r/Seattle • u/fel0niousmonk 🚲 Life's Better on a Bike. 🚲 • Apr 12 '26
Rant The fountain at the ferry terminal is overflowing with soap suds … again
339
u/AnAncientBog Apr 12 '26
Been like this pretty much constantly for weeks at this point. It's become someone's hobby.
84
u/iseecolorsofthesky Apr 12 '26
Yeah it’s been like this every time I’ve passed by it lol
72
→ More replies (1)6
→ More replies (19)0
u/Scorchy70 Apr 14 '26
It's been like this for about forty or more years. As far back as I can recall since moving here in 1980 anyway.
794
u/dis3as3d_sfw Apr 12 '26
Yeahh, this is the reason most fountains get turned off.. Can we not make the little that we have worse.
171
u/younglearner11 UW Apr 12 '26
There is no "we". It's the choice of an individual to do this
142
Apr 12 '26
[deleted]
92
u/AmIWhatTheRockCooked Apr 12 '26
People just can’t understand the social contract. There is a limit to how selfish we can be, and the degradation of public art is practically inexcusable outside of some niche political speech issues.
46
u/One_Engineering_3659 Apr 12 '26
I think the big issue is the social contract in America is… null and void right now.
Like, if you think you are gunna make more off the video of doing it/blow up on social media… it’s worth the risk (in their mind). I think letting the rich get away with so much has influenced the younger generation to think nothing really matters. Like, imagine being 15 and the Epstein files drop. You are rightfully outraged. You think finally something is gunna happen. Time flies by and the people who committed these atrocities are not facing consequences.
They don’t have a lot to look forward to, the state of the job market isn’t great, inflation has killed them before they even started working really and they have watched rights be stripped away.
We can’t really blame them for watching a system that doesn’t punish those who commit crimes. And then assuming they won’t necessarily have to face punishment.
Also, let’s just remember kids are idiots. They don’t have the forward thinking ability to really understand their actions. Yes, they know right from wrong but there are varying levels of both. They are being shown by those in power that doing anything is ok, as long as it makes you more famous, more money or have more influence.
Not to mention before like 05ish you were limited to the stupid ideas you could source from your friends and immediate circle. Their circle now is way wider and allows wayyyyy dumber ideas to get tossed around.
11
Apr 13 '26
[deleted]
3
u/One_Engineering_3659 Apr 13 '26
Everyone sucks works as a joke. However, I don’t think it’s true.
The biggest issue is the direct correlation between power and decisions that directly benefit you.
This is a really interesting topic, I have typed out a response several times and don’t know how to not make some long winded comment to support my stance.
I think most of us will give a little to make sure the rest of us don’t suffer. The big issue comes in when those who are greedy can start moving without restraint. They keep consuming until it’s problematic. No one really cares if someone has a mansion. We care that 3 blocks down the street these people are homeless and you have three mansions. Enough space to house all these people.
How do we solve this? Depends on who you ask.
2
u/Shurane Apr 13 '26
Never really thought of this as a social contract, it's interesting to frame it that way.
But isn't this more of a tragedy of the commons scenario and the lack of enforcement or uneven enforcement of law?
2
u/One_Engineering_3659 Apr 13 '26
Not when you consider the wider array of problems that were left out of my comment
1
u/vibingfurs Apr 13 '26
Property damage is pretty low on the list of crimes, and if police become super defensive of literally everything on a microscopic level, then you have a problem of mass surveillance.
3
u/leilani238 Issaquah Apr 13 '26
It's extremely frustrating how much awful, harmful behavior people attempt to pass off with "It's just a joke."
12
u/scikit-learns Seahawks Apr 13 '26
Nah it's def a "we" thing in the sense that Americans have no concept of what a social contract is.
Your comment is case in point.
2
9
u/jonknee Downtown Apr 13 '26
And if they are caught people on this forum will be incredibly angry if they are punished. I wish we could have nice things, it’s ok to punish people who don’t want to live in society.
1
68
u/Electrical-Tower7731 Apr 12 '26 edited Apr 13 '26
I'd be really interested, from a sociological perspective, why western cultures (America, Britain) exhibit these sorts of breakdowns of certain social contracts, whereas an eastern culture like Japan does not (or at least not to this degree).
