Seattle Public Air-Conditioning

[burgunder]

Help me compile the list - confirmed locations only please. Preference to local business and public places where it's OK to hang out, like libraries. Many libraries do not have AC - Montlake, Fremont and Queen Anne libraries did not last time I visited each.

UW• Sureshot Coffee, 45th & University Way - wicked good white coffee, try it

Comments

[nplusm]

B&O espresso....for drinks and cakes at least :).

[varn_ix]

This is one aspect of America I've never been able to get my head around, this dependence on artificial cooling. Okay, if it's too cold out, obviously you need heating because otherwise you can't move your fingers, even if you do wear several layers of clothing. But too hot? I grew up in a country with regular 100 F summers and nobody even thought about air conditioning up until five or ten years ago. (Wusses.) Drink lots of water, they used to say. Eat something salty now and then.

I think the temperature difference between cooled interiors and the hot Big room is a greater threat to health than any amount of heat the daystar dishes out.

[burgunder]

If it sounds like I'm angry, it's because I am. But angry because I have this problem, and not because I have to explain it. I hate being a fragile flower, I'm supposed to be FIERCE

[burgunder]

p.s. It'd be interesting to read the kind of cultural/anthropological part of the history of the popularity of AC in the USA; I wonder how much it is because we're such a melting pot. While our equator-area immigrants laugh at us for calling our summers hot (believe me, your attitude is very common here among Americans), our more polar immigrants are passing out, etc. I've got more polar than equator in me. How close to the equator are you?

[varn_ix]

Not that close (45 N), but the Mediterranean climate of the lower Croatian coast where we used to summer all my childhood years is both hot and arid (despite the proximity of the sea). At home, the city is in a shallow bowl which just closes up for days on end, no breeze. And, we live on the top floor, just under the tarred roof. :>

[junoimelda]

Yikes, Burgunder. what a bummer of a sensitivity. I know I feel similarly about the ways in which my body doesn't work right. I have a friend with super fair skin who has a similar lack of sweat issue. When I'm outdoors I love the sun and do bask in it more than I probably should, but prolonged heat, esp. indoors, makes me wilt.

Boom Noodle on 12th and Pike has AC, and is also wonderful. plenty of tasty veg options.

24 hr. Fitness has AC. definitely not local, but comfortably cool.

On a slightly tangental note: Lake Ballinger up in Montlake Terrace just north of Hwy 104 at the county line: AWESOME. Clean, cool but comfortable, beautiful. a wonderful place to swim on a beastly hot day.

[burgunder]

Thank you, love! I just spent a delightfully cool 3 hours chilling at the 15th Ave Starbucks. Haven't been to one of those in years, except for in airports when I'm traveling, and they actually have some healthy(ish) stuff to offer now, without caffeine even. That was nice to see. And while they're corporate, ultimately, they're still our kind of west coast community-supporting semi-liberal kind of corporate, so I didn't feel dirty or anything ;)

I'm so glad you're enjoying the sun! I'm so happy (and a little envious, but only in a good way) for those who can :> There's a great ode to basking in The Passion by Jeanette Winterson.