Valuing Nature in the City: Equity and Investment in Portland's Parks

Portland has 209 parks totaling 3,445 acres and another 7,800 acres of natural land. Bike trails and greenways link the system, but the distribution of parks is weighted towards the city’s established neighborhoods. Efforts are underway to shore up underserved areas, especially those with low-income residents that lie more than one-half mile from parks or natural areas.  Metro, Portland’s regional based government, is working on similar lines. Since 2013, its Nature in Neighborhood program has spent $7.5 million involving underserved neighborhoods in park programs and conservation work on acquired natural lands. At the same time, plans for the Central City, where population growth is the most intense, is pursuing a series of options to procure an adequate supply of greenspace in the future.

In the Pearl District, additional parks are needed to serve the long-term needs of a diverse poulation that is expected to increase by 50 percent by 2035. Of special concern is the growing contingent of families with children. There are playgrounds at Fields Park and the North Park Blocks, and the Central City 2035 Plan envisions a new public park and and open space facilities as part of the redevelopment of Centennial Mills. The Portland Development Commission’s current plan, however, devotes public space to housing the Mounted Horse Patrol not parks.

Envisioned greening of Centennial Mills site

The Pearl District Neighborhood Association has contested this decision, but the political will to establish the open space long envisioned for site is lacking. Funds are scarce, and investing in underserved areas is the priority. At the same time, the Central City 2035 Plan contains a series of innovative ideas that just might keep future population from overwhelming existing parks.

With land at a premium, existing parks could be repurposed and outmoded properties recyled for recreation. The redevelopment of the Post Office property is poised to add a new green to the North Park Blocks and embrace the riverfront. Changes are also envisioned for Tom McCall Park, the city’s “outdoor living room.” The linear greenway fronting the Willamette River hosts numerous events from concerts to beer festivals, but in the future it will also be a destination for river-based recreation and accessed by the Green Loop. The opportunity also exists for the new bike-ped route to tie into vacant industrial land repurposed to provide the large-scale recreational uses that are in heavy demand, such as soccer fields.

The extension of North Park Blocks is key to the redevelopment of the Post Office property 

Parks are public space, but it takes advocates and private investment to turn government plans into reality. For a generation, non-profits such as the 40-Mile Loop Trust have underwritten the expansion of Portland’s park system. Established in 1981, the Trust assisted in acquiring lands and conservation and recreation easements along the 40-Mile loop corridor identified by the Olmsted Brothers in 1903. Its investment set the foundation for the larger metropolitan greenspace system, which integrates 150 miles of trails and 15,000 acres of parks and natural areas. The Intertwine Alliance, a non-profit that represents 150 organizations, is the champion of this system. The partner local governments desperately need, its mission is to instill equity, education, and enjoyment into the nature experience. 

If Portland is to become the diverse and sustainable city its plans portend, parks must infuse the Central City and underserved neighborhoods. Private and pubic funding is essential.  At the same time, citizens must take ownership.  Parks offer more than connections to nature, they connect people as well. The Portland Parks Department relies on 500,000 volunteer hours per year to manage it holdings.  Caring for a special place creates bonds that strengthen neighborhoods. Taking time to improve one’s surrounding is a not a duty “specifically compulsory according to law,” John Charles Olmsted noted in the 1903 Portland Parks Plan. It is an expectation in the effort “to make the city more beautiful and more agreeable to live in and work in.”

Volunteers in Forest Park