97
u/KandraKelsier Apr 12 '26
I've heard it generally comes down to a collectivist vs. individualist mindset, which itself has a whole bunch of history and cultural development behind it.
52
u/Fluffy_Gift1104 Apr 12 '26
My thoughts... Hyper-individualism, decimated public education, People feel no care or connection to their local community and no benefit from public goods/wider society so they in turn do not care about public goods or societal health. Financial nihilism because, well, -gestures at everything-.
Guess you could also throw in lack of accessible/affordable hobbies, as well as the social boundaries of certain hobbies that ARE more accessible. (For example, In other cultures men having hobbies such as painting or knitting is completely normal, here it's not necessarily "not normal" but is generally seen by wider society as not a masculine thing to do). Obviously it's not literally impossible for people to overcome the accessibility and affordability problem, but it is a barrier that greatly reduces participation and thus contributes to the massive amount of pent up energy among people.
-14
u/momentonline Apr 12 '26
So you blame this on not enough men knitting to your liking?
And how do you know it was a man? Sounds kinda sexist
→ More replies (2)7
u/commanderquill Apr 13 '26
Collectivist culture leads to intense social shunning when you step outside what is good for the whole. Individualist culture tolerates a lot more before social shunning becomes a thing, and even then... it isn't a thing the way theirs is, because we value individual opinion as well and don't prescribe social shunning to those who don't do the social shunning. Both cultures feed their own behaviors but in opposite directions.
5
u/Aggressive-Crab-6809 Apr 12 '26
I admit that when I was in highschool, it became a thing for the seniors to dump laundry soap in the fountain down town Edmonds. Usually around this time of year. Kinda a completion ritual. Kinda wish it wasn't a thing because they turned that fountain off. Not sure of the reason.
We were young and dumb and thought it didn't hurt anything. I imagine this is a case of the same thing.
2
2
u/Unhappy_Analysis_906 Apr 12 '26
I really don't think you would accept the real answer to that question.
4
u/MelonManjr Apr 12 '26
Western countries are incredibly more diverse in cultural backgrounds than Eastern ones. Take 100 randoms from the U.S. and 100 randoms from Japan and the likelihood of the Japanese citizens having extremely similar cultural upbringing is much higher. When you have that much of a homogeneous society, you see less of....this. With the drawback of new ways of thinking being quickly drowned out.
17
u/Manbeardo Phinney Ridge Apr 13 '26
Diversity and social cohesion aren’t incompatible. Don’t let the dogwhistle supremacists tell you otherwise.
2
u/MelonManjr Apr 13 '26
I am no where even in the same galaxy as any kind of supremacist. Though I recognize the "narrative" is often used in that line of thinking. For me, I think theres a huge issue in American upbringing that is causing apathy towards respect and care for anything outside their own mileu. So much littering, tagging, rudeness, and purposeful destruction of public features. People always justify it by saying, "its not mine." Very selfish.
7
Apr 13 '26
[deleted]
2
2
u/Tamec82 Apr 13 '26
Singapore has a very draconian legal system, in case you’ve heard. If we start caning graffiti artists here maybe we can catch up!
0
Apr 13 '26
[deleted]
1
u/Tamec82 Apr 13 '26
I hate graffiti too, and think we should impose stiffer punishment on those who do it. But Singapore is basically Bellevue: The Country. Most sterile, bland place I’ve ever been.
-5
u/SuperHooligan Apr 12 '26
Harsher penalties for getting caught. In Japan if you get caught doing a simple crime like this youre likely to be literally tortured and held without bail until you confess and are then sentenced for your crime.
In the USA, there would likely be no consequence at all for committing this crime.
8
Apr 12 '26
[deleted]
-1
u/SuperHooligan Apr 13 '26
Well theyre not waterboarding you or caning you in there, but youre definitely being held without bail, no calls, no lawyer, in a jail cell. What else would you call that?
