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News & ArtsWednesday, January 18, 2012
City / Sports Take Back The Streets! The Denny Hill Sled-A-Thon 2012
Posted by Kelly O on Wed, Jan 18, 2012 at 8:11 PM
Seattle wants it's citizens to play in the parks instead of the streets, but city parks don't have HILLS. Not hills like Denny Hill—a monster that you can fly down with just about anything from a laundry basket to a lunch tray, or, sheesh, even an old garbage bag. I don't think I've never seen so many people having fun in Seattle. I mean, outdoors... I mean, within city limits.
I bet it goes on all night... More photos after the jump!
all photos Kelly O
2
you weren't kidding when you said more pictures. that looks like fun. there's some people on a hill off eastlake with a mattress.
4
Yeah, it looks like fun, but I bet the ER is full of sledders with broken bones and concussions tonight. And half of them will turn around and sue the city tomorrow.
5
Bah. Can't you just say, "Look at these fun pictures" without editorializing about what the city ought to do?
If anybody got killed The Stranger would be first in line lambasting the governemnt for not preventing it. The problem is your hypocritical paper believes in freedom of choice except when you don't. Your paper believes in personal responsibility, except when you don't. It's a joke, like what Goldy says (when he's pointing out the beam in The Seattle Times' eye).
Definitely awesome pictures. No argument there.
(And the city built a Cal Anderson park for you out of *thin air*, within two blocks of your office, and they built you a hill in the middle of it. And the 103 year old city park next to my house has a huuuge hill. Why am I telling you this? You don't care. Nice pictures. Really.)
If anybody got killed The Stranger would be first in line lambasting the governemnt for not preventing it. The problem is your hypocritical paper believes in freedom of choice except when you don't. Your paper believes in personal responsibility, except when you don't. It's a joke, like what Goldy says (when he's pointing out the beam in The Seattle Times' eye).
Definitely awesome pictures. No argument there.
(And the city built a Cal Anderson park for you out of *thin air*, within two blocks of your office, and they built you a hill in the middle of it. And the 103 year old city park next to my house has a huuuge hill. Why am I telling you this? You don't care. Nice pictures. Really.)
6
Looks fun. Wish I was there. Needs a little more snow though.
@ Western Uni. we used some cafeteria food trays and it was fun until a lame campus police said that we had to return them because the trays were school property and not made for sledding on.
@ Western Uni. we used some cafeteria food trays and it was fun until a lame campus police said that we had to return them because the trays were school property and not made for sledding on.
7
@5:
Comparing "Tele-Tubby Hill - elevation six feet!" to the Counterbalance is like comparing a 4th of July sparkler to a Saturn V moon rocket.
But in all seriousness, the City should just have someone standing at the top of the hill, and make every person who wants to slide down sign a "hold harmless" release form, then let them sled away to their hearts content - or until they concuss themselves on something large, heavy and immobile.
Comparing "Tele-Tubby Hill - elevation six feet!" to the Counterbalance is like comparing a 4th of July sparkler to a Saturn V moon rocket.
But in all seriousness, the City should just have someone standing at the top of the hill, and make every person who wants to slide down sign a "hold harmless" release form, then let them sled away to their hearts content - or until they concuss themselves on something large, heavy and immobile.
9
Road signs are the best toboggans ever. Just make sure you bend the leading edge about 45 degrees so you have something to hold onto and crimp the edges so you don't slice a bystander in half. But, holy shit, they go fast.
10
Don't be a dumbass.
The most notable [sledding accident] happened on Feb. 2, 1989, when the 12-year-old daughter of former King County Prosecutor Norm Maleng was sledding on an inner tube with two seventh-grade classmates near her Magnolia home.
The girls and other neighborhood kids were going down an icy hill on West McGraw Street -- a street that was closed to traffic that day. . . .
The inner tube went out of control and slid under a parked car.
All three girls went to a hospital, Karen Maleng with serious head injuries. She was flown to Group Health Hospital and died five hours later.
In three days of February 1989, including the day Karen Maleng died, there were 125 injuries attributed to sledding accidents in the Seattle area. Maleng was one of four fatalities.
11
My buddy picked up a lot of trash about an hour ago. He left open trash bags which people were using. So, hopefully it won't be that bad.
We had fun on our Boogyboard. We used olive oil (couldn't find my cheap vegetable oil) to grease it up and it sled like heaven down the hill. Some dudes we met made it all the way down past the overpass and then some. Fuckin' olive oil!
We had fun on our Boogyboard. We used olive oil (couldn't find my cheap vegetable oil) to grease it up and it sled like heaven down the hill. Some dudes we met made it all the way down past the overpass and then some. Fuckin' olive oil!
13
Thanks Kelly O. These photos will come in handy identifying those who brought rubbish to the party but left it behind. Also, can I have your address? I need a place to get a good night's sleep tonight because the sledders you encouraged to come out to Denny will keep me up for hours. Finally, can I have a credit card number? I'll need that to pay my dog's vet bills after he steps on some sharp object pushed and hidden into the snow by the joyful noise makers from this spontaneous gathering of street fun.
Actions, like elections, have consequences. You deserve to experience the same wrath you hoisted onto others.
Actions, like elections, have consequences. You deserve to experience the same wrath you hoisted onto others.
15
@4, 5 & 13 keep yelling at those kids to get off your lawn!!
Seriously why be so negative, I would guess most of them had to take the day off without pay. Why not let them enjoy their wonderful city in a rare way.
This is just be a suggestion but why don't you get out and enjoy your city as well, maybe you could pick up their trash, or just keep screaming at those damn kids instead of the inanimate Stranger.
