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Monday’s Renton Committee of the Whole presentation revealed that the Piazza fountain will become a planting bed.
In a post last week I described my hopes that we could preserve our beautiful Piazza fountain. But on Monday night, Renton Council announced plans to turn this fountain into a planter.
Renton’s Piazza fountain
The plans also eliminates the Piazza’s other water feature, the babbling brook featuring Renton’s “Summer Breeze” sculpture of a young girl stepping gently into the water.
No more water. Renton’s lovely “Summer Breeze” girl has been stepping into a 40-foot long babbling stream bed for over 20 years, but the water has been removed and the girl will soon follow.
Together, these two lovely water features have visually anchored the Piazza since the early 2000s. And the splashing water features incorporate generous bench seating which provide critical cool resting areas for scores of visitors on hot days.
With these two water features being scrapped, I don’t know if Renton will have any operable water features anymore. The mist fountain at the 4-year-old Sunset Park has apparently not operated in recent years, and a perpetually empty fountain sits near the downtown library on Mill Avenue. This year even Henry Moses pool has (temporarily) lost it’s interactive water play area.
The decommissioning of these Renton water features is in stark contrast to the actions taken by our same Public Works Director, Martin Pastucha, in his previous assignment in Santa Monica, California– an ocean-front city with just 83% of Renton’s population. There, he and his City Council created a new 6-acre city plaza teeming with beautiful water features about ten years ago.
In his previous assignment in Santa Monica, our Public Works director oversaw installation of four water features in one park; this contrasts sharply with removing them all from Renton.
Many new water features were added to Santa Monica’s municipal plaza a few years before their public works director began working for Renton; he is now making plans to remove Renton’s water features.
I don’t understand why residents of Santa Monica deserve so many stunning new water features while Renton residents deserve to have ours taken away. Every world-class city brims with water features– why would we decommission ours?
And what is our new focus instead of water features in the city core? A million-dollar television for watching sports events. Screens are everywhere in our society and most people get too much screen time already. Sports bars already offer congregate viewing. We don’t go to the park to watch TV.
If you want to keep Renton’s water features you can send an email to Renton City Council at this address: council@rentonwa.gov.
The Mist Fountain at Renton’s four-year-old Sunset Park never seems to be running anymore. It was a nice feature of this park in its first two years (when this picture was taken).
The Mill Avenue fountain at the entrance of Renton’s downtown library parking lot has not operated in many years
The city continues to ignore derelict buildings that impact neighborhood safety. But they love to remove trees and now the beloved water features. What is next?
If I want to watch TV I stay home or for sports I enjoy it at my neighborhood watering hole. I don’t need the great outdoors to be contaminated with Giant TVs.
Honestly, we can’t have water features and hobos at the same time. It’s one or the other. You either get pleasant parks with working fountains or you get chaos with tents, trash, and people screaming at pigeons. Renton used to walk that line, but those days are gone.
It’s the head-in-the-sand do-gooders who keep chirping about compassion and community. That’s great in theory. In practice, it means ignoring the fact that basic public infrastructure only works if the majority of people using it are behaving like adults.
We can’t run a fountain in a place where someone’s bathing in it, someone else is stealing the pump, and three more are using it as a toilet.
Perhaps the solution is to hire another outreach coordinator and create a new round of slogans.
Now the unhoused can watch TV outside
The City of Seattle continues to maintain countless beautiful fountains; it would be desirable for Renton to find a way to do the same. This link provides a partial list of Seattle’s fountains.
And click here for a google image search on “Bellevue Fountains” which provides a visual reminder of Bellevue’s success in this area. By removing our fountains, Renton is rapidly falling behind neighboring cities.
You crazy leftist types imported thousands of Seattle’s homeless into downtown Renton and now you’re wondering why you can’t have nice things.
^ they’ve got a point. You sometimes get what you vote for.
Renton used to be “Ahead of the Curve” now they are “spiralling down the drain” Need new leadership with some stones!
This is so sad. Our Piazza is such a treasure, envisioned by our elders 25 years ago, and has been the site of many Community events beyond the beloved Renton Farmer’s Market. We’re thankful our boys grew up enjoying the beauty, fun, excitement and people there.
I can see doing some upgrades, especially needed improvements for the Farmers Market, like electrical and water availability. Last I heard, the market manager hadn’t been included much in any planning. Which is obvious from the presentation to Council Committee of the Whole Monday. And, that meeting was NOT held in Council Chambers so it could be watched live online/Channel 21, and taped for later viewing.
Here’s a photo from out boys enjoying the stream and little girl statue in 2003:
Here’s another photo:
I don’t see it as much a public works administration issue of removing the water features it is Community and Economic Development that is taking the lead on this planning and design process.
No charges expected for men who shot man at Renton Transit Center
“According to court records, a 52-year-old man was bathing in a fountain at the transit center, …”
https://komonews.com/news/local/renton-transit-center-custody-felony-criminal-charges-prosecutors-king-county-casey-mcnerthney-police-chief-jon-schuldt-assault-52-year-old-pvc-pipe
And the statue is now gone. As taxpayers paid for this sculpture, I would like to know where it now is. Or will it just ‘disappear’ like the salmon art we had in the library before KCLS took over. The sculpture should be placed in another public park – perhaps the Cedar River Trail that leads through Boeing. My hunch it is now in someone’s private collection. I hope to be proven wrong.
Thanks SB for letting us know the statue is gone. I would also like to know where it went. Earlier this year the City asked for recommendations from the public about where it should go, but I’ve never seen a formal report of the options or a decision. I missed the request when it came out, but I found it when I just googled “Renton Summer Breeze Statue” Here is a post from January in which the City asked for input: https://x.com/CityofRenton/status/1883586084136976647
Maybe I will reach out to the parks department to see if there is someone who knows
Thanks. Please let us know if you hear anything.
So I reached out regarding where the Summer Breeze statue was relocated since removal from the Piazza Park.
To pull a quote from the response I received- “Summer Breeze went into safe keeping at the Parks Shop, and a new destination has not yet been identified by Parks staff.”
There was no indication of the results of the public comments requested in January 2025 where to move the fountain. So in eight months they couldn’t identify a new location? Or is the public just supposed to forget an move on. Remains to be seen.
Meanwhile, the school district continues to tear down people’s homes and the chain link fencing started being installed around the Piazza today.
Thank you for the update SB. Sadly I can only assume there is no obvious place to put this precious public statue now that every public water feature has been removed, along with the splash pad at Henry Moses Aquatic Center.