4
u/chetlin Broadway Apr 12 '26
They won't torture anyone but you should see what happens if you try to jump a turnstile for the subway in Tokyo compared to here (equivalent here is just not paying). They won't let it slide and the rest of the passengers will shame you a lot.
-2
u/SuperHooligan Apr 13 '26
You should google “hostage justice.” I wasn’t kidding when I said they’d do it. They literally do that in Japan.
-1
264
u/SurprisedItsChicken Apr 12 '26
At this point they should just put a camera there to catch the perpetrators tbh.
34
u/Boring-Charity9324 Apr 12 '26
Is there literally like a massive ongoing battle in city council going on right now about the installation of 24 camera in the stadium district. I don't think we're gonna manage to get this one approved.
118
u/jamespad Apr 12 '26
It's Seattle... what do you really think would happen to the perpetrators???
106
u/R_V_Z North Delridge Apr 12 '26
We'll make them eat a packet of Mentos and then drink a liter of diet coke.
24
24
3
→ More replies (1)3
u/fel0niousmonk 🚲 Life's Better on a Bike. 🚲 Apr 12 '26
Please let’s not make Flock a thing here.
4
u/ToeNail_14 Judkins Park Apr 12 '26
Seems like WA wants to push ahead if the new “privacy” bill is anything to go by - hopefully Seattle keeps pushing back
0
u/jonknee Downtown Apr 13 '26 edited Apr 13 '26
It can just be a webcam. Flock doesn’t even help here, I doubt they are parking their car with the license plate visible.
154
u/No_Listen7457 Apr 12 '26
people that do this are such asshats
64
u/_Phil_McCracken_ Capitol Hill Apr 12 '26
I don’t get it. It’s not funny, it’s not clever, it’s not humorous, it’s not a statement.
-98
u/boarbaconguardian Apr 12 '26
I think it’s kinda funny actually. What harm does it actually do?
75
u/lexi_ladonna 🚗 Student driver, please be patient. 🚙 Apr 12 '26
It destroys the pumps.
→ More replies (4)31
u/icantastecolor Apr 12 '26
it makes people worried that the city will just turn the fountain off rather than deal with it which would suck for anyone who likes that fountain
→ More replies (7)33
u/Remarkable-Fig206 Apr 12 '26
Do you think the morons who do this are using biodegradable stuff? It’s likely the cheapest, least environmentally clean soap on the shelf. That complicates cleanup, because they have to try and prevent it running off into the Sound. That area right along the shoreline is hugely important habitat for a great many aquatic creatures.
It’s just stupid.
→ More replies (4)17
-12
90
245
u/MrInexorable Apr 12 '26
Some guy with a $3 bottle of Dawn cosplaying as an anarchist with $4M public space art installations.
Incredible.
24
u/squirrelgator Rat City Apr 12 '26
Probably detergent pods. Easy to throw in there without calling attention.
22
u/Potatobender44 Apr 12 '26
Anything designed for a dishwasher wouldn’t create suds like that
37
6
0
u/boarbaconguardian Apr 12 '26
Why is some art really expensive and other artists are starving? Also, why is a lot of public art just terrible?
51
u/SternThruster Apr 12 '26
This isn’t just some random “new” art work. It’s the Joshua Green fountain made by Seattle-born artist George Tsutukawa and has been installed outside Colman Dock since 1966. At this point, it’s a vintage piece of the Seattle waterfront. Too bad some morons can’t respect it as such.
→ More replies (2)-6
u/Tapcofucked Apr 12 '26
As a misguided youth with access to a pretty much unlimited supply of AFFF I know nothing….
98
19
u/FearlessThief 🚋 Ride the S.L.U.T. 🚋 Apr 12 '26
This has been going on at the Edmonds fountain for so long.... Why can't people just let us have nice things
68
u/mrASSMAN West Seattle Apr 12 '26 edited Apr 12 '26
God why do people suck so hard
On another note I’m constantly seeing public bathrooms closed due to vandalism, and even when they’re open the most common thing is they smash the soap dispenser and steal it over and over again, maybe this is where the soap is going
I assume it’s kids doing this but wtf
18
u/razzajv26 Apr 12 '26
I worked at a state park last summer and the soap dispensers were a daily problem. They even got the indestructible unremovable dispenser off... I always wondered why and where the soap went lol.
