Latest news with #HumanAccessProject
Yahoo
21-03-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Portion of Tom McCall Waterfront Park will be revamped following design competition
PORTLAND, Ore. () — A portion of Portland's Tom McCall Waterfront Park could get a major makeover in the coming years. Leaders of the Oregon Metro, the regional agency serving Clackamas, Multnomah and Washington counties, has allocated a $750,000 Planning and Development Grant to Portland Parks & Recreation. The award will go toward revitalizing the waterfront's bowl section, located 'between RiverPlace and the Marina, south of the Hawthorne Bridge on the west side of the Willamette River.' North Portland dumpling spot XLB will permanently shutter in April City officials are launching a competition that asks consultants from near and far to develop a design for the new-and-improved park, which is expected to host more outdoor entertainment and cultural events. The grant backing the competition, which is slated to span across two and a half years, comes from Metro's construction excise tax. The tax is assessed at 0.12% of the total value of improvements for different building permits in the tri-county area. According to the parks bureau, the grant was also a joint effort between the City of Portland and its partners at the Portland Waterfront Pavilion and the Human Access Project — with both organizations aiming to increase access and programming at the waterfront. 'We feel the public is ready for a conversation around revitalizing the Tom McCall Bowl from an underutilized space to a world-class amphitheater and 'toes in the water' river park,' Human Access Project Founder and Executive Director Willie Levenson said in a . 'The objective is to create an iconic Portland park that is both a transcendent event space and green space that leverages its connection to the river — Portland's blue space.' PDX flights to London cancelled after fire causes power outage at Heathrow Airport The redevelopment competition will seek proposals that are ADA accessible, integrate public access to the water with a new design of a Willamette River beach and shoreline, and are environmentally sustainable. Additionally, the design should feature an outdoor stage and connect the river to Portland's downtown core. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
05-03-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Advocates, scientists ask lawmakers for $1 million to stop toxic algal blooms on Willamette River
A large green algal bloom covers the Ross Island Lagoon on the Willamette River in August 2021. (Photo courtesy of the Human Access Project) Just about every summer in recent years, a stretch of the Willamette River south of downtown Portland at Ross Island turns green from a thick layer of toxin-producing algae that grows rapidly in the hot and stagnant waters of the Ross Island Lagoon. As the thick algal blooms are carried out by winds and tides to the mainstem of the river, it can become, for days on end, unhealthy for humans, pets and aquatic life. There's an easy fix that's been years in the making, according to Willie Levenson, founder of the Portland-based nonprofit Human Access Project. Standing in the way is the last $1 million he and river engineers at Oregon State University need to finish designing it. House Bill 3314, sponsored by state Reps. Rob Nosse and Mark Gamba, Democrats from Portland and Milwuakie, would direct about $1 million to Oregon State University to finish designing a channel that would cut through Ross Island. The channel would restore the river's natural flow through what were multiple islands a century ago and flush out harmful cyanobacteria and algae forming in the lagoon. The bill will have its first public hearing Wednesday morning at the House Committee on Agriculture, Land Use, Natural Resources and Water. 'This is a small investment that will solve a significant problem,' Levenson said. The Human Access Project, which aims to get people in closer contact with the river, has been working with Oregon State University scientists to collect data and determine solutions for six years. Levenson spent about two years fundraising about $500,000 through grants from nonprofits and local tribal governments, enough for the first 30% of the planning process. The rest of the plan hinges on getting money from the Legislature. 'We're concerned that without the money to finish the planning soon, the momentum to do this will stall out,' Levenson said. Ross Island used to be one of a complex of four islands. In the 1920s, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers moved the earth on two of the islands around to create an embankment connecting them to divert water and make a deeper shipping channel in the river, as well as to make it more accessible to industry. The two islands combined created the U-shaped Ross Island, but the new embankment stopped the natural flow of the river between the islands and the lagoon became a '140-acre pond inside a river,' according to Levenson. In 1926, the Ross Island Sand and Gravel Co. established itself on the island and started excavating millions of tons of gravel from the river to make cement, creating a large hole in the river until 2001. The combination of the gravel excavation, the man-made lagoon around it, hot summers and pollution from nearby cities has led to the perfect conditions for cyanobacteria and algal blooms to grow in the area. By cutting through the embankment that the Army Corps built in 1926 and letting the river flow between the islands again, the bacteria and algae will be flushed out of the area, Oregon State Scientists found. Once planning is finished in the next two years, Levenson said he and Oregon State will seek up to $8 million to carry it out. He said there are a few different funding streams they'll pursue, including potentially asking the Legislature to foot some of the bill. The Ross Island Sand and Gravel Co. though no longer operational, is under orders from the Department of State Lands to undertake reclamation work to refill the hole the company left in the river from decades of excavation. As part of that, it's possible the company could offer to pay for some of the channeling work. Randall Steed, general manager of the company, did not respond to a call or email requesting comment. Officials in charge of the billion-dollar Portland Clean Energy Community Benefits Fund, made up of revenue from a 1% tax on large retail businesses in the city, declined to fund project planning and implementation because it was not reducing carbon dioxide emissions, according to Levenson. Annual algal blooms are not just an environmental and public health issue, he said, but an economic issue that will drive people, events and businesses away from Portland in the summer. 'If the Willamette keeps turning green every summer, it will be an anchor around the neck of downtown's recovery,' Levenson said. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX
