Sunday Parkways volunteer.
-Slideshow below-
(Photos © J. Maus)
OK Portland, it’s time to step up and take care of a good friend in need. That good friend is Sunday Parkways, an absolute gem of an event that we are all very lucky to have.
Word from organizers is that the event is in need of a bunch more Superheroes (volunteers) to swoop in and make sure it remains a successful event. Put bluntly; without more community ownership — both physical and financial — Sunday Parkways could be in serious trouble.
I’ll save the financial details for later, but what’s urgently needed now are more Intersection Superheros. According to my friend Neal Armstrong with Good Sport Promotion (the company hired to manage the volunteer effort), they need a total of 200 Intersection Superheroes to monitor, direct, and divert traffic as well as chat with nearby residents to make sure they are cool with the event.
Armstrong says that as of Tuesday, they only had about 106 out of 196 intersections covered for the North Portland event, which happens 10 days from today (6/27)! For their next event in East Portland on July 18th they’ve got only 32 people signed up to monitor 150 intersections.
sure everyone has a good time.
I’ve known many Sunday Parkways volunteers, and they all say it’s a super fun way to spend the day. But even so, there’s a new perk for volunteers — the Talk in the Park Program. The City has lined up some interesting folks who will lead one-hour discussions after Sunday Parkways on a variety of topics. The talks are for volunteers only!
And yes, I’m one of the Talkers. I’ll discuss the need for carfree spaces in Portland; where we might push for more of it, what other cities are doing to create it, why we don’t have as much of it as we should, and how we can go about getting more of it. Other talk hosts include author Laura Foster, dietitian Nancy Becker, walking advocate Steph Routh, and bike businessman Evan Ross. Learn about their topics and sign up to join in the talks here (volunteers only please!).
So volunteer! Help save Sunday Parkways from mediocrity. Your involvement will help keep it amazing. To see how happy and beautiful Sunday Parkways volunteers are, I’ve gone through my archives and created the slideshow of them below: