Baltimore Park - North Tacoma

We made the trek out to Baltimore Park on March 15. It was a chilly morning, but the sun was bright. Baltimore Park sits far in the north end of Tacoma, it has a small playground area, a large playfield, and has a senior center located within the park grounds, so ample car parking. Sadly, a complete LACK OF BIKE PARKING. I do have a request off to Metro Parks so we'll see if/what response they have in regard to that.

The playground area had some climbing rocks, and a small child could climb up to the slides. The slides and playground were not new, but were in good shape still. The swings were in good shape - both toddler and regular swings.

Park History:
Shockingly, its tough to find much for Baltimore Park History online. From what I can tell, the surface was removed and replaced in 2015 due to heavy metal contaminants from the Ruston Smelter. The only picture on the Northwest Room website that mentioned Baltimore Park doesn't actually have it in the picture. Whoever described it is confusing the Inspiration Bible Church for the park.

Bike Access:
The roads around Baltimore Park are not busy so it was relatively easy to get there. My initial instinct was to bike on Orchard, as I drive on Stevens a lot and I know that can get busy with traffic, even if it does have a bike lane for most of the way north of 6th ave. However, Orchard has no lane, and almost no shoulder, but has lots of traffic, so avoid going north/south on Orchard.

Park Amenities:
The park has a large green space, great for some fetch with dogs, impromptu soccer or kickball. Or a picnic out in the sun. Several dogs were getting their work in when we there, even though it was chilly.

Missing:
I'm not sure there is much missing from the Park. Its a neighborhood park - its already close to Pt D. So, its a great place to get some green. I also do love that the houses close to it have minimal yards - get them out in the park and force more usage of our public spaces. That is a good thing.

Bike tour of Tacoma Parks

So I had this brilliant idea to bike to every park in Tacoma. There are a lot of reasons.
1. Experience all the parks in Tacoma
2. Force myself ride my bike more often and especially, not on commute days
3. Get Theo, the 2 year old, out in the air even on days when its not incredibly nice
4. Get myself biking to parts of town that I don't normally visit.

I think I know the parks of Tacoma pretty well compared to much of the population, and yet I feel like I don't know them at all. I know several very well, those that I jog through - Pt Defiance, Wright Park, Franklin Park. And some others that I have visited. But I want to know more about the parks, the history of the park. For example, who is Jane Clark? Why is there a park named after her? What did she do to earn that? Who is Charlotte of Charlotte's blueberry park? I want to be someone who knows that kind of thing.
When I first came up with the idea, I was worried. In my mind, there was over 100 parks and how the hell could I do that in 1 year. Which was the goal I set for myself. Yet, there aren't 100 parks. According to the map there are 85 sites to visit. But many of them are just sites within parks. I've never actually been in the conservancy at Wright Park, but that shouldn't be hard to figure out.

Part of me also wonders at some of the sites owned or managed by Metro Parks but aren't on their map. For example, the electrical substation at S11 and Cushman, is that a park? Or the space around McCarver Elementary School. Perhaps the Urban Gardens will get added to our adventures.

I also want to get on the bike more often, to get myself into shape and also to experience this city on bike. I want to better represent the city on the Transportation Commission, and I need to do a better job of knowing the transportation options around my city if I am going to do that. A lot of these parks are in places that are hard to reach from my house. There are some massive hills in Tacoma and having to navigate around them and also around the various freeways and bike unfriendly roads should help me understand how the city works much better. I don't even know at this point how I'm going to get to the 8 locations in the Northeast.

My first park will be a simple one: Baltimore Park. Located in the north end, I'm guessing its named after the road it sits on. But I'll dig into it and see what else I can find out. Come along for some stories and history of Tacoma. And adventure of the bike and bike trailer.