In many ways, this Saturday is the grand opening Gateway Green never had.
This 25-acre bike park nestled between interstates 84 and 205 in east Portland opened in 2017, but that was well before the full plan of trails and amenities had been built out. And just when the final phase of construction was complete, Covid hit and scuttled any official celebration. Then by the time masks came down, TriMet construction fences went up as their Better Red project closed a large portion of the park.
Today there’s a lot to celebrate: TriMet’s project is complete and they’ve built a new bridge and path that leads directly between the park and their Gateway Transit Center, providing a much easier, safer, and direct connection for visitors. (Getting people on bikes to this park is very important because it has no on-site car parking.) And Portland Parks & Recreation has built a new entry plaza on the south end, complete with new benches, plantings, signage, downhill “gravity line” trails (where you don’t have to pedal), and more.
PP&R has worked with nonprofit NW Trail Alliance to put finishing touches on the trails and other amenities. The two new gravity line trails offer about 160 yards of new berms and ramps. Add the new south entry plaza to the existing entrances at the west and north, Gateway Green now welcomes visitors from the I-205 path with the respect and infrastructure fitting of a park of this stature.
“This is the grand opening that we never had. Now we are ready to celebrate.”
– Linda Robinson, park co-founder
On that note, I rode TriMet’s new bridge Thursday and loved how much easier it was to connect to from the Gateway Shopping Center. It will also give first responders a quicker route into the park whenever necessary.
On Saturday from 10:00 am to 2:00 pm the city and NWTA will offer loaner mountain bikes, face painting, a prize raffle, bike skills challenge stations, and other fun activities. If you’ve never checked out Gateway Green, this is a great opportunity to explore what it has to offer. Or if it’s been awhile, you owe it to yourself to give it another look.
The idea behind Gateway Green was first hatched in 2006 by Gateway area property developer Ted Gilbert and longtime parks advocate Linda Robinson. Their vision, first presented to BikePortland in 2008, was made real by dedication, private fundraising, and financial and administrative support from PP&R and the Oregon Department of Transportation (who sold PP&R the land it was built on).
“This is the grand opening that we never had,” wrote Robinson in an email this week. “Now we are ready to celebrate.”
— Need even more inspiration? Turns out Saturday is also National Take a Kid MTB Day! Event info here.
Thanks for reading.
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Has anyone studied air quality at the site? I went there last week and just wondered if it’s healthy it is to be exercising surrounded by freeways on all sides Hmm?
Otherwise than the pollution concerns it seemed cool. About 10 riders enjoying themselves.
And I only saw 1 homeless tent. On my prior visit there was a dude with a needle hanging out of his arm and a large camp at the fence line. Seemed much cleaner last week.
When they first started the project there was in fact a Mulnomah County Health air pollution study all along I-205. Basically they found that the worst levels of air (and noise) pollution were about a half-mile outside of the freeway on either side, but not so much alongside the freeway, and even less below the freeway which is where most of GG is. Apparently the use of noise walls and the rushing traffic disperses air pollution in odd ways that is different than a normal highway like 99 or a stroad like 122nd, all of which produce a lot of exhaust air pollution. There’s also some trapping of particulate matter around Rocky Butte that is unrelated to the highways, but reflective of the terrain. I think the report was from 2010 or so.
Big congrats to Robinson, Gilbert, and NWTA!
Excited that donations and a for-charity CX event almost a decade ago played a small part in the work that led to this moment
So what’s the parking situation there now? (asking for a friend who is not super fond of riding on busy city streets without protected bike lanes and lives quite a distance away)
“Officially” you’re supposed to park at Gateway Transit Center and then ride north and down the new bridge to GG. “Unofficially” you can park in nice, quiet, green and tree-shaded Maywood and ride the I-205 MUP south to GG. There was supposed to be access from the west at 92nd & Halsey, but PBOT cancelled that project. The west access would’ve been the easiest and most direct, and it would be a great spot for a parking lot/trailhead type of setup for GG.
I’m surprised there isn’t a proposal yet to run a bike/ped ramp off of the NE 102nd Ave bridge between the railroad and the east-bound ramps of I-84 – there’s plenty of space in between and a section of the I-205 path bends near there. I believe the bridge is already overdue for replacement.
I’m late to this thread, but as I ride the !-205 path through Gateway Green regularly, I thought to add my two cents. This is also a continuation of the thread on the cancellation of the west access to the Green along Halsey. This project should not be cancelled and users and supporters of the Gateway Green should stand up for the continuation of this project. I would often ride the access road under I-205 during the construction of the $230 million Better Red project and hardly ever came across construction vehicles using this road. Jonathon’s article on the cancellation of the west access project only mentions that Union Pacific Railroad will not open the access road to public use. This decision needs to be overturned and is the cheapest and most direct access from the west to the Green. There is already a chain-linked fence between the road and the railway track, while the access road is very narrow and will greatly impede homeless camping. Meanwhile people have also pointed out that on the NE corner of the Green there is no fencing at all between the Green and the railway line, while campers are also regularly ripping up fencing along the Green to give access to their camps.