(Photos by Jason Van Horn/Bermstyle)
Coming off a successful crowdfunding campaign that has raised over $100,000, backers of the Gateway Green bike park project have wasted no time in turning dirt and building the trails that will soon create a new community resource in east Portland.
With money in the bank and all necessary permits and permissions lined up, work has already started on what will become Portland’s first outdoor bike park. By spring a two-mile singletrack loop, a bike skills area, and a pump track will be ready to ride on the 25-acre parcel. (Learn more about what’s in the plans here.)
But none of it will happen with some good, old-fashioned sweat equity.
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All this week, the Portand Parks & Recreation, Friends of Gateway Green and the NW Trail Alliance have hosted volunteer work parties at the site. If you’d like to help, there’s one more coming on Saturday. Show up between 9:00 am and 12 noon if you’d like to help. Hand tools will be provided but you’ll want to bring your own work gloves and boots.
Trail builders say they’ve already come across all types of urban artifacts since digging into the wooded areas. “This is an urban environment with a colorful past that we have been uncovering.”
To help work party organizers plan, please email Gateway Green Dirt Lab project manager Sean Stroup via stroup11 [at] hotmail.com with the timeslot that works for you.
— Jonathan Maus, (503) 706-8804 – jonathan@bikeportland.org
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“urban artifacts”…is this a polite way of describing the messes from the homeless camps?
Or maybe artifacts from the former structure that was the Rocky Butte Jail, along with it’s inhabitants?
It looks like they are constructing a chain link fence adjacent to the I-205 MUP, all the way from the I-84 overpass to the base of the hill. Is this simply to keep campers out of the park? I fear it is going to make the MUP feel someone closed in, between light rail tracks and a chain link fence.
construction fence…
Zow! That was fast! 🙂
Shoveling dirt is a good workout!
“But none of it will happen with some good, old-fashioned sweat equity.”
No, I think it will happen with that. Unless robots are building the trails.
In which case.. hydraulic fluid equity?
What would marcie houle do?
Poor pristine gateway green.
The needles you dig.
Who speaks for them?
Old growth artifacts.
Let them be. In my backyard. Let them be.
Surrounded by highways….
Won’t someone please think of the wildnernessesssss
Lots of hard work is finally paying off. Super exciting.