Seattle Parks Adds Green Space, Views to Maple Leaf & Madison Park

Madison Park beach is both well-known and popular, but few people know that some three blocks north sits another park, Madison Park North Beach. Not so long ago, the park’s large shoreline was shut off from the park by a blackberry-strangled, rusty chain-link fence. And, as Madison Park Blogger noted, the neighbors of that park liked it that way. In 2003 and 2011, the residents facing and surrounding the park rallied to stop the parks department from removing the fence.

The residents claimed that removing the fence would make the park unsafe for kids. A barrage of outrage worked in 2003, but this time people also groused openly about the fear that the park would become a destination spot for people from outside the neighborhood. The blowback — Seattle believes deeply in the public part of public parks — was enough to overcome a bus full of naysayers. The fence came down.

The pictures tell the tale: this quiet, simple park now offers stunning views of Lake Washington, a nice stretch of grass, some swings, a few benches, and wonderful, peaceful quiet. A line of shrubs and plants, still growing in, borders riprap, and keeps unwary park-goers of all ages from tumbling into the lake.

Several miles north, in Seattle’s Maple Leaf neighborhood, Seattle Parks has hit another home run. The old reservoir on Roosevelt has been covered over to create Maple Leaf Reservoir Park. What is now taking shape, for an opening in the fall, is spacious and intriguing. The covered reservoir is designed to be a large, open field with sections of meadow-height grass. Around the field will be a walking, jogging, biking trail, a picnic area, a basketball court and, wonderfully, a pickle ball court.

Below this open area will be two renovated baseball fields and a kid’s area. (The kid’s playground is already open and is the lone disappointment on of the renovation. With a huge plastic climbing structure and, seriously fake boulders, the playground looks like a McDonald’s kid area. One good note: a zip line for more daring youngsters.)

For those who miss the barbed wire and chain link, head five blocks south on Roosevelt to 75th. There you will see another reservoir that hasn’t been covered. The contrast is extreme.

The emphasis on open green spaces, in both projects, is really heartening, given the pressure to specialize parks for niche audiences is growing. Seattle has more than 400 parks of all sizes, but they can’t be all things to all people. Co-rec leagues have flooded city council meetings demanding that more park land be turned over to ball fields, and in many cases, lighted ball fields, which draw more neighborly wrath. Dog lovers demand more dog parks. (At one point, the City Council’s Nick Licata wanted to put a fenced-off dog park in Volunteer Park.) Soon LARPers will want their piece of the park pie.

As pressure on park usage mounts, the Seattle Parks Department finds itself depleted of resources to adequately maintain city parks, let alone expand capacity and services. They do what they can to stretch park dollars while maintaining a hold on its mission to provide recreational and educational diversions for Seattle’s citizens. These two projects show them, against all odds, delivering on that promise.