Seriously why be so negative, I would guess most of them had to take the day off without pay. Why not let them enjoy their wonderful city in a rare way.
This is just be a suggestion but why don't you get out and enjoy your city as well, maybe you could pick up their trash, or just keep screaming at those damn kids instead of the inanimate Stranger.
16
@15 "I would guess most of them had to take the day off without pay. Why not let them enjoy their wonderful city in a rare way." - cry me a river.
A lot of folks lost a day of leave today by not going in to avoid travelling on slick roads. Most of these hard working folks didn't then go out and trash a busy intersection to all hours of the morning.
Please contact the stylists @ Acme Barber Shop about the "rare way" they'll be picking up the carnage left outside their place of employment Thursday morning.
The majority of us pay a heavy price for a select few to enjoy this city in the rare and destructive way they feel entitled to.
A lot of folks lost a day of leave today by not going in to avoid travelling on slick roads. Most of these hard working folks didn't then go out and trash a busy intersection to all hours of the morning.
Please contact the stylists @ Acme Barber Shop about the "rare way" they'll be picking up the carnage left outside their place of employment Thursday morning.
The majority of us pay a heavy price for a select few to enjoy this city in the rare and destructive way they feel entitled to.
17
@15, I'm not anti-fun. I'm anti-stupid. I love to sled. I just think it would save a lot of injuries if people found a safe open hill, free of parked cars, utility poles, and other immobile obstacles.
Streets are a particularly poor choice for sledding. Streets are crested slightly down the middle to help water runoff. That mean sleds will also tend to veer to the sides, where the cars are parked, rather than stay in the middle.
Streets are a particularly poor choice for sledding. Streets are crested slightly down the middle to help water runoff. That mean sleds will also tend to veer to the sides, where the cars are parked, rather than stay in the middle.
18
I was just down there. I decided to walk by on my nightly walk, and it is filthy. There are beer cans and trash everywhere. I was expecting to find it refreshing and fun, instead I found it gross.
19
Thanks Kelly O! These photos are awesome and makes me wish I was there to join in the fun. Nice to see folks of all ages celebrate their city in this way. How rare a snow day is in Seattle... kudos to those that haven't grown up enough yet to let it pass by without a frolic. For all the bah humbugs, saying things like 'actions, like elections...blah blah', glad you're playing the grown up, we need people like you... make sure you pick up your dog's poop, 'cause I hate stepping in it... Sorry if people having fun is ruining your quiet city life... Live a little.
20
Does anyone else here lives or come from a place where snow is a tad bit more common? Someone who grew up with things like this on a daily basis every winter and to whom this isn't a huge chock or something?
Its just people having fun in the snow. It'll pass and it will be quiet and a tad bit more safe again. The trash will be cleaned up. Some broken bones. Its ok.
Its just people having fun in the snow. It'll pass and it will be quiet and a tad bit more safe again. The trash will be cleaned up. Some broken bones. Its ok.
21
OK, How far down the hill are these people going? Although I can't imagine being able to stop oneself i have to ask - all the way from Olive down to Stewart (and probably beyond)?
Wow. I'm surprised that there aren't more bodies than trash. It sounds fun but I'm not sure I could get drunk enough to take that hill in a laundry basket.
Wow. I'm surprised that there aren't more bodies than trash. It sounds fun but I'm not sure I could get drunk enough to take that hill in a laundry basket.
22
Speaking of parks, some nice pictures of Kent's various Earthworks parks
http://www.kentwa.gov/arts/earthworks/
The artist Robert Morris was at the forefront of both Minimalism and Land Art when he was asked by the King County Arts Commission to reclaim a gravel pit overlooking the Valley.
A few months later, at the request of the Kent Arts Commission, the Bauhaus master Herbert Bayer was asked to integrate a stormwater detention dam into a public park. Both of these artists were commissioned as part of the groundbreaking 1979 Earthworks: Land Reclamation as Sculpture symposium.
24
guy with the beard and the green glasses was still sledding when i brought COOL RUNNINGS, a modified table, down to the hill around 10:30!
25
Why aren't there children in those photos? Don't you people let your kids have any fun? Was this event "Hipsters Only"?
26
Had a lot of fun yesterday snowboarding around Capitol Hill. Figured I'd share:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pbVMtaBcp…
Also, please clean your shit people! Denny is a mess today:
http://instagr.am/p/imlfQ/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pbVMtaBcp…
Also, please clean your shit people! Denny is a mess today:
http://instagr.am/p/imlfQ/
27
I'm from Michigan. We had a hill, and spent countless and hundreds and hundreds of hours sledding, laughing, playing, and sometimes hurting ourselves on it. Kids and adults.
Nobody sued anybody. Nobody got severe head injuries. Everybody picked up the empty bottles eventually.
We weren't hipsters. We were poor white trash that couldn't afford cable TV or video games, so in the winter we went outside. We were healthy, happy, and we laughed A LOT.
Some of the commenters in this thread make me want to move back to Michigan. There, if there's a giant stick up your ass, somebody usually helps you pull it out.
Nobody sued anybody. Nobody got severe head injuries. Everybody picked up the empty bottles eventually.
We weren't hipsters. We were poor white trash that couldn't afford cable TV or video games, so in the winter we went outside. We were healthy, happy, and we laughed A LOT.
Some of the commenters in this thread make me want to move back to Michigan. There, if there's a giant stick up your ass, somebody usually helps you pull it out.
28
@27 - It's worth noting that Michigan, Minnesota and other cities in the midwest have lots of public parks with sledding hills. It's part of our infrastructure, built back when such things were considered necessities and not luxuries.
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