PBOT Planning Manager Paul Smith
explains the project to
open house attendees.
(Photos © J. Maus)

On Tuesday night at the Hollywood Senior Center, the City of Portland hosted the first official public open house for the Sullivan’s Gulch corridor project. Nearby residents and others simply curious about what could be a major new carfree thoroughfare came to learn more about the project.

As I pulled up I ran into veteran regional trail planner and Metro employee Mel Huie. Mel shared my excitement that the project is finally at this point. “It’s been a long time,” he remarked. When I asked how long, Mel said he first recalled talking about it about 15 years ago. [Read more…]

The path in Waterfront Park.
(Photo © J. Maus)

Early last Friday morning, a man was kicked out of Waterfront Park for 30 days by a Portland Police officer because he was riding in the park at 4:30 am (the park is closed from midnight to 5 a.m.). The incident has sparked an interesting debate about how the Portland Parks Bureau deals with park facilities that have paths used as transportation corridors within their boundaries.

Unlike other popular multi-use paths that are inside Parks-managed properties (like the Eastbank Esplanade and the Springwater Corridor), the path that runs through Waterfront Park is not technically considered a transportation corridor. The official reason is because it was not funded with federal transportation dollars (the two examples above were funded through the FHWA’s Transportation Enhancement grant program).
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Recommended Red Electric Trail Route.
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