Westlake Park

Nice park that they are trying to keep clean and safe it is hard with all of the homeless. It seems to be getting better.

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If you are looking for some holiday fun to break up all that downtown shopping your kids will love the Holiday Carousel in the park. Rides are cheap and it is a fabulous photo moment for everyone. Let your kid pick out their favorite horse to take a spin on.
My two year old loved it! It was freezing out, but that didn’t deter her at all. The carousel is old fashioned and beautiful. Cost: $ 3/​person suggested donation for Treehouse. Worth the trip downtown.
Seattle sure knows how to celebrate the holidays. From a spectacular holiday parade and tree lighting ceremony to giant gingerbread displays, festival of trees and the Emerald City pulls out all the stops when it comes to spreading holiday cheer. And there’s no better place to catch the most festive holiday events than downtown Seattle.
Tip: If you’re looking for a fun Christmas Eve activity, the carousel will be open until 5 p.m.

Not a safe place to be. Lots of homeless teens, not to mention drug users and dealers congregating there.
On the flip side, there are some nice shops in the area. And during the holiday season they have a carousel and a beautiful tree lighting ceremony.

«Park» is a bum word for this «area», but I kinda get it. Don’t go there as a tourist thinking «take my dogs for a peeing rest stop»!!! This is a jam-​packed, bustling mash-​up of all walks of life: executives, shoppers, tourists, homeless, bikers, police, teenagers, druggies, techies, and snobs.
Its catch-​all location grabs your attention for the events from the Christmas tree lighting at Macy’s (nearby) to any given «anti/​pro-​something-​gathering», from the Monorail to the sidewalk musical artists.
Definitely park your car and walk — — you can’t park here… and if you’re attempting to drive through here, good luck, especially during the day time.

There are definitely pros and cons to this downtown public space, but either way, it will always be a very iconic part of Seattle’s identity. This is where the annual tree lighting ceremony takes place as well as being the hub for downtown holiday shopping activity. In the past, Westlake part has been home to championship celebrations for the Seattle Supersonics and Seattle Mariners in addition to having the notorious distinction of being ground zero for controversial protests that were seen by the entire world.
The best time of the year to visit this park is during the holidays so you can experience everything from the aforementioned tree lighting to the glowing carousel and heart warming (or maybe its stomach warming) mini donut stand. The magic of the holidays shines a little brighter here than anywhere else in Seattle… thanks to the gigantic Macy’s star across the street.
Any other time of year, you are more likely to run into beggars, loiterers, and illegal substances rather than elves, carolers, and hot chocolate. During these times, Westlake Park is more of a place to quickly walk through rather than a place to slow down and linger.

The park itself is a cool space. Places to sit, water feature to gaze at, and often a fun event or two. My favorite time of year is when the carousel is set up. I love watching children and happy families having a great time during the holidays while I head to this store or that to pick up a gift. The park is also popular for protests and other special events.
At times, the park takes on a different look. Currently, the trees are blue. I’m not sure when they will stop being blue but it’s been quite a few months and I could use a change. Perhaps they could go back to striped sweaters?
The location is good in terms of amenities such as places to eat, grab a cup of coffee, and shopping.
Before I started working downtown, I was like the fun-​loving tourists — taking pictures at the water feature and such. I don’t do that very much anymore. But, on my break, it definitely lightens my heart to see people enjoying the space in a different way than I do.