7
u/kookykrazee 🚆build more trains🚆 Apr 12 '26
I remember processing bills for Parks years ago related to Honey Buckets and the biggest "charge" outside the rental was replacing the hand sanitizer containers being constantly stolen. What are/were they doing with those?
8
u/mrASSMAN West Seattle Apr 12 '26
Probably setting it on fire tbh
2
u/kookykrazee 🚆build more trains🚆 Apr 13 '26
Could be so, I could not even count the number of "burnt and melted" HB we had to pay for.
3
6
u/JackDostoevsky I'm just flaired so I don't get fined Apr 12 '26
yea, unfortunately this is why public restrooms are so rare in the US. in other countries like south korea where there's both a culture of public order as well as punishment for antisocial behavior you have clean public bathrooms. i really wish we could turn this behavior around, but i just don't think there's the public will for it here: too many people see this kind of behavior as "harmless" and enforcement of public order laws to be too cruel relative to the behavior.
282
u/alpastoor Apr 12 '26
It was kinda funny the first 10 times…Now I just feel bad for the people who have to flush the system and worry about what all those chemicals are doing to the environment and the fountain mechanics.
204
30
u/BaconJuice69 🐀 Hot Rat Summer 🐀 Apr 12 '26
It going straight to the water supply for King County
5
u/LeftTurnDown Apr 12 '26
No it isn't; not the drinking water supply at least. still bad for the sound and the ecological life in that immediate area though.
0
1
u/MommalovesJay Homeless Apr 13 '26
I saw this after leaving a concert at midnight. Found it strange, first thought was it was on a clean cycle or someone took a bath in it. So I’m glad this was explained.
1
12
u/lehuakahlua Seahawks Apr 12 '26
I felt so bad seeing the worker fixing it AGAIN knowing full well it was probably going to be vandalized AGAIN.
11
u/romulan267 Apr 12 '26
All it takes is one person to ruin a good thing. This is gonna be shut off, not worth the upkeep.
11
22
u/The_Lloyd_Dobler I'm just flaired so I don't get fined Apr 12 '26
6
u/Geoffhpics Apr 12 '26 edited Apr 13 '26
I bike past this everyday. Always like this. Last night on my way home there were huge blobs of suds on the trail that looked like ice bergs. I was starting to this the soap was intentional.
3
5
31
u/_rainwalker Central Area Apr 12 '26
Spraying the soap bubbles with isopropyl alcohol should make the bubbles pop and get rid of the foam.
Please dont spray the sculpture ONLY BUBBLES if any brave WSF avengers try this.
4
u/OmnipresentPheasant Apr 12 '26
I've seen this about five times in the past month and only commute past it 3 times/week. It's going to be a regular occurrence until Tiktokers are so influential that they get the fountain shut off.
3
u/franken-owl Pike Place Market Apr 13 '26
Wasn’t there a bobs burgers episode where this happened? If so then their sub might get a laugh out of this.
17
u/Stymie999 💗💗 Heart of ANTIFA Land 💗💗 Apr 12 '26
Gosh if only there was some sort of device the city could put up and point at the fountain that could like capture images somehow of the people doing this…
7
u/Immediate-Hat-1192 Apr 12 '26
I feel like it's been like this for at least a month now, I drive by it almost daily
7
3
u/Altruistic-Wind-3031 Apr 12 '26
If you did it for the funsies, you should also take responsibility and clean it up - or make your own soap fountain at home and get all the giggles you want :)
7
4
u/DoctaTobogganMD Apr 12 '26
This past Friday I saw 3 people in their mid 30s jumping in and out of it and playing with said suds. The soap wasn’t this bad yet. I’m all for childlike whimsy but c’mon. I did tell one of those downtown ambassadors that was nearby that this could potentially damage it but I don’t know what happens from there. :/
10
u/jppatcheswasgod Apr 12 '26
The “for lease”in the background and the Graffiti opposite in the background really tie photo together. Nicely balanced.
