Cal Anderson Park
Day: Friday
Time: 9:35 AM
Weather: Cloudy, mid 50s
Location: Cal Anderson Park
We were not using the Seattle public bathroom map for this observation.
When I googled “cal anderson park bathroom,” I found this image that linked me to this article from the CHS blog about heroin overdoses. The caption of the image of the bathroom in the park says, “Cal Anderson’s bathroom has been such a popular place to shoot up that the park’s department experimented with lighting inside that makes it more difficult for a user to find a vein.” This is not cited, so it’s yet to be confirmed. It could explain some of the structure of the space though.
Website: http://www.capitolhillseattle.com/2013/08/recent-capitol-hill-heroin-ods-part-of-larger-trend/
Kiley’s Notes:
Sarah and I walked from our apartment to Cal Anderson to check the restrooms there. We didn’t look at the map at this point because we wanted to see what we could find without the map. There was a lot of construction going on because of the light rail. I thought there might be a restroom at the end of the large fountain, but it wasn’t. I guessed that it was a water management system or something, but it was really large and ornate.
There were some people at the park that early, but not many. I think we saw one person sitting on a bench closer to the fountain.
We walked toward the restrooms, which are closer to the field and the courts. We walked in from the side of the restroom that doesn’t have doors, but it was strange because there were just bars in a gate on one side that allowed people to see right in. There was large woman inside changing, outside the handicap stall. She was hanging her clothes on the door. Sarah and I walked around and we walked inside, and it was a little bit uncomfortable. I think after that she went inside the stall to change. The restroom was bare— no mirrors, no trashcans. There was a baby changing table and 2 stalls. There was a trashcan and recycling bin right outside the bathroom though. And a water fountain, but I’m not sure if it worked.
There were a man and a woman sitting on the bench closer to the courts, hanging around. It’s possible they were homeless, but I can’t say for sure. Sarah and I sat on a ledge to wait until the woman inside got out. The woman on the bench went in to tell the woman inside the restrooms that we were waiting. Another woman who appeared homeless- she had the look of the homeless youth that Portlandia makes fun of— with a big backpack came to the park. She turned the corner and I’m not sure where she put her backpack, but she must have put it down somewhere outside because she went into the bathroom without it.
When the original woman in the bathroom left, the bench woman told us we could go in now. I said, oh, no, thanks, but Sarah said, “You should probably go to the bathroom now” and she was right. So I went in to pee, and the Portlandia girl was in the smaller stall. I went to the bathroom in the larger stall. Both of the bathrooms had toilet paper. I washed my hands and there was soap, but I didn’t use the electric hand dryer. I left when the other girl was still in the bathroom I think.
We didn’t take pictures because it would have been too conspicuous at that point.
Sarah’s Notes:
We entered the park through the Broadway path, near the to-be light rail station. As we walked up the set of steps into the main park area, I noticed about 4 or 5 (white) people (1 woman) walking quickly through the area. They appeared to be mostly commuters in work clothes (business casual with backpacks and tote bags on).
We walked toward the freestanding restroom building, which was in the middle of the park closer to the playing fields (on the Pine side). As we got closer, I noticed a number of folks (3-4 PoC, 2 were women) seated around all with several bags. I imagine that they might have been homeless due to their appearance and to the number of things they had with them. When we got closer, we were surprised to find that the bathroom had two doors parallel to each other: one door was barred, the other was open. This made it possible to see straight through the restroom. The doors on the stalls of the toilets were also rather low so it was possible to see the heads of people inside (we could see that there was woman inside, for instance). We walked around the building to the other door and walked in. We quickly checked to see if there was a feminine hygiene dispenser, but found nothing. We soon realized also that the the door to the woman’s stall was open. She appeared to be changing or cleaning herself, but paused when we entered. In an interest in giving her privacy, we left the restroom and waited outside for her to be done.
As we sat, I could hear a woman across from us say, to a man she was sitting with, “That lady’s in the bathroom.” A few minutes later, the sitting woman got up from the ledge where she was sitting and walked over to the bathroom doorway. She shouted to the woman inside, “There are people out there waiting.” She walked back to the ledge and sat back down. A few moments later, the woman left the restroom with a large reusable shopping bag.
Kiley went back into the restroom to see if they had any receptacles in the stalls. When she did a man with a rolling shopping bag went into the men’s restroom. Because the doors were propped open I could see straight inside. I did my best to look away, but it was in my periphery and I had trouble keeping him out of view. He set bag on the baby changing table, setup a radio, and began washing his arms with soap.
Kiley returned and told me that there were no trash cans or receptacles anywhere in the restroom, but we noticed that there was a large trashcan just next to the restroom door.