Lake Stickney, WA

Lake Stickney Community Park and Lake Stickney are adjacent but not interchangeable recreation sites. The nearly 25-acre county park preserves forest, wetland, stream, and open-water habitat at the headwaters of Swamp Creek. Its paved and unpaved paths reach a nature-themed playground, viewing mound, meadow, picnic tables, and fenced off-leash area, but the park itself has no lake access. Boaters and anglers instead use a separate public launch on the lake's north shore, where gasoline-powered motors are prohibited. County staff and volunteer monitors have tracked the 25-acre lake since 1993. Its 2025 report rated overall health as good while noting rising phosphorus and declining water-quality signs; it also found that trees and shrubs covered about four-fifths of the shoreline and recorded no history of toxic algae. Mariner Library on 128th Street supplies another nearby public space, opening six days a week until 7 in the evening Monday through Thursday.

Its 2026 calendar included a mobile bicycle clinic and bilingual art and story programs, while weekly Talk Time gives English learners a place to practice conversation. That service fits an area where, during 2020-2024, 28 percent of residents were foreign-born and 38 percent of people age five or older spoke a language other than English at home. In 2020, the census recorded 15,413 Lake Stickney residents. Its 2010 count of 7,777 is not a clean growth comparison because the place was previously defined as Paine Field-Lake Stickney and the later CDP excludes Paine Field. Workers' mean travel time was about 33 minutes during 2020-2024, and median household income was $94,020. Homeowners occupied 53 percent of homes; their median value was $620,300, with median monthly mortgage-holder costs of $2,813 and median gross rent of $1,806.