It’s difficult to write a review of this wedge of public space, as certain aspects of this «park» at certain times of the year are marvelous, and other times, not so much. As a result, I’m only giving this park 3 stars. Let me explain:
After Thanksgiving and all through December, this park is amazing! All lit up beautifully, with a joyful old carousel and the Figgy Pudding carollers and often chestnuts being sold… It’s a wonderful place to be over the holidays!
We like how the City dresses up the trees (lately, they’re painted a whimsical cobalt blue. Very Seussical!) and we also like how, on a hot summer day, it’s fun and refreshing to run through the fountain (you WILL get wet!).
Despite being so centrally located (or, perhaps because of it), this area attracts a lot of homeless folks, druggie folks, protesters and crows leaving their marks everywhere. I appreciate how the cops on foot patrol make their presence known here, but still, my family doesn’t like being bombarded by protesters handing out offensive materials (offensive to us, anyhow), the stench of cigarette smoke (and worse), the semi-​aggressive pan-​handlers, the teens spouting obsenities and the occasional clusters of litter. Those of you who have young kids will understand! For this reason, I was very surprised to see that a tiny playground area was built right smack dab in the middle of this wedge park, right outside of See’s Chocolates. Which brings me to my critique of this playground for the kiddies:
I don’t get it. Sure, I understand how and why City officials would want to attract families and thier kids to shop downtown, and an area for the younger crowd to play. But surely they could have done better. For one, this tiny area has a small climbing geo-​dome. It’s so small, I’d venture to say 2 – 3 rambunctuous kids MAX could play safely on it. Next, there is a metal rounded and elongated piece for kids to climb on and sit on. Sure, there’s a sign that reads that this metal installation gets hot when in direct sunlight, so be forewarned. Why then install a play piece for young children that you KNOW is going to get bloody hot in the summer? Surely other pieces made of other materials would be better suited for this purpose. Lastly, the sign says this play area is for kids 5 – 12. I have a 12 year old and no way on earth is this area appropriate for 12 year olds. It’s way too juvenile. I’d venture to say this area is more appropriate for kids 4 – 7. And, again, keep in mind it’s surrounded by swearing teens, homeless folks and occasional druggies and protesters and tons of pooping crows. Odd context for a playground.

For all the effort put into making this Seattle’s town square, I rarely linger long enough to enjoy them. Westlake is virtually always crowded with tourists, transients and commuters waiting along 4^th Ave. Westlake is the sight of many of the major protests in town as well as the locus for many of the biggest celebrations like Pride & Seafair.
There are giant sized chess games, some interesting holiday set-​ups, and some trees they’ve painted blue much to my disgust. The reason I rarely stop for long here is because it’s so busy. Even if you can find some bench space not taken by some homeless folks, this park doesn’t provide any respite from the city and there isn’t a blade of grass. I think of city parks in Paris or New York or San Francisco which can provide you a minutia of separation from the city traffic or at least the dulling by a decibel of the sound, you won’t find that here. Unless I’m here for one of the aforementioned fesitvals or protests, I tend to stay away or simply stroll quickly through… very quickly.

This park is why people on the East side make fun of downtown Seattle. It’s outdated, full of homeless people harassing you for change and/​or sexual favors, and its just kind of sad to look at in general. Not to mention its slicker than KY covered snot when its wet.

I usually only come down here when I need to catch a bus. It’s nice in the «summer» cause they put out chairs, jumbo chess games and they have interesting art/​awareness installations. That water fall thingie is fun to run thru. Don’t believe what people say, you get really wet.

A wonderful park that attracts a diverse crowd and diverse events. I wish we had more nice & simple pavers in our sidewalks.

small triangular park in the middle of downtown. more like a plaza. a small group of trees. benches and an open concrete area. not a destination, but a good place to catch your breath and people watch.

You got to check out the Waterfall. If it is warm out, take a walk through the middle of the water fall. The park is nice but always has homeless or activists.

I like the Westlake Park.
It has different things going on at different seasons: mary-​go-​round at times, concerts, protests, rally, etc.
Lots of people just come here and chill and chat. There are some small but nice shops right next to the park. The Westlake Center is also right across from the park.

This is more of a plaza. In the summer they set up Mary go round and host concerts. There are many shops around. There is always artists, homeless, and pigeons here.

A lot of people do not realize this area between Pike & Pine on 4^th Avenue is a park… but nearby «Dogs in the Park» is a hint. The park has been around since 1963 and was the original Downtown terminal area for the Monorail. However, once Westlake Center was built in 1988, the original terminal station was torn down and replaced by the current mall. The park functions as a town square with regular festivals throughout the year. One popular past time is the oversized chess board. Also, if you look on the ground, there are many embedded medallions that pay tribute to the region’s history.
Features:
The Arch (a nod to the Arc de Triomphe de l’Etoile of Paris) is used as stage. There is a fountain in which you can walk under it’s falls. It’s fun to see people jump when it comes on while they are on the cat walk under the falls.
The park, while not green, features nice shade tree which makes for a nice canopy during the summer.
The park also has WiFi.