Voting is running strongly in favor of the Cal Anderson Park trees over the Cal Anderson Park slackliners. But!

Does this video—just sent to me by Adam Burtle, the slackliner whose presence drew the SPD, park rangers, and more to Cal Anderson on Sunday—change any minds? (Note: At the end of the video, the matter is rather charmingly settled by an SPD officer who challenges Burtle to "walk the line," meaning the slackline. If he can do it, he can stay. And he does!)

Also, here's Burtle's written account of what happened:

Eli, we met briefly at Cal Anderson [on Sunday] — I was the slackliner who got into a lengthy discussion with the security officer about the alleged illegality of slacklines in parks. As promised, I'm e-mailing you now...

To briefly summarize the events:

I put up a 150ft slackline, for probably the 50th or maybe 100th time in this park. About 30 minutes later, a security officer arrived and asked for my permit. I informed him I didn't have one, nor did I believe one was required. He stated repeatedly that I was damaging city property, this was illegal, a permit was required, and I would be cited.

I proposed we call SPD and see what they had to say. He stated they had already cited people for this, and I should expect to be cited. He advised me to call 911 to summon the police. (I used the non-emergency number instead.) I have no idea why he would threaten me with citation and then expect me to call the police for him...

Two Park Rangers arrived and were considerably more cordial. The Rangers and I chatted for a while about how this could be amicably resolved. SPD arrived, asked if there were any special park rules against this. The park employees stated it was a "gray area." SPD informed them I was padding the trees and could not be cited for destruction of property.

SPD asked me to walk the line so they could see. I walked the line for SPD, to the enjoyment of (almost) everyone, the park employees left, and I continued to slackline.

Video of all this here...

I find it interesting that I was told that it was illegal, they've cited people for this before, and that I would definitely be cited by SPD for destruction of property if they were called; yet once SPD officers showed up, the same individual stated to them it was a "gray area" of park use, and SPD said right away they could not cite me.

I represent a group of about 300 known slackliners in Seattle, and very much enjoy this sport. Our slackline community efforts have been profiled by Evening Magazine, Q13, Seattle Times, and so on. So it's important to me to figure this problem out, as the attitude of the park security employee today works to dissuade folks from joining the growing ranks of our sport. This is not the first dispute of the legality of slackline in Seattle, and several of my community-members have been (wrongly) ejected by employees of Washington parks in recent weeks. I have the contact info for the individual who sets use policies for Seattle Parks and Rec, and will be e-mailing him shortly with a link to the video of the event, and a proposal that we come up with an Acceptable Use Policy for slackline in Seattle parks so this event is not repeated.