Counterbalance Park — Attraction in Seattle

When I first moved to the neighborhood (~ 2 years ago), I was very excited about this "urban" park! It has some tables with umbrellas, quite a few benches, and some really cool lighting! There's also a cute little coffee shop across the street. For the past year, I've walked past it every day for work, and I always see a ton of homeless people in the park and sitting on the benches. I'm too much of a germaphobe and have seen one too many homeless people pooping/peeing on the street to want to use any of the benches and chairs, but it would be very nice otherwise. I very much enjoy walking past it when it's not full of...

This park is full of defensive architecture so it's pretty unwelcoming. If you need to take your dog out or sit down for a minute it's ok, but otherwise not useful as an urban park at all. There's no audio or visual protection from the busy street, it's full of gravel with minimal greenery, and the seating feels purposefully uncomfortable. I wish there was some art or maybe a fenced area for an off leash dog park or literally anything to make this space more...

Uh, well, it's a lot of gravel and no shade in the daytime. Oh and at night these really cool lights come on and change colors which makes you realize that at least somebody (thank you, lighting person) put some effort into the place. And whether you're walking or driving by, you can take a second to sigh in relief that there's one piece of real estate in this tragically obtuse town that isn't a corporate condo or some other tech-bro related...