With lots of grey skies and another big rainstorm on the way, here’s an event to look forward to this summer: eight miles of (relatively) carfree streets from Southeast Portland to Milwaukie via the new Sellwood Bridge.
That’s one of the five routes the City of Portland has just announced for their 2016 Sunday Parkways season. Now in its ninth year, Sunday Parkways has earned a rightful place among Portland’s many cherished annual outdoor events. Last year’s attendance set a record with an estimated 119,000 people taking part.
This year’s slate of events features four of five routes that are nearly identical to last year. Besides the new Milwaukie route, the Northeast Portland route no longer uses the Cully Blvd cycle track and has different routing through Woodlawn. The season kicks off with the East Portland edition on May 15th, then North Portland on June 26th, the Northeast Portland event on July 24th, Southeast Portland on August 21st, and then the Milwaukie route on October 2nd.
You don’t have to wait until October to ride the new Sellwood Bridge. Multnomah County is set to open it to traffic on March 1st (don’t miss the big celebrations of the old and new bridges on February 25th and 27th respectively).
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The Milwaukie route will also include crossings of bridges on the Springwater Corridor over McLoughlin (99E) and will feature activity areas at Westmoreland Park and Sellwood Park. For some Milwaukie residents, the event will be the perfect opportunity to raise awareness for the Monroe Neighborhood Street Design Plan. Monroe connects downtown Milwaukie with new Orange Line MAX light rail, northwest Clackamas County and the Clackamas Town Center. Bike Milwaukie, a local bike advocacy group (along with help from the Bicycle Transportation Alliance) recently pushed through a neighborhood greenway plan for inner parts of Monroe Street.
This will be the second year in a row that the City used Sunday Parkways to help introduce the community to a new bridge over the Willamette River. Last year’s marquee event featured the brand new Tilikum Crossing Bridge.
Learn more at PortlandSundayParkways.org.
— Jonathan Maus, (503) 706-8804 – jonathan@bikeportland.org
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