your bare feet forever, is cluttered with play equipment that is so many colors I feel like I’m having a bad trip.

  7. I can’t believe there is so much ado over a park. Seems like there could be deeper issues in the minds and hearts of the opponents to this effort. My guess is that there are control and power trips in the working. I see some lonely people trying to find an outlet to vent their frustration with life and find meaning for their otherwise unhappy lives. There are bigger fish to fry. There are people starving in the world. Let’s get this in perspective. This is a good thing. This is a park. Use your energy in more positive ways. Find a cause and support it instead of finding a cause and tearing it to shreds. You’ll be much happier.

  8. Indeed, in The psychology of Everyday Life, Freud writes,

    “At the place from which I had seen a view of the moonlit park, and by the light of the same full moon, I stopped and said to my companion: “We could sit down here in the Grab [grave] — I mean Gras [grass] and sinken [‘sink’, in error for singen, ‘sing’] a serenade.’ Only when I made my second slip of the tongue did I realize what I said; the first time I had corrected myself without understanding the reason for my mistake. Now that I had thought about it I connected ‘sinking’ and ‘into the grave’. Then these images came to mind: elves dancing and hovering in the moonlight; or comrade on his bier, his face, apparently moving; various scenes from the funeral; my sense of distaste, the disruption of our mourning; the memory of certain remarks about the onset of an epidemic, expressions of alarm on the part of several of the officers. Later I remembered that it was the anniversary of my father’s death on that day.”

    Just so.

    I the aging mind, the pyschosexual import of the open field of grass, symbolizing the grave, weighs like hovering elves, leading to a shame that must be repressed. It resurfaces as a revulsion of children, along with a deeply hidden fear of the construction of anything — any monument — on the field of grass, because where the healty mind sees children’s play equipment, the neurotic (uptight) Seattlite sees the erection of tombstones. The empty park becomes their own cemetery, and death inches inexorably closer. Ever closer…

  9. This is such a waste of tax dollars. Holly Park replaced it’s Natural Playscape after just 2 yrs. with a full scale playground because the kids did not use the Playscape. They did not like it. http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/lo… In this time of economic hardship this project should be dropped by the Parks Dept. as this Park is already natural and beautiful. BIG waste of tax dollars.

  10. The only ugly thing about California Place is a senior citizen statue that has been installed on the site. Name unknown, it has a sign “No change to park” glued to her hands.
    LOL

  11. SAVE NEIGHBORHOOD GREENSPACES California Place Park and adjacent greenspace. 1. Keep the beautiful green space 2. There is no need for change 3. Unsafe area for childs play 4. Who is going to maintain changes? 5. Litter loitering will be brought to the area by development 6. Total waste of tax dollars WATCH FOR UPCOMING CALIFORNIA PLACE PARK MEETINGS AND VOICE YOUR OPINION TO: City Councilman Tom.Rasmussen@seattle.gov Dept. of Neighborhoods Stella.Chao@seattle.gov Dept of Parks & Rec. Timothy.Gallagher@seattle.gov Kellee.Jones@Seattle.gov. SAVE OUR GRASS *NO CHANGE TO PARK*

  12. When there is this degree of opposition to a public place (and more so for one which has remained unchanged for so long), hell, even half this amount of opposition, the best course of action, by far is to leave things the way they are. Score one for the motivated and active seniors!

  13. California Place Park is used by many people now. The only benefactors to a redesign and limited use to a chlidren’s play area will be Manuela Slye(the elected chair/president of FANNA) and her pre-school http://www.Cometaseattle.com which is walking distance to the Park.

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