Parks department gets serious

Late this morning several Seattle Parks and Recreation Department trucks pulled up to Park and their crews unloaded new, higher, stronger, chain-link fence panels to replace the trampled wire-mesh fencing that has done little to protect the Park's plantings down the slope along 43rd Avenue E. The ineffectiveness of the previous fencing, not to mention the hazard to pedestrians it presented in its mangled form, finally got the City's attention.

This new fencing, according to the parks department workers, is still a temporary expedient. It is expected to be in place only until the plantings (primarily ferns in that location) can get established. The condition of the old fence was the subject of one of our Pet Peeves postings last month. It seems that there were more than a few park visitors who could just not bring themselves to walk a half a block and use the stairs.

Though it will be a bit difficult either to jump or climb over the new fencing, the ingeniousness of the lazy should never be underestimated. As he linked the fence panels together, one of the installers admitted to me that it wouldn't surprise him to find after the weekend that the whole line of fencing had been pushed over. "It happens."