Nearly twenty years ago, a commercial real estate investor named Ted Gilbert had an idea: What if we turned a vacant lot between two freeways into a park that would give east Portland a marquee destination?
On Saturday, Gilbert was on hand as the vision he had in 2005 could finally be experienced. It was made even sweeter with the addition of a new path and bridge recently completed by TriMet that connects the park’s south end directly to Gateway Transit Center.
“If you hate Gateway Green, blame me because it was my wild idea,” Gilbert shared in a short interview with me just before he walked on stage to share remarks at the big celebration hosted by Portland Parks & Recreation, TriMet, and nonprofit Northwest Trail Alliance.
“I didn’t know anything about mountain biking when we started, but it was this vision as a bike park that grabbed everybody’s attention.”
– Ted Gilbert
Gilbert began the project in 2005 as away to give the Gateway area a civic rebranding and more green space. The area was the most parks-deficient in the entire city and its economic reputation needed a boost. His time on an urban renewal committee wasn’t going anywhere, so he made a cold call to the former Oregon Department of Transportation Region 1 Director Jason Tell (ODOT owned the land). “I asked him if he’d be willing to put this underutilized piece of land to a higher community purpose,” Gilbert shared.
As it turned out, that higher purpose was a bike park.
“I didn’t know anything about mountain biking when we started, but it was this vision as a bike park that really grabbed everybody’s attention. It really resonated with people,” said Gilbert. Aided by dozens of enthusiastic cycling advocates organized by NW Trail Alliance and his “partner in crime,” Linda Robinson, who would later head the nonprofit Friends of Gateway Green, the park opened its first phase in 2017.
Robinson formed the friends group in 2009 and spearheaded early fundraising efforts. In her remarks Saturday, she said now that construction is complete, Friends of Gateway Green will become a different kind of organization. “We’re transitioning into an organization that helps activate the park. We hope to work with partners to hold all kinds of events here — not just bicycle events, but music events, walking events all kinds of things,” she said while making a pitch for new board members who want to be involved in the park’s next era.
The park needs more leaders and volunteers. It also needs dirt.
Portland Parks Capital Project Manager Ross Swanson has overseen the city’s work on Gateway Green for the last 10 years. He said the type of clay dirt needed to make great bike trails isn’t in great supply at the site, so they need to import most of it. “I have feelers out into the construction industry about where to find clay soils. If they’re looking for a place to dump it, we have a spot.”
Several people I spoke to Saturday love the dirt at Gateway Green. One young girl and her mom said they do laps of the single track and then race each other on different tracks in the skills park area. Asked if she likes to jump, the girl said she has started doing the gravity line trails that begin atop the highest point in the park’s southern end, and one time she accidentally defied gravity and launched into the air. “She was super nervous,” he mom said. “But now she’s found inner strength.”
“That line is probably my favorite now. So yeah, just follow your heart,” the girl added.
Helping kids gain confidence on two wheels is exactly what NW Trail Alliance dreamed of when they got involved with the project in 2008. The group’s Executive Director Lisa Olivares said they’ve organized thousands of volunteer hours as the official trail steward of the park. “They’re out there with shovels, they’re brushing back the trails, just doing all the work that’s necessary on a weekly basis.”
In addition to being, “the place” to ride off-road in Portland, Olivares said Gateway Green has a political function as well because the success and popularity of the park proves the demand. “We are excited for more spaces like this and more trails that we’ll be able to get our bikes on throughout the city,” Olivares said.
While NWTA works on more off-road trails citywide, Gilbert wants someone to pick up the torch he and Robinson lit. In his speech Saturday, Gilbert said, “We’re not finished with wild ideas yet,” and then he raised his arm and pointed west from the stage toward towering hills of Rocky Butte just on the other side of I-205.
Gilbert revealed that when he made that first call to ODOT in 2005, the former regional director said, “By the way, we have some acreage on top of Rocky Butte. Would you like that too?” “So we did some research,” Gilbert continued. “We found out that in addition to ODOT, there were total of five public agencies that owned a total of 80 acres contiguous land [on and around Rocky Butte]… Can you imagine if we combined that 80 acres of land connected… on the west side of I-205 with the east side? We would have a one-of-a-kind project anywhere in the country.”
“Perhaps someone here today, one generation or another, will be inspired by those ideas. I hope so, because I sincerely believe if a good idea can happen anywhere, it can happen here.”
— See action from the celebration, including interviews with Gilbert, Olivares, Swanson, and others in the video player above or watch it on YouTube.
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