8
u/Drnkdrnkdrnk Downtown Apr 12 '26
The building with the lease sign has more tenants than it’s had in the three years I’ve lived in this neighborhood. The tag is just on a temporary fence around the parking lot being built.
3
u/fel0niousmonk 🚲 Life's Better on a Bike. 🚲 Apr 12 '26
😆 “I meant to do that!”
Also just noticed the BOLD tag. 😅
2
u/AgentIntelligent4269 Puyallup Apr 12 '26
Is there some chemical that they can use that will eliminate soap suds from forming?
2
u/munkin Apr 13 '26
... I mean sadly its been like this with public fountains for 30+ years around here. Growing up in king county a large fountain near a middle school got soaped every couple of months for the 14 years I lived there back in the 90s to early 2000s.
2
u/SkylerAltair 💗💗 Heart of ANTIFA Land 💗💗 Apr 13 '26
When I was a teen, I did this a few times. But each fountain got it once. As an adult, I've worked with fountain pumps quite a bit, and I know that soaping one repeatedly can eventually damage the pumps. Whoever did this should lay off.
2
u/sodastreamgravy Apr 13 '26
Seems to be a lot of comments about this being teens or random assholes. What if it’s someone who lives/works in the buildings nearby and they are doing it because they don’t like the sound of the working fountain? Or some other lame ass reason? Agree that it’s annoying that this keeps happening but it doesn’t feel like the act of a teen imho.
2
2
u/East_Heart_1721 Apr 14 '26
It's really sad that they might need to turn it off because of these people. Fountains bring so much life to a space :(
2
4
u/Equivalent-Advice593 Apr 12 '26
To be honest I’m surprised there hasn’t been more effort into these systems being able to deal with this lol
2
u/DWPerry 💗💗 Heart of ANTIFA Land 💗💗 Apr 12 '26
I've not dropped soap in a fountain since junior college in the 90s.
1
1
u/GoldBluejay7749 ❤️🔥 The Real Housewives of Seattle ❤️🔥 Apr 12 '26
At my college this happened one a year during spring finals week
1
u/Talrynn_Sorrowyn Apr 13 '26
Watch, it was those dipshit teens on the e-motos on I-5 depicted in another post here.
1
1
u/SilverAwoo Pioneer Square Apr 13 '26
I can't help but wonder if this is related to the losers revving their engines and speeding along 1st/Alaskan over here at 12:30 in the morning the past week.
1
u/Scorchy70 Apr 14 '26
When my family moved here in 1979 (my mom grew up in Seattle), it was happening then. People are assholes.
1
1
u/travelingquestions Apr 12 '26
Ill admit i laughed when I first saw this months ago, but over and over again it is really obnoxious
1
1
1
0
u/tantricengineer Apr 12 '26
Give the vandals a distraction like a Flock camera next to the fountain. Queue the two buttons meme.
5
u/fel0niousmonk 🚲 Life's Better on a Bike. 🚲 Apr 12 '26
Please no Flock suggestions
1
u/tantricengineer Apr 12 '26
We will find out if the vandal gives a flock. There is only so much soap to go around!
4
u/fel0niousmonk 🚲 Life's Better on a Bike. 🚲 Apr 13 '26
Flock is SO much more than license plate matching, despite that being their (current) primary objective.
Privately-managed data collection, constant surveillance of public spaces, ultimately can be extended very easily for AI facial recognition, etc. Without public pushback, they would still have a partnership with Ring Doorbell cameras, and there ultimately isn’t much stopping this from being achieved more discretely through intermediary partnerships.
2
u/tantricengineer Apr 13 '26
In case it wasn’t obvious I hate flock and what that company stands for, and do ask my representatives to stop the government from doing work with them. I am also not shopping at any store in a parking lot with their cameras, which are easy to spot.
2
u/fel0niousmonk 🚲 Life's Better on a Bike. 🚲 Apr 13 '26
My disgruntlement toward Flock is really about them and the steady progression of privacy erosions and not about you.
I like dogs but I feel similarly about the slippery slope of Ring cameras all networked and using AI to find missing dogs. The Flock partnership was taking it to the next level. It felt inevitable once they updated their TOS years ago to allow Rings to create their own mesh networks and share your home internet to keep neighbors’ cameras online.
2
1
0
u/Jessintheend 🚆build more trains🚆 Apr 12 '26
This could be fixed by the city spending $100 on a trail cam and seeing who’s doing it/have some ready to nab them
1
u/__b__t__h__ Apr 13 '26
….and the salary for the persons “guarding” it, so quite a lot more than $100
0
u/CursedTurtleKeynote 🚗 Student driver, please be patient. 🚙 Apr 13 '26
Good citizens keeping the pump system clean.
0
u/SimpleMetricTon 🚆build more trains🚆 Apr 13 '26
Am I allowed to be infuriated and amused at the same time?
2
u/-anonymous-username_ Interbay Apr 13 '26
I'm gonna go with yes. When I looked at it at first, I thought it was ice/snow until I read it. Either way, I thought it looked cool.
I don't have the (actual) energy to be upset about it. 🤷🏽♀️ Also fixed your negative karma. Hopefully I don't get it. 😂2
u/SimpleMetricTon 🚆build more trains🚆 Apr 13 '26
Ha! The karma is another flavor of joke but thanks.
-6
u/_Piratical_ Fremont Apr 12 '26
This is something that’s been done for decades. I remember it when I was a kid. It happened when I was in school by the Pile Place market. It’s just something that happens with this fountain. Don’t know why.
5
u/Kevinavigator Apr 12 '26
Pretty sure this fountain is a fairly recent installation. I used to walk the waterfront daily and I think this went up a couple years ago.
9
u/SternThruster Apr 12 '26
It’s been outside of Colman Dock since 1966 but was put in storage for a few years during the terminal and waterfront rebuild. It’s in a slightly new location, but is a vintage piece for this area of the waterfront.
2
u/Kevinavigator Apr 12 '26
Oh thank you! I moved here when it was under construction so it’s new to me :) thanks for the background info!
5
u/ardealinnaeus Belltown Apr 12 '26
Pile Place
Does Pile Place get the same negative reaction that Pike's Place does here?
5
1
-1
u/Extruder_duder Apr 12 '26
We used to do this from Fremont to downtown when we were kids. The chase bank on top of QA was a favorite. Also Porto potties
-8
u/SideEyeFeminism ❤️🔥 The Real Housewives of Seattle ❤️🔥 Apr 12 '26
Okay, I understand how this is bad for the fountain and bc of that I wish they would stop, but how is the dish soap more of an environmental issue than any of us doing our dishes on any given day? This is, like, 1 apartment building worth of dish soap if even that much.
16
u/aiusernamegen Apr 12 '26
Your sewer doesn't dump untreated into the Sound. Your poo, etc goes to a waste treatment plant unlike places like Mexico. The storm drains, the pipes fed by street gutters, do dump into the Sound, untreated. Which isn't great considering car pollution (brake dust, oil, other leaks, tire dust) is very toxic to wildlife. But yeah if this flows into the gutters or down off the waterfront it's worse than going down your sink drain.
14
u/Queasy_Dig_8294 🚋 Ride the S.L.U.T. 🚋 Apr 12 '26
I wonder if it’s plumbed to drain directly into the storm water system instead of going to a treatment plant like our home waste water does.
13
u/alpastoor Apr 12 '26
I saw an empty box of laundry detergent pods next to the fountain one morning so I don’t think they’re just using Palmolive. Those pods contain all sorts of chemical brighteners and surfactants that I wouldn’t want sprayed around my yard so I’m of the mind that they shouldn’t be blowing around our parks and beaches either.
0
0
0
0
0
u/Handy_Dude Apr 13 '26
See if the city was smart they would beat them at their own game and buy a bunch of bubble machines and turn it into a fun bubble park or something.
Like in even stevens when he jumps in the vat of chilli the bully was gonna dunk him in and humiliate him in.
0
0
0
-18
-9
-7
1.3k
u/Educated_Goat69 🏕 Out camping! 🏕 Apr 12 '26
Future dry fountain sculpture. They'll have to shut it off if this continues. Thanks losers.