Portland’s 2023 Sunday Parkways season is off and running.
On Sunday, the first in a series of three open streets planned this year, was held and thousands of people turned out. They took advantage of (mostly) carfree streets on a 3.3 mile out-and-back route that connected to three parks: Gateway, Ventura, and Lincoln. Each park was full of activities and food vendors and there were fun surprises and welcoming neighborhoods around every turn.
I rolled out to check the vibes and didn’t cover nearly as much ground as I’d hoped. Turns out when trying to make video and stopping to talk with so many people makes the day go by very quick (so does having to leave early to coach a basketball game!). From what I did manage to see, the Sunday Parkways spirit is alive and well.
You might recall that it was the east Portland event last year when a road-raging man flashed a gun at a volunteer at a traffic checkpoint and drove through the course. Thankfully, so far I haven’t heard of anything that terrible happening yesterday. On the contrary, I saw a lot of joyous Portlanders who seemed happy to emerge from winter hibernation and see their friends and neighbors.
Even Multnomah County Chair Jessica Vega Pederson was out with her family. Riding a light orange Specialized road bike, Pederson seemed very in her element. “Today’s been a fantastic day. I’m so happy the first Sunday Parkways starts in east Portland. The route starts right near my house.”
A big goal of these events for the Portland Bureau of Transportation is to show off recent street updates they’ve made to make it easier and safer to walk and bike. I chatted with Chair Pederson at the new enhanced crossing of NE Glisan and 108th where PBOT has added protected bike lanes around an off-set intersection. “We have so many more designated pathways that are separated from the traffic,” Pederson noted. “We’ve got so many green routes that are going in. And I think that shows that people who live out here can do a lot more cycling then they might think they can.”
On that note, the route gave me an opportunity to see the new little connector path between NE 107th and 106th. NE Wasco used to dead-end just one block from (the absolutely amazing) Gateway Discovery Park. Luckly it was blocked by a parking lot (not a private residence), so PBOT was able to cut out a bit of right-of-way and make a bike path. We first wrote about this project two years ago, and here’s how it came out…
If you missed this one, there are two more Sunday Parkways coming up: June 25th in northeast Cully and September 10th in southwest. More info on the City’s website.
More photos below…
