Skip to main content
Advocates for the Portland skating scene will hit the streets today to spotlight the delay on building a planned skatepark near the west end of the Steel Bridge.
The park, the result of a collaborative design by DAO Architecture, Lango Hansen Landscape Architecture, and Grindline Skateparks, would cover 30,000 feet on the western side of Naito Parkway. It is part of a citywide plan of skateparks approved by the City Council in 2005 and completed by Portland Parks & Recreation in 2008. The proposed park adjacent to the Steel Bridge has been billed as the “crown jewel” of Portland skateparks because of its central, accessible location near Old Town and public transportation.
Ryan Hashagen, longtime advocate for skateparks and owner of Portland Pedals, says the Steel Bridge skatepark plan is essential because nothing like it exists in Portland, despite the growing popularity of action sports in the region. Six of the other locations proposed in the 2008 Parks & Recreation plan have been built, but the vacant lot awaiting the crown jewel remains empty.
“Burnside [Skatepark] is historic. But it’s not accessible to a wide range of skaters or backgrounds, or BMXers or scooters, for that matter,” Hashagen says. “Portland is often considered one of the top skateboarding and skating spots in the world. And yet we don’t have a skatepark that really lives up to that reputation that welcomes everyone.”
A design was developed in 2011 under guidance from the city and even won five regional and national landscape design awards that year. But due to politics and budget deficits at Portland Parks & Rec, and the project’s $8 million price tag, nothing has happened. Another major obstacle was the on-ramp connecting southbound Naito Parkway to the Steel Bridge. But that ramp was decommissioned as part of the City Council’s Central City in Motion plan, which passed in November 2018.
As long as the ramp was an obstacle, Hashagen says, the generation who had begun the push for the park’s construction started to move on and lose interest.
“There’s just been a knowledge gap,” Hashagen says. “[The younger generation] wasn’t aware of the 2005 plan, so what we’re trying to do is bring that City Council-approved vision back to life.”
That’s why Portland skaters and skatepark advocates will mobilize tonight for a “symbolic groundbreaking” at 6:30 pm. Beforehand, a procession of skaters will roll through the city from the Salmon Street Fountain and end up at the proposed skatepark location at Northwest 1st Avenue and Flanders Street to break ground on the site and pour a ceremonial bag of concrete.
With the on-ramp no longer an obstacle, the advocates want a solid commitment from City Hall on the park’s construction. Hashagen says one of the next deliverables they seek from the city is an implementation plan and finalized